Snow Equipment Buying/Pricing Loader Mount Snowblower - experience??

[slowzuki]

Out of my run I have 4 long driveways. I live in an area with similar snow fall to northern Maine. I have a rear blower on an L5030HSTC kubota, blade or bucket on the front depending on my mood. I run an 84" blower and deep snow I'm limited by hp. In a 6" snowfall I'm in medium range at full throttle. At 12" inches I'm in low range. Given the driveways are 3000+/- feet long, I spend a lot of time lounging around looking out the back window.

Its not too bad, kick the adjustable angle steering back and find a spot of lean. Can always reach the pedal with a toe or heel. After a week or bad storms and drifting snow requiring 3-4 clearings though, by back gets very sore. Half it may be bouncing down the frost heaved road too on my route. I use the front mounted plow when I can. Much faster but I always remove the bank next time as the long driveways are in the open and drift.

 

[haroldy]

i have had snowblower mounted in place of bucket for 15 years now
works great, powered by jack shaft under tractor from pto
only have 18 hp so i little slow but adequate to power 6 foot blower
but sure beats backing up
have to do 3/4 mile lane and several driveways
4w drive is a must for this arrangement
i had to make a reversing unit get shaft direction correct

 

[grsthegreat]

OK.. got to use it for the first time today on 9-10" new snowfall... heres the link

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/snow-removal/226143-we-got-9-10-new.html


bottom line...it worked way better than i thought. as much power as my old PTO model blower. but it blows a 75" wide path per pass :thumbsup:

 

[dlauffenburger]

I have seen some post that discuss a rear mounted snow blower that you pull in forward rather than push in reverse. Does anyone use a pull type blower rear blower? Are there any problems with these type of blowers? I would think that they would be cheaper than a FEL mounted blower and require less looking over your shoulder.

Thanks for any comments.
Dave

 

[SpringHollow]

I am fortunate (when it comes to plowing) that i live on a slope and just plow the snow to the downhill side. I always push it way back and have minimal drifting issues.

The other places i plow have very long driveways but they have trees on both sides. The difficulty there is that the trees are tight to the driveway so I have to make short individual pushing runs in between the trees.

For the end of the driveway, I do like someone mentioned and push back the snow before my driveway. Plus my blade is mounted on my loader so i can make huge piles and can also push them back.

So far, I have not had a problem except once. The largest snow we have gotten in 24 hours was 7 1/2 feet and I only had a tiny tractor with a loader at that time. Raised the bucket all the way up and used that as a small plow. Took 1 1/2 days to dig out.

Ken

 

[grsthegreat]

I am fortunate (when it comes to plowing) that i live on a slope and just plow the snow to the downhill side. I always push it way back and have minimal drifting issues.

The other places i plow have very long driveways but they have trees on both sides. The difficulty there is that the trees are tight to the driveway so I have to make short individual pushing runs in between the trees.

For the end of the driveway, I do like someone mentioned and push back the snow before my driveway. Plus my blade is mounted on my loader so i can make huge piles and can also push them back.

So far, I have not had a problem except once. The largest snow we have gotten in 24 hours was 7 1/2 feet and I only had a tiny tractor with a loader at that time. Raised the bucket all the way up and used that as a small plow. Took 1 1/2 days to dig out.

Ken

7-1/2 feet..... id have moved to florida HA. that would truly suck. We had 3' and that took me 8 hours to clear.

 

[SpringHollow]

If we did not have a walkout basement that was overhung by the house, i do not know what we would have done. Opened the door and there is a wall of snow. Took quite some time just to shovel a path to the barn by just shoveling the top 4' and dumping the snow behind me. The snow was actually deeper than 7 1/2' but that was the height of the bottom of my bucket which was below the height of the snow. The next largets 24 hr snowfall i have had is more like 32 - 36".

Ken

 

[grsthegreat]

just an update. since TBN got rid of their video page, i thought i would re-post my video i made of the only time i have gotten to use the Quick Attach loader mounted blower......

who stole all of our snow

anyways, here it is if anyone cares. this is in about 9-10" of snow.... a little wet snow at that.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIcJsZOY418]Snowblower 2011.mpg Quick Attach Loader mounted snowblower quickattach loadermounted snow blower - YouTube[/ame]

 

[dlauffenburger]

grsthegreat,

Thanks for the video. Your signoff does not list the manufacture of your blower, is it a Kioti as well? I sounds like it bogs your tractor down pretty well, is that normal with the blower or is it because of the snow?

Thanks again,
Dave

 

[grsthegreat]

grsthegreat,

Thanks for the video. Your signoff does not list the manufacture of your blower, is it a Kioti as well? I sounds like it bogs your tractor down pretty well, is that normal with the blower or is it because of the snow?

Thanks again,
Dave

the snow was pretty wet for one thing, and im just getting use to running it. Later in the day i blew out the horse arena and it was doing a much healthier blow. The trick is not to go too fast. I was feeding in too much snow at too fast of a pace. I used to do the same thing to my rear facing snowblower....


i get too anxious.

its a "Quick Attach" brand unit.... exact same as an Erskine unit. Funny thing is both the Erskine and the Quick Attach units appear to be made by the same company.... same employees. I find that odd.

Here in N. Idaho over the past 16 years, most of our snow storms on average dump 6" of dry powder snow at each pass. We average about 120" per season of snowfall. This year is just plain weird.