Snowblower Snowblowers, opinions, good ones and bad ones.

[ttowne66]

Hey Guys

I would really appreciate any facts on different brands of 3 pt mounted snowblowers. I know everone thinks the one they own is the best out there but honesty would be appreciated as well. Thanks.


Tom

 

[MadReferee]

Do a search here for snowblowers. You will get zillions of hits. This subject has been discussed every year here and sometimes gets as heated as which color of tractor to buy.

You can also do a search for some of the more prominent manufacturer brands, like Puma, Blizzard, Buehler and Lucknow. Your search should also turn up some things to look out for, like chutes that clog (one brand has been reported to have this problem and there is a post concerning it).

Happy searchng.

BTW, the snowblower my son is using in the picture is a Puma with hydraulic chute and deflector.

 

[hwp]

What is best for you depends on what you want the snowblower to do. If all you want is to move snow a few feet off a driveway, then almost any machine will do as long as it is well enough built, but if you want to blow snow for some distance, then the design of the machine can be very important. A snow blower is essentially a pump, and a well maintained snowblower will throw water. The two critical design issues are the tip speed of the impeller and the clearance between the tips of the impeller and the drum. The manufacturer of my snowblower recommends a gap between the impeller and drum of 0.020". The tips of the impeller wear over time and have to be rebuilt. A quick test is to put a dime in the bottom of the drum. Each impeller blade should pick up the dime and move it to the point of discharge. The drums on some machines are not perfectly round which can reduce the capability of the snowblower. A tip speed of 5000 fpm will throw snow about 100 feet if the gap between the impeller and the drum is appropriate. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[ttowne66]

Guys

Thanks for the info so far! Being east of Lake Ontario we receive between 150-200 inches of snow a year. After ability to move conciderable ammounts of snow I am more concerned with Long lasting quality of components & paint than anything else. For example I have seen some blowers at TSC that have heavy coat of paint which is flaking & rusting already without any use at all. I really need something that if it used heavily will not break or bend easily. I dont mind re-painting every few years but I don't want to get into a rusting POS that requires sandblasting and re-painting every season. Thanks.

 

[DIYGuy]

The paint on my JRW from Canada is mediocre, but it hasn't met a snow storm that it can't keep up with.

A very simple machine with manual chute controls.

My article on it here: Snowblower Article

 

[jimgerken]

I can't tell you which blower is better overall. However, I will add one thing for you to think about. When I researched 3-pt mounted blowers, I noticed that some allowed the auger drive chain to run right out in the snow. I looked at my neighbor's blower with this design and after a single winter the chain looked like ****. If there is ever a choice between a blower that runs a chain in the snow, and one that doesn't, I would choose to keep the chain dry. That's my 2 cents' worth.

 

[jwease]

I am also researching snowblowers and also was not impressed with the TSC blowers. For about the same money I could get a Puma, Buhler/Allied, AgroTrend or Woods. The Woods is actually a bit more $ than I think its worth.
I wanted to look at a Blizzard but was not able to find a dealer locally.

I tend to research things to death to get the best for my money. I've also found $100-$300 differences in price among dealers on the same brands so it pays to shop around. I have a gravel driveway and want something that can hold up to that as well.

Any praise or complaints about the above brands or other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[SailTrac]

Jwease, I was also looking at Blizzard snowblowers. McQueens in Wolclott, NY is a dealer. They sell Kubota and New Holland. I am buying a front mount snowblower for my BX2200. My father-in-law who I let use the tractor has a neck/back problem so a rear blower is not an option. I don't know if McQueen even stocks them, but the distributor in Syr said they are one of the closer dealers to Oswego/Fulton. For those of you in who don't live in Lake Effect areas, you can go to bed with a clear driveway, and wake up to 48" of snow by 6am. 2' of snow and they don't even close the schools.

 

[jwease]

Thanks. I forgot about McQueens. That Syracuse distributor sent me a letter listing 2 dealers who carried the Blizzard but when I called them they had never heard of Blizzard. It didn't make sense but what are you gonna do? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[ttowne66]

Guys

I have been doing quite a bit of research! Looking at the specs and viewing several brands , I believe pronovost is looking to be a top dog. Even thier "value" PUMA line looks to be quite good. Anyone agree/dissagree?

