72" or 84" snowblower for Kioti DK5010?

[George2615]

Z-Mich, For the price diff of $100 go for the 84". Your 50HP will easily handle it. I run an 84" Lorenz double auger on my 36HP tractor. I bought it used off CL late last winter but got to use it on our last big storm. It worked very well. I'm in the snow belt just S.E. of Lake Ontario and have the blower on back and PA plow on the front for our winters.

 

[leonz]

Leonz, thanks for the detailed breakdown, and always thank you for your insights. While you obviously have strong and specific preferences, they are often things I wouldn't otherwise have been aware of.

I'm about 5 1/2 hours from the nearest border crossing and might see if there is a dealer there. Your breakdown implies that list price includes the 8% sales tax - is that how they do it?

Anyway - I will look into the Reist option, but what are your thoughts on the size if I went with a Woodmaxx?

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I can honestly tell you I have no opinion about them as I know little to nothing about the woodmax snowblowers

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About the Reist units-

The $6,500.00 Canadian looney price is the Canadian list price before the 8% Ontario sales tax is applied. The whoodoo voodoo with the currency exchange rate occurs at the time of sale reducing the price to match the american dollar value for the snow thrower and the remaining sales tax is charged against the sale before you finish the sale and have it loaded on your truck or trailer and when you reach the border crossing you get that sales tax money back unless you want to support the Province of Ontario and add back to its treasury which is in trouble anyway.

Canadian goods are a bargain if you are coming across from the states and you will have no issues with the United States Customs Service with NAFTA still in force so no worries there.

Before you make a final decision I would prefer that you talk to a Pronovost dealer in Ontario and ask how much a TRC72 or TRC80 with the rotating impeller drum would cost you as it is 80 inches wide and you can bypass the chute and spout to prevent clogging while dealing with heavy wet snow and slush.

The other thing is Pronovost farm equipment and snow blowers are now sold by the Iowa Farm Equipment folks and they deliver farm equipment too but you would not save money as you would not be buying a unit in Ontario if you purchased one from IFE.

 

[Working on Rust]

200 feet of driveway is nothing in reverse. If you have to blow all day than a front mount would be the way to go, but for less than a dozen driveways rear mount rear push is fine.
Another thing is almost every tractor is balanced better with a blower on the back rather than front and maneuvering is easier as the pivot point is in the middle instead of the very back of the setup.

If you get big snow amounts or have any drifts at all, I would stay away from a pull type. Most who have success with the pull blowers have ag size tractors with much bigger tires than utility tractors. My own recommendation would be the Pronovost P-800. They are heavy but are second to none. The rotating drum (TRC) is fun but is not all it is cracked up to be. It does not seem to reduce the power needed much and adds substantially to the the price and complexity of the blower. If you were clearing a huge parking lot rotating drum is a big help but for small areas I would avoid it. Also worth noting is a rotating drum blower has the chute higher up and they throw the snow through the center chute less well than the same blower without rotating drum.

I have watched the Reist single stage blower videos and they look fine, but there is a lot of spatter and they seem a little slow compared to a Pronovost or Agri Metal twin fan blower.

Another though on blowing some part only twice in the winter is that is extremely hard on blowers and a very difficult thing to do. Packed old snow is very hard and it is usually much easier to blow it every time or week or so.

 

[Working on Rust]

To actually answer you question I would say is does not matter a lot but would probably go with the 84 inch. You might still push snow before running out of power with it.
I should also add I would take a used Pronovost or Normand over a new Woodmax any day, once I used the old Pronovost everything else started looking very crude and difficult in comparison.

 

[RjCorazza]

You can easily power either a 72" or 84" blower with 45hp. I ran a 72" for years with 28hp at the pto (heavy wet snow).
If 72" covers your width, consider if another foot is really going to be necessary. For a typical 8-10' wide driveway you will still need to make 2 passes. I do about 20 driveways ranging from 60' to amost 1000' and I find a 6' wide blower to be ideal.
I have a Lucknow blower (Canadian) that is very well made.

 

[bellcon]

I have a Dk 55 and run an 84" Blizzard/Bervac blower on the 3ph for commercial snow removal. The tractor handles it fine. I have to go slow if I'm blowing back snow banks but for fresh snow falls I can go right along. I don't understand why people make a big deal about going backwards. I don't find it to be an issue at all and I spend a lot of time doing it. Visibility is excellent and I still have the loader to use too. I bought a Lorenz 78" blower first and didn't like it. It didn't throw the snow very far. It had I think a 24" 3 blade impeller. The blizzard has a 28" 4 blade impeller and is a much bigger overall frame size and is much heavier unit. No comparison on performance between the two. Number of blades and impeller diameter is very important providing you have the hp to turn it. I've done a tone of research and I'm sure there are a lot of good blowers on the market but if I were spending my money in that size it would be blizzard/Bervac, pronovost/puma or Normandy/econor. Go with the 84" width, it puts you into a bigger frame size with a larger impeller and I would buy a good used one of those three over a new one from the other manufacturers I've seen even if the money was close.

 

[CJONE]

I run a double auger 7' blower with a 27" fan with less HP at the PTO than you have. The hydrostatic drive is the only way to go for snow removal, yes you loose 4-5 HP or so but it is more than made up for by the variable drive speed to keep the blower loaded no matter what you get into. I have been running this set up for 4 years and remove a lot of banks from plow trucks so yes it is very effective. From experience you could not give me a single stage blower with the heavy lake effect snow we can get sometimes. I can run full speed in medium range with over a foot of normal snow, so it is not slow either. Bellcon above has some good advise also, the weight is a non issue. My blower is over 1000lbs and the tractor handles it no problem. Direct drive for the blower is better for power transfer so stick with that. I do hydraulics for a living, the next best thing would be hydrostatic but it is not worth the money in this case. Cj

 

[John_Mc]

I'm not sure what is driving the recommendation that a 50 HP tractor can only handle a 60" snowblower. There is not a chance I would be considering a 60" wide snowblower on a 50 HP tractor, especially one that is 63" wide (if tractordata.com is to be believed). You want to cover your tracks, and then some to allow for turning while snowblowing. The Provnost Puma 72" snowblower has a recommended PTO HP range of 20 - 35 HP. The Kioti 5010 would handle that with ease and most likely have no trouble with the 80" that is their next step up.

 

[Z-Michigan]

Thanks for all the replies. I measured my tractor again and my maximum width is 68" (outside of rear tire bulges) with maybe 66" width from outside tread to outside tread. After endless debating, I decided to go with the 72", mostly because my blowing area has a lot of uneven spots and edge transitions, and I think I will be able to blow more easily, with less snow missed or areas scalped, with the 6' instead of 7' width. If my blowing area was perfectly flat and level I would have gone with the 7'.

 

[leonz]

Which brand of three point hitch snow clearer have you settled on purchasing??