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4300 snow blower size

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silver1
Join Date: Nov 2009
Posts: 3 Bucks County, Pennsylvania
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2010-10-26          174773

For my 4300, I have an opportunity to purchase a generic 6’ 3pt hitch snow blower. Not a name brand but, basically new, at a good price in great shape. Does that 4300 have enough power to run a six foot manual chute blower or should I tighten up the wheel spacing and only look for a 5 footer? Unit was originally purchased for a Kubota that has (slightly) more horsepower. It's not for commercial use, but it will get a workout. If anybody has a feel for this question; I'd like to hear about it.
Thanks, for your help
Silver1


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4300 snow blower size

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Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999
Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
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2010-10-26          174779

If you never get any heavy wet snow, you might be able to get by with a 6' blower, but with a maximum of about 25hp to run a blower, I'd say you'd be pushing your luck doing it.

A snow blower is probably the number one offender for taking out a clutch there is.

As a rule of thumb you want a minimum of 5hp per foot of blower, so for a 6' blower, you should have at least 30hp at the blower.


Best of luck.
....

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hardwood
Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 3583 iowa
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2010-10-26          174780

You should be ok, the 4300 is about 32-34 hp. Having a rear blower and a front loader is a dream machine in snow.
Frank. ....

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4300 snow blower size

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auerbach
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 2168 West of Toronto
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2010-10-27          174787

You won't have a power problem based on my experience of running a 6' 2-stage one off a 22HP tractor with 19HP at the PTO for many years, including some uphill blowing. Mind you, I did use the lowest gear (not a creeper though) and max RPMs.

Unless you have an FEL you'll likely want front weights, and you might want to check that you can reach the chute-turner from the seat. ....

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4300 snow blower size

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Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999
Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
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2010-10-27          174794

Guys, unless I'm missing something, a 4300 is "rated" at 32hp on the crank, and only 27hp on the PTO.

Note my use of the term "rated", those numbers as we know are purely hypothetical based on calculations only. Based on real world dyno results on similar machines, I'd say a 4300 would be lucky (brand new, which it's not) to deliver 20hp at the PTO shaft.

Driving a 6' blower with 20hp? Sure doesn't sound good to me.



Best of luck. ....

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hardwood
Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 3583 iowa
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2010-10-27          174808

Murf;
I won't challenge your assesment of what a 4300 has at the business end as I really don't know, butttt....
I know you deal with blowers a lot and so have I a lot in the past. We both know crashing into a drift at too fast a speed will clog or cut shear pins in any blower.
Most 4300's were equiped with a hydro drive that will give him anything from a stall to faster whatever the tractor/blower will handle. Even if it is a 12/12 like my 4310 it has a reverse gear slower than a turtle on crutches.
Just taking your time as I learned with an eight foot double auger on a 100 hp farm tractor in the real he man/woman rock hard drifts you skim the top off first then once or twice more down to the pavement for your first pass thru then just take a half width pass or whatever seems to work right after that. I never of course considerd horsepower a problem with 100 hp. and an 8 ft. blower but I could use up shear pins by the handfull if I got too agressive. This was an IHC #80 blower on a Case 1070. I call the 1070's roughly a hundred hp. By the book they were rated 108, but at the PTO, I don't remember. I really don't know what the minimum horsepower needed would have been with the #80, but it sure didn't need 100, or whatever the 1070 had at the business end.
Anyhow with all this, I really doubt that with any kind of patience and common sense he will have any problem with a six footer on the back and a loader on the front.
As I said before that would be my dream snow machine.
Frank. ....

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4300 snow blower size

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Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999
Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
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2010-10-27          174810

Quote:
Originally Posted by hardwood | view 174808
[QUOTE=hardwood;174808] Murf;I won't challenge your assesment of what a 4300 has at the business end as I really don't know, butttt....I know you deal with blowers a lot and so have I a lot in the past.


Just taking your time as I learned with an eight foot double auger on a 100 hp farm tractor.........

Anyhow with all this, I really doubt that with any kind of patience and common sense he will have any problem with a six footer on the back and a loader on the front. [/QUOTE]

Frank, a 25hp driving a 6' blower is 5hp per foot.

