Rear pull snowblower

[BlacknTan]

Does anyone have experience with a rear pull snowblower like the Erskine unit with a FEL for deep snow on a B-7800 sized tractor?

 

[MrJimi]

I don't quite understand this?
Your going to pull a snow blower and flatten and compact the snow first with the tires?
Why?
All snow blower machines blow the snow before it gets compacted by the tires.
I must be missing something here.

 

[BlacknTan]

I don't want to turn my head and operate in reverse with a conventional rear mount blower. I will often have iced up scraper bank to deal with from the town plow, so I'd like to keep the FEL mounted. Snow can also get pretty deep. The FEL can knock it down some to let the rear pull do the rest.

http://www.erskineattachments.com/products/snow_blower_rear_pull.html

 

[Woodbeef]

Good idea that has fallen out of favor lately. Probably due to higher snowfall,and more fel equipped tractors. Still a few of the old v-type fan ones around. New single or dual augers are available,but $$$$.

As for the compacting part.........does not really make much difference. The machine will pick it up anyways down to a set height.

 

[herringchoker]

I don't want to turn my head and operate in reverse with a conventional rear mount blower. I will often have iced up scraper bank to deal with from the town plow, so I'd like to keep the FEL mounted. Snow can also get pretty deep. The FEL can knock it down some to let the rear pull do the rest.

http://www.erskineattachments.com/products/snow_blower_rear_pull.html

How deep is deep? If the snow is deep enough (that the FEL must knock it down) for more than just a short distance, then the snow will build up in front of the FEL (or the tractor itself) and you will have to push or dump it off to the side. This to me defeats the purpose of having the blower. Erskine on their web page say that to attack deep drifts, turn around, raise the blower, back into the drift, lower the blower and drive out. Sounds to me like an awful awkward way to go about blowing snow. I've never used or even seen one of these units. It may work well if the snow is not too deep, but I think there would be no advantage to it if the snow is too deep. Again, how deep is deep?

 

[shvl73]

I've seen quite a few south Montreal. Most of the tractors were cab units without a FEL.

 

[rbargeron]

Here is a pic of my rear pull type snow thrower - made in the '70s by Snow Machines, and similar to the Erskine pull type

This rig is really simple - one rotating auger/impeller - no chain drives, no gearboxes. For fluffy snow it can't be beat.

To answer your question about depth, it works best with 8" or less if the snow is sticky. The less sticky - the better it will flow, and greater depths work fine. Compaction is not too much of an issue - the plow edges get under it pretty well. Moving slow, the B7800 with FEL would handle it ok, power and weight-wise.

One place this tool really shines is on long driveways that have been plowed but need to be widened because the banks are getting too big to push back. By driving along with the FEL about 8 or 10" above the ground and about 2 feet into the snowbank, the snow spreads down in front of the tractor and then the blower comes along and launches it.

The Erskine units are a little fancier - with extending side wings.

While we're on the subject of pull-ahead rear-mounts, Pronovost has a combo backward/forward design that is great to watch in action - there's a video at their website.
http://www.pronovost.qc.ca/videoa.html
Their big stuff is pretty serious machinery.

Take care - and have fun. Dick B

 

[rbargeron]

The simple v-plow type in the picture above is like a model Eskine made up untill a couple years ago. I looked at the new Erskine pull-type model (from your link) and it is a different design. It is more like the Pronovost "inverted" style. I think the new Erskine may be a bit heavy for a B-7800 even with the FEL mounted. What width are you considering?

 

[BlacknTan]

Dick,
Thanks for your reply. I was considering the 60" for my usage. BTW, you've got the idea of what I would like to do exactly.

BTW, that's quite a machine you've got!

 

[Stef]

I think the same thing as rbargeron: a rear pull snowblower is built to be heavy. Usually that kind of blower is no less than 1000 lbs. My reference is Pronovost. Their smallest blower weights around 1500 lbs (plus 300 lbs for the back blade) and the minimum width is 86". I looked at Erskine and I think their blowers are too heavy for a B7800. I've seen a lot of blowers like that in my region but they are equipped on M-series tractors (M-110, M105).

I'd go for something smaller.

