Snow BX snow thrower vs loader?
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LBrown59
Super Star Member
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- 2003 Kubota BX1500/2004 Kubota Bx23/2005 Kubota BX1500
AMR said:
What I like about the FEL over a front blade is the FEl allows me to be more flexanle in where I pile the snow.
I also have mor control on keeping the drive way slag out ot the yard with tha FEl than I do with a Blade.
The combination I find best for me is the BX23 FEL and the CC 2554 and or the Bolens 850 front blades.
paparammer
Member
I am fortunate (perhaps also stupid - I vacillate) to have all 3 choices: loader, front blade and front blower. Lately, with the little snow we've been getting, I've kept thinking that I shouldn't have gotten the blower (which I did primarily because I had an Ariens Yard tractor with blade and blower that kept going for 26 years and worked just fine) and just stuck with the FEL and blade. Then we get a storm like this one (which used to be more frequent). I have a 300' driveway and started out yesterday to plow about 12" with the blade, which normally should have been little problem. Didn't get very far; that stuff was heavy (twice the water content of normal, I'm told) and I couldn't make reliable headway. Given that I've a steep downhill part to the driveway, I definitely didn't want to get stuck there, which even with loaded rear tires and 4WD is always a possibility with this much heavy snow, especially when you consider the huge pile likely to be at the bootom from the town plow. So I switched to the blower and went riipping through the snow. Now, would the loader have worked? Undoubtedly. Would it have been as quick? Undoubtedly not.
With a lesser amount of snow and a frozen driveway (mine is crushed shale), the blade is by far the quickest (and my preferred choice), as you can go almost full tilt back and forth and be done in little time (how I love that hydraulic angling!). With a non-frozen driveway, everything takes longer and I hate to have to use the blower then as it doesn't have skid shoes and is much more prone to redistributing my driveway all over the terrain.
Is the blower cost-effective? That's what I keep asking myself, but it sure is nice when you need it. Should we start getting winters again where it really snow, I imagine I'll keep congratulating myself on the choice.
With a lesser amount of snow and a frozen driveway (mine is crushed shale), the blade is by far the quickest (and my preferred choice), as you can go almost full tilt back and forth and be done in little time (how I love that hydraulic angling!). With a non-frozen driveway, everything takes longer and I hate to have to use the blower then as it doesn't have skid shoes and is much more prone to redistributing my driveway all over the terrain.
Is the blower cost-effective? That's what I keep asking myself, but it sure is nice when you need it. Should we start getting winters again where it really snow, I imagine I'll keep congratulating myself on the choice.
LBrown59
Super Star Member
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AMR said:
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The only problem with the front blade is you have to take the FEL off to use it.
Now where is the FEL to move the snow piles you created with the front blade?
The limitation with a blade replacing the FEL is you can't use the Blade and the FEL at the same time.
I have a BX 23 with FEL and a Bolens and a CC with front blades on them.
This set up lets me use A Blade and the FEL at the same time without doing any switching.
Musclford
Silver Member
LBrown59 said:
In my opinion... The FEL is the only way to go... Just make something like this if you can...
"http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/kubota-owning-operating/94321-60-fel-bucket-saver.html"
I made $200.00 in 4 hrs. cleaning driveways, not to mention I have 5-700 ft of blacktop drive that won't be gouged or scratched because of the FEL / blade..
Again, I know this is not a bolt on solution, but if you can, this works SWEET, it's CHEAP, and I have live on a steep hill. BEST of all, you can use that FEL when it's not snowing and it removes in less than a minute...
Good luck....
BlackforestBill
Bronze Member
Question for the blower users, how does the blower handle 8 to 10 foot drifts?
When we get snow it's usually with wind, lots of wind. Two foot of snow with 30 mph winds quickly becomes very large drifts in my drive despite my snow fences.
When we get snow it's usually with wind, lots of wind. Two foot of snow with 30 mph winds quickly becomes very large drifts in my drive despite my snow fences.
George2615
Super Member
Mopauly,
Using the loader to move / plow snow works great for the first part of the snow season. Its faster than a blower but when your in mid season like I am the snow banks are now 7'-8' high and have no room to put more snow. The next step will be the time consuming job of moving the snow banks one bucket load at a time and relocating it somewhere else. In the meantime I have used the snowblower every day for the past 10-12 days to blow the snow then very little cleanup is left for the bucket.
Using the loader to move / plow snow works great for the first part of the snow season. Its faster than a blower but when your in mid season like I am the snow banks are now 7'-8' high and have no room to put more snow. The next step will be the time consuming job of moving the snow banks one bucket load at a time and relocating it somewhere else. In the meantime I have used the snowblower every day for the past 10-12 days to blow the snow then very little cleanup is left for the bucket.
I don't know....even if I had frozen banks I could easily break a hole with the loader or backhoe, then make a new dump area for snow off load. It seems to be more of a preference thing, as I cannot see the $$$ justification for the blower.
EDIT: OK I replied before reading the last few, I can see the point of having to move the snow piles, but you can kind of take that into consideration at the start of the season. The way my property is laid out I can go many places with snow if I have to.
EDIT: OK I replied before reading the last few, I can see the point of having to move the snow piles, but you can kind of take that into consideration at the start of the season. The way my property is laid out I can go many places with snow if I have to.
swedish-fish
Bronze Member
I use both a blower and loader. It depends on the snowfall. With the recent 16" storm the blower obviously makes the most sense. Fortunately, my drive is only about 60' long but fairly wide, so driving backwards doesn't bother me. I end up using the loader for the 2" to 6" stuff because I can go faster and have more gears available to me going frontwards. Often times I'll push with the loader, not taking time to dump the contents and then do one pass at the end of the driveway to blow the resulting pile well off into the grass.
The homemade plow bolted to the FEL with a rubber scraper is very interesting. I'd like to try that. In my case with the 51" meteor snowblower cantilevered off the back, it limits how much down force I can get on the cutting edge. I figure this is a good thing. The tractor is only 1100 lbs.
I'll also add that you can find good deals on used snowblowers. I would be having the same reservations on plunking down $1700+ for an implement rarely needed. I snagged this blower on ebay for about $580 and couldn't be happier.
The homemade plow bolted to the FEL with a rubber scraper is very interesting. I'd like to try that. In my case with the 51" meteor snowblower cantilevered off the back, it limits how much down force I can get on the cutting edge. I figure this is a good thing. The tractor is only 1100 lbs.
I'll also add that you can find good deals on used snowblowers. I would be having the same reservations on plunking down $1700+ for an implement rarely needed. I snagged this blower on ebay for about $580 and couldn't be happier.
