Snow BX snow thrower vs loader?

[MOPAULY]

OK, I've seen many people talk about buying the snow throwers for the BX's. Tonight I cleared our driveway with the loader and I found it no worse then my old 48" snow thrower on my old Toro tractor.

I actually liked the ability to be able to pile snow where I wanted. Based on the size of our driveway, I feel I made very good time in the 1.5 hours I spent clearing it......so my question remains, how exactly would spending thousands of dollars for the snow thrower attachment benefit me?

 

[JimMorrissey]

MO, It depends on how much snow you get IMO. We need to get it out of the way and a blower does that quite well....Yes, it blows in your face, but it also puts 99% of it way out of the way so you don't have to worry about back to back storms with frozen banks. A few years ago we had to hire a CAT TLB to deal with the banks because I could not push it back any further due to ditches on the sides.

I think you're good the way you're doing it as long as you're happy with the time you spend and results. A blower cleans to the surface in one pass and I can shoot the snow at least 30'....today I was sending dry/light snow over 50' with the wind.

 

[art]

I'm using a loader on a tractor now but It's a good size L-series but the blower is my favorite as it doesn't make banks which means more work like Jim said. The hydarulic or electric deflector control helps with less snow being on the operator and tractor controls.

 

[MOPAULY]

The loader cleans to the asphalt pretty well. I can't say I miss the blowing snow in my face from the snow thrower.

The only thing I can say I miss is not having any trails left between sweeps with the snow thrower, whereas with the bucket you have to go back and clean up.

 

[fishpick]

MOPAULY - FWIW - I have been thinking the same thing as you - until last night with the 18" that got dumped on us... Then, suddenly, the FEL is far less useful than the old walk behind blower I just gave away to my brother-in-law... I would have gotten off the tractor last night to just have the simplicity of all that snow "blowing" away. The piles at the end of my driveway are as high as the FEL will reach now... should we get another BIG ONE... I'm not exactly sure what I'll do.

 

[art]

Well we made it again! The snow has fallen enough that even with a larger L series and giving myself about 15 foot of head start room for banks on the lawn I'm back to the driveway! The banks are about ten foot high and it's time to move them away but there is no place to move them, time for a manitou to move the banks back.

Now when using a snowblower I've never had banks over three foot high on the edge of the drive, my wife complained that she can't see when exiting the drive anymore. The snow blower always took about the same amount of time and to use the down pressure instead of float it to would scrape the driveway bare. With the blower it always takes about the same time, now I'm having to spend more time to stack and try and move the banks back and unfortunatly I know that I'm going to have to spend some time on lawn repair this spring!

For NY snow give me a blower! It will do a very neat job with no cleanup compared to the loader and a blade thats no better either.

 

[timalabim]

Where we are in MA, we got mostly a snow/sleet/rain mix which turned into about 4in of slush. I started using my walk behind blower, but was mosly throwing water, and had a hard time getting down to the pavement due to the lowest layer which was somewhat solid.

I figured I'd give my BX24 loader a shot and it worked like a charm. Mostly float, but some areas with a bit of down pressure took it down to the pavement beautifully.

With Snow I think that the blower would have done a better job, but the unusual mix we had yesterday called for a drasticly different approach

 

[proudestmonkey]

MOPAULY - FWIW - I have been thinking the same thing as you - until last night with the 18" that got dumped on us... Then, suddenly, the FEL is far less useful than the old walk behind blower I just gave away to my brother-in-law... I would have gotten off the tractor last night to just have the simplicity of all that snow "blowing" away. The piles at the end of my driveway are as high as the FEL will reach now... should we get another BIG ONE... I'm not exactly sure what I'll do.

I had considered selling my old walk-behind (8 HP, self-propelled, 24" cut) snowblower, but then decided to keep it for the exact reason you just cited. For most snowfalls around here (Minneapolis area), we get between 3 and 6 inches. But, in December and March, especially March, we sometimes get up to 2 feet within a week. So, for most snow falls, like the OP said, the FEL (and may I recommend an inexpensive back blade) will adequately move the snow out of the way in about an hour (1/2 mile driveway and tractor shed road on a hill with two opposing 90 degree turns, and a 200 degree curve on the steepest part of the downhill, also a completely circular courtyard about 50 feet in diameter). For the big snows at the beginning and end of the winter months, I can see getting out the snow blower, which will take much longer than the tractor, but without a snowblower attachment to the Tractor, I am not sure the tractor could even deal with that much snow.

 

[kwolfe]

The loader cleans to the asphalt pretty well. I can't say I miss the blowing snow in my face from the snow thrower.

The only thing I can say I miss is not having any trails left between sweeps with the snow thrower, whereas with the bucket you have to go back and clean up.

MOPAULY,
Hear in Harrisburg, PA I just plowed my 150' drive as well as two other neighbors (same size). I saw a lot of walk behind snow blowers having problems with this crud because it was so thick. A 5' rear blade and FEL in float worked pretty well. It took about 3 hours (including a few beers) .

If I had a long driveway and we got a lot of snow each year, I would consider a 3pt blower, but for now, the FEL and RB work just fine.

BTW, if anyone wants to buy a slighty used Yardmachine 8hp snowblower I have one for sale.

 

[AMR]

I have had the same thought process. I find the middle ground for me is the front blade, much much cheaper, easy to store, and nothing mechanical. I have tried removing snow with the FEL and have found it to be troublesome, so much so that I used the old walk behind snow thrower.

My issue is that I have 500' of driveway and a typical 0" to 8" storm takes a long time to snowblow, nearly 2 hours, so for those 2 and 3 inch snowfalls it is really not even worth it. With the plow I can scrape the driveway clean in about 20 minutes and have had no problems with up to 15 to 18".

Now for sure when you get the 18" plus storm you get the high banks on the side, equally troublesome. What I do is scrape the driveway down the best I can and then take half the blade raised up about half way and then I simply scrape the piles back. I have had the BX with the blade for 3 winters now and love it.