By comparison, a 100hp power unit driving an 8' blower is 12.5hp per foot of blower.

That's 2.5 times more horsepower per foot.

'Nuff said.


Best of luck.



....

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hardwood
Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 3583 iowa
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2010-10-28          174816

Murf;
No, not quite nuff said, time for my reply.
Your math is correct, yes.
Did you read my post completely?
No, you skiped my point completely. I never said it took 100 hp. to run an 8 ft. blower. I only said that 100 hp was more than enough and if I crowded it all I did was cut shear pins. As you well know the shear pins were meant to do two things, first to protect the machine form things I and others forgot to pick up and protect it from the Case being too much power and tearing up things. They were the correct pins, I never drilled out anything to take a bigger pin or used grade 8 bolts. I never advertised to do commercial blowing but got plenty of work anyhow getting several neighbors out to go to work plus my own yards and drives. Depending on the storm 4 AM was enough time to get them all out on time without crowding things, but if the storm didn't let up enough to get started early I tended to get to aggressive and was out with a flashlight replacing shear pins. That was my point about me never knowing what the minimum hp. that I needed but that 100 was just too much for that machine.
A prime example of my point on being patient would be that baring traction concerns a 50 hp. tractor would pull a five shank chisel plow very slowly but a 100 hp tractor would pull it faster, OK.
Frank. ....

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4300 snow blower size

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Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999
Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
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2010-10-28          174821

You misunderstood my point I think Frank.

I was not missing your point, I was illustrating the difference. Yes too much power will eat up shear pins, been there, done that, and the T-shirt doesn't keep you warm while holding a flashlight in the crook of your neck while trying to change a shear pin in a snow storm.

My point was merely along the lines of your 5 shank plow analogy. If you were careful and took your time you could pull it with a 50 hp tractor.

Likewise, if you were very slow and careful you could put a 6' blower on a small machine like that.

According to several of the snow blower manufacturers websites I just looked at, most recommend a 50hp tractor but say a minimum of 35hp.

In fact Deere themselves recommend a maximum of a 5' blower for that category of machine. A 20% increase is, as you well know, a big jump up in load with a snow blower.


Best of luck. ....

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auerbach
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 2168 West of Toronto
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2010-10-29          174841

Manufacturer recommendations are conservative for protection in the event that everything goes wrong at once. I'm sure you know you can safely (if not necessarily legally) exceed the published load in your truck or the weight of its trailer by a good 25% if conditions are right and you're careful. ....

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4300 snow blower size

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Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999
Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
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2010-10-29          174843

Quote:
Originally Posted by auerbach | view 174841
Manufacturer recommendations are conservative for protection in the event that everything goes wrong at once. I'm sure you know you can safely (if not necessarily legally) exceed the published load in your truck or the weight of its trailer by a good 25% if conditions are right and you're careful.


That's precisely why in my very first post I said "A snow blower is probably the number one offender for taking out a clutch there is.".

More snow blowers eat tractor clutches than you can shake a stick at.

It's just too easy to do.


Best of luck. ....

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4300 snow blower size

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Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999
Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
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2010-10-29          174852

It was intended as offensive Silver, but if that's how you take it.......

I was just trying to point out, a little extra blower can be a lot of extra dough when the PTO clutch goes south because of it.

Your machine, your money, your call.

I was just answering your question; "Does that 4300 have enough power to run a six foot manual chute blower or should I tighten up the wheel spacing and only look for a 5 footer?".


Best of luck. ....

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4300 snow blower size

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hardwood
Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 3583 iowa
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2010-10-29          174857

Murf;
Now you have me confused again. I thought your clutch concern was for a common dry plate engine clutch, yes, I agree constant "Rideing" and slipping a regular clutch eats them up in a hurry.
Ok, now your warning about the PTO clutch, why? They are hydraulicly engaged, self adjusting, I can't quite follow your concern. I've overloaded the 4310 lots of times on a rotary cutter or overfed grain augers a hundred times more than he will ever overload it on a snow blower and the PTO still works just fine. Humm?
Frank. ....

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