Snow Equipment Owning/Operating Manual trans for snowblowing?

[Scaper]

I'm in the process of making a new purchase (tractor) for my business. I'm considering the Mahindra 2516 gear drive or a B2320 maybe a B2620 ( I got a very good price on the 2620) and I'm wondering if anyone uses a gear drive with a blower? If I use the 2516 for grass ( rear mount mower) or bush hog work it will not bother me to have a gear. I grew up using a gear and the shuttle shift on the 2516 is sweet. I have driven the Mahindra and found the gear to have very low speed in low range and power out the wazoo. I am concerned about using a blower with the trans driven PTO. The hydro is nice in this aspect but I love the gear for everything else I will do and loader work with the shuttle should be fine. What's the skinny on this topic? So all you gear drive fans and hyro users speak up please. My wife is in my butt about me being on the fence about the purchase. Plus if I get the gear she won't drive it!!
Scaper

 

[beenthere]

You decide if you want the wife driving.
I'd say the hydro for both the snowblower and the loader work as well. Much prefer the hydro for loader work over using the shuttle (which works but not as well as a hydro).

But it is your call.

 

[oldnslo]

For snow blowing it depends on a few factors.

Size of the blower Vs HP available. can you go slow enough in low gear to not have to feather the clutch? If this does not have live PTO touching the clutch would cause the blower to stop.

Non live PTO to me would be a reason not to buy a tractor especially for bush hogging, snow blowing, etc. I like to be able to push in the clutch and allow the equipment to clear a clog etc.

my two cents

ROy

 

[DrainPondDesign]

Here are some numbers for you.

During a recent 12 inch fall of wind packed snow my 32hp JD 3320 with 59 inch front blower and throttle wide open could only manage 1/2 mile per hour uphill and one mph on the flats without dropping below the 2500 rpm pto speed.

12 inches of light snow this rig will blow snow at 1 1/2 mph up hill and over 2 mph on the flats. I seldom blow snow over 2 mph because I need to make constant correctons to stay on the driveway.

It's the weight of the snow that consumes the hp so heavy slush can be even slower.

This rig has hydro drive with "load match" that automaticly slows the foward speed to keep the pto rpms up so I would say that the tractor is maxed out at these speeds and conditions.

I would say that if low gear on your manual transmission is 1/2 mph or less it should do fine.

 

[MMagis]

Gear is just fine. No need to over think it.

 

[PILOON]

My tractor is manual with only 2 choices to blow--HI or LOW R.
Low can handle most conditions up to, say 8" otherwise I do 1/2 widths.
HI can handle not much more than 3" if it is light fluffy snow.
As a result I added a front plow to gather snow for one pass of the blower and that works fine for me.
If you plan to blow commercially, do yourself a favor and go hydro and you'll 1/2 your snow removal times, and time is money.
For speed a truck/plow is still the best fastest solution combined with a tractor/blower to widen the lanes when the piles choke down the drive and at that time since you'll only need to do so a couple of times a winter any tractor/blower will do the job.
A hydro offers all benefits, slow controlled speeds and (in hi range) good travel speeds between locations. Geared is always slow travel.
With hydro you adjust the speed to the blower's capacity without blower RPM speed drop.
AND your wife can blow snow when you prefer to enjoy an adult refreshment front of the stove.
Resale is also much better on hydro and will better protect your investment.

 

[mtgrease]

I have a jd790 with a lorenz three point blower and live in northen montana, lots of snow. I do not have hydro and have never had a problem. I can put it in low range, run the tractor at 2500rpm and just go. If there is less than 3 inches I leave it in high range. I like having the clutch because if the blower starts loading I can push the clutch partially in and it clears it, without that ability I would shear pins constantly. By the way my wife uses the tractor and has never complained about the clutch. I would say I wish I had hydro while doing loader work but cannot complain.

 

[oldnslo]

I like having the clutch because if the blower starts loading I can push the clutch partially in and it clears it, without that ability I would shear pins constantly.

This only works with live PTO. If I understood the OP he was looking at a tranny driven PTO which is NOT live.

Roy

 

[herringchoker]

Been there, done that.......I would never again attempt to blow snow with a transmission - driven PTO. It was better than shovelling, but if you ever have to hit the clutch to reduce ground speed - clogged chute.
I can't comment on gear drive and live PTO because I jumped directly to HST. However, many people do it with no problem.
I do recommend HST because you can vary your ground speed to match weight and depth of snow, and also instantly reverse (handy in tight quarters).

 

[Marveltone]

This only works with live PTO. If I understood the OP he was looking at a tranny driven PTO which is NOT live.

