Snow Newby intro and a snowblower retrofit question

[Jonohio]

Hi folks,

I've always wanted a tractor of my own and I finally decided to jump in and buy a SCUT - the 84 month free financing and 0 down pushed me over the line with MF - I looked at Kubota, Kioti, and Mahindra as well but for a number of reasons the MF stayed top of mind.

My family always thought i'd own a construction company since I drove farm tractors before I rode a bike and had JD410 rear hydraulics apart and overhauled before I could drive, but alas I became an IT consultant. Nonetheless this moment has been in the back of my mind for 18+ years now.

In general I've never bought anything new in my life and this tractor costs more than most cars I have purchased - I'm a long time wrencher and DIY'r and I'm super excited to be expecting delivery of my shiny new 1710 with the 2326 mower, and 10" BH bucket tomorrow. The wife test drove it last weekend and I got the :thumbsup: from her...woohooo.

Currently and over the last 8 years I have an used an RZT50 for the lawn and a craftsman gt6000 18hp lawn tractor with the agri-fab universal 48" two stage blower for snow removal. Both have worked pretty well but the RZT slips on my hilly yard with even the slightest dampness- andd it's nearly impossible to let my 2 year old son ride with daddy (which I think will be solved by the 4wd 1710). Not to mention that I hate having two tractors in my garage all year round.

So, i've got this agrifab 48" blower that works quite well and i got new for a great price - i'd like to try and retrofit it for the GC1710. I have read many posts about adapting plows and other items to a tractor so I figured this shouldn't be any different - perhaps more complicated though.

Questions:
-- Has anyone tried to retrofit a non MF or Kubota snowblower to the front of their GC?
-- I believe I need the front sub-frame mount for the blower - does anyone know if this mount includes the hydraulic lifting mechanism - or is that mechanism of the snowblower?

For fun i've attached some pictures of the what my current blower looks like vs the 2360 as well as some tractor pictures I took at the dealer - she looks too clean....

 

[Fiziksgeek]

The front blowers for the Kubota Bx line hooks up without modification. The Kubota and Massey blower are made by the same manufacturer, Rad Tech up in Canada. The only difference is the MID PTO speed, Massey is rated for 2000 rpm and Kubota 2500 rpm. There is a corresponding gear difference in the blowers to compensate.

I think the agrifab blowers made for riding mowers are belt driven..the hard part is finding a way to adapt the belt drive to take power form the PTO....adapting a plow is much easier....


To answer your two specific questions:
1. Not me...
2.The hydraulic lift cylinder is on the quick hitch, see the last picture you posted, lift cylinder is on the left with the tractor.

 

[Jonohio]

Thanks Fiziksgeek, I guess I should have looked over that last picture more carefully. As to adapting the agrifab belt driven blower to pro driven, it looks like I could buy the adapter gear parts from MF or kubota and possibly retrofit the drive with those.

Looking at the rear of the one i have it looks like the belt drive and lift system are bolted onto the blower and can be removed, then it would look similar to the rad tech model. I'll need to spend some time looking at things as I analyze how to do this.

 

[DMW]

Take a really good look and compare the construction of the blowers. Is the old blower made sturdy enough to survive the front of the GC. Looks like a lot of stamped/bolted parts on the agri-fab blower.

 

[irvingj]

Ditto what DMW said. I think you'd be far better off to go with the M-F PTO-powered factory blower rather than try to retrofit your Agri-Fab. I bet it would be a real hassle to adapt yours, and I'd also bet that the result would be less capable than the factory version, especially in the long run.

Yeah, I know, they want two arms and a leg for the M-F blower, but I still think you'd be better off to go that route. Tough choice to be sure, but I'd think long & hard about it. Any chance you could sell your existing blower?

 

[Jonohio]

Take a really good look and compare the construction of the blowers. Is the old blower made sturdy enough to survive the front of the GC. Looks like a lot of stamped/bolted parts on the agri-fab blower.

So this blower has worked flawlessly for 5 years on my sears tractor clearing my driveway and at least 4 other neighbors' driveways - it throws about 35 feet, is barely rusted, and weighs about 175lbs. I don't understand why it wouldn't be sturdy enough to survive the front of the GC? It's the same operating environment, speeds, and operator - just a different power plant. Can you explain what makes the GC beat on attachments vs my current tractor?

