Snow Blower Sizing - Opinions Wanted

[Woodstock Walt]

Walt have you ever thought about a large (84") snow bucket instead of a pusher?
Not sure of the availability or cost comparison. Pushers are amazing for clearing small areas with shapes that don't windrow well, but I assume that your thinking about using a new pusher for handling the banks. A bucket would do the same and be useful in a situation where you needed to carry it a little bit and (my motivation) use it for lighter materials all year long. Mulch, brush/trash, firewood, etc.

I hadn't, but that is a good suggestion! However, I should've clarified this point as well, but my intention for the snow pusher is actually just to clear around my house and outbuildings where their proximity to each other makes snow blowing impractical. Just tight, short runs where the box design of a snow pusher would make short work of them compared to the 8' FEL plow with its windrows.

For pushing the banks back, if/when I need to do so, I'll likely use my regular 78" bucket. The frozen banks can become pretty stiff, and the bucket's tooth bar does a decent job breaking them up and pushing them over the bank. A snow bucket would be practical for this among other chores, but for the money I'd rather get the pusher for it's specific job then use the regular bucket for the banks.

 

[airbiscuit]

It sounds like you understand your needs, challenges and limitations and have put together a sound plan.

 

[Woodstock Walt]

It sounds like you understand your needs, challenges and limitations and have put together a sound plan.

Thank you airbiscuit!

 

[leonz]

This is a video of a Pronovost TRC80 with the rotating impeller drum
clearing deep snowbanks with a Massey Ferguson 1648 tractor.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzjtZoLT_x4


The second one is a large new Holland tractor with a TRC snow blower.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjw4H1XiSvY



The third video is the same Massey Ferguson 1648 tractor
with the TRC80 snow blower clearing out a huge snow bank.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0H9KTOiiSxE

 

[shooterdon]

72" snow blower on a 50 hp 40 PTO hp HST New holland tackling hard snow drifts. It hadn't snowed for over two weeks and the weather had warmed to the mid 30s for four days before it started freezing again. Then on the 20th of December the wind started blowing 30-40 mph all night long and was still blowing 20 mph when I was clearing it. There were times when I had to slow down and let the blower clear, but it got through it all.

I would have just driven over that snow and blown it out. No need to windrow snow that deep.

I used to mount my rear blade on the FEL using an adapter to windrow light snow falls to the center and then blow out the windrow. Realized if there is less than 4” of snow there is no need to clear the driveway. We have 4WD pickups.

KISS.

 

[3 Horse Ranch]

I would have just driven over that snow and blown it out. No need to windrow snow that deep.

I used to mount my rear blade on the FEL using an adapter to windrow light snow falls to the center and then blow out the windrow. Realized if there is less than 4” of snow there is no need to clear the driveway. We have 4WD pickups.

KISS.

I windrow it so that it is away from the edge. My 72 year old body doesn't like twisting around so that I can do precision snow blower work near the edges. The windrow centers it and I can back up using the mirrors. I clear out 4" of snow even though all my vehicles are 4WD. UPS and FedEx don't have 4WD and my road isn't flat.

 

[sd455dan]

That's very interesting. I just found the same statistics as well. So, it appears that the manufacturer's minimum HP rating is actually 40 HP. The dealer that I am using has it listed at 60 HP minimum and that is the statistic that I has based much of this thread upon.

With that being said, sd455dan has convinced me to go with the 84" blower, and I am going pick up the 84" pusher as well. I do realize that the blower may not perform optimally in deep, heavy snow conditions, but I have enough alternative options for snow removal that I'm not worried about it.

I guess a few more details are in order, my road cuts across the side of a mountain for it's entire length, with an uphill slope on one side and a downhill slope on the other. I don't wing snow towards the uphill side as it would eventually build up into the road and I'd have no place to put it besides bucketing it out and over the bank on the downhill side. This means I have to wing all of the snow towards the downhill side of the road, which creates a large heavy bank since it's quite a lot of snow.

The drop off the downhill side is very steep, so I don't get near enough with my 8' FEL plow to wing all of the snow over the bank. This leaves the large heavy bank. If I don't get the snow over the edge, the bank just crowds back into the road with each storm. Consequently, my current procedure is to wing everything to the downhill side with the FEL plow, then pretty much every other storm I swap the bucket on and work diagonally across the road using the bucket to push the banks over the edge. 1 mile of that takes half the day.

If using a snow blower allows me to blow snow over the edge of the downhill side, the process will eliminate my need to push the banks back every other storm, even if it takes longer to initially clear the road compared to plowing. That's the goal that I'm trying to achieve by using a snow blower. If we get a storm too big for the blower to handle, I can go back to doing it the old way without much hassle. Just looking for a more efficient way to handle our typical weekly storm of +/-6". Based on what I've read here, I think the 84" would fit this niche well enough.

Good info, I hope this Blower really works well for you as it is doing for me.

Looked up my gear speeds for my tractor and as I posted- light, fresh snow up to around 4" to a bit more was tackled in 4th gear.

Heavier, wetter, and or deeper required the lower gears.
In fourth with that amount of snow input is all the tractor wanted. Basically "full power" to use that high of gear.

What I found amazing about the WIFO is it was able to stay ahead of the snow loading.

