snow blower conversion

[garydc]

has anyone ever converted their 3 pt hitch snowblower to a front mount on their compact tractor?

 

[escavader]

CERTAINLY WOULD BE NICE,but would probably cost more than its worth.Consider youd have to make a frame to mount it to,hydraulics to be able to pick it up.adapt the drive lines etc.This is why the front ones are more money.Im pondering between a 54 rear one for 1600 or a similar sized front for 2600.leaning towards the front.Alot of folks here[with front ptos] buy the rears only to sell them and get a front one.Then again alot of us want to keep our loaders on,so the rear ones are popular.my2cents
ALAN

 

[amkfken]

I am trying something--I have mounted a Toro 11-32 snowblower in/on the FEL on my M-F 2300. Drilled 2 holes in the snoblower handles, 4 holes in the bottom of the bucket--now need snow to try out. If it works will post pics.

Sure makes for a LOONG unit, I know the blower will handle anything I can throw at it, just too much for a 70+ yr old to use on my 3 gravelled drives at 9800ft!

If it doesn' work, did not cost anything, nothing done to either unit to prevent restoring back to 2 seperate units!

 

[Ductape]

garydc, it certainly has been done, and posted here in the past. Though its been a couple years since i recall seeing threads on this matter. That escavader guy is right though...... with the cost of steel today, if a front mount is available for your tractor.... it would probably be cheaper. Even if you already posess a rear blower. By the time you build a chain drive off your rear PTO (both left, and right turning shafts have been done, depending on which way you need your particular blower to turn), additional shafts, pillow blocks,universal joints, subframe to run the driveline on, and lift mechanism... a front mount made for you tractor would surely be cheaper to buy. And.... if you had planned on running it off a mid, or even a front mount PTO, you will need to slow down the blower by a third or so...... since both run at engine speed, and the rear blower is designed to run @ 540. Look at most of the older (and maybe the newer) front blowers on John Deeres, and you will see the driveling going through a gearbox to accomplish this. Good luck should you decide to tackle this project...... and take lots of pics for us !!

P.S. Doing a few searches here may yield a couple of the old threads on this.

 

[mjncad]

If anyone knows snow, it will be amkfken up there in Jefferson! Let us know how it works for you.

 

[SkunkWerX]

I am trying something--I have mounted a Toro 11-32 snowblower in/on the FEL on my M-F 2300. Drilled 2 holes in the snoblower handles, 4 holes in the bottom of the bucket--now need snow to try out. If it works will post pics.

Sure makes for a LOONG unit, I know the blower will handle anything I can throw at it, just too much for a 70+ yr old to use on my 3 gravelled drives at 9800ft!

If it doesn' work, did not cost anything, nothing done to either unit to prevent restoring back to 2 seperate units!

amkfen,

Great concept with the loader mounted blower.
Is it hydraulic drive? What turns it?

Oh, or is it a regular gas walk-behind mounted on your FEL?

 

[amkfken]

Am using the 11hp Briggs engine, have never stalled it yet, as I said no modifications to the snoblower, just have 2 engines to start!!--Still no snow!

 

[skidsteer.ca]

Post us some pictures when you get a chance. 11 hp sounds a little small but I guess it all depends on your snow.
How wide is the blower?
I have been thing about the same thing for my 553 Bobcat. I think the pump is to small to drive it hydraulically and I have a 4' jd garden tractor blower and a 15 hp engine laying around.

Of course if your ever interested in a front mount pto drive, I'd like to help with that too.

Ken

 

[amkfken]

The Blower is 32" wide, I put some wings (bolted on to the blower) to widen it out to 48" to match the bucket width. Never been able to stall the blower with the stock 11hp engine regardless of the depth of the snow even exceeding the depth capacity of the blower, just tunnel thru!

This is normal Rocky Mountain powder including drifts of super hard pack--will give it a try--if it ever snows!

 

[excelagator]

has anyone ever converted their 3 pt hitch snowblower to a front mount on their compact tractor?

