Snow Attachments Snow Removal

[ChuckinNH]

"Also with a rear blower you can see the blower corners for accurate in close work."

That is true, but I've found it is still best to feed my blower before taking it out to use. Othewise it sometimes tries to eat siding, etc. It can eat telephone poles too, but can't digest them worth a crap. That auger does stick out past the top edge that you can see so clearly.....

 

[DavidVT]

My story was to get started with just the FEL and rear scraper blade. The plan was to move to a blower eventually. After a time and with much reading at this website, I moved up to a home made FEL mounted fisher plow with full hydraulics.

While I would like a blower for those times when I would like to clear the snow piles, I simply can't justify the cost. The FEL mounted truck plow can make some impressive sized piles of snow because you can lift the entire plow as you push it up a pile. I move those big snow piles with the FEL rather than a blower. It just takes longer.

Good luck in your quest. I second the idea to search this website and read the unlimited number of posts on snow removal, along with wonderful home made solutions contributed by many members!

 

[daveinnh]

We just use a 7' rear blade behind a Kubota L4310. As others have posted - get the front snowblower if cost is no object.

Our tractor has a Curtis cab - rear glass option, plastic (removable) doors, HW heater, 12V lights on cab, and I added fan behind the seat (keeps glass from fogging and black-flies off your head this time of year). It's not as nice as a factory cab, but works nice for our use.

Maybe in the future, I'd be interested in a rear-pull PTO snowblower.

 

[JDGreenGrass]

We just use a 7' rear blade behind a Kubota L4310. As others have posted - get the front snowblower if cost is no object.

Our tractor has a Curtis cab - rear glass option, plastic (removable) doors, HW heater, 12V lights on cab, and I added fan behind the seat (keeps glass from fogging and black-flies off your head this time of year). It's not as nice as a factory cab, but works nice for our use.

Maybe in the future, I'd be interested in a rear-pull PTO snowblower.

I too thought the rear blade would be a big help in clearing snow but, I found I don't like it...much. It windrows the snow off to the sides. Doesn't remove much snow. I do like the rear blade for finishing. Leaves a nice clean flat surface.

I feel I do better clearing snow with the bucket alone....whch is also slow going.

I want a snowblower off the back but, I wonder how it will perform because I have a gear drive manual transmission with only a high and low range in reverse. In other words, I've got 2 speeds...that could also be slow going.

 

[PILOON]

I too thought the rear blade would be a big help in clearing snow but, I found I don't like it...much. It windrows the snow off to the sides. Doesn't remove much snow. I do like the rear blade for finishing. Leaves a nice clean flat surface.

I feel I do better clearing snow with the bucket alone....whch is also slow going.

I want a snow blower off the back but, I wonder how it will perform because I have a gear drive manual transmission with only a high and low range in reverse. In other words, I've got 2 speeds...that could also be slow going.

.
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And you'll find that they are either too fast or too slow!

My answer to that problem was to mount a one way plow up front in order to gather the lesser accumulations into a neat 'one pass' blower exercise.

And with bigger dumpings, simply take 1/2 a blower bite, or as much as the blower can handle without affecting RPM's

 

[pitt_md]

Every year I run out of room to plow the snow. As soon as the banks of snow get high enough we have a big storm and I end up spending a long time using the loader to pile the snow even higher. This past winter was the deal breaker. i got a 7' rear blower and just love it. I have a lot of areas that need to be kept free from snow to allow me to move hay from the barn to various pastures. Not sure why I did it the hard way so long.

 

[rd_macgregor]

If you have plenty of room to push and pile the snow, then a blade or plow might work OK. My drive has a steep hill on one side and the front yard and parking area on the other, so having a hydraulically-rotating chute on my 6ft blower is handy; a plow just wouldn't work for me at all.
Having said that, I also have a cab; blowing snow without a cab can be torture, especially when there is lots of wind (eg in a blizzard!)...you come back into the house looking like the abominable snowman and feeling like a Mr. Freezee.
BOB

 

[smfcpacfp]

Serious snow requires a serious snow removal setup that is comfortable and efficient. In a case like that, a front blower is the only way to go. You have excellent visability, (at least on my B3030 HSDC) and despite what someone said they are very sturdy. They are a simply a rear blower mounted on the front with the necessary modifications for mounting. The additional cost of the front blower is the yoke on which the blower sits and converts your mid PTO to a front PTO. For my tractor the yoke is about $1,300. I have never seen anyone up here with a rear snowblower

Somebody mentioned that the rear blower allows you to retain the benefits of a FEL for moving snow piles. With a snow blower you don't have any piles to move. Mine throws the snow 20' to however far into the woods. Since we get 15 to 30 feet of snow a year, there isn't any FEL work that I could do in the winter, so I don't need it. Any snowbanks in the front created by the snowplow can easily be cut back with the blower. Below is my rig. The cab makes an unpleasant task in bad weather, an enjoyable task. The nastier the weather, the more enjoyable it is to be sitting in my heated cab.

Here is a link to a movie I made of my unit moving a foot or so of heavy snow on April fool's day YouTube - Kubota B3030 snowblower

 

[Jay4200]

Any advice about the differences/pros/cons of a plow blade, a rear scraper, a snowblower, etc. would be appreciated. Moving the stuff quickly is an issue, as I don't have a cab and I tend to turn blue and die if left outside for too long.

IMHO:

Rear blade - useless, since you have to drive through the snow before clearing it. You can drive backwards, but if you're going to do that, you might as well use a blower.
Front blade - fine if you have the right area. A parking lot that is short and wide (lots of short straight pushes) with plenty of room to push is good. A long skinny drive will be trouble once the berms build up and freeze. Also, if you get 2 feet of wet heavy stuff, you're completely screwed. Also, front blades can be hard on FEL arms due to side-loading.
Snowblower - best thing going for long skinny drives. No berms, and you can cut through almost anything. Front is really nice, but expensive and harder to hook up than a rear-mount (since you have to remove the FEL). Only downside is if you have no cab, because with light snow, you get brutally pelted no matter what.

I also have a 45HP tractor, and my gravel drive is 800' long. I've been diligently watching Craig's List for the last couple of months. I found a rear-mount 6' blower that costs ~$4k new for $1350 and got a grading blade thrown in for free. Just got it tuned up and transported north to it's new home last weekend. As far as speed - once up and back and I'm done - its over a 1/3 mile, but even if I have to go 1MPH, it's still only 20 minutes. I think it'll be more like 10 minutes most of the time.

I also don't have a cab, but I made a psuedo-cab for my lawn tractor for snowblowing last year - I made the frame out of electrical conduit, and made windows out of sheet vinyl. Total cost was $29, including a 1/4 pound of welding wire and two cans of spray paint. It isn't weather-tight, but stops 95% of the blowing snow, which makes all the difference in the world. I'm planning on doing something similar for my big tractor this year.

JayC

 

[Usta]

I sure like my rear snowblower. I would go no other way.
Got mine at General Truck and Equipment Inc. Westminster Vermont.
Real friendly people and easy to deal with.