PTO Blower making my life miserable!

DMW · Dec 3, 2018

torch2k has decided to look at other options. I feel it is my duty as a TBNer to spend his money wisely. Front mount blower built for the tractor is always a great choice. Less neck and back strain over the years, but come with a heavy price tag. Research the model before making a choice,there are some good and bad front blowers made by Cub/Yanmar. A rear blower up to 54" would be optimal, 60" only if found used at a decent price. 350-450 pound range. Shoes will limit the cutting edge's contact the asphalt, less scratching. Something to look for. Anything else?

Just a reference for price range:

Reb954 · Dec 3, 2018

In the second video in post 58, right at the end, watch how much the lower arms are moving where they pin to the blower.

Are you sure you have the right pins, if yes then you probably need bushings between the pins and lower arm ends. It makes me wonder if you have a Cat 1 blower but Cat 2 lower arms ends. Or maybe it is Cat 0 and Cat 1. I'm not sure on that tractor.

I had a similar situation with my tractor and blower. The blower was setup for both Cat 1 & 2 but the tractor was setup for Cat 2 diameter wise but the arms wouldn't go wide enough due to hitting the tires to fit into the Cat 2 position on the blower. My solution was to make new pins that were Cat 2 diameter all way through the Cat 2 & 1 snow blower slots, then step them down to fit through the Cat 1 inner plates on the blower. Hopefully that makes sense. The only bushings I use is to control the side to side movement within the blower attachment points.

Doing this gave me a lot better control of the blower due to removing the slop in the attachment points. You probably have a similar problem with the top link, I know mine did but I just made a pin to fix it.

It appears you just have too much slop in the attachment points to have much control over the blower.

CobyRupert · Dec 3, 2018

Is this a Cat I blower on a Cat O 3 pth?

I agree with others:
-Lengthen the top link so that blower "attack angle" is more aggressive and blower doesn't ride up. This will solve problem #1.

However this will make problem #2 worse, which is not being able to raise the blower much. This is because tractor and it's lift arms are too low.

You may need a better cutting edge on blower.

Reb954 · Dec 3, 2018

CobyRupert said:
Is this a Cat I blower on a Cat O 3 pth?

It is the other way around. I just looked up his tractor, tractordata shows it has a Cat 1 3 pt. I can't find the blower but looking at the pictures it appears it is Cat 0. That will give him roughly 1/4" of movement on the bottom and top pins. He may be able to adjust to minimize one problem but other problems will still be there. The first solution is to use bushings on all three pins, then adjust the blower angle.

SkunkWerX · Dec 5, 2018

I'm late to the discussion and only have 2 thoughts after reading this entire thread.

1. I had a BX with an old 52" Meteor blower, both Cat 1, worked fine, always left the Top Link adjusted for a pretty much level blower. The Metoer has similar skids & cutting edge to the OPs blower.
So it was a SCUT with a Cat 1 blower, used on pavement. Whether it was wet and slushy or deep blizzard conditions it never rode up. The BX had the Kubota "inching" valve on the 3PH, which I would place all the way down so that the full blower weight was on the ground.

2. It would be very interesting to see what the OPs blower would do on another tractor. If there were a friend or neighbor with a Cat 1 compact tractor, that would be worth a try to see if the problem continues, (pointing at the blower), or the problem goes away (pointing at the OPs specific combination).

Lastly, I would give a call to the snowblower company, explain what's happening. They likely have heard of this before.

Good luck, getting it to work correctly, or with a new set up.

leonz · Dec 5, 2018

After seeing these videos I would definitely add a quick hitch for more weight and more reach.

Farmer495 · Dec 10, 2018

torch2k said:
For your viewing pleasure I made a couple of videos this afternoon for you to take a look at. Sorry for all the slo-mo, I don't know how to get rid of it now that it's recorded.

Video 1
- Showing you the full range of the 3PH lever. At the end I am showing you level 3 of 6 on the lever, so I'm about half-way up before the blower gets picked up and becomes level I guess.

Video 2
- Reversing down a fairly clean driveway slowly
- first bit of action is at approx 26sec.
- slow-mo highlights what is happening at the connections when it comes across the first bit of snow (well, hard icy-snow today actually)
- Obviously it's going to jump up when it hits a bump, I realize that -- i just did the video to show what is going on back there

I watched the videos, looks like when the blower gets to go down all the way, it tips towards the tractor slightly, the "cutting" edge you have is bent up a bit, and when the blower tips back at acts as a ramp and climbs the snow.

I had an old 78" with the style of wore out edge and found I had to have the top link "longer" (not too long) to make sure they blower stayed the right angle when I dropped the hitch all the way.

I now have a much heavier new 78" with a nice sharp cutting edge and it will still climb, especially in the slush, the last snow fall I had was likely same as yours (slushy and heavy)

PILOON · Dec 10, 2018

If U lengthen the top link you will cut down more.
If that does not 'cut it' perhaps replacing the cutting edge on the blower will help (might be worn out)
My blower was always leaving a small pile of snow and in frustration I replaced the bolted on cutting edge and that cured the 'left behind' small piles of snow.
Most blower cutting edges are no more than standard flat stock.
I, when replacing, used 1/4 flat rather than the thin 'tin like' that the blower came with. Cheap cure.

torch2k · Dec 30, 2018

Hi all, I lost track of this thread for a few weeks but wanted to update you on my situation.

I ended up spending some money. My first stop was to a local Pronovost/Normand dealer and I was literally turned away because they were only willing to sell me a blower if it was attached to a tractor, regardless of the fact that they had inventory sitting around. I couldn't believe it. Apparently they have a hard time selling tractors in the winter if it doesn't come with a blower, so I guess business must be good if they can tell a customer with cash-in-hand to go take a hike.

Next stop was John Deere, they have a big local presence here and lots of stock, and happy to help. I ended up purchasing a new Frontier SB1154 (sold as a JD unit). I spent about an extra $1k (Canadian funds) to get the hydraulic model and purchased/installed my own plumbing for the rear end.

This blower is a little lighter than the other unit and is 6" narrower. When you look at it side by side is doesn't look a whole lot smaller, but the chute and auger are still quite substantial. It's working really well. No riding up on the snow whatsoever. And of course, the hydraulics are making it a pretty fun toy to play with.

My conclusion out of all this is that the old blower was intended for a taller tractor. While the hitch pins were are sized correctly (believe it or not), the lower arm height on my tractor was allowing the blower to lean back. No amount of adjustment on the upper arm was able to fix it for me - It would have taken so much length on top that it would barley allow me to pick the blower up off the ground when raising the rear end, and that was a no-go in my yard.

The Frontier blower has multiple mounting points for the rear arms and proper skids, so that may also have been something that is helping on this model.

The new color scheme makes it look a little funny, but I'm definitely happy with the performance now.