59" blower for 3x20 series

[Rob-D]

Well last week I bit the bullet and ordered the 59" blower for my 3320. I went back and forth between the front and rear blower and could have gotten a Frontier rear blower for about half the price but my old 47" blower on my 2320 worked so well that I decided to go with the 59" one here.

There will be pictures to follow but let me say that this is a well built blower. The side walls are a full 1/4" thick and it stands much higher than the 47" blower which has 1/8" side walls. The shear pin system is excellent, like on the 47 and having changed pins on blowers on the system where the pin runs through the axle itself is a pain especially when it is full of snow. This is so much easier.

It says "Assembled in the USA" on it also.

One of the reasons I went with it is because it uses the front 3ph and I think more implements are coming out for it here as they are in Europe. I spoke to my dealer and in the spring I'm going to add the front blade which won't need all the front hitch parts.

90% of the front hitch stays on so it's not a big deal to pull the blower and go to the FEL.
When it's all together I'll take some shots and let you decide for yourselves if it's worth it.

Watch, we won't get any snow this winter!

Rob

 

[rekees4300]

I ordered a 64" Frontier 3pt rear blower exactly 2 months ago today and still waiting for delivery. JD dealer said "4-6 weeks maybe sooner" when I ordered. Hopefully you will get yours before you're snowed in!

 

[Rob-D]

I ordered a 64" Frontier 3pt rear blower exactly 2 months ago today and still waiting for delivery. JD dealer said "4-6 weeks maybe sooner" when I ordered. Hopefully you will get yours before you're snowed in!

I got it today! The shipping tag says it came out of Wisconsin.

Rob

 

[rekees4300]

That was fast! Mine must be coming on a slow boat from China!

 

[Rob-D]

That was fast! Mine must be coming on a slow boat from China!

Not sure I thought most blowers come out of Canada.

Rob

 

[jjmarotz]

You'll love the 59 blower. I got mine late this spring and didn't get but maybe and hr use out of it then snow was over. But what I did use it it was SO much better than my old 3pt Meteor. I just pulled the 59 out of storage and have some steel on order to build "wings" for it to add more width and an electric actuator to run the chute spout. I'll get some pics later this week or next of the mods. Here's a cardboard mockup of the wings.....

 

[skid-kid]

I just picked up a 59" blower last friday. The front hitch has me concerned. It is not the three point type that I see on everyones 3x20 tractors. I am done mowing for the year so I am mounting it by this weekend to make sure it is all correct and works. I will be posting some picks when I do it so people can see the difference in the front hitch.

 

[Rob-D]

You'll love the 59 blower. I got mine late this spring and didn't get but maybe and hr use out of it then snow was over. But what I did use it it was SO much better than my old 3pt Meteor. I just pulled the 59 out of storage and have some steel on order to build "wings" for it to add more width and an electric actuator to run the chute spout. I'll get some pics later this week or next of the mods. Here's a cardboard mockup of the wings.....

Hmmmm... An electric chute actuator, that sounds like something I might be interested in doing myself. I have some stepper motors but maybe I could do it with a 12v windshield wiper motor and linkage.

How much are you extending the bucket with the wings? I just measured my tractor width at the ground, front and back and neither wheel is over 59" even with my rear wheels in the widest position. The blower itself runs about 59-1/2", outside to outside without the snow cutters on each side. Wonder why Deere doesn't use them?

What I found with my last blower is that you have to get the tractor right behind it or the tractor 'skews' to one side or the other, I'm wondering if the wings will help with this?

The other thing is that when I was installing the blower I took off the 300cx loader and with the 485 BH on the front is very light, which is understandable. The blower adds about 400 lbs or so to the front end but I like weight there so I'll put on the my front weights too.

Do you leave the mid PTO shaft on all year? I don't use a MMM on this tractor. What I did notice is that the bearing assembly is quite low, sitting under the front hitch as it does.