 

[ccsial]

Rbargeron,

If you get that plugged with wet snow it looks like it would be hard to clean. Have you ever plugged it?

In North Illinois are snows seem te be getting wetter. My rear mount (drive backwards) blower is easy to unplug. Mines a pretty Ford Empire blue too, I bought with my 1910 in the early 80's. Still works great.

 

[rbargeron]

Now that snow season is coming around again, performance of different snowblower designs is coming around too.

My V-plow pull-ahead rig (pictured a few posts above) is starting its new life on a neighbor's Kioti. It has been replaced by a very rugged 84" backup style rear-mount. It works very well in almost all situations. But one detail it's not good at is cleanup in front of garage doors. It always leaves a little pile of snow.

Pronovost makes a rear blade that looks like a bread-box door - it drops down about a foot behind their pull-forward blower and can gather up the leftovers to be dragged away. Neat idea. Actually their PXP model will go either way - and uses the back blade to lift the blower for forward motion. (Video link in above post)

Anybody know of a pull-forward blade on a backup style blower? Seems like it would be perfect for cleanup. Maybe I'll have to make one.

 

[rbargeron]

Well the first prototype is assembled and seems like it will work - I posted over in Attacments including some pictures Now we need some snow

 

[LBrown59]

I don't quite understand this?
Your going to pull a snow blower and flatten and compact the snow first with the tires?
Why?
*All snow blower machines blow the snow before it gets compacted by the tires.
I must be missing something here.

A conventional rear mount blower would be the same thing.
You would have to go with a front mount to prevent tire tracks in the snow.
*Only front mounts and walk behinds do that.

 

[LBrown59]

Good idea that has fallen out of favor lately. Probably due to higher snowfall,and more fel equipped tractors. Still a few of the old v-type fan ones around. New single or dual augers are available,but $$$$.

As for the compacting part.........does not really make much difference. The machine will pick it up anyways down to a set height.

Would be the same compacting deal using a back blade also.

 

[rbargeron]

To be clear, "CONVENTIONAL REAR MOUNT" blowers only work going backward, so there is no compaction issue.
The "inverted" rear-mounted blowers (like Erskine's new model and the Pronovost) work going forward - so there is some compaction. But as Woodbeef says, it doesn't make much difference - the blower either gets under it, or it disappears when the sun comes back out.

 

[LBrown59]

To be clear, "CONVENTIONAL REAR MOUNT" blowers only work going backward, so there is no compaction issue.
The "inverted" rear-mounted blowers (like Erskine's new model and the Pronovost) work going forward - so there is some compaction. But as Woodbeef says, it doesn't make much difference - the blower either gets under it, or it disappears when the sun comes back out.

>>> >>>I didn't know that.
Ya Larn somethin new every day.
No wonder so many folks don't like them or the stiff necks and achy backs.
A stupid statement is almost as good of a learning tool as a dumb question>>>> >>>>

 

[86turbodsl]

I have a V-plow type 7' snowblower I use on my Oliver Super55. It's drive backwards V-type, but it works really well. It's about all I'd want to put on that tractor though, about 2000 lbs. There's beater bars attached on the end of the input shaft in the V that bust up the sticky piles. Someday I'd like to change it to pull forward or mount on the front of the tractor, but for now it works ok. I think I gave $200 for it from the Minneapolis area. Guy even delivered it 400 miles for free. Seems the V-type has fallen out of favor.

 

[Toolguy]

In West Michigan most snowfalls are in the 1" to 4" range. Occasionally we get 6" to 8" and once or twice a year we might get a 10"+ snowfall. Some drifting is normal depending on the lay of the land. For the majority of our snow those pull type snowblowers would be ideal. For the heavy snowfalls the trick is to move it before it gets to 10". Most of the commercial snowplowers are contracted to plow anytime the snow is deeper than 1" so there is usually very little build up unless there is a big storm. I think it all depends on the snow conditions in your area as to what works best.

 

[Rob-D]

I don't think it will work where I live. We get wet snow and storms of 12" too often although some years not so bad. I'm sure this will be a snowless winter I got tired of my walk behind blower on my 600 plus foot driveway and got a front blower!