Ready for a snowblower on the 2720

[turbo36]

LOL...apparently you've never seen any other blower. Or are comparing your blower to a Yard Man you saw at WalMart...The Kubota front mount (Built by RAD) is a SOOOO much better built blower. Regardless of direction of travel, put the Deere blower next to a Pronovost or RAD built blower and report back...using an unbiased eye....
As for the FINEST Snow Removal Tool... Talk to Karl2...he's an owner of the finest snow removal tool.

From a real basic un-argueable point.... in my case (3x20 series w/R4's) putting a 59" Blower on a tractor that is 60" wide is a joke.

Over & Out.

No question that the 3000 seriers could use a wider blower, but the 59" works pretty good right now. This weekend I got up to the cottage and used my 3720 Cab to blow out the 500' drive with 6" of hard pack snow in it. I played around with the speed to see how fast I could go before the engine would work too hard and pull the RPM's down, I could pretty much run about 4.5mph unless I hit a drift.

 

[xkbal]

Spud, you are deluding yourself, big time. The front mount JD blower is the finest snow removal tool you can currently buy for that tractor. Period.

I don't know if there is a better blower or not but I'm not impressed with the 59". I have one and have had discussions with the dealer about the lack of shear bolt protection on the impeller. I've already destroyed 2 of the cast impeller attaching mounts.

To answer the OP's question. I've looked at the plastic impeller on a 54" snowblower that was in the dealers for service. It was already quite badly chewed up after less than a full season of use. The dealer was in the process of putting the steel impeller (from the 47" blower I think) on it.

I think both of these design flaws show that JD has designed light snowblowers for limited use on short, paved driveways.

 

[svxpac]

I am following this disussion for all of the same reasons everyone else is; trying to weigh the pros of keeping the FEL on vs having to look backwards to blow snow. ( I believe my 59 yr-old neck has already voted on this one! ) The Frontier SB11 series certainly looks more robust than the yellow ones with plastic impellers. Wouldn't it be nice if we had a Quick-tach or iMatch 3-pt setup for the front and utilize the mid PTO for standard 3-pt blowers? Is anyone aware? ...is there such an animal?
Larry in North Dakota

 

[orlo]

My .02

I have a 2305 with a 47" blower (since 2005), just traded in a 2.5 year old 3720 with the 59" Front blower. Both do a respectable job. The 2305 is very noisy but works well. I had the impeller ride up once. Decent downforce, not much lift height. Throws snow like a champ. My impeller is steel.

The 59" was quiet and worked great. Lifted very high. High enough to bend the adjustment pin on the mini top link. Decently rugged, probably weighed 350-450lbs without the A-Frame. Was about 5K in stuff when I got it, I think around 6K now if you buy it all now(blower, A-frame, front PTO kit).

I just got a 4720 (traded the 3720). Thought about the 76" Front loader mount with the rear power pack (Basically a skid steer blower with JD mounts). Pretty rugged (Saw one), weighs about 850lbs, I don't know if that included the rear pto hydraulic pump.

Downs: $9,200 retail :O). Can't put anything on the rear. Did I mention $9200? I could
almost mount a used 2305 with a blower on the front for that much $$$

Although I did think about it I ended up getting an 84" Frontier single screw unit. I'm not sure if retail was $3500 or that's what they charged me but it's substantially cheaper than the loader mount and just by weight (it's about 1100lbs) and impeller diameter alone it's a lot more rugged than my old 59 and more rugged than the pretty rugged 76" SS.

We haven't got enough snow to do it justice but I've 'played' with it. Yes, I'll miss driving forward - How much I'll tell you after using it for a while a couple of times times, but I don't think I'll miss it $5700 more (Actually the dealer would have let me have it for $4200 more than the 84")

Ups: I still have the loader, I can drop it in a heartbeat (in fairness I could have dropped the loader mount in a second also).

Anyway, I'm getting long winded. One last point. Lot's is made of the blower being wider
than the tires. I ran 6" extenders on each side of my 3720 with R3's so i was running 66" wide in the narrow position with r3's. Did it ever bother me being 7" wider than the blower - in 2 winters - No. If there was ICE I would ride up but I wouldn't blow ice anyway so I didn't care. I would usually just pack the snow under the tires. Then I could do a final pass on the edge if that 1 or 2" of compressed snow bothered me. Do I prefer it wider - Yes (Now I'm running an 84" blower on the 4720 with the tires at 74" (narrow).

Anyway, in my opinion here is my summary:
Convenience: Front mount wins
Comfort: Front mount wins
Versatility: Rear mount wins (loader mount the exception)
Ruggedness: Rear mount wins
Resale: Rear mount wins (more of a market to sell it to)

There are also rear pto mechanical front mounts that have a sub-frame that go under
the tractor but those are around 8-9K also.

 

[svxpac]

Thanks Orlo. Do you have a name or online resource for a 3-pt front mount that I could research??
Thanks,
Larry

 

[orlo]

Most of these are for large tractors but here is a few. I forget what brand my dealer
carried. I don't think it was the lorenze but I can't remember. I'll post it if I can remember it.

Front Mount Kits

Here is another loader mount like the Deere one.

Beaver Valley Supply Company - Schulte Snow Blowers

Erskine (and others) also make 3pt rear mount front pull types but you need to run over
the snow first.

Myself I didn't really consider the rear pto front mount due to the cost, losing the loader, and storing the thing when it was off the tractor.

 

[Spudland_Dave]

MK Martin Meteor

 

[wingsaircharter]

I have used a 47 JD blower on my 2520 for 3 years. It works great. I can blow the snow all the way into my neighbors yard. 100% satisfied with it. The little bit narrower is no big deal. Works good on sidewalks and I keep a 5' box blade on it if I need to go fast on a light snow.

 

[MGB2720]

I have done some searching but have came up with no opinions on a front mounted snowblower for our 2720. Is the JD 54" a good snowblower? Can anyone give us any advice for getting a front snowblower?
We just want some insurance in case we ever get another big snow storm. The bucket just wasn't enough to keep the driveway cleared this storm!
Thanks for any help.
Snowstorm II February 9-10, 2010 - a set on Flickr

New member here... First post...

I am told by my local John Deere dealer that the 59" Deere front mount blower can be mounted on a 2720 using stock Deere parts... Not sure if you had considered that one or not.

 

[labsrus]

I will have to see what our dealer has to say about the 59" - even though it is hard to trust anything they say.
Thanks for all the replies and it sure is alot of different opinons- which is good.