Roy

According to tractordata.com, the Mahindra 2516 gear drive does indeed have live PTO. However, the Mahindra website seems to indicate that the gear driven model has a transmission driven PTO, while the hydrostatic model has the live PTO. :mur: The good news is the gear model has 8 reverse speeds! That leaves plenty of room to match speed to the snow depth/weight. :thumbsup:

What's my point? I'm running a 60" PTO mounted blower on a 22 hp gear tractor (4 reverse speeds) with no problems. (My lowest reverse speed is about 0.7 mph @PTO speed) The Mahindra makes a little more power and has more reverse gears. If the gear model has a two stage clutch (hence, live PTO) I'd say go for it! If, OTOH, the PTO only operates with the transmission, I have no clue.

You may want to clear up that little detail with the dealer. :confused3:

Joe

 

[NIdaho]

OK I had a B7100 with the gear transmission and a rear-mounted blower and used it for over 10 years. I thought I had a pretty good weapon against the winters in North Idaho. The B7100 had HI and Low ranges for the transmission and just one reverse gear, so I had my choice of slow and really slow. Like I said I blew a lot of snow with that set up. The issues are the depth of the snow fall is always different as well as the moisture content (here we get everything from super light powder (us skiers call it cold-smoke) to that clear snow (rain) and everything in between.

Almost 2 years ago I bit the bullet and got a B3200 with a Hydro-Trans. Boy it is a night and day difference! With the hydrostat I can go as fast or slow as I want to change the feed rate into the blower. I get to a big drift, I slow down and let it get rid of it and then speed back up until the next drift. My biggest complaint is that the time I get to spend on the new tractor is about half of the time that I used to spend on the old one.

 

[RFB]

This may sound like bragging, but it is not. It is just my reality.

I blow and plow snow for miles with 50 hp, mfwd and chained on all 4's. I hear many people on this site talking about heavy snowfalls...when I mean heavy I am talking about several feet per day for days at a time. It is snowing hard right now again, and I already plowed and blew the foot that fell this AM.

The only, and I mean ONLY, way that I would blow snow with a geared transmission is if it had a super-creep capability.

Effective blowing means full pto rpm's at all times (or risk plugging). A hydro trans or super-creep allows that; normally geared trans will required start/stop or clutch slipping operation.

The money spent on the hydro (if its more) will be saved in time and clutches.

 

[Ductape]

Since opinions are like bellybuttons.........................

I will never again try running a blower on a geared tractor. With a hydrostat, your ground speed is infinitely adjustable. Driving into a snowbank..... slow down and eat right through it. I found with my geared tractor, I could never slow my ground speed to where it needed to be without losing RPMs.

 

[crazyal]

Get the hydro and don't look back. Snow isn't always a nice even amount so one speed doesn't always work. Too often while blowing snow it'll build up in front of the blower so I'll stop for a second, let the blower clear it out, and then move while never dropping the RPM. It would just suck if I had to press a clutch in half way so the tractor would stop but the blower wouldn't.

 

[TrenaryDucks]

I use an Agri-Power 5000 (Zetor 5011) which has ten forward and two reverse gears. I run a seven foot Gruett rear PTO snowblower in low reverse, which is about 0.8 mph at 2,200 engine rpm and gives me 540 at the PTO. If the snow is too deep, I can always blow the snow in layers. I do not like riding the clutch too much.

 

[955Lincoln]

Keeping within the confines of the post title, manual trans ok but ONLY if your tractor has very slow creep gearing to handle deep blows without slipping the clutch.

 

[RoyJackson]

A 2-Stage clutch would work with a blower (push halfway down to disengage the tractor's transmission and stop movement) but it does take some experience to get it right. Since I don't have a blower, I'm basing my comments on using a rotary cutter in heavy brush.
As far as "speed", the low range of a Deere collarshift transmission is pretty darn slow (snails pass me when I used it).

 

[grsthegreat]

i have a jd870 with 9 forward gears and 3 reverse gears and a 2 stage clutch. i have a 60" farmking 3 point pto driven snowblower and the combo has served me well here in north Idaho for years. i agree that without the 2 stage clutch, it would never have worked. I recently purchased a dk45 hydrostatic tractor and im going to buy a loader mounted blower and front blade. after 15 years of driving backwards in an open station tractor...enough is enough. it took me a little time to get used to the hydrostat....all of 2 minutes. now id never go back to a clutch tractor or an open station tractor again.

 

[Airedale]

It comes down to what kind of gearing a gear tractor has, todays newer models offer plenty of capability. I have been running an 80 inch blower behind my TYM gear 433 all winter in some pretty heavy snow with no problems. It does have 16 speeds with some nice low gear selections to match conditions, I actually like it better than my previous tractor that had hydro.


Al

 

[Jay4200]

I have a jd790 with a lorenz three point blower and live in northen montana, lots of snow.

No fair. A Lorenz can eat a car at 12MPH.

JayC