convert 47" blower

jeffhope · Oct 4, 2011

Hi All, I am a new registered user here but a long time reader. Surprise, Suprise!

I am facing a dilemma, my father and I purchased a 47" blower thinking it would mount easily on our 2305 only to find that the blower is for a different model tractor. My father is very mechanical and we think we can make it work but before we venture down this road we wanted to run it by this forum. We think we have 3 options, 1st is to manufacture a front hitch that will accept the older style quick mount (has the lift ram on the blower instead of the hitch) 2nd option is to mount the blower to the FEL and extent the shaft being cautious not to lift to high during use. 3rd option is to convert it to a rear mount blower.

Has anyone tried this? can you offer any advice? we are fine with spending a bit of money on this as we purchased the blower for 600 and it is in mint shape. The bushings and tines are excellent and it has little rust. I look forward to hearing from you.

Jeff

leonz · Oct 4, 2011

I think your going to end up using the
belt drive on the rear as you need a
right angle gear box for the snow caster
with a P.T.O, shaft other wise.

It would be simple enough to put a V belt
pulley on the stub shaft as is done on some
mowers powered by the rear P.T.O., stub through
belting and right angle pulley/belt feeds.

With the V belt drive you will be unable to
use the rear implement hitch; this is overcome by
installing a pair of trailer tongue jacks to allow you
to raise to blower for transport and lower the blower
for work-

Or by using the rear drawbar to mount the snow
caster to settle on a proper V belt length
and using the jack(s) for transport.

The V belt will have to be longer to assure the proper
length if a V belt pulley is mounted on the rear P.T.O., stub
with the existing routing/turnng pulleys and the main tensioner
pulley on the snow caster.

North Country · Oct 5, 2011

"ensoll" on here has the parts you need to connect a 2305 to a newer 47" blower. I don't know if you need a starting point - for example, do you already have the front pto kit?

If you're located w/in driving distance of central MA, it might be the best way to go. It will certainly save you a lot of time.

Anything that involves extending the shaft is going to be fairly risky unless you are very experienced fabricators. That shaft spins fast (2000rpm) with a lot of power behind it. A mistake that leads to failure at operating speed could be extraordinarily dangerous. I wouldn't try attaching it to the FEL - it just won't be a rigid enough mount. I believe all the commercial FEL blowers are hydraulically driven.

Dutch445 · Oct 5, 2011

it sounds like you have one of the older 47 blowers
with the gearcase on the back? If so it could have come
off a tractor (318-430 style) or front mower (F935 etc).
I think the gearbox can be set up to go in either
direction at the factory depending on application. You
need to investigate that. If you modify to fit on a
quick hitch, you need to pay attention to the relationship
between the snowblower drive shaft and the front pto kit so
things reach but don't bind when lifted. (in addition to the rotation)
I would think you buy the front PTO kit for your tractor and buy
or build a hitch and go from there. sounds like Leon has given
more advice for mounting on 3ph.
if it's as nice as you say, maybe you can sell it for a profit and
pick up something easier to fitup, any of the newer quick hitch blowers
can work with the proper hitch.
good luck whichever way you go

jeffhope · Oct 5, 2011

It is definitely an older model, from what I am gathering my only option is to retrofit the front hitch to fit our tractor. We have the front PTO kit, it came with the blower so we are hoping to use that and then re-manufacture the front hitch that came with the blower. I wonder if anyone has a picture of the new front hitch for a 2305, seeing that will help us in fabricating the parts we need.

Mounting on the FEL Sounds like a bad idea so I will avoid that for sure, also after hearing about all the noise the 2305's have with the blower it could only be worse if I extend the shaft another 12-18 inches. Mounting on the back seemed like a good idea until I was told the RPM of front and rear PTO's are different - I never knew or even thought about that. Then their is the question of direction, would mounting the blower on the rear and connecting to the PTO shaft cause the direction of the blower tines to change?

Thanks everyone for helping so far. I'm leaning toward manufacturing our own front hitch. Pics please if anyone has done this or has pictures of the 2305 with the newer blower attached.

Jeff

North Country · Oct 5, 2011

Mine's not attached yet, but will be soon. There are a few threads with pictures already out there, and in a few weeks I'll be happy to take pictures and/or measurements on request.