Is this going to work?

[koopster]

If you don't mind my two cents...make a roof from some light steel channel. make a mounting surface to mount it to your rollover bar. Now screw a few pieces of the corrogated plastic roofing from the hardware store. Instant rain and snow protection. Screw pecan or Plexiglas to the back of the ROP to keep snow from your back. We have done this many times. The roof unscrews to store away in good weather. The ROP still folds for tight areas. You may be colder than in a cab but it is dryer! At least it will buy some time til you can afford a cab. Me....I would trim the wood's roads to allow a cab!!!!!!

 

[Catfish Man]

If you don't mind my two cents...make a roof from some light steel channel. make a mounting surface to mount it to your rollover bar. Now screw a few pieces of the corrogated plastic roofing from the hardware store. Instant rain and snow protection. Screw pecan or Plexiglas to the back of the ROP to keep snow from your back. We have done this many times. The roof unscrews to store away in good weather. The ROP still folds for tight areas. You may be colder than in a cab but it is dryer! At least it will buy some time til you can afford a cab. Me....I would trim the wood's roads to allow a cab!!!!!!

yeah i already was planning something similar, but I was thinking maybe a canvas tarp for a roof, anything to keep most of the snow off while your out in it.

everyone's 2 cents is welcome

 

[crazyal]

I wouldn't go with anything but HST. HST and snow blowing go hand in hand. I love the HST+ that Kubota offers. It has a feature called H-DS, it's a high/ low range that you can shift on the fly. Since my driveway is pretty long (over a half mile) I set the cruse control and if I get to a spot that's deep or a spot on the steeper sections I just flick the H-DS lever and the tractor speed slows down.

 

[wildwillie]

I'm 6'2" 260lb. Used a customers B3030 to do some dirt work at his home.Quite small. I was afraid of breaking it getting on and off of it. For me my L3400 is a better fit for the same money but with more weight. You need weight.
If the wife will be using it keep it easy and tough.Cab with heat if possible.If your boys are like mine they will be out of the house soon so it's real important to keep Mama happy
I use a Erskin rear pull that way I can have blade or bucket on the loader at the same time. Hydro-static,Flood lights,and chains. With out some kind of cab blowing snow at night really sucks.Will your wife be able to change a shear pin?
I know mine couldn't.

 

[Catfish Man]

yeah she will be able to handle changing shear pins after I show her how the first time

she's pretty handy and she's used to me being away for work so she has learned to be self sufficient.

 

[leonz]

yeah she will be able to handle changing shear pins after I show her how the first time

she's pretty handy and she's used to me being away for work so she has learned to be self sufficient.

Check with the Berco folks they should have a heavy canvas Cab in stock that fits the B3030.

 

[Jay4200]

So it's going to be the wife (never run tractor), 19 year old son(run tractor on flat ground in the south a couple of times), and my 18 year old son (never touched a tractor).

Budget for lots of shear pins, two auger repairs per year, and at least one replacement garage door per year.

I'm not even remotely kidding...and I'm not talking about your wife.

My 19yo started running my ATV w/ plow unsupervised this past year. I didn't even know you could bend a blade that far.

JayC

 

[RFB]

Mr Fish,

Listen carefully to Jerry/mt...

Out here in the intermountain west we get snow as big and bigger than your photos. HP is your friend when using a blower. You will hardly ever say, gee, I wish this were not as powerful. Also, HST is the optimum drive system for blowing; anything else works but not nearly as efficiently or easy.
MFWD/4wd is mandatory.

Cab is optional and your choice. I cannot imagine not having a cab, and I will personally bite the $ bullet rather than deal with open station.

 

[smfcpacfp]

Unless you buy a rear mount for the B3030 with the cab you will be behind the eight ball with deep wet snow as the front mounted units do not have much ground clearance and when a 4 wheel drive gets stuck they really get stuck unless you have a good winch to hook to a few trees to yank it out-10 ton chain come alongs and good log chain work well.

I repect leonz advice generally but this makes no sense, unless I don't understand his point. I have a popular video on the internet that I did a few years ago snowblowing 2 feet of wet heavy snow and it was no problem for my 30 hp. Ground clearance is not an issue when snowblowing, either with a front or rear blower. You snowblower clears the snow to the ground so tractor ground clearance is not an issue. My tractor never drives on more than inch or two of snow because the blower clears a path. I am assuming that your blower is wider than your tractor tires - a general rule of thumb for snowblowers. If you blower is not as wide as your tractor tire width, you are in for a nightmare.

I couldn't imagine any situation where my tractor would get stuck. Of course I start my tractor from my storage building so my tractor is always dry initially. If I had to drive my tractor thru 5 feet of snow to get to my snowblowing starting point, I might get stuck.

Another little piece of advice from 30 years of snowblowing - when the snow get as deep as the height of the blower it is time to get started snowblowing. Don't wait until it is all over and you have insurmountable drifts. During big snow events I am out numerous times keeping things under control.

If you don't want to do be patient that don't screw around with the pi$$ ***** 50 hp rigs, get this one:

World's largest snow blower HD - YouTube

 

[JoelD]

I've not read ever post in this thread, so this is likely a duplicative statement.

That is a long way to snow blow.

1/2 mile with anything but a big machine is gonna take a long time.

Personally, with that much ground to cover, I'd go plow truck.

You and use the loader if banks need relocation.

but blowing that far is gonna take a while.