Would be cool, but like everyone said the cost of fabing it. I looked high and low for a good used 3pt blower for my JD2310. They tend to run them in the ground here. The front blower was 3K. I found a used case 446 with a 48" snowblower and called it quits!

 

[PILOON]

I had a front mount and opted to convert to rear as I could retain loader function.
Also my rear low gear was more suitable to blowing than my front low speed.
In my opinion front blowers need two critical things.
Double clutch (whereby the blower is always spinning) while the drive is 'clutched out' otherwise you are constantly shifting to neutral and re-engaging blower to unload it.
OR
hydrostatic drive so that you 'creap' when the snow is deep or heavy

All that being said; anybody want a cheap kit for front mounting your blower?
I'll swap for a repairable bush hog!
The kit was for a BERVAC 60" blower and is universal.

 

[john_bud]

I have never done this, but it would seem that you can get a QA plate for about $100 and mount the blower to it. Buy a PTO pump and fab a rear 3pt mount for it and it's reservour (~5 minimum, 10 would be better) then mount a hydraulic motor to the blower PTO and run hoses up to the front. I'd use 1/2 for pressure and 3/4 for return to minimize losses.

Costs would be about
100 for QA plate
400 for pto pump
100 for reservour
400 for hyd motor
200 for hoses
Figure 20% for overruns

Looks like 1400 bucks to convert to FEL mounted hydraulicly operated front blower. Not cheap, but more user friendly than a hard mounted one. If you have a 3rd function FEL valve, adding hydraulic chut angle would be a snap.

Just a thought ....

jb

 

[SkunkWerX]

Costs would be about
100 for QA plate
400 for pto pump
100 for reservour
400 for hyd motor
200 for hoses

The look on your friend's faces = Priceless!

 

[skidsteer.ca]

The skidsteer models we sell run on as little as 11 gpm and 2000 psi and on up from there. Most skids in the last 10 years have 15 to 20 gpm and 2500 to 3000 psi which is better.
Certainly is no reason why a rear pto pump could not be set up to run one. The only other thing you may require is a hydraulic cooler. Monitoring the oil temp during the first few uses would be prudent. Then add a cooler if needed.

If I figured it right 16.9 gpm and 3000 psi on my 773 gives me 27 hp to the 73inch blower. It works great.
I could never figure out why tractors have such small hyd pumps. Really is a shame, hyd drive brush cutting is often a better way to go too. Much easier on gear box parts.
Ken

 

[diyDave]

I mounted an old 4' 3ph pto unit on an Asv Rc30, and used the machine's remote ports to power it. What you need to do is know what your tractor's hyd system pressure (PSI) and flow rate(GPM). Then go to surpluscenter.com, and see if they have a motor that will turn @ 540 rpm at the pressure and flow rate that you have.(They have all of the formulas that you will need to do the math) They also have good tech support and their prices are pretty good too!

 

[amkfken]

Replying to my post #3 in this thread--mounting a walk behind blower to the FEL does work --sort of!
Makes the whole assembly too long to control and becomes a pain in the A** to operate on a crooked gravel drive, would work on a paved drive.
Spent 10 minutes taking it off, went back to using the FEL as before. Oh Well, no $ spent, just time!

 

[Kendrick]

I have a rear blower and would have to say probably the best setup is a standard plow blade on a qa mount so that you can quickly pile up the spill and low quantity. then turn around and blow the piles to their destination. I get 3-5 mph on my blower from this last round of snow. we have about 1500 feet of drive. half is shared that was cleared for me. it took 1.5-2 hrs to clear that with 18" of snow. a good ammount was tripple passes on my parking due to overflow and the fact I have to back drag the length of the tractor to clear the front out. I would have been able to cut that by about half or more if i had a plow blade on the front that was 80" or so. blower is @ 74 and just a hare to small. I am considering making a reversable plow blade using hydrolics to curl it from forward to back position. If i get really fancy may even get side tilt included.