Blade or blower for a B7800

[smfcpacfp]

If I lived in Ohio, and I felt I needed any kind of snow removal equipment, it would be the blade for those few occasions.

When you get 20 to 30 feet, as we do, it becomes a question of where to put it all. The blower throws it away from the driving area

 

[TimP]

Why not get BOTH !

Heck, if you get a rear blade, they a pretty cheap compared to a blower.

It's a couple of hundred compared to a couple of thousand.

My B2150 is sittin gin the garage right now with the FEL and a Rear Blade mounted. My Blower sits outside waiting until we get 6"-8". Until it gets to that depth, the blade works fine.

I'm in Baltimore and we don't get enough snow on a consistant basis to justify spending even bigger bucks on a front plow or front blower.

I go forward with the rear blade slanted with no problem until the snow gets deep, or is very, very wet. Or I push it with the FEL.

The blower is overkill until I get a major storm. But in any event it's ready.

Tim

 

[hazmat]

Just got to use my B2782 front blower yesterday. Despite some gremlins that busted the drive chain, the thing is awesome.

I'm failing to see how a blade would be faster (even for small amounts of snow) unless it is substantially wider.

A 6' blade = just over 5' angled at 30 degrees, and you can't take a full bite w/o loosing some over the cleared edge. We had 4" of rather heavy snow - I could run my B3030 with 5' blower at full speed & the blower sucked it up & spit it out 40 feet away.

If you don't have hydraulic angle on your blade you will lose time adjusting it. Also on a rear blade w/o a trip spring, I'd not recommend full speed plowing. Trust me, it hurts when you come to an abrupt stop. I had an imprint of one of my rops bolt heads on my forehead . My co-workers were able to correctly determine the size of the bolt based on my wound .

Given you can buy a rear blade for 1/10 the cost of the front blower, but I bet the front blower is anywhere from 2-5X faster (depending on snow depth) than the rear blade. If you value your time more than your money, the choice is easy.

 

[Killer_B]

Good going KillerB.

Question - Did your SMV sign always attach to the back of the seat? On my bota L3400 it attaches to a bracket behind the seat. The position is such that I can't reach the chute rotator when the SMV sign is on... so I have to remove the SMV sign for the winter.... which is not particuarly legal since when I fire the tractor and do my drive way, I drop by a neighbour or too to see if theirs needs blowing.

The JD SMV is factory mounted to the seat. On my Kub (bracket mount like your L) I left this sign in the corner of the garage unless I had to take off down the road for something. It seems like it was always in the way of something when mounted to the tractor.

 

[Killer_B]

Nice machine Killer_B. Does the young man on the machine operate the JD or does he do the walk ways with a shovel? Did you sell your Kubota or do you have both?

My little guy (13 YO) is strictly a shovel operator. I sold the Kub, since I have neither the need, nor the space, nor the money for two tractors. Not that I wouldn't LIKE to own about a dozen.

 

[WayneB]

I am assuming you get enough snow to make the blower a practical tool to have. I elected to buy a rear blower and keep the use of my FEL. Dealer told me it was a quick change over from FEL to blower, but I am not up to doing this when the temps are below freezing.

My drive way is about 900 feet down a hill and I do blow it in reverse Low range and no problems. I certainly would be nicer if it was a front blower, but I couldn't justify the cost difference. For a long period of time I plowed with the FEL and a rear blade. Wasn't too bad until the banks got pretty large and there was no place to plow the snow so I would have to use the FEL to move the banks back. Now I blow the snow, still have banks but they are twenty to thirty feet away.

One thing I have found with the Woods blower I have it does a great job if there is 6 inches or more snow, but it doesn't do well with anything less. I end up using the FEL to push the snow up in piles and then blow it away.