Snow Snow blowers for the 3320

[Rob-D]

I'm thinking about what snow blower to get when the time comes, probably around fall.

I had the 47" blower on my 2720 and it worked very well over the several years i had it and I like the front blower option a lot but the new 59" front blower is about 5k and I hear it has a plastic impeller, my 47 had steel.

I like the new front 3PH systems and was wondering if anyone knew of a decent front blower to work with it. I can go to a rear blower but I have a 600 foot plus driveway and only one neck! Besides, it seems like going downhill if i go to a rear blower now.

Rob

 

[DrainPondDesign]

Rob,

Our 4 year old JD 59" front blower has a steel impeller and has survived a number of stones and branches that broke the shear bolts. (get extra shear bolts and wrenches)

You might want to go to your JD dealer and see if they have one to look at or have a friendly local customer who will let you look at theirs.

Our 3320 has a JD rear weight box and the smaller R4s (unfilled) that we use front and rear chains on for ice conditions on our steep driveway. There has never been an issue with the width of the blower vs the width of the wheels, the wheels just go through the snow and the blower gets it on the next pass.

Especially for wet snow keep the rpms up or the dischage chute can clog with slush.

The blower has no problem cutting through the heavy snow bank the town plow leaves at the end of the driveway.

The only problems we've had are replacing an auger oil seal ripped by a long wire it wrapped up (my fault) and replacing a broken chute rotation cable.

Hope this answers some of your questions about the blower.

 

[Rob-D]

Rob,

Our 4 year old JD 59" front blower has a steel impeller and has survived a number of stones and branches that broke the shear bolts. (get extra shear bolts and wrenches)

You might want to go to your JD dealer and see if they have one to look at or have a friendly local customer who will let you look at theirs.

Our 3320 has a JD rear weight box and the smaller R4s (unfilled) that we use front and rear chains on for ice conditions on our steep driveway. There has never been an issue with the width of the blower vs the width of the wheels, the wheels just go through the snow and the blower gets it on the next pass.

Especially for wet snow keep the rpms up or the dischage chute can clog with slush.

The blower has no problem cutting through the heavy snow bank the town plow leaves at the end of the driveway.

The only problems we've had are replacing an auger oil seal ripped by a long wire it wrapped up (my fault) and replacing a broken chute rotation cable.

Hope this answers some of your questions about the blower.

Thanks for the help, that was great!
I had the 47 blower on my 2720 and it worked very well also. I was concerned about the plastic impeller, is this a new design on the 59" blower?

As for the cables, I see you live in Owls Head, I'm upstate too and the salt on the roads really rots the cables. I spoke to my dealer about this and he said to grease them heavily as this will help with the cable breaking. (I keep a couple of extras around here and I bought a box of 1/4" bolts for the shear bolts.) They are the same ones Deere uses (grade 5?) but the price is much cheaper, I buy a box of 100, under 10 bucks if I remember.

Rob

 

[DrainPondDesign]

Rob,

As far as I know the 59" blower has always had a steel impeller.

This is the same blower as for the 3370 so I doubt that plastic could ever handle that much power.

Our chute rotation cable just wore through without any sign of corrosion, perhaps it had too much tension.


One thing you may experience is that the blower is so extended beyond the front wheels that it may tend to steer the tractor in the float position. If that happens just raise the blower to put the weight back on the front wheels to correct direction before putting it back down into the float position.


Our JD service tech warned us to use shear bolts no stronger than grade 5 because the auger bevel or worm gear is bronze and will be damaged if grade 8 bolts are used instead.

Despite keeping the driveway free of debris, storms or the town plow always seem to hide something under the snow for the blower to find.

 

[Rob-D]

Now that you mention it I remember the steering problem, my 2720 did it too and I found that if I made sure the tractor was directly behind the blower it wasn't as pronounced.

When I got the 47 blower one of the cables wasn't routed properly and it broke within a few months, the last one broke because it rusted through. The thing is different towns use different mixtures and also here I'm on a town road even though I'm 600+ feet from the road I still get the to dig out from the twon plows. (lucky me!)

Rob

 

[sunnyside360]

I'm thinking about what snow blower to get when the time comes, probably around fall.

I had the 47" blower on my 2720 and it worked very well over the several years i had it and I like the front blower option a lot but the new 59" front blower is about 5k and I hear it has a plastic impeller, my 47 had steel.

I like the new front 3PH systems and was wondering if anyone knew of a decent front blower to work with it. I can go to a rear blower but I have a 600 foot plus driveway and only one neck! Besides, it seems like going downhill if i go to a rear blower now.

Rob

I purchased the 59" snow blower with the 3720 cab tractor 3 yrs ago and it has worked flawlessly for 3 winters moving a lot of snow on over half mile of driveway. Maybe I'm lucky but I haven't snapped a single pin yet. It comes with about half dozen shear pins just like the 47" blower which I also had for 4 or 5 winters. I can't remember exactly how much but a significant portion of the cost is in the front 3 PH as you probably already know. I also got a 72" 7 Iron mmm at the time and got 17.5 % off msrp for the tractor, mower and snow blower. I'm not so sure my dealer would give that much discount if just buying a blower or mower w/o the tractor.

I have never needed chains for this setup probably because of the additional weight of the cab and loaded rear tires.

The impeller on my blower is steel. It's hard to believe the newer ones are plastic for this heavy of an implement.

 

[Rob-D]

Sunnyside,
I don't know what the new blower has but this is what the guys around here are saying. My 47 had steel and like yours was a great blower, I thought it was well enough made. I was never crazy about the shoot hinge and the cables were a little 'iffy' but the machine did the job, and well!

I thought I would try leaving the BH on for rear ballast and see how it goes. I have a weight bucket if it's too back heavy.

Rob