1/4 mile would even be a haul with anything but a really big blower.

If time is not an issue, then there is no better machine for clearing snow than a blower.

There is no machine faster, at least in my experience, than a plow truck at moving snow.

Good luck either way,

Sincerely,
Joel

 

[Catfish Man]

I've pretty well decided on the kubota L4240, loaded ag tires with chains, front mount six foot blower

my neighbor tried to blow the drive for me the other day
he has a 30hp tym with r4's, (i don't think they are loaded), rear mount blower
he couldn't make it up the steepest part of the hill, it would just sit and spin

 

[JoelD]

Without chains, on a slope, he likely had no chance, particularly while pushing a blower.

I have a little wheel horse workhorse 700 with front blower, without chains can't get out of the garage, with chains, I've yet to be stuck, and that is without wheel weights.

Joel

 

[kiotiken]

In my area they are saying heavy snow is not a rare event most winters.

If I go with a larger tractor such as the L4240, the cab issue will be decided for me, adding a cab will push it out of my range.

I'm going to agree that you want a 7' blower with at least 35 pto hp for that hill. A couple of ways to bring this back to your price point;

1) Consider a gear tractor, you'll get more PTO hp out of the same tractor and save over $1K.

2) Switch up the front blower to an inverse or pull type rear blower. You still drive forward and you can keep the loader on (assuming you'll be buying a loader) for any MAJOR drifts. You may find a good used one, and even if you don't, you'll still save a few thousand there.

3) Consider all your options, not just Kubota. There are PLENTY of great tractors that are at least as heavy duty without the premium price these days. For example, after reading another thread on TBN yesterday, I went to johndeere.com and priced out the most similar tractor to mine (Kioti CK30HST with FEL and Woods BH-70x BH with thumb and Kioti cab), a JD 3320 with FEL, BH and cab. My tractor beats the Deere in several areas (3pt lift, hydro flow etc), but there's no denying the Deere has nicer HST options (as does the Grand L line) and a nicer cab. If I win the lottery, I'll look at the Grand L or Deluxe JD lines, but since the price came to $44,500 vs the $34,000 I paid for mine, I'm pretty happy with my choice. Soooo all that to say a Kioti CK30 or Bobcat CT230 is more tractor than the B2920 at less money and a DK45 or Bobcat CT345 would let you run a 7' (front/rear) blower, and the cab version may stay in your budget.

So, I could see you saving at least $10K over a Kubota front blower/cab set up by following all of the above on comparable 45hp tractors.

 

[sixdogs]

Just a thought here...would you have to add chains to all four wheels to keep the rolling diameter the same so the front axle gears don't get chewed up? The front and rear tire diameters are set up so the front actually pulls the back by a few percent. When I plowed a lot I kept chains on all four wheels of the pickup for that reason and plowed as much in 2WD as possible. I'll add that my truck never left the snow of the farm.
One other thought I already mentioned is to try to find someone with the exact setup you have to see how it works for them. When I lived in big snow country, it was all about HP and lots of guys didn't have enough. You will likely have warmer and wetter snow and that will handle differently than cold and fluffy. Just my two cents here.

 

[aczlan]

I've pretty well decided on the kubota L4240, loaded ag tires with chains, front mount six foot blower
my neighbor tried to blow the drive for me the other day
he has a 30hp tym with r4's, (i don't think they are loaded), rear mount blower
he couldn't make it up the steepest part of the hill, it would just sit and spin

We have a L3830 with a 6' blade rear blade and that isn't quite wide enough to cover the tire tracks. I might see if I could get a wider blower.
The reason being: when you get near the edged of the paged area (or packed driveway) and your tire drops over the edge, it can get interesting getting back out. As such, I would try to have a blower that is at least a 6" wider than the tires on each side.

Aaron Z

 

[smfcpacfp]

I've pretty well decided on the kubota L4240, loaded ag tires with chains, front mount six foot blower

my neighbor tried to blow the drive for me the other day
he has a 30hp tym with r4's, (i don't think they are loaded), rear mount blower
he couldn't make it up the steepest part of the hill, it would just sit and spin

Simple solution to steep hill snow blowing. Only snowblow down the hill.

Of course if you can't get up the hill to start, this wouldn't be a solution. I helped a friend out who had a 30 degree grade and this technique worked.

 

[crazyal]

I use these for rear chains (and no chains up front). They are not good for pavement and when driving on the cement in the garage I have some old carpet I drive on. But they will handle a steep driveway no problem.

 

[Willl]

But they will handle a steep driveway no problem.

"Or straight up a tree if need be"

Those things look awesome.

 

[Catfish Man]

Simple solution to steep hill snow blowing. Only snowblow down the hill.

Of course if you can't get up the hill to start, this wouldn't be a solution. I helped a friend out who had a 30 degree grade and this technique worked.

he was starting from the bottom, he couldn't make it to the top with or without the snowblower on, he tried in forward and reverse

 

[Catfish Man]

We have a L3830 with a 6' blade rear blade and that isn't quite wide enough to cover the tire tracks. I might see if I could get a wider blower.
The reason being: when you get near the edged of the paged area (or packed driveway) and your tire drops over the edge, it can get interesting getting back out. As such, I would try to have a blower that is at least a 6" wider than the tires on each side.

Aaron Z

six is the largest they offer in front mount, but I already have plans to build some wings to extend the width