Front mount or loader mount blower?

[oldnslo]

online hydraulic calculator shows 38 hp minimum and I would be going 45 hp.

That should work but doesn’t leave much power for moving the tractor, raising loader, etc.

 

[blizzardslayer]

I’ve run a rear mount for 20 years. Would never give up my loader. At minimum, I clear about 2 miles with multiple passes after a storm. Our snow is typically heavy and we usually get about 14-24”, sometimes more. I’m able to stand up with a knee on the seat, so pretty comfortable. I also have a blade attachment that I can throw on the loader if the snow is light and only 6” or so for fast runs. Also, don’t know if your road is gravel, but if it is, you could replace you skid shoes with the shortest leaf spring from a semi and your blower will “read” the terrain in float and pick little to no gravel.

 

[pacosperson]

What's the preference here. I'll have a power pack for hydraulics for a firewood processor so I can go either way.

My experience is a front drive snow blower for four inches and up and a power angle plow for less than that. There are compromises with heavy-wet/light powdery but those numbers control what I install before storm.

 

[smiley]

I fabricated a front mount 3pt and found a reverser for and front mounted a 2 stage 7 ft blower on my 399 Massey Ferguson. After that the biggest snowfall we had was 1 ft. After a couple years I put the blower on back again and the 9 ft blade on front which was much faster to plow my 350 foot driveway but the blower was still on the back and did use it 1 time after a 3 ft snow overnight and 5 ft drifts.
Moved to Florida after that and don't worry about snow anymore.

 

[DonChevelle]

On a front frame-mounted blower, you have way less drag on the skid shoes.

 

[HobbleCreek]

For a long time I've switched back and forth between a rear blade and a rear mounted snow blower (PTO). The blade is great until I run out of room for the snow to move. The blade builds up banks on the sides of my driveway and eventually there's just noplace for the snow to go. The snow blower has presented several challenges. First, driving backwards mean a stiff neck and poor traction in deep snow. Also, lots of broken shear pins due to rocks finding their way onto the driveway and getting buried in the snow.

For those reasons I'm looking at moving to a loader mounted hydraulic snow blower. I really need the blower to move the snow far enough off my driveway to avoid just building a bobsled track. I'm looking forward to driving foward and replacing no shear pins. I think I'll find a few other uses for that hydraulic power pack too.

 

[Too many Kubotas]

The blade is great until I run out of room for the snow to move. The blade builds up banks on the sides of my driveway and eventually there's just noplace for the snow to go.

I sort of got around that by using the offset function on the rear blade, which allows pushing the snow about five feet past the edge of the driveway.

Still, with enough snow that only delays the inevitable. That's why I got the snow blower. Some 50 feet away is better than five feet, and helps the driveway dry quicker.

 

[smiley]

I had 350 fy driveway so moved blower to front mount on 4wd 399 Massey Ferguson. Never got over a foot of snow after that, so wound up putting 9 ft blade with 3 ft side wings and pushing off to side at bottom of pass. Maximum of 6 fast 300 ft. passes to clear upper portion. About 15 to 20, 75 foot passes in large parking area in front of house pushed over bsnk into field on lower end by house. Put my blower on back again to use for the very rare big 3 ft snowstorms which happened only once, when we got back from Florida and 4 ft of snow over half of it. I had to wallow down to garage to get tractor out.

 

[HobbleCreek]

I sort of got around that by using the offset function on the rear blade, which allows pushing the snow about five feet past the edge of the driveway.

Still, with enough snow that only delays the inevitable. That's why I got the snow blower. Some 50 feet away is better than five feet, and helps the driveway dry quicker.

That has been my "work around" also, but on the lower part of my driveway it doesn't help at all. There just arent 5 feet available to push the snow into. I've got my neighbor's fence on one side and a hillside on the other. Thanks for responding.

Which snowblower did you go with?

 

[HobbleCreek]

I've run a hydraulic blower on my skid steer the last 6 years with no issues. That was the biggest reason for buying a skid steer in 2018. I got tired of looking behind me all the time in the spring opening driveways for two or three weeks for my business. My skid steer flows 22 gallons a minute. The power pack I'm looking at flowa 21.3 gallons a minute so it shouldn't be much different.

Which power pack are you looking at that flows 21.4 gpm? The most I'm finding is the Erskine and the Quick Attach (which look like they're the same machine) at 20 gpm.

While I've mentioned those two machines, do any of you know who actually builds them? They really look like they're the same machine with a different label.