Rear Inverted Snowblowers 2019

[fishhead]

I have found that they can work ok but will eventually plug. We just had a slop storm and i could blow the areas i had not cleared during the first part of the storm . the areas that i had cleared just had a shallow wet snow / slush combo and i could not keep the chute clear so it was rear blade time.

With regard to the later question about 16 inches of snow. Like others have said if you can drive through it you can blow it. !6 should be easy

A couple of days ago I got about 7" of heavy wet snow and then it started to rain. Yuck!!!. While I was plowing this stuff, it would just roll off the end of the plow in large blobs or just refuse to slide off. Nasty stuff to plow. I know my rear facing blower would probably not work in this stuff unless I went at a snails pace and kept the RPMs way up. Even then I'm sure it would keep plugging up.

Got me thinking about what you guys with inverted blowers do in circumstances like these.

 

[Hilbilly]

We are getting the same storm here Hillbilly. I live straight west of Enderby. After seeing your post I measured our snow and see I got 12" of very dense snow overnight. I have a Kioti DK35SE rated at just 28 PTO hp. It has no trouble with dragging my 74" Meteor inverted through such snow. Your tractor is bigger and your chains more aggressive than mine so you should have no trouble.

The most I went through was 27" of snow in 2015 as shown in this post:

https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/snow-removal/328797-snow-your-area.html#post4000516[/URL

After reading your post I went out and did my driveway. I think the weight of the 12" or snow today was more than the 27" in 2015. I had to go slower today than in the 27" when the snow fell at about -5 C. Still, no trouble today but I will be back at it tomorrow as it is still coming down heavily. The Vernon forecast is for around 0 C tonight and then to warm up and continue with snow and rain. We're 800' higher so hopefully it will be snow.

Our power has been out at least a dozen times today from branches getting ripped off the trees. We have had a couple of longer outages but it is back on for now.

It's a lot nicer when it is a bit colder but it is fun either way.

After I posted I went outside to start clearing snow around the buildings and while I was doing that, the snow kept dumping. After a couple of hours I decided I better plow the driveway before it got too deep. Too late!! When I started on the driveway the snow was 24" (measured) of heavy wet snow. By the time I got to the bottom (1 mile) and back up there was another 12" of heavy wet snow. Game changer!!! My only chance was the rear facing 75" Meteor snow blower. But it would not blow that heavy wet crap. With the new tractor and the improved HP, I never plugged the blower chute but the snow was so heavy it would just build up in front of the blower and not go through the fan (chute). I spent 8 hrs fighting a loosing battle and the whole time the snow kept falling.

When I got home I found the power went out at 9 am, while I was fighting the snow and it finally came back on tonight at 6 pm (33hrs). In the end we got a dump of 1.2M (4ft) in 24 hrs, according to my neighbor that measured it. According to my non measured observations it was well over 3'. I've almost got my driveway and my neighbors opened up and now its snowing again, with a forecast of another 12".

I just spent about 8 to 12 hrs plowing in reverse, looking over my shoulder and NEED a better solution.

This snowfall is unique and not likely to happen again in my lifetime but when I get a new blower I want to make absolutely positive that it will handle the mess I had to deal with over the last few days.

I see your pics (and thank you very much for those) and think that is close to what I went through today, trying to get to get to my neighbors. I couldn't make it up their driveway with chains on all 4's and nothing dragging in the snow. But I'm positive I could pull an inverted down the driveway in those conditions.

The biggest concern is whether the snow will build up in front of the blower like mine did today.

 

[Reb954]

I have never used an inverted blower so this may not apply.

We get some heavy storms here from time to time. One thing I have found that helps get thru the deep snow is to hold the blower off the ground 6" to 12" depending on the overall depth of the snow and consistency of the snow. That applies more weight to the back of the tractor so you can cut your way thru the deep snow. Once you get a path cut thru then go back and clean what was left.

