Go BottomSnow blower or Blade
 | Roger L.
Join Date: Jun 1999 Posts: 0 
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2001-01-11 23309
I've got to admit that with all the compact tractor work I've done, I've not had much experience with snow blowers. Our snow can get deep, but since it tends to melt down between blizzards the offset blade seems to work just fine. Maybe someone can tell me why it is that 3pt snow blowers seem to want to travel in reverse? I travel forwards to move snow with the blade and it works just fine. It seems like a snowblower would work about the same, although it is a little close for comfort....
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| TomG
Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 5406 Upper Ottawa Valley 
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2001-01-12 23351
I blew out a 3' plus pile along the side of a building last week. I don't think I could have driven forward through it, so maybe that's the main reason. A shaft drive for a forward facing 3ph blower would also add quite a bit to the cost.
I have a similar sort of question about loaders. I've wondered why bucket cylinders aren't reversed. The way they are, the cylinder shaft is on the curl side so the curl has less power and more speed than the dump. Seem like it should be the other way around. I know there would be all sorts of design issues in locating the cylinder on the ends of the loader arms. However, it just seems sort of dense to have to select large cylinders to get enough power for the curl and then for those same cylinders to create a slow but powerful dump circuit that is seldom needed. I'm probably missing something and hope I'll hear about it. ....
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| Brent B
Join Date: Posts: 1
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2001-01-12 23352
snow blower questions I can't answer. Loader linkages-now theres a subject
I know something about.
Serious loaders (Caterpillar wheel loaders and track loaders) that use the
loader all the time do put an intermediate link between the tilt cylinder and bucket (one version is called a zbar linkage) that does reverse the cylinder direction. It means that cyl extend curls the bucket, resulting in the most bang for the buck while breaking out the load, and faster dump cycles.
Small tractors don't do it because of cost and complexity. It is much cheaper to just make the cylinder a little bigger to get the force you need, and let the weight of the payload in conjunction with a regenerative circuit to get good bucket dump speed. This way also eliminates 3 more pivot joints so fewer wear points.
If parallel lift is a requirement, then more linkage is needed.
Brent ....
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| Roger L.
Join Date: Jun 1999 Posts: 0
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2001-01-12 23356
Blading close to buildings was a problem until I got a blade that offsets. Now I just pull a pin, swing the arm, and I can blade about two to three feet outside of each rear tire. ....
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 | Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999 Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
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2001-01-12 23357
Roger, there was for many years a VERY popular type of snowblower available, and indeed many were home-made very easily that was a 'forward-facing' blower. They are still available, although no longer in production, they were called single stage, although almost everyone called them V-type, because of their shape. They were simplicity itself, a steel V-shaped scoop, terminating in a short cork-screw that fed a fan, driven by a straight shaft running right down the middle from PTO to fan, no gear boxes, chains, nothing. Just don't stop with the blower full of snow or you'd be picking at the clog till spring! They were very common on farms where the driveway was long, flat and straight, the major drawback was the same one we face today, if the snow was even slightly sticky, you packed down into a solid mass by driving over it before the blower could get to it., the next best idea was to make a 'hanging' gear-box, a large peice of tube steel, 12"x6" 1/4" wall containing a gear set, or chain, gear combo. that dropped and reversed the PTO drive to send it forward using a multi. peice drive shaft to the blower which was mounted on a subframe out front, it was lifted by a cable/pulley setup using the uplift on the 3pth to pull the cables, lifting the blower. Very complicated, a maintenance nightmare, and most of the fall and spring to attach/remove, but worked well enough. Food for thought anyways. Best of luck. ....
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| Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999 Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
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2001-01-12 23358
Tom, the cylinder action is reversed on high power type loaders such as large payloaders, etc. They run one large cylinder in the center which connects to a center-pivoting arm which tips the bucket, in fact Caterpillar use this type of setup on their mid-size TLB which also makes it a self levelling bucket. I think it is probably more a cost & weight savings issue on smaller items to not use this system, a pair of small cylinders and less mechanism is far less cost to produce. Best of luck. ....
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 | Art White
Join Date: Jan 2000 Posts: 6898 Waterville New York
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2001-01-12 23361
In central NY where we are the snow might stay for a while before it melts and that acumulation is what gets us. In my drive way if I plowed with a blade I would have had to have a payloader come in to move the banks back by now and normally it would be about three tomes a year. I can blow it out and the banks don't ever get very high and I don't need to push he snow back. When the wind blows here it will fill to the top of the banks and with out them I have less to move to begin with. Yes I do like front snowblowers best but any snowblower in my world is better than a blade even though I have a crik in my neck from looking back. ....
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| TomG
Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 5406 Upper Ottawa Valley
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2001-01-13 23388
Brent, Murf: Thanks for the note. Now that you mention it, when I think of a heavy loader, I do see cylinders outboard on the arms. As is often the case, cost is the explanation when something doesn't make a sense to me. ....
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