L3940 Rear Snow Blower --> Front Blower?

[crazyal]

Here's a potential wrinkle. Is your 3940 a cabbed tractor? If not then it most likely will need to be split. When I bought my 4240 the dealer told me that you can't just add the mid PTO because the gear needed to drive it came pre-installed only on cabbed tractors. Since it was all part of the quoted price I doubt he would of lied. He said he only found out after they removed the bottom plate that gets swapped out with the new one with the PTO. Also when I bought mine the smallest size Kubota recommended for a front blower (6') was the 4240. I suspect you will be fine, just need to go slower.

 

[GarthH]

Garth,

Does your 3940 have the mid pto installed already? I have never priced it or seen it priced after the fact but I have seen it alluded to being quite expensive labor wise.

I don't have a snowblower but I do have the L2180 subframe with 7' blade.

Yes I do have the mid mount PTO. Not sure why as I have never used it.

 

[GarthH]

Here's a potential wrinkle. Is your 3940 a cabbed tractor? If not then it most likely will need to be split. When I bought my 4240 the dealer told me that you can't just add the mid PTO because the gear needed to drive it came pre-installed only on cabbed tractors. Since it was all part of the quoted price I doubt he would of lied. He said he only found out after they removed the bottom plate that gets swapped out with the new one with the PTO. Also when I bought mine the smallest size Kubota recommended for a front blower (6') was the 4240. I suspect you will be fine, just need to go slower.

Yes I do have a cab; maybe that is the reason for the mid mount PTO.

 

[aeblank]

Everybody miss my post with album on installing the mid PTO on an L3940? No split. Easy peasy.

 

[moship]

The info below came from the wholegoods price list... From Post #30:

"ROPS Models L4240DT/GST/HST, L4740GST/HST, L5040GST, L5240HST, L5740HST require an Internal Gear Kit L8316. I think the tractor needs to be split to install this gear if not already equipped. "
Since the OP doesn't have one of these, he should be fine. For those of you with the L4x40 and L5x40 you'll need to do some homework if you want to add a front snowblower or sweeper to understand the effort required.

If only the mid-pto is needed its a simple job. The most time consuming part is draining all the hydraulic fluid from the tractor and keeping it from wicking to the mid-pto flange surface. RTV is used to seal the mid-pto to the tractor and it needs to be free of oil for it to be effective.

For those of you that want to get detailed information about snowblowers, subframes, mid-pto's, prices, etc. check out the attachment in post #9. There is a wealth of information buried in the wholegoods price list that can really assist those looking for the details.

Attached are a few pages from the wholegoods price Jan 2016 with mid-pto information on both Lxx40 and Lxx60 tractors.

 

[moship]

Stopped by my local Kubota dealer the other day to see if they had a tractor with the new 4-pt quick hitch with auto-connect, but they didn't have any on the lot. The sales person said they have never sold one as it is too expensive. They would like someone to buy one so they can see it in action first hand. They also mentioned RAD (who makes the hitch and blowers for Kubota) is working on a less costly design. (Please don't take this last comment as 100% accurate as I don't know where they obtained this info or if it was just hearsay.)

L4455 K1 Manual Hitch $2,000
L4554 K3 Auto-Hitch $7,795

There is a footnote for these hitches suggesting the use of the Ground Pressure Relief L4456 is recommended for $1,778

Plus some other brackets are needed, a completion kit and the driveline kit.

L4432 Completion kit for auto connect $1,137
L4484 Driveline kit $747

So the auto-connect 4-pt hitch costs $11,457 plus a few small incidentals. After all this the snowblower still needs to be purchased.

I'm hoping the OP gets one so he can post some videos of how well it works and share his comments.

 

[Dave M7040]

Have a look at these Canadian product by Smyth Welding SMYTH WELDING & MACHINE SHOP, Aubrun Ontario 519-529-7212 which I am certain is going to be much cheaper than the Kubota/RAD ones especially bought with big American dollars.

Plus, unlike the RAD blowers with their long history of shear bolt problems and unlike the RAD blowers with the gear box between the two halves of the auger with the brass worm gear inside, the Smyth ones have a true serious bevel gear box like the very large blowers.

They have a number of optional mount and drive styles. Mounts which make use of a FEL frame, mounts which secure under the tractor. PTO's which are driven by the rear pto or by a mid pto.

The rear pto drive is a neat two bevel gear combination of two gearboxes with the female shaft of one receiving the male shaft of the lower one. There is probably a solution in that concept for owners of Grey Market Kubotas, B5000, B600 B7000, whose rear pto turns in the wrong direction.

SNOWBLOWERS made in Ontario, SMYTH WELDING & MACHINE SHOP 519-529-7212

Dave M7040

 

[mikester]

If you have a quick attach coupler on the loader and enough hydraulic flow the cheapest option would be to mount a hydraulic motor to the blower.

I did the same on my old tractor that already had hydraulic remotes on the loader. I built a quick attach to 3ph adapter for the loader and mounted the hydraulic motor to the adapter plate which allowed me to use a standard pto shaft coupler to the blower. With a 16gpm flow it worked satisfactorily. On heavier or wet snowfalls I would just have to drive a little slower.

You can buy pre-made QA to 3ph adapter plates.

 

[JWR]

If you have a quick attach coupler on the loader and enough hydraulic flow the cheapest option would be to mount a hydraulic motor to the blower.

I did the same on my old tractor that already had hydraulic remotes on the loader. I built a quick attach to 3ph adapter for the loader and mounted the hydraulic motor to the adapter plate which allowed me to use a standard pto shaft coupler to the blower. With a 16gpm flow it worked satisfactorily. On heavier or wet snowfalls I would just have to drive a little slower.

You can buy pre-made QA to 3ph adapter plates.

That is an attractive option. However, .... it sounds to me like mikester found 16 gpm to be less than robust on heavier snow. Speed matters and I find a creeper to be ideal for snowblowing. You might have an HST which bypasses the speed issue. Back to flow, in your case with 14.7 gpm listed for your tractor I suspect it would end up unsatisfactory. Running a PTO driven hydraulic pump fixes that problem big time but it means long, large diameter hoses and considerable pump expense. If you have other uses for lots of hydraulic flow up front (like maybe a cutter, etc.) that might justify the costs. If you choose to go with purely mechanical solutions, I like Dave M7040's post #37.

 

[moship]

GarthH, did you ever get the front mounted snowblower? If so, what did you get and how did it work this past winter?