Good morning pteinert2mf5cz,
Would you mind filling out the rest of your information and in so doing we can help you further?
I ask only you to do this in the desire for the fellow members to help you.
A small low horsepower mule like yours is a very capable machine with a single stage snow thrower and I will explain why.
When we moved to the suburbs we had an original 1966-7 International Harvester Corporation Cub Cadet lawn tractor with a 12 horsepower engine and a hydrostatic transmission that the previous homeowner left with the property as they moved to Florida from what I remember.
The original Cub Cadet lawn tractor had a 12 horsepower Briggs and Stratton?, gasoline engine with a circular air cleaner and a cable tensioned V belt type of power take off that provided V belt power to the belly mower and the single stage snow blower, both of which were made by the International Harvester Company.
The tractor had snow chains and had no trouble dealing with deep snows and climbing steep driveway to clear snow.
(My 2011 JDLA115 with 19.5 horsepower cannot hold a candle let alone have enough traction to the first lawn tractor we had and it is a very poor example of JD machinery in my opinion as they should have stayed with single stage snow blowers rather than importing RAD snow blowers in john deere yellow)
Having snow chains aids you in traction and reducing wheel slippage to a minimum which what you need for a snow blower of any size.
Using the 48 inch cut MK martin Series 1000 single stage snow thrower as an example its retail cost was less than $3,000.00 plus sales tax when I requested a price from the local CASE/IH dealer.
The MK Martin single stage snow blower does not rely on a second stage which always robs power from the tractor.
The cross auger of the single stage snow thrower operates at 650-700 rpm at 540 RPM at the rear power take off and the speed can be increased by changing the drive and driven sprockets if desired which can be done by the home owner.
The series 1000 snow thrower has snow gathering wings welded into the design of the cross auger housing This unit comes standard with manual chute control with a hand crank and the spout is manually adjusted. hydraulic control of the chute and spout can be added at a later date if desired.
This single stage snow blower uses a right angle one to one speed gearbox to provide power to a cross shaft that rotates a smaller drive gear that is connected to a larger driven gear attached to the snow blower rotor. As I mentioned earlier the speed of the snow blower rotor can be changed by the homeowner to increase the speed of the snow blower rotor.
The major benefits of the single stage snow blower are its simplicity in design and its ability to clean better as the snow pack cannot be pushed forward as the snow thrower advances into the snow pack like the 2 stage units do. This is because the design of this snow blower uses an open auger configuration where the auger flighting pushes the snow to the center and it becomes heaped in front of the impeller housing.
The solid auger design of the single stage snow thrower is such that all the snow pack in front of it is pushed to the center and the four paddles in the center of the auger eject the snow pack at a very high velocity up through the chute and spout and cast it away from the path that the tractor and snow thrower is advancing through.
The difference between the 2 stage impeller and the single stage solid auger is the speed of rotation and available torque.
The 4 paddle impeller on the smaller typical tractor mounted 2 stage snow blower rotates at 540+ RPM which is delivered directly by the right angle gearbox with the through shaft extending from the impeller to the worm to spur gear gearbox that rotates the cross auger which is a 2 piece open auger system driven. Some of the 2 stage snow blowers use a roller chain drive to spin the cross augers depending on the size of the snow thrower.
All the single stage snow throwers use a speed increasing roller chain drive to spin the solid cross auger to provide speed and torque to clear snow pack. The smaller walk behind push type snow throwers operate in the same manner but use a serpentine belt to spin the impeller paddles.
Depending on your property size and how much driveway and time you have or need to clear and how much snowfall you receive annually a walk behind snow blower may be a better option.
If money is an issue, the Toro 1428 OXE snow blowers are a wheel driven 2 stage snow blower with 14 horse power for the snow blower and a 28 inch clearing width and will cost less than a Kubota 2 stage snow blower.
I hope that I have helped you in your decision making and not gotten in your way as I do not have my hand on your wallet and I only wish for you to succeed in purchasing the right snow removal machine for your needs.
