L60 with front snowblower - pavement scraping

moship · Mar 29, 2015

Sandalwood,

I realize I don't have the same setup, but perhaps this will help anyway...

My front mounted snow blower doesn't leave scrape marks and it has metal shoes. The front of them are angled upward slightly. I tried looking on line for your snow blower to check out the shoe design but couldn't find any info. Is it possible they are mounted backwards and thus digging in versus floating on top? See attachment item 12 to help clarify what I mean.

crazyal · Mar 29, 2015

I would do an inspection to see if the shoes are laying flat or if the blower is tipped at an angle. If at an angle I would expect the weight would be concentrated on a very small surface area. If you own a welder or have anyone who can weld for you then you could make the surface area of the shoes wider to help distribute the weight. With a little bit of engineering you could make the shoes pivot so there's always making full contact with your pavement.

PILOON · Mar 30, 2015

A neighbor had a front mount that dug in a lot so I welded longer & wider soles onto his skid bottoms.

sandalwood · Apr 1, 2015

Thanks to all for suggestions.

Shoes seem to be laying flat on the ground.

Front 4 point hitch doesn't seem to have the equivalent to a "top link" adjustment that I can see.

I lowered the blower shoes 1 more notch and will see if that makes a difference...unfortunately, may have to wait for next winter as spring seems to be finally starting here.

grizzjeeper · Dec 27, 2015

Just hooked up my l60 front blower and the shoe size is a complete joke. A failure from the engineering to not allow any fore and aft adjustment like a rear blower. Tried clearing my 1 mile roadways today and float is unusable. Just digs into the ground and no way to adjust. The **** hoses were even too short to install. Not real impressed so far.. 9k attachment and now I have to modify it.

sandalwood · Dec 27, 2015

The height adjustment in shoes, mentioned in my previous post, seemed to help with scraping issue.

I haven't used "float", though you should be able to do so. I simply lower it until I notice a slight rise in front wheels (weight transfer of blower to ground).

Hose length for me was OK but shielding for hoses ended near nose of tractor and did not extend to blower (cost savings?). I got the most basic front connect system, which means I have to disconnect hoses near cab to take off blower.

What front hitch did you go with; manual, throw a leaver a hitch or the fully automatic?

grizzjeeper · Dec 27, 2015

Manual hitch. I needed to add 90 degree couplers to get the hoses to make it. I don't have quick connects but will need to get some as I see a need for a blade now. Compared to my replacement Kubota with front mount the shear weight of this thing makes the shoes just dig in. And I mean DIG in . I moved the shoes to middle setting but I am still plowing dirt. Do you have ag tires? Seems like entire unit it pitched a bit forward. Since my road has lots of hills I need to be able to float to follow the contours. I can see if I had a flat parking lot everything would be probably ok. The weight being so far out front of the tractor really seems to be the big factor. Thanks.

sandalwood · Dec 28, 2015

I only have about 200 feet of paved driveway with about a 5% grade. I have turf tires and have the standard weight box on the back to balance out the front blower weight.

lungdoc · Dec 28, 2015

This thread makes me glad I went with the MK Martin hydraulic FEL mounted blower for our L6060 HSTCC as I was strongly considering the Kubota front blower. Allows the curl and other bucket functions. Not sure I have any bright ideas - counterweight, top "link" adjustment and shoes already considered. I do know the guys at Kubota North in Bracebridge ON have run this setup for their own and customer machines and seemed happy with it, might be worth a call/email? Kubota North, Bracebridge, Ontario 705-645-1175

grizzjeeper · Dec 28, 2015

Yes I am thinking I made a terrible mistake with this purchase. I am missing my old POS plow truck this morning. I have gone through 10 shear pins in less than an hour. My roadway is packed gravel and crusher dust. The angle of the blower with no adjustment is a poor design in practice. I think if you were only doing paved roads it would be fine. Gravel or dirt roads forget about it.