Snow B-7800 & B-2910 snow blower

[kenta]

I am not sure anyone has asked what the kubota 5ft. snow blower can do, but I can tell you how last year went.
I bought a B-2910 with the Kubota snowblower and it didn't arrive till Feb. 15. I live in central Vermont and we had an icy and small 5" snowfalls all winter. The man who plows my 1/2 mile driveway with a 3/4 ton truck with chains couldn't plow my my road with the staymat after 2 snowfalls. The snow was so wet and heavy that he went 10 feet and pilled up a 5 ft bank. I said let's forget it and next year I will get a start with the tractor 1st. snowfall. Well the tractor comes and the dealer looks at the 4-5 ft snow on the other 1/2 mile of staymat road and says get to work. I got in and after I let out the clutch once too hard and sheared the bolt I just went foreward. I raised the plow up 1 to 2 feet and went the whole distance. Slowly. Then I came back on the other side the same way and quite for the day. Next morning I lower the plow to the shoes and repeated and took it down to 1 inch of ice and then just worked the sides till I had a 15 ft. staymat road just like in Nov. Most of the guy didn't think a little compact tractor could even touch it, but it did. I don't think anything could but I should have left more staymat on the road because it will send that 20 feet too. I am also waiting for snow and winter #2. With a 12" dry snow I would just cruise down in mid range speed and have no worries. Good plowing. Kenta

 

[RayMunising]

Thanks for the info on the snowblower! I'll be moving to Munising Michigan in about a year. They get 150-250 inches of snow a year (mostly lake effect ... light fluffy) and I'm going to have a 1/4 mile driveway to keep clear. I've started researching what tractor might do it for me. Was thinking maybe a b2910 or l3130. From your post it certainly sounds like I don't have to worry too much if I bought a machine in this range! So just wanted to say THANKS! By the way, anyone out there have any info on the Kubota dealer in Marquette?

 

[Pks]

Hi Ray,

Before you buy any new equipment for the Munising snows, take a look at what the folks up there are using. I used to hang around with the owner of US41 Sales in Marquette back in the 80's. His name was Nick Zambon. He was the Kawasaki dealer up there. He also sold garden tractors. A lot of folks used 10 to 15Hp garden tractors with a single stage or 2-stage blower. IMHO, you might not need a big machine. Though bigger can be mor fun.

Judging by the drifting Munising can get (they get a lot), the open height of the auger housing can be influential. The B2660 blower that I have on my B2400 is about 26 inches high which would be perfect for the Munising drifting.

The wind will often blow in off the bay at an avereage of 30 MPH. Which might be an advantage in your situation. It's possible that your drive might get cleared out somewhat by the wind. But if the drive is in the forest, then the wind won't get a chance to clear the snow off.

I highly recommend a 4x4 with about 8 inches of axle clearance, 100 inches of wheel base and dedicated winter tires that are narrow not wide. A winch on the front and two 20 ft tow ropes is a good idea too!

 

[RayMunising]

Hi Peter,
Yup, the Honda Accord is going to be traded in on a 4x4 before the move!

You think a garden tractor would do it? I don't know. I'd love to save the money though!!! In Feb/Mar there's typically 3' of snow on the ground up there. With my luck instead of the wind blowing my driveway clean it'll fill it up! It'd be scary to be faced with a 1/4 mile driveway filled with 3' of snow armed only with a garden tractor I think. I don't want to make clearing my driveway a career LOL! On the other hand having to spend 20-25K on snow removal equipment seemed kind of excessive to me. I'll take your good advice and see how the locals handle the snow. They should be experts at it! Whatever I do I know the snow is going to come year after year so I want to be prepared to handle it so it doesn't become a dreaded job. In other words ... I want a heated cab!

UPDATE: I just read the Marquette Mining Journel. Marquette (which is 40 miles from Munising) got 23.5 inches of snow this past weekend with 30-40 mph winds. They probably have 6' drifts up there! Maybe I should be looking into some kind of tunnelling machine LOL!

 

[lmiller]

Ray I bought a B7800 with a 5' rear blower this past summer, I'll let you know how it handles the catskill snows this winter. When I bought my tractor the dealer also had several used 20ish hp machines with cabs and front blowers. Unless you have other uses one of those might serve your needs. I'm sure you can find one in the midwest if you find a good dealer.

Kinta whats staymat?

Lou

 

[SeymourBota]

Sta-mat is a crushed product- an alternative to screened gravel which has some fairly fine powder mixed in.
It settles and becomes very firm but with an aggregate surface.

 

[lmiller]

Sounds like the product I just put down, called 2 & minus, 2" stone down to crushed stone. I have high hopes that it will stand up better than the bank run gravel we used originally.

 

[RayMunising]

That'd be great Lou and yes this tractor will have one purpose in life and that's to keep the snow out of my driveway. As far as HP goes I've read elsewhere (on this site and others) that you want about 5hp per foot of snowblower. So seems like for a 5 foot width I'd need around a 25 hp pto. A b7800 has 22 hp pto and a l3130 hst has 24 hp pto. Is the 5hp per foot of snowblower overkill?

 

[MadReferee]

I have a 64" rear snowblower for my B2710. It's a Pronovost Puma. Last year it had no problem with a heavy wet 16" snow fall. I believe that it would handle up to about 24" before even bogging down. The B2710 had more than enough PTO HP to keep it running.

 

[RayMunising]

The 2710 has a 20hp pto? That'd be 4hp per foot width of the snowblower handling 16" of wet snow with no problem. That's good info. hp undoubtedly determines how fast you can go too. If I've got 1/4 mile driveway say with a foot of snow in it and I need to make 3 passes to clear it (15' wide) and I can go 1mph (is that reasonable?) then it'd take 45 minutes to clear. Maybe with a little more hp I could get it done in 30 minutes and a little less hp an hour. How fast can you go while blowing snow with you machine?