FEL vs. Blower

[jaywdeee]

I have a two stage front mounted 4 foot snowblower that mounts on a 20 hp GTX Troy Bilt with a hydraulic lift. Liked it, but we often have heavy snow fall here in NNY and the tractor just wasn't heavy enough. It was 2 wd and often stuck, even with tire chains. The blower worked great but I always felt that it was slow. And I still feel that blowing snow is a slow process that takes a lot of energy (fuel). Now I've parked that blower and have the 6 foot bucket on my Kubota Much faster than the blower and uses far less fuel. No shear pins either.

 

[oldnslo]

Which Kubota do you have the 6 foot bucket on?

In my opinion an area where you get heavy snowfalls is the best place to use a properly sized blower. Yes blowing is slower than plowing but you don't have huge piles to contend with when done. Less area required for piling snow, no super high frozen banks to cause even more drifting.

 

[pmsmechanic]

Last year I pieced together a 59" snow blower for the front of my John Deere 4410. I will never go back to the front end loader. It's just so much faster and nicer with a snow blower

 

[Thomas]

Each have there Pros and Cons,better than hand shovel or walk behind blower if you get that much snow.

 

[dave1949]

A 6' FEL bucket on a tractor beats anything on a garden tractor.

If you don't have a lot of driveway to do and have reasonably flat areas along the driveway to push and stack the snow, I'm sure a FEL bucket will do the job for you.

A 6' blower on the tractor will be faster for deep snow but may not be worth the cost if your driveway isn't very long.

 

[oosik]

I had a 5' blower on my previous tractor. It was slow, but sure nice to be able to blow the snow at least twenty feet off the driveway. With the current tractor I use the rear blade and because everything is a lot bigger it is now much faster. I'm now able to bust the frozen berms with the tractor and rear blade. I have a mile long, gravel driveway.

 

[jaywdeee]

The 6 foot bucket is on an M5040. Nice tractor. Big engine (displacement) with gobs of torque. No turbo to maintain. it makes play out of most jobs that i use it for. Just the right size for my operation. Use it for skidding trees, piling logs, moving full pallets of pellets, plowing with a 14 inch three bottom plow, brush hogging with a 6 foot bush hog 290, and grading gravel roads with a Woods 6 foot box blade.

 

[oldnslo]

The 6 foot bucket is on an M5040. Nice tractor. Big engine (displacement) with gobs of torque. No turbo to maintain. it makes play out of most jobs that i use it for. Just the right size for my operation. Use it for skidding trees, piling logs, moving full pallets of pellets, plowing with a 14 inch three bottom plow, brush hogging with a 6 foot bush hog 290, and grading gravel roads with a Woods 6 foot box blade.

M5040 Vs 20 HP GTX Troy bilt. Not really an apple to apple comparison is it.