It may be stamped and not as high of quality as the $3500 blower setup but regardless it's enough quality for my needs - I'm going to investigate this mod. I'll keep the forum updated.

 

[Clipse3GT]

So this blower has worked flawlessly for 5 years on my sears tractor clearing my driveway and at least 4 other neighbors' driveways - it throws about 35 feet, is barely rusted, and weighs about 175lbs. I don't understand why it wouldn't be sturdy enough to survive the front of the GC? It's the same operating environment, speeds, and operator - just a different power plant. Can you explain what makes the GC beat on attachments vs my current tractor?

It may be stamped and not as high of quality as the $3500 blower setup but regardless it's enough quality for my needs - I'm going to investigate this mod. I'll keep the forum updated.

I think you would work. It in the end it comes down to is how much is your time and sanity worth. Again you are going to try to make parts that are not designed to work together operate as one unit. You can run run the mid pto shaft to a pulley / gear system which would reduce the PTO speed to whatever speed the manufactures recommends to run the augers on snowblower as well as need to make and design a front hitch/subframe that would bolt up to the GC. I think in the end. Sure you can make anything work with enough time and money. But I think putting the MTD/Agrifab blower on craigslist or forum for sale is the way to go. Gain whatever money you can on the blower and put it towards the new blower. If you plan to keep the GC for a long time or at least 84 months. I think going with the MF blower is the way to go. Also, nothing worse than going out to see 12" of snow here by us in the snowbelt and go to realize that your blower is not working or something broke and needs to be custom made to get it back to operating condition.

 

[Fiziksgeek]

$1000 of the $3500 cost of the MF blower is the quick hitch with hydraulic lift and the mid-front PTO kit. So at the end of the day, the blower itself is ~$2500, not all that much more expensive than those Agrifab blowers.

I have almost no fabrication skills, and therefor can't help, but again, the challenge is going from the PTO drive on the tractor to the belt drive on the blower, and matching the designed input speed. But, guys on here do all sorts of creative things....

 

[aczlan]

If you can find out the target RPM for the pulley, you might be able to take it off and direct drive it with a PTO shaft.

Aaron Z

 

[Dutch445]

If you can find out the target RPM for the pulley, you might be able to take it off and direct drive it with a PTO shaft.

Aaron Z

also need to confirm rotation, would suck to get it all together and have it spin backwards!

 

[Jonohio]

also need to confirm rotation, would suck to get it all together and have it spin backwards!

Great reminder! I'll take a look at that this week. Thanks!

 

[irvingj]

Very good point about the shaft rotation; was going to mention it but forgot.

The M-F set-up is designed, as observed from the driver's seat, to rotate counterclockwise, or CCWSE (counterclockwise, shaft end) on the blower. Hope you can make it work!

 

[AxleHub]

Hi folks,
.

Jonohio,

I'd like to suggest an alternative to your idea. I know what its like to plan a mechanical project. Its hard work but its also creative and very mechanical . . and I like to "try" to cost justify it too.

I also know what its like when someone else "rains on your parade" and says it won't work or shouldn't be done.

What I'll do instead us tell you what I did. This year I pulled the "buy" button on Massey GC1715. Like you I have hills to cut and love mechanical things and lots of outdoor projects and snow issues.

But not only did I buy a GC1715 . . . but I bought a very lightly used zero turn tractor (not a ztr). Then I bought on a deal a brand new snowbliwer for that unit.

Why . . because I want my massey fel on in winter for snow purposes and for slush/light snows that don't benefit from blowers.

Then I bought a snowedge unit that clamps on the bucket.

Why . . because the ztt and new snowblower and new snow edge are considerably less money than a snowblower for the massey . . and I have the benefit of more capabilities . . . and I have backup equipment for all seasons too.

True . . I have 2 machines to store . . but one of them the wife can use if I'm out of town too.

In your case you already have a snowblowet that works . . and eithet fits on your Craftsman or other lawn tractors. Snowblow without modifiying this winter . . . Bucket on massey for other winter/snow needs . . and reconsider the priject when its not already snow season.

Who knows . . maybe you'll decide as I did

 

[Jonohio]

Thank you for the insights AxleHub. I just checked agri-fab blower and i'm afraid it turns in the opposite direction of the Massey, so for the moment I've decided to sell the RZT and keep the old blower setup. I'll run this winter with the front end loader and existing snowblower and see how it goes.