Rob

 

[jjmarotz]

Hmmmm... An electric chute actuator, that sounds like something I might be interested in doing myself. I have some stepper motors but maybe I could do it with a 12v windshield wiper motor and linkage.

How much are you extending the bucket with the wings? I just measured my tractor width at the ground, front and back and neither wheel is over 59" even with my rear wheels in the widest position. The blower itself runs about 59-1/2", outside to outside without the snow cutters on each side. Wonder why Deere doesn't use them?

What I found with my last blower is that you have to get the tractor right behind it or the tractor 'skews' to one side or the other, I'm wondering if the wings will help with this?

The other thing is that when I was installing the blower I took off the 300cx loader and with the 485 BH on the front is very light, which is understandable. The blower adds about 400 lbs or so to the front end but I like weight there so I'll put on the my front weights too.

Do you leave the mid PTO shaft on all year? I don't use a MMM on this tractor. What I did notice is that the bearing assembly is quite low, sitting under the front hitch as it does.


Rob

The wings will increase width by 8" total, with the amount of snow I have to move it just speeds up the process, also I have a circle driveway and when turning with the blower the rear wheels would "walk" up on the snow that hadn't been moved yet compacting it and building ice ridges. My old 68" 3pt blower allowed more movement of the tractor in deeper snow without the tires touching the banks.

Yea I left the PTO shaft on this yr. I don't have mmm either and as you said the front coupler/bearing assy sits lower than the shaft so that would be damaged before the shaft if anything. I think if one was doing lots of dirt work and running around stups, rocks, deep mud, ruts, etc it may be a good idea to remove the shaft as to not "highcenter" the tractor and bend it.

 

[xkbal]

The shear pin system is excellent, like on the 47 and having changed pins on blowers on the system where the pin runs through the axle itself is a pain especially when it is full of snow. This is so much easier.

Something to keep in mind is that, unless they have changed the blower, the impeller has no shear protection. I've broken 2 of the castings the impeller bolts to when something got caught in the impeller.

Al

 

[kennyd]

Hmmmm... An electric chute actuator, that sounds like something I might be interested in doing myself. I have some stepper motors but maybe I could do it with a 12v windshield wiper motor and linkage.

I think he means the chute deflector? That is most easily converted to electric control with a linear actuator. The chute rotation is already hydraulically controlled. Using stepper motors or WW motors for the deflector would be a PITA.

 

[Rob-D]

Something to keep in mind is that, unless they have changed the blower, the impeller has no shear protection. I've broken 2 of the castings the impeller bolts to when something got caught in the impeller.

Al

Hi Al,
I was looking at that. My 47 blower did have a shear pin on the impeller, the same type as the front tines. I thought this one did too. The is a bolt back that looks like it should shear but the manual only speaks of the tines.
Rob

 

[Rob-D]

I think he means the chute deflector? That is most easily converted to electric control with a linear actuator. The chute rotation is already hydraulically controlled. Using stepper motors or WW motors for the deflector would be a PITA.

I don't think so. I built a bunch of stepper drivers when I was setting up my CNC so the circuits are built. It would just be a matter of programming a microcontroller. It would be pretty neat, I could have a 4 position switch that would open the chute 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 or full. Most times one of those positions is all I need.

Rob

 

[arrabil]

I leveled some ground composed of dirt, rocks, and gravel with my 59 blower last year. Shooting gravel like a machine gun. Never broke anything. The snowblower is an amazing tool for this purpose. I wonder if anyone else has done this?

I leave the front hitch and driveshaft mounted but it kills the front ground clearance and I'm very careful about operating the tractor in the woods because of it. I always clear the ground with the loader before driving over any unknown terrain.

I also store the snowblower on wheeled dollies. Makes it much easier to move the thing around and to install/remove it.

 

[Rob-D]

I leveled some ground composed of dirt, rocks, and gravel with my 59 blower last year. Shooting gravel like a machine gun. Never broke anything. The snowblower is an amazing tool for this purpose. I wonder if anyone else has done this?

