Finally some updates -
To answer the older questions -The blower is an older Farm King SB60 - I verified the model and PTO speed before I started this project. 540 RPM is what the blower is expecting to get.
The big delay here was having to rebuild the belt tension setup and also added a chain tensioner as I changed the sprocket size to speed up the blower and that changed the chain length. I haven't measured the speed yet, but it should be around 600 or so RPM at the blower while the engine is at full throttle.
So how does it work?
My setup works really well. The downside to my setup is I don't have as much inerita as the factory option and I have to be careful with belts slipping. The plus side is I can lift the entire blower to any height and slowly cut banks back from the top down - only taking 3"-5" per cut. I was able to move about 6"-8" in a single pass yesterday without overloading the belts. The correct drive ratio has made a HUGE difference. I'm really happy with it.
My neighbor let me borrow their setup -exact same tractor with the factory-option snowblower (shaftdriven) and compared it to my own design. Theirs works really well and it's easy to know when you are overloading the blower as the tractor bogs down. The mid-PTO on our tractors run at 1100 RPM (i think) so they have a little more inertia to work with. That being said, I really don't like the lift-limit on the factory option. We get large snowbanks here and it's impossible to cut them back if you can't lift the blower and work top down. The snowblower is also mounted so you lose your loader.
To summarize:
Factory setup -
Pros - Shaft driven - no slippage to worry about. Hydraulic-driven method to change chute direction is really great.
Cons - Initial Cost, limited lift ability, permanently mounted (you take off the loader)
My setup -
Pros - Quick attach, lift height limited to loader height, Initial cost,
Cons - extra fuel cost, possible belt slippage if overloaded,
The factory option costs around $3500 and I have about $1500 into mine.
I'm thinking about converting mine into a hydraulic setup. You'd eliminate belts and still be able to lift the blower..maybe in another thread.