Our first snow last week was 5 inches heavy with about an inch of slush on the bottom, the snow edge sure worked well. It's definitely going to take me some time to get used to using the loader for snow removal. I noticed right away that it's nearly impossible to replicate the clean lines of the blower with the FEL, so I gave up and let function lead over cosmetics and celebrated the first 10 hours with a beer :drink:

 

[AxleHub]

Thank you for the insights AxleHub. I just checked agri-fab blower and i'm afraid it turns in the opposite direction of the Massey, so for the moment I've decided to sell the RZT and keep the old blower setup. I'll run this winter with the front end loader and existing snowblower and see how it goes.

Our first snow last week was 5 inches heavy with about an inch of slush on the bottom, the snow edge sure worked well. It's definitely going to take me some time to get used to using the loader for snow removal. I noticed right away that it's nearly impossible to replicate the clean lines of the blower with the FEL, so I gave up and let function lead over cosmetics and celebrated the first 10 hours with a beer :drink:

Jonohio,

I think your showing some good thinking. Sometimes getting a new tool . . You have to eeeeeeeeease into it

Incidently . . the snow edge I referred to is made by RatchetRake.com. My original intention was to build a plow capability that would attach to my GC1715 fel so I could take it on and off (my fel has a quick attach I bought . . allowing bucket to detach and attach very quickly).

I'd done alot of initial planning but ran out of time because I was developing a rear implement for both ballast and trailer moving. I then discovered the snow edge product. I just finished repainting it to Massey Red in time for a 3/4 inch snowfall so I could do a practice run using the snow edge in tight and tricky areas.

I'm imagining a guy so mechanically ficused since youth will come up with lots of ideas . . . the trick is getting a couple of them completed before working on 6 others lol.

 

[Jonohio]

Hey guys, i've given up on the retrofit idea for my old snowblower.

Onto another venture - I found a Kubota BX2660 blower locally for sale and wondered if it would easily fit my GC1710.

Any thoughts?

- Jonathon

 

[Clipse3GT]

Hey guys, i've given up on the retrofit idea for my old snowblower.

Onto another venture - I found a Kubota BX2660 blower locally for sale and wondered if it would easily fit my GC1710.

Any thoughts?

- Jonathon

See it in person and see how it connects compared to the 1700 subframe.

 

[Fiziksgeek]

I believe the front blower off a Kubota BX will be a direct fit for a Massey GC series tractor. They are both made by the same manufacturer, RAD Tech up in Canada. The differences are paint color and PTO speed. Kubota uses a 2500 rpm mid PTO, Massey is 2000. So although it will fit, you'll be running it slower than designed. I don't think this is necessarily a problem. You won't be able to get full performance, but you may not need it. I just used my GC1720 with front blower for the first time, and I didn't need to run a full RPM at all to power through 10" of snow, I was very impressed.

I have seen at least one thread with an orange Kubota blower on a Massey GC, you might be able to find that thread using the search function.

Hey guys, i've given up on the retrofit idea for my old snowblower.

Onto another venture - I found a Kubota BX2660 blower locally for sale and wondered if it would easily fit my GC1710.

Any thoughts?

- Jonathon

 

[AxleHub]

Fiziksgeek,

Haven't seen you post much since the new unit arrived. Looks like you had at least one nice snow. How is the fit and feel ofbthe new unit dith blower? Did youbget any of the big east coast snow s?

 

[aczlan]

I believe the front blower off a Kubota BX will be a direct fit for a Massey GC series tractor. They are both made by the same manufacturer, RAD Tech up in Canada. The differences are paint color and PTO speed. Kubota uses a 2500 rpm mid PTO, Massey is 2000. So although it will fit, you'll be running it slower than designed. I don't think this is necessarily a problem. You won't be able to get full performance, but you may not need it. I just used my GC1720 with front blower for the first time, and I didn't need to run a full RPM at all to power through 10" of snow, I was very impressed.

I have seen at least one thread with an orange Kubota blower on a Massey GC, you might be able to find that thread using the search function.

IIRC (from looking at the Deere and NH models made by RAD and comparing them to Kubota ones), the only differences will be the tractor side mounting frame and the PTO shaft.

Aaron Z