Go BottomSnow What s the longest Drive You Rear PTO Blowered
 | Mike
Join Date: Posts: 1 
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2000-03-02 13374
Now that winter is about done, well maybe done! What is the longest drive anyone did with a REAR Mounted Snowblower??What width do you have and How many PTO HP?How was you neck?For long drives is Gear Better or is HST better??Let's see what you all have and how you liked it.Thanks
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| JJT
Join Date: Jun 1999 Posts: 93 Upstate NY, USA
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2000-03-02 13377
My drive is 1000'+, and I use a 4wd, HST Kubota L3710, (30 pto horses), 78" 2 stage blower. No problems with the driveway and no problems with the neck. My biggest problem was making sure to blow with the wind, you can eat alot of snow in a matter of seconds. The deeper the snow the better the blower worked, (Canadian made Agro Trend, real sturdy machine). I blew anywhere from 6 - 16 inches of powder to 8 - 10 inches of slush. I even did a half mile drive for a neighbor who got snowed in. Dress warm and where a scarf over your face. I really like the control you have with the HST, set your RPM's for the PTO and away you go, no need to shift down for the deep stuff at the end of the driveway, just let off on the pedal. I have a steep drive and the neighbors is even steeper, no need for chains or even a need to lock the diff, (R4 tires). ....
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| Ross
Join Date: Posts: 1
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2000-03-02 13378
Mike, I blow about 800 ft. with three areas about 50 x50.I have a 4400 that has a 35 pto and a rear mount 6' lorenz blower,works great! but the blower will be mounted on the front nex year I aam having a gear box built to use the mid pto to run the blower. hydro is the only way to go.I had a955 with a 59" JD blower before and it was ok (not wide enough,shute did'nt have enough turning deg.)tryed a 1070 with a 7' eriskine blower on the front great machine but not hydro. Also had a 18HP honda with a 4' blower on it but it wasn't enough. If you are going to do areas that have you backing up alot the hydro works better and in area with drifting you can vary your speed to keep the tractor loaded, you are always in the right gear.the gear box is about 350 so the cost of the blower is still 1000 less than the JD. Hope I helped. ....
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| TomG
Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 5406 Upper Ottawa Valley 
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2000-03-03 13386
I'm a piker in terms of length (2-3 hundred) with a hill and several perpendicular sections. Use a 5' blower with 23 hp and 3x4 manual. Works fine with 4wd ags. Not even close to needing chains or a new neck.
JT's comments regarding dress are to the point. Blow into the wind, and you become an instant Frosty. However, often I don't have a choice of direction (e.g. vehicles parked on side of the drive and house on the other. Not only do you get covered in snow, but the visibility can be bad. Good idea to skip some sections and come back from the other direction.
I need good visibility to do the base of the drive off a highway. It can take some planning to make sure you don't blow snow in front of a car or leave a berm on the shoulder. However, with some care, I think blowing near a highway is safer than using a blade. Blowing it in the ditch is faster than plowing it, and you don't have to back out on the highway or remove the plowed berms. You can't plow out of a drive onto a highway unless you plow completely across. Otherwise you leave a pile of snow on the road. However, you can come out of a drive blowing into the ditch and drive along the highway's shoulder.
I think I'd prefer HST to my manual. Sometimes some fairly fine speed adjustments are desirable for maneuvering or reducing the auger load. At least I have 4 reverse gears. Don't think I'd like to do with fewer. Still, sometimes one range is too slow and the next is too fast, and the snow isn't thrown far enough if you throttle back in the higher range.
Other comments: I think a live PTO is almost essential for blowing. My chute clogged a lot if I didn't let the auger clear after stopping. Despite some good comments about front blowers, I'll stick with the 3ph, because I wouldn't want to give up the loader which I use every time I do snow removal. I need to be able to blow backwards and plow frontward to do several sections perpendicular to the drive. Guess I could do that with a front blower and back blade, but it is handy to be able to stack the stuff up instead of push it back. Probably would have needed chains if I had to push it around.
