Grading Could really use advise re: snowblower vs. front blade

[PILOON]

Your drive is not all that big, hence a rear blower might be indicated.

Rear blower allow for much tighter 'in close work' like near doors and around cars etc as visibility is real good as you are closer to 'the action' and looking down compared to front mounts where the viewing angles are not good.
Manouvering a rear is much more precise (think of a fork lift) with no realigning needed.

Naturally price is also a consideration.

Backing up and looking down while sitting sideways is really no big deal, but not bashing your garage door or your wife's car is a hassle.

Most important is that your blower be wider than the wheel tracking as otherwise you pack down the spillover snow with the rear wheels and create a beautiful 'luge run'.

I have operated a 4' blower on 4' wide tractor (and now a 5' on same tractor) as well as both front and rear mounting rigs.

The differance in cost will allow you to purchase another implement next summer!

Front mount also will reguire all hydraulic controls (costly) while one can get by without on a rear blower.

Hope I have helped towards your decision.

BTW I am in Quebec and I know snow! (also did snow contracting fo a while)
The 3 drives that I maintain are about 3000 ft long each, and hilly!
When winter ended, even with blowing all snow falls my banks were average 3ft high on both sides of the drives but cut nice and square with the snow blown 20ft away.
Snow banks at road edge were blown about 8 ft high!

Good luck.

For my $$'s, rear mount combined with a front blade is best combination.
(I do 3 very long drives, hence the blade is great for light snow falls as I simply gather the snow in order to blow it with one pass)

My tractor is gear driven so I can only blow in high or low (mostly low) which is real slow hence the blade really speeds up the whole process.
Blade gathering saves me some 40 minits per drive.

 

[Spudland_Dave]

Hi, good thread. I was hoping someone could help me. I picked up a used 59" JD thrower to go on my 955 but do not have the PTO shaft set for the front mounting. If anyone knows of a source I would greatly appreciate it. Winter's comin.
George in Lyman

In my experience, its hard to find the "peculiar" parts which are specific to a model used or cheap....I'm thinking if you want to run your blower this winter you'll be visiting a JD Dealer...... You just need the shafts themselves or do you need the mounting and such?

 

[Maineuropa]

Well, I won't make the same mistake of calling the Deere dealer on a Saturday morning asking for information
I need the two PTO shafts, the transfer coupling connecting the 2 shafts and maybe some more brackets to attach the hydraulic lift piston. I have all the controls(shute turner and lift piston.) Yes I think that a visit/ship the tractor somewhere will be needed. I cannot see how the unit could have been used on any other tractor without these parts tho and I have to find time to see the guy who sold me the unit to chase down the shafts hopefully.

 

[pat32rf]

My 4300 has a homemade "sno-bucket" extension for the regular FEL bucket. It also works great for bringing firewood down to the house. I use my back blade in the reverse mode 95% of the time, then clean up the banks with the snow bucket once they get big and dense.
The rear mount blower sits beside the barn. Maybe when I get the electric chute swinger designed and installed it will go back on for the winter but until then its the back blade.
(500ft of up and down sidehill driveway plus parking areas)