Thanks for the comments guys.
Several people saying I should get a pull behind blower. I have explored this option in the past. Last year when I was snowblowing I always imagined "Okay how would this be with a pull type blower"
So I made a list of pros and cons.
Pros-
1. I don't have to drive backward when snowblowing. This is a BIG one. It is super annoying and painful after more than an hour out there.
Uh....thats about it I guess.
2. See number 1!
Cons-
1. I'd have to buy one and they are not cheap
2. I can't "snowblow my way out" This is a problem as far as I can see. I don't like wasting my time redoing my driveway and yard so when it snows I don't snow blow until it is done snowing and sleeting. This means that I am dealing with as much as 2 maybe even 3' of sometimes wet heavy snow. I often have to snowblow my way out of where the tractor is parked. Basically I am making my own path. Just as a test I have tried driving forward with the tractor through the snow and it doesn't go well. It is really hard going and sometimes it just won't go (even with loaded tires with chains)
3. Driving over snow packing it down before blowing it. I have accidentally drove over snow many times when blowing and that one area ends up being a pain to get cleared down to the bare ground. Especially if it is sticky snow. I don't know how this wouldn't be an issue with the pull blower
4. Pointing the blower where you want it to go vs dragging it. I can see this as being a problem. With a blower that is being pushed you can push it up against your garage door, up in a corner of you buildings, I can snowblow up to the edge of my mail box post. I don't see how that would work with a pull type.
5. Blowing back snowbanks. Later in the year I often lift up the blower and use it to blow back the snow banks. I could use the FEL I suppose but in my experience it doesn't do the trick. Half of the snow just ends up falling back down whereas with the blower it shoots it way back.
Comments from guys that have them and use them?
Maybe I should just install a nice back up camera system.
I'm a pull blower convert and believe that for the right situations they can't be beat. I live about 20 miles from Tractor TYME and we get about the same amount of snow-key though is we rarely get big dumps overnight, we get tons of small snows. Your questions:
1. true the cost is higher but some of that is due to the smaller number produced, some is due to the added material and complexity and the bulk of that is that many are made to commercial or near commercial standards. My pronovost is stunningly well built and I was able to get a fair price by buying in the spring from a region that had no winter. I would not hesitate to buy a commercial quality blower used if well maintained- they are simple beefy devices.
2. I can understand this to a limited extent. I assume waiting till the end of the storm may be the reason plowing didn't work for you- there's a very old expression, plow with the storm. It probably will take longer to blow or plow something that is let get to 2ft deep than going out 3 times at 8 inches each- especially if it's going to rain or sleet. A blower will essentially move x tons of snow an hour-whether it is 2ft at 1 mph or 8 inches at 3mph. You would not need to do the ultimate job on your entire drive just the main parts of the main areas and a down and back on the drive itself. The main part of my drive is around 3500 ft and at 6 mph downhill for 6 inches and 5 uphill takes less than 15 mins down and back. I could do 2 ft but it would be slow and i find that super tedious- being able to clear my drive at a decent speed with a huge plume of snow is much more enjoyable.
3. not an issue at all - driving on the snow is but that's with vehicles where the tread is continuous and the compressed area has time to freeze- with chains, which you will need to be safe, the compressed area is discontinuous especially if you have r4's-plus if its say 10 ft from the fronts to the scraper and 4 ft from the rears and you are going 6mph (8.8ft/sec) then the snow form the front has about a second to freeze and from the rears about half second.
4 - it works, its just different. the rare time it doesn't using the blower as a pull box (impossible with a front push or a rear push) or recycle or the bucket (which you can leave on) tend to solve things. I do a couple of rows of mailboxes because the plow guys do a shitty job- super easy - i just drive along with the rear tire as close as i can get to the boxes and the blower goes under them- easy peasy. Too, because the opening of the blower is literally right behind you and you can look right down and see the sides of it and what's going into it you get far greater control. I personally would never go back to a much blower unless circumstances dictated i would have to deal with repeated deep snows.
Remember that there are contractors doing like 60-100 drives a shift in high snowfall areas using rear pulls and they out compete the competition on price and product.
I have said this more than once on this topic here- most of the people criticizing these things have never tried them.
5 are these banks you make yourself? I make several sets of walls using the blower set to blow forward, close and down while partially recycling. these make guardrails and some times i make the 4ft high- in the spring i trim them back - no problem
