Blowing very wet snow with loader mount blower

[grsthegreat]

Over the last 2 months, Ive had alot of PM's about my opinion about the hydraulic loader mounted snowblower i have. Since we have had a light winter i haven't had much opportunity to use it, cept to blow some dry snow.

We had a shift in our weather pattern that turned my nice dry, powdery snow into a wet sloppy mess in one day. Temps of 39F turned the sheaded now into a sticky mess.

In the past, i had to use the FEL to break up this slop, then turn around to blow it out of the way. One of the main reasons i went with a loader mounted blower was to try and solve this time consuming issue. It took between 1 to 1-1/2 hours to clear the isle ways after snow sheds from the barn, plus another hour or so at the carriage barn and between 45-60 minutes for the side of my shop.

All the backing up was playing havoc on my neck.

Though these piles are smaller than some of my previous piles in the past, the time savings were amazing. The shop side took 5-1/2 minutes.
The carriage barn took a little over 8 minutes.

The horse barn was harder to time, as the wife and i messed about with filming it. But the opposite side (which shed last and was not filmed) took 12 minutes to clear.

There are 3 things that accounted for the time savings as far as i can determine.

1. No shear bolts to replace. The bypass simply stops the rotations till i bump the blower to clear it. No more digging out the plow when it clogs with wet snow.

2. No turning around to clear a path.

3. No limits to the height i can raise the blower to break up taller mounds.


heres a short clip of 1/2 of one side of the barn. This area also had a pile of hard snow i plowed there a few days earlier.


Hope you enjoy...and go play in the snow

 

[Thomas]

I do like the setup,most of all the heater in the cab...thanks for sharing.

 

[ihuntbear]

what did you use for a motor to turn impeller

 

[Jerry/MT]

I do like the setup,most of all the heater in the cab...thanks for sharing.

That seems to work slick! A front mounted hydrauliclly powered blower is really the way to go but the cost is kind a scary.

 

[grsthegreat]

Its all hydraulic powered from a pto pump and rear hydrulic tank. It was pretty spendy though, but my neck thanks me.

 

[Rockgod]

That's some heavy wet snow! Interesting video.

Thanks for posting. :thumbsup:

 

[4shorts]

Wow that snow keeps stalling the impeller How much more banging on the system to clear it before you break something? I'd like to see it in light snow but I wouldn't continue to use it in that wet stuff. I know my rear mounted blower would go through wet snow like butter. What is your rear PTO rpm ? Seems odd that it would stall that impeller.

 

[crazyal]

I like the idea of no shear pins, never understood why they don't make a slip clutch version for the pto driven blowers. But I've only broken a couple last year until the ground froze and none this year (yet). It's hard to tell how wet that snow is, I've never had snow wet enough to stall or clog my blower but, like I said, it's hard to try guess how your snow compares to what I've had.

It's an interesting option. If I remember correctly it's not cheap but if you need to remove piles of snow it clearly is a great option.

 

[srs]

Wow that snow keeps stalling the impeller How much more banging on the system to clear it before you break something? I'd like to see it in light snow but I wouldn't continue to use it in that wet stuff. I know my rear mounted blower would go through wet snow like butter. What is your rear PTO rpm ? Seems odd that it would stall that impeller.

The specs for the DK45SE cab tractor shows 36 hp at the PTO running 540 rpms. I love the set up that GRSTHEGREAT has but I too thought the front blower would tear right through those drifts.

 

[5030]

Wow that snow keeps stalling the impeller How much more banging on the system to clear it before you break something? I'd like to see it in light snow but I wouldn't continue to use it in that wet stuff. I know my rear mounted blower would go through wet snow like butter. What is your rear PTO rpm ? Seems odd that it would stall that impeller.

I thought the same thing watching the video. It's a nice setup and I looked at them too, but I'm glad at this point I have a rear mount. Typically I'm doing the road, almost 3/4 mile to the pavement and it drifts, sometimes 4 feet. I need serious balls for serious snow.

I put the blower on the M105 and in 4wd in mid range backing up, I can completely cover the blower with drifts and it keeps on slinging snow at least 75 feet to the side. It's a Lucknow 84" by the way. I can make 'er blow smoke for sure. It eats every bit of the 95 PTO horsepower in wet heavy snow..... Light dry powder is a 100+ foot throw as fast as I care to back up....:laughing:

No neck problems, I have a swivel air ride seat and rear view mirrors.

I wonder if it's going on bypass at too low a pressure. That hydraulic motor (I believe that manufacturer uses Char-Lynn motors) should be turning that impeller/rotor with more authority.

That's not much snow. More than average but I've seen 10 foot drifts here before.