I leave the front hitch and driveshaft mounted but it kills the front ground clearance and I'm very careful about operating the tractor in the woods because of it. I always clear the ground with the loader before driving over any unknown terrain.

I also store the snowblower on wheeled dollies. Makes it much easier to move the thing around and to install/remove it.

It's not hard to pull off the mid PTO drive shaft so I guess I'll do that in the spring. I'll have to check to see what sits the lowest, I'm in the woods a lot and I don't like the fact it hangs down so much. I'll take photos when I get a chance but we're off to get our winter vegetables today so it won't be till tonight or tomorrow before I get to it. What I will say is that the parts are very beefy and I put this together myself not the dealer, so I know what goes into it. My dealer is pretty good but no one puts your tractor together as well as you do if you know what you're doing. Where the instructions call for Loctite it gets Loctite.
I'd say the whole job took me about 4 or 5 hours to do. I could do it faster now but it was my first time at it. I must admit the whole thing looks pretty impressive. I heard stories about plastic impellers but the only plastic on the blower is the cover for the chute rotation cables.
Did you ever shear the impeller pin? As for using it to blow rocks and debris, I wouldn't do that! Especially when someone here said he cracked the drive casing when he jambed the impeller. On my 47 I was helping a neighbor out and picked up one of his kids sneakers in the impeller. It sheared the pin, I'm wondering what the 59 blower would have done with no protection there. Like I said, there is a bolt through the impeller shaft that seems to me would shear but I don't know for sure. If it's a grade 5 I may switch it out for a grade 2.
Rob

 

[Rob-D]

Here ae some pics.
You can see the front hitch comes right off. The two plates at each end of the blower are for the shear pins.
If you look at the photo where the 3ph attaches to the tractor you can see how they have it set up to come off easily.
The picture of the impeller shows a grade 5 bolt which I suspect should shear if the impeller jambs, let's hope so!

Rob

 

[arrabil]

The parts are beefy, and I'm not much concerned about destroying them, but I don't like the idea of digging the front hitch into the ground and getting dirt in the bearings or all over the PTO shafts. I'm far less worried about the driveshaft itself. On my 4200 it gets out of the way pretty quick after leaving the front hitch.

I've never broken a shear pin. But I don't think they're even half the strength of Grade 2.

EDIT: you posted as I was replying.... I can't believe you have grade 5 bolts for shear pins. Grade 5 can take a lot of shear force without breaking.

 

[Rob-D]

The parts are beefy, and I'm not much concerned about destroying them, but I don't like the idea of digging the front hitch into the ground and getting dirt in the bearings or all over the PTO shafts. I'm far less worried about the driveshaft itself. On my 4200 it gets out of the way pretty quick after leaving the front hitch.

I've never broken a shear pin. But I don't think they're even half the strength of Grade 2.

EDIT: you posted as I was replying.... I can't believe you have grade 5 bolts for shear pins. Grade 5 can take a lot of shear force without breaking.

Deere's standard shear pin IS a grade 5.

 

[arrabil]

Depends on the equipment... the walk behind snowblowers use special bolts with a neck down on both ends of the shaft they fit through so they break in a known location. And they are definitely weaker than grade 2. My MTD walk-behind uses unmarked bolts without a neck down and they don't look up to grade 2 either. I'll go look at the 59" later today and see what I have.

 

[chickenman]

Here ae some pics.
You can see the front hitch comes right off. The two plates at each end of the blower are for the shear pins.
If you look at the photo where the 3ph attaches to the tractor you can see how they have it set up to come off easily.
The picture of the impeller shows a grade 5 bolt which I suspect should shear if the impeller jambs, let's hope so!

Rob

grade 5 is pretty tough and will take a lot of torque to shear

if you're worried about that I'd try a standard bolt first

if its hydraulic the you could put a relief valve in parallel with the motor and set it low then crank it up with experience

that will let the blower stop and all you have to do is clear the jam and keep on blowing