Also, neither blowers nor blades work very well on freshly thawed gravel drives. Five or six inches came down yesterday on our thawed gravel drive. I would have made a mess of the drive without the loader. I just floated the bucket on its bottom and plowed. I left some slush but I didn't take much gravel. The blower made gravel showers when I floated it, and holding it up with the 3ph only worked a little better. A guy in town made an incredible mess of his drive with a pickup blade. He'll probably need a box scraper this spring, which I'll have by then.
....
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 | Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999 Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
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2000-03-03 13392
Mike, I may have won, BUT, get the judges to check the rule book first, am I disqualified if I got PAID to do it? A customer of mine has a cottage at the end of a 'summer maintenance only' road, and he decided this year he wanted to take his new bride there for Christmas/New Years. Problem was he didn't think about access until Dec. 20...and since he has never even sat on a snowmobile... Anyways he said cost didn't matter, so two of my employees went up with a Kubota L3450 GST (NO CAB) and a BRAND NEW 6' REAR blower bought just for the job, since all my other machines are on snow removal jobs for the winter. Since the total distance to be cleared was about 4 miles (yes, 20,000+ feet) it was planned to be a two day job. They took turns walking alongside guiding and watching for obstacles, driving, or snowmobiling back to the truck for fuel, etc. It took four passes to clear the width of the road and his driveway. You don't want to know the cost, however, considering what 'she' looks like I'm thinking it was worth every penny..... ....
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| tinman
Join Date: Posts: 1
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2000-03-03 13408
Murf, Just what did 'she' look like? She must be one fabulous woman to pay for four miles of drive clearing. Can I clear the drive next season? ....
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| Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999 Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
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2000-03-03 13415
Tinman, lets just say I think she could have melted her way through the snow faster than the blower did the job.... ....
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| JJT
Join Date: Jun 1999 Posts: 93 Upstate NY, USA
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2000-03-03 13423
Murf, 2 days, 2 guys for a 4 mile road? I did the neighbor's half mile drive in an hour, 1 pass in, 1 pass out, with a L3710, 78" blower, (16 inches of snow and some real steep grades). Sounds like your guys were playing? ....
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| Jim
Join Date: Posts: 1
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2000-03-03 13438
Hey mike,
do like the commercial guys do, put a mirror on your hood. no mo stiff neck
Jim ....
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| Mike S.
Join Date: Posts: 1
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2000-03-03 13445
Ross mentioned that he was going to add a gearbox (I assume to slow down the RPMs)in order to use the mid PTO and mount his rear-mounted snow blower on the front. The gearbox part I understand, but HOW would it be possible to mount a 3-point mounted snow blower on the front of the tractor??? ....
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| TomG
Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 5406 Upper Ottawa Valley
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2000-03-04 13449
Murf: Gee, that could have been me, but with a smaller tractor and no pay. Our township stopped plowing some roads around here. Had to get a road open as far as a cemetery. Aren't government cutbacks wonderful?
It was probably better that somebody with a big truck and blade volunteered before anybody thought of asking me. I'd probably still be blowing snow and wondering if it would melt first. ....
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| Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999 Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
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2000-03-04 13474
JT, I doubt that they had much time for playing, the road is so steep that our 4wd one tons won't pull a loaded float up the hills, and the road was under 4' of snow, with drifts deeper than that in the valleys, and we cleared it to 16' in width (as per the clients wishes). Considering all this was done 3 hrs from our yard and at a time when the sun did not come up till 8am and it was dark at 4pm. ....
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| Roger L.
Join Date: Jun 1999 Posts: 0
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2000-03-05 13485
You guys sure are lucky to have all that snow to play with. here in the Rockies we haven't had enough to plow once this year. It is supposed to snow tonight. The forecast calls for 1 to 3 inches. That will qualify as a blizzard this year. ....
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