 

[MadReferee]

I don't consider the Puma a "Value" blower. It is really a "Premium" blower. Their next series up is the "Heavy Duty" series. There are plenty of "Value" blowers out there that are lightweight and with fewer standard features and with inferior designs for certain aspect of the blower.

I will stack my 64" Puma up against any other brand that is similarly priced and it will be slightly heavier and much better built and designed. Just my opinion.

A picture of my Puma in action can be found a few posts before this one.

 

[450EXC]

I'm looking for one also, maybe we can get together and get a volume discount. The best I've seen is a 6' puma for $ 1950.

What do you think ?
Larry

 

[5030]

There are a couple of things to consider about snow blowers:
1. The throat size of the blower directly relates to how much PTO power it will consume
2. Whether you are man enough to withstand the blowing snow that will cover you, your face and any other exposed parts of your body which will immediately begin to get very,very cold.

On one, I have a Lucknow 84" 2 stage that I had on my 5030 which will go behind the M9 this year. I thought the 84" would be fine behind the 5030 and it was so long as the snow was powdery and not heavy. Heavy wet snow had to be approached with care and high drifts had to be taken in at least 2 swipes by lifting the 3 point up and then lowering. I don't expect that problem this year as I about doubled my PTO power. My Lucknow has an exposed chain for the auger drive and I have had the blower for 3 seasons and I have never had a rust problem with either the drive chain or the finish on the blower itself. I lube my drive chain with Bel-Ray Chain wax, the same thing I use on my motorcycle chain. The Lucknow don't come with skid shoes so I fabricated some mounts, welded them on and used round adjustable shoes from a Western Snowplow. They are obtainable on the web and are cheap. I have a gravel drive and that necessitated the skid shoes. Without them, the blower, if you weren't careful, would turn into a machine gun and gravel can break windows and puncture siding right now.

If you have an open station tractor, I'd advise against a blower. Get a blade. The blower will cover you and the tractor, especially if you are throwing the snow a long way and it's powdery. A snowmobile suit is mandatory or Carhartts and a full face mask and good warm gloves, and of course, a cup of hot cocoa waiting for you inside. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[ttowne66]

Larry

Thanks for the thought on the volume buy. I believe we would need a few more people though. Don't believe 2 would be enough.

Tom

 

[robison]

I have a 72 inch Puma. A few other posts have mentioned Puma, which is the lighter weight product from Pronovost. They are very high quality.

Here is the Puma web site http://www.pronovost.qc.ca/puma.html

Here is Pronovost, the parent, with bigger blowers - some of which require several hundred horsepower
http://www.pronovost.qc.ca/snowblowers.html

When I bought mine I looked at Meteors and some no-name models. The Puma is much better built, and the bigger Pronovosts are just more than I need where I live.

 

[450EXC]

Tom

I though Jwease might jump in also. Maybe 3 of us would drop it enough to make it worth it. No big deal though.

Larry

 

[ttowne66]

Larry

What dealer did you get your Quote from? Thanks.

 

[jwease]

What brand are we talking about? I called McQueens and what do you know, they never heard of Blizzard either. The salesman was trying to push Agro-Trend but I said I had already looked at them and wanted to look at the Blizzard. He replied, "whats the difference?" I got annoyed and said thank you for your time. The only other brands that seem to be an option for me right now are Puma & Allied. But that led me to another concern as seen in this post earlier. The clearance of the impeller tips inside the drum. How big of deal is this? With a gravel driveway does this allow stones to get caught in there? The Allied looked to have at least a .25" gap between the impeller tips and the drum. I didn't look at that on the Puma. Otherwise the Allied looks OK.

 

[MadReferee]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( The clearance of the impeller tips inside the drum. How big of deal is this? With a gravel driveway does this allow stones to get caught in there? The Allied looked to have at least a .25" gap between the impeller tips and the drum. I didn't look at that on the Puma. )</font>

The clearance on the Puma is real, real close, less than 1/8" on mine after two seasons of use. I have a gravel driveway and have never had a stone get caught. This, in my opinion, is one of the advantages of the Puma, in that everything gets expelled out the chute.

 

[HobbleCreek]

Makes me sad I'm so far away from you guys. I'd think seriously about thowing in to get the volume discount.

-- Grant