Fiziksgeek
Platinum Member
The options are pretty limited, unless you have some fabrication skills.
Hydraulic: This is where you use a "power pack" which is a hydraulic pump on the rear pto and a hydraulic fluid tank on the 3pt hitch and run lines up to the blower in the front where a hydraulic motor spins the blower. You could mount the blower on the loader this way. BUT, there is really too much power loss when converting from PTO to pump to motor. You would need more horsepower to make that work, so then you are talking about hanging another engine off the rear of the tractor to power it. It gets expensive.
Rear PTO: There are companies that make a gear box the mounts on the rear pto and basically lowers it and turn in around facing forward, then they run a long shaft from the rear to the front where the blower is mounted. You need special mounts for the front of the tractor as well. These re also not cheap, and you need significantly more ground clearance that the GCs have. Here is an example.
I think you can find 3pt hitch adapter plates that would take the place of your bucket which would allow you to mount the blower on the loader. Of course, if you are powering this with a shaft from the mid PTO, you don't want to be able to lift/curl the blower. So you'd need something to mount on the front frame get the 3pt mount, then a lift cylinder, and some way of adapting the mid pto speed.
It can all be done of course, just depends on your skill and budget...The front mount Massey blower might end up being the cheapest of all these...and certainly the easiest.
Hydraulic: This is where you use a "power pack" which is a hydraulic pump on the rear pto and a hydraulic fluid tank on the 3pt hitch and run lines up to the blower in the front where a hydraulic motor spins the blower. You could mount the blower on the loader this way. BUT, there is really too much power loss when converting from PTO to pump to motor. You would need more horsepower to make that work, so then you are talking about hanging another engine off the rear of the tractor to power it. It gets expensive.
Rear PTO: There are companies that make a gear box the mounts on the rear pto and basically lowers it and turn in around facing forward, then they run a long shaft from the rear to the front where the blower is mounted. You need special mounts for the front of the tractor as well. These re also not cheap, and you need significantly more ground clearance that the GCs have. Here is an example.
I think you can find 3pt hitch adapter plates that would take the place of your bucket which would allow you to mount the blower on the loader. Of course, if you are powering this with a shaft from the mid PTO, you don't want to be able to lift/curl the blower. So you'd need something to mount on the front frame get the 3pt mount, then a lift cylinder, and some way of adapting the mid pto speed.
It can all be done of course, just depends on your skill and budget...The front mount Massey blower might end up being the cheapest of all these...and certainly the easiest.