Front drive options

[70 plus]

I have a Kubota B3200 HST which I purchased in 2009 and now has 700 hours on it. My problem is that with the snow blower on I have to drive backwards since the blower works off the rear PTO and I get a stiff neck among other aches and pains. My finishing mower is also driven by the rear PTO which means my tractor wheels flatten the grass before the mower bed goes over the grass and my terrain is very hilly. So what I'm looking for is an adapter to allow the PTO in the center of my tractor to drive a snow blower and finishing mower in the front of the tractor. I also use a loader and bucket which can be removed. Does anyone know of a solution or perhaps another manufacturer that allows these attachments to be run in front of the tractor?

 

[diesel85]

Not that I am aware of. The frontal swing of a finish mower on the front would be very weird. The snowblower could likely be converted to hydraulic, but I don't think the B3200 would have enough flow to do a good job as the rear 540 would do.

I haven't worked on a B3200 lately, but I think the B3200HST has a mid-pto option standard. You might want to look for a MMM or the actual Kubota snow blower for it. But first double-check to see if you have the mid-pto on your machine before considering this.

 

[JWR]

About the mower: I have owned both and feel that the MMM does a better job of mowing grass. The Kubota MMM decks are the best I've seen for toughness, durability, belt lasting forever, etc. They are not cheap and the hanging linkage takes some time to install. I found one Used last year and if you persist on Craigs List and the Orange forum , etc. you should find one. Front PTO and having that really robust and working well is normally only found on much larger tractors. Very common in Europe but not here. You COULD get a PTO driven hyd pump and rig a front 3pt hitch and PTO combo [there are companies selling a kit for that] driven with the higher flow from the rear pto pump. You'd have to really want to BAD and it would be costly. Issues include rotation direction, gearing, etc. And giving up the FEL. Not worth it.

About the snowblower: As diesel suggested, Kubota sells a front mount snowblower and the contraption required to mount it, run the shaft and u-joints from the mid PTO, etc. If you do it that is the way to go. Also costly. Search the threads in TBN and you'll find quite a few discussing the various wonders and maladies of the Kubota front blower. In my view they are not worth it. Precludes using the FEL for one thing. I recommend finding a "pull forward" style snowblower which solves 90% of your stiffneck and all the reports I have seen for them are good. That way you can run with both the FEL and the fwd pulling snowblower with a lot of flexibility. Some point to the limitation on how close to a building you can get with that style blower (maybe 4 feet?) but whatever that is, you can back drag that snow away from the building with the FEL bucket.

 

[Xfaxman]

The frontal swing of a finish mower on the front would be very weird.

Not weird for me, but much better to use out front:

 

[70 plus]

Not that I am aware of. The frontal swing of a finish mower on the front would be very weird. The snowblower could likely be converted to hydraulic, but I don't think the B3200 would have enough flow to do a good job as the rear 540 would do.

I haven't worked on a B3200 lately, but I think the B3200HST has a mid-pto option standard. You might want to look for a MMM or the actual Kubota snow blower for it. But first double-check to see if you have the mid-pto on your machine before considering this.

Yes I do have the mid-PTO on my unit.

 

[70 plus]

Not weird for me, but much better to use out front:
View attachment 722506

My neighbor has one of these and is unable to get up the steep hills on my property.

 

[diesel85]

Not weird for me, but much better to use out front:
...

There is a huge difference between the frontal area in terms of swing on that Toro versus mounting it on a tractor. A converted rear mower put up front would stick out like crazy. Not to mention the OP would need a ballast. Assuming they have a KingKutter 72" RFM. That mower weighs about 700#. That would drag the front of that little B3200 around. Not something I'd want to do.

If you look at the Toro, it's actually 1/2 way under the machine.

Also, we use those Toro's at work, and a grounds crew rolled one on a small incline. I don't recommend using those Toro's or those 3 wheel Ferris' on rough/unstable ground.

 

[Xfaxman]

My neighbor has one of these and is unable to get up the steep hills on my property.

Mine is 4 wheel drive, no problems going up steep hills:

 

[Xfaxman]

There is a huge difference between the frontal area in terms of swing on that Toro versus mounting it on a tractor. A converted rear mower put up front would stick out like crazy

Yep, sticks out where you can see it. No problem with out front swing on a bigger machine with this 6' finish mower:

 

[George the Beagle]

I'll bet you can cut under shrubbery with that thing!