I could not over stuff it. Never really went around the sides or over the 35" tall back panel.
Obviously you can hit a point where the forward speed needs to be reduced because the PTO load exceeds the engines ability to maintain RPM.
Did look up the torque curve and extrapolating it, virtually dead flat at ~150 lb ft from 950 to 1600 RPM on my 495 A
I really think this is why it is able to run this blower without a problem.

Here are the gearing speeds on my machine

1st @2000RPM 2.13km/h~ 1.32 MPH
2nd " 3.52km/h~ 2.19 MPH
3rd " 6.67km/h~ 4.14MPH
4th " 8.54km/h~ 5.3 MPH

A bit slower since I run it closer to 1600 RPM

One other thing I tried with my set up that it did not like was using the bucket to plane more than a 1/3 of the depth off of the 20 inches +.

My tractor /blower did Not work great this way, it would pile up "to much" snow in front of the bucket and slow to a stop. Works if doing say 20-30 foot runs and blowing to the ground in sections but not to just keep going and not stop and bucket.

But lifting the bucket completely out of the 20 + inches of snow and just gearing down it would just keep going all be it slowly. The Tall front and rear AG R1 Tires are also key. Which your tractor has from the pics. Never got it stuck or used the dif lock. Another feature of the WIFO pull behind is the lower mounting of the 3 point pin points. On my tractor I can lift the blower WAY up in the air so IF you need to drive through 2 feet or more and then bucket it you can without the blower bottom even touching the deep snow.

The 1250 + lbs of weight hanging off of the 3 point does Give Excellent tire loading traction for pushing snow with the FEL.

 

[fishhead]

OP, I think that the 84 blower is the size to get, having a bit extra available on either side is quite handy for doing a nice job and cleanly cutting tall banks. I run a 74in pronovost pull blower on a Jd 3720 (2900lbs bare tractor 35 pto hp 60 inches wide) which is below the recommended 40 by Pronovost. I have done so for years would I like more hp? sure but who wouldn't , really the need for more power shows up when blowing up hill at more than 10 percent grade on my hills. Someone earlier mentioned that probably the op would be limited to a walking speed with 3 inches of new, at that depth my setup with less hp/ft than the proposed clears at 6-7 mph on level road or about double walking speed.
Someone else mentioned not being able to take partial bites:
first thing is any blower should have the lateral float enabled in your 3ph, secondly you can use your loader set at say 12-18 inches up to cut the overall height of a high packed berm or wall to help get the tractor through and prevent excessive lifting- i don't need to do this on fresh snow but I make snow walls on the edge of my drive to prevent the possibility of sliding off and plummeting, sometimes these walls need to be trimmed back or removed and though they are only 4ft at the most usually they are pretty much compacted snow and ice.

I think the op will find the rear pull to be exactly what he is looking for, they are great for long lanes and roads. My drive is about 1 km and with neighbors well over a mile and a quick job really doesn't take too long. It is probably quicker than my rear blade on small snows and I am not leaving piles to deal with, unless I want them. One thing people seldom mention is how in small spaces you can use them like a pull box until you get to where its better to turn the blower on, or you can recycle the snow effectively doing the same thing. I will aim my spout down hard , forward and close to the tractor sometimes which lets me build berms if needed and the partial recycling changes the snow crystals and produces a denser product with perfect edges.

Another advantage is that since the blowing snow is behind and you are driving away from the blower the visibility is better than the options where you drive towards the blower.

As far as depth being an issue, with that size tractor i can't imagine that the op would have an issue driving through 24 inches of snow unless it was elephant snot, maybe. If he has 16 inches of clearance as someone stated that's really only 8" that the tractor has to push its undercarriage through and the area dragging is narrower than the width of the tractor by a good bit. As someone pointed out, 1300 lbs of blower is a pretty good traction aid, especially with chains. I think that depths where the tractor is starting to have traction issues pulling the blower i would first raise it a tiny bit thus reducing the pulling force required to by eliminating the friction of blower scraping the surface and greatly increasing the traction available by transferring the weight of the blower to the rear wheels.

As i have said multiple times, rear pulls are are something that those who don't have them say can't work and those who do say they are awesome. I have used mine for 9 winters now and I have zero desire to go back to a front blower.

As always, if you have frequent deep drifting or massive storms (multiple ft overnight) they probably aren't for you.

 

[Farmer495]

I run 78" on 64 PTO HP gear drive. Good balance of power and width. I could handle 84/86" but deep snow still wants more power. With 78" I am still clutching on extra deep stuff until I can make part passes. Deep stuff I start out with the blower raised (part of all) and drive until I spin out, the drive ahead and lower to the ground to finish it.

I did run 78" on 40 PTO HP gear drive, the job got done, but much slower.

Lighter snowfalls no issue blowing 4-5 MPH full 78"

 

[Beaver Cove Deere]

You need to visit youtube and watch videos of folks using inverted snow blowers and
the pronovost TRC snow blower. The vanderzon folks use a great number of Kubota M100
mules and inverted snow blowers for thier clearing operations.

www.mjsvanderzon.ca

With hydraulic drive snow blower you have a 4 hose bundle plus the small case drain hose that
are attached with your choice of quick disconnects that stay on the hydraulic power pack out of the way.

A larger hydraulic powerpack will let you run a front mount hydraulic drive snow blower with a
rotating impeller drum without bogging down using the engines rated PTO speed.

You couldn’t pay me enough to have another power pac blower arrangement. One and done. It had next to no balls and all that damn snow dust in front covering the windows of the cab.


I’ll take my inverted Normand every single time. All that dust is behind me.