Hydraulic front snowblower compact tractor?

[leonz]

If your going to spend that kind of money you may as well buy a Bercomac engine driven 6 foot cut two stage with a V twin honda and have a quick attach plate fabricated for it.

A snowvac two stage for your plow truck would be double that amount or more.

If you have a hydraulic reverser pedal on your mule you can sit sideways and just let the snow blower act as an anchor when you have to stop.

A Meteor 5 foot cut single stage with the 13 inch auger will be less money as it also has gathering side boards on it as well.

 

[grsthegreat]

My hydraulic unit runs great...worth every penny i spent. But my tractor is 45 hp.

My neck issues required a front mount system. I have seen some front mounts hooked up to mid ptos that seem to move some snow

 

[leonz]

He apparently does not wish to sit sidesaddle on the seat and use the reverse peddle or bolt a piece of plexiglass on his rops to stop any snow spray.


That is why I suggested the Meteor single stage unit for the mid point PTO on his mule.
One of the bercomac motorized snow blowers would eb too heavy to use on his mule unless he only lifts it a foot or less as it was designed to be used on an ATV or RTV.

He does not have enough fluid flow or reservoir capacity to enable its use UNLESS he carries a reservoir and at that eventual total cost a 48" Meteor single stage with the wings that are built into the system would be more than enough for his mule.

 

[fishhead]

Tough to recommend a course of action without any idea of locale, total snowfall, size of storms , type of snow, drifting or not - drive paved or not etc.
Those are the basics-

 

[Dfixit1]

Tough to recommend a course of action without any idea of locale, total snowfall, size of storms , type of snow, drifting or not - drive paved or not etc.
Those are the basics-

3/10 of a mile, gravel driveway with hills and 2 (90) degree turns, annual snowfall 144”. One area drifts. I been using the plow for 4 years and then moving piles with the 35 hp mule. I bought the mule with a backhoe for a build project and am done with the build. My thing is why have 2 different snow machines? Sell the truck with plow.

 

[finn1]

Keep the truck.

My experience is that a 62” front mounted snowblower takes two or three times as long as. 7’6” truck mounted plow for nuisance snowfall of, say 6” or less, but is invaluable for moving the banks back and clearing snow next to the raised deck. Your winters seem relatively mild, though, with only 144”, so I don’t know...

I previously used a skid steer to move the banks back, but the snowblower mounted on the tractor is a more efficient machine for that task.

Do you really need the loader for other tasks in the winter? Sounds like your backhoe is just adding ballast now. A front mounted blower is pretty easy to install and remove seasonally, but I would recommend a cab tractor for snow removal.

 

[Whitbread]

Keep the truck.

My experience is that a 62” front mounted snowblower takes two or three times as long as. 7’6” truck mounted plow for nuisance snowfall of, say 6” or less, but is invaluable for moving the banks back and clearing snow next to the raised deck. Your winters seem relatively mild, though, with only 144”, so I don’t know...

I have the opposite sentiment of truck vs blower. My driveway has a steep grade and tightly winds through the woods. Plowing it for the last 3 years was a giant PITA. Couldn't plow uphill many times, had to push banks back between trees in 10 different places, and I ended up with massive piles all over. Now with the blower on the tractor, I can blow uphill easily, don't have to do push offs all along the drive, and I'm done in the same amount of time or less. That was before the turbo addition over the weekend, I'm willing to bet I'll save an easy 5-10 mins now not having to worry about bogging it down.

It's a 5' blower driven by mid pto. I'm running at full speed in low range into 10" of fresh powder. Could never do this before. New Holland 1620 turbo - YouTube




As an overall use tool, I also vote for the blower also as a plow would never let you clear drifts like this. This was 14 hours of drifting last week BTW, I'm in the middle of a road making a path to a fellow firefighters stuck pickup.

 

[leonz]

Several of the members have long driveways/lanes longer than your driveway and they use a BX tractor with chains and or loaded tires with a slightly wider rear snow blower and do the first cut slowly in reverse and then they take half cuts for the rest of it to open their driveways.

a. You have the truck and the plow
a1. you have the tractor, loader and back hoe.

b. A small backhoe is something that will always be of use to you for one job or another in the future.

b1. it is a valuable piece of iron to you and of little value to anyone else and people will try to take advantage of you as it is of a limited range for a smaller machine to mount it on.

b2. The back hoe will be an asset for breaking up ice and ice packed snow banks as long as you have loaded tires and rear chains.

b3. many people make the mistake of using a tractor mounted loader for heavy work and bend the frames and the buckets and digging out packed ice and snow creates huge stresses on the backhoe boom arms and bucket as they are ment only for light materials

b4. I have to emphasize that if you try to sell the truck and plow it will only be worth what ever someone is willing to pay for it.
Trucks and especially plow trucks suffer from wear and tear and here in new York state its is no longer legal to weld vehicle frames and they suffer from a very fast loss of monetary value to the seller as the frames are automatically suspected of having frame damage.

b5. using a snow blower is always boring and tedious unless you have a very large engine framed mule to provide the torque needed.

b6. since your obviously going to committed to this future home it may be well worth your while to look at a Kubota RTV 1100 and the front mounted snow blower they offer for it. You will have a clear field of view with it a heated cabin and 4 wheel drive that will require you to have ice chains and at least 6 bags of tube sand in the rear box and to always carry diesel fuel and couple of shovels and a small cooler with water and snacks.

Even the smallest Kubota RTV and a motorized Bercomac snowblower for it is a viable option as it will have a heated cab, lights and you will need chains and ballast weight and you can buy a radio or wear radio ear muffs or use earplugs as these units will be very noisy with both engines running.
The RTV 1100 has an adjustable engine throttle and the automatic transmission that lets you set it in low low range to run the 2 stage snow blower they offer for it.
Its small lights are short coming as it needs a front LED light bar and a rear LED light bar for work and you have to have a beacon/flasher to be able to be road legal if you are opening up the entrance of your property.



I wish you the best of luck just remember that you need to look at this 5-10 years down the road and base your decision on the worst case scenario as you will have to dig out and deal with deep snows.

 

[finn1]

Witbread, I agree that the blower is the correct tool in some situations. Much of our snow comes in daily dumps of six inches or less that can easily be pushed aside with a truck mounted blade in a few minutes. It does a better, and faster job than the blower.

After a few weeks, or a two foot dump, the blower shines. An hour or so of occasionally moving the banks back with the blower beats spending 45 minutes daily on the tractor, when the truck clears the drive of a light six inch daily snowfall in a few minutes.

I have the uphill driveway issue too. Small snowfall is no problem, but uphill plowing is an issue with heavy snowfall.

My shop is a mile from the house, a long daily drive in a 14 mph tractor with loaded tires. The truck shines here, too.

 

[fishhead]

Thanks,

Unless you get huge storms that you can't keep up with It sounds like a rear pull might work , depending on the drifting area. I live in an area with similar snowfall and have a drive twice as long. paved though which helps. I keep seeing all these postings that blowing is slow but a rear pul really doesn't take much longer than a tractor mounted blade on smaller snows. Big snows you slow down obviously but then they also add time to deal with with a blade. With a 6 ft blower I can clear an 11ft+ swath down and back a 3/10 mile drive in 6-8 minutes. remember you would need a much wider blade to clear the same due to angling the blade and the spill back you get from the edges

3/10 of a mile, gravel driveway with hills and 2 (90) degree turns, annual snowfall 144? One area drifts. I been using the plow for 4 years and then moving piles with the 35 hp mule. I bought the mule with a backhoe for a build project and am done with the build. My thing is why have 2 different snow machines? Sell the truck with plow.