Quite often if snow is building up in front of the blower it is an indication you are going too slow. Raising the blower will reduce the cubic feet per minute of snow you are blowing so, depending on conditions, you can increase your speed so you out run the snow building up in front of the blower. Each blower/tractor combination will have it's ideal cubic feet per minute but that will vary by snow conditions. The deep storms challenge us to find the ideal setting for blower height and speed to efficiently get the job done.

And sometimes we get that rare storm that doesn't have an efficient way to get it cleared so we just muscle through as best we can.

 

[Hilbilly]

I have never used an inverted blower so this may not apply.

We get some heavy storms here from time to time. One thing I have found that helps get thru the deep snow is to hold the blower off the ground 6" to 12" depending on the overall depth of the snow and consistency of the snow. That applies more weight to the back of the tractor so you can cut your way thru the deep snow. Once you get a path cut thru then go back and clean what was left.

Quite often if snow is building up in front of the blower it is an indication you are going too slow. Raising the blower will reduce the cubic feet per minute of snow you are blowing so, depending on conditions, you can increase your speed so you out run the snow building up in front of the blower. Each blower/tractor combination will have it's ideal cubic feet per minute but that will vary by snow conditions. The deep storms challenge us to find the ideal setting for blower height and speed to efficiently get the job done.

And sometimes we get that rare storm that doesn't have an efficient way to get it cleared so we just muscle through as best we can.

The last 2 days have been the most challenging conditions I have had to deal with and I'm not finished yet. Plus more snow is on the way.

Yesterday I had better success than the day before and I tried all of the suggestions you made. To my surprise, sometimes it was better to go faster but not always. There didn't seem to be any particular "happy place" to set the blower height or speed. I ended up having to go back and forth a lot. Lifting the blower to try to blow off the top of the pile that built up and then back up, to take another run at it with the blower lower.

One thing I know for sure. Now that I have 5' to 6' banks on both sides of the driveway, I am going to have blow pretty much every snow event ......... going backwards and looking over my shoulder.:smiley_aafz:

If any of the local dealers had an inverted blower that was wide enough for my tractor (84"), I would see about a trial run and then buy it if all went well. But around here there are very few blowers for sale (probably none left after this last storm and no dealer has ever brought in an inverted blower. At least not the ones locally.

After my personal experience with a 75" blower that has a 21" fan that is 7" deep, I now know to get one with a bigger diameter, deeper fan.

Well I'm off to do some more plowing and blowing. Hopefully buy the end of today I will be able to get my 4x4 truck up and down the driveway.

 

[airbiscuit]

We are getting the same storm here Hillbilly. I live straight west of Enderby. After seeing your post I measured our snow and see I got 12" of very dense snow overnight. I have a Kioti DK35SE rated at just 28 PTO hp. It has no trouble with dragging my 74" Meteor inverted through such snow. Your tractor is bigger and your chains more aggressive than mine so you should have no trouble.

The most I went through was 27" of snow in 2015 as shown in this post:

https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/snow-removal/328797-snow-your-area.html#post4000516[/URL

After reading your post I went out and did my driveway. I think the weight of the 12" or snow today was more than the 27" in 2015. I had to go slower today than in the 27" when the snow fell at about -5 C. Still, no trouble today but I will be back at it tomorrow as it is still coming down heavily. The Vernon forecast is for around 0 C tonight and then to warm up and continue with snow and rain. We're 800' higher so hopefully it will be snow.

Our power has been out at least a dozen times today from branches getting ripped off the trees. We have had a couple of longer outages but it is back on for now.

It's a lot nicer when it is a bit colder but it is fun either way.

Your pics are great. I hope you can get some videos this winter.

 

[kco]

I have never used an inverted blower so this may not apply.

We get some heavy storms here from time to time. One thing I have found that helps get thru the deep snow is to hold the blower off the ground 6" to 12" depending on the overall depth of the snow and consistency of the snow. That applies more weight to the back of the tractor so you can cut your way thru the deep snow. Once you get a path cut thru then go back and clean what was left.

Quite often if snow is building up in front of the blower it is an indication you are going too slow. Raising the blower will reduce the cubic feet per minute of snow you are blowing so, depending on conditions, you can increase your speed so you out run the snow building up in front of the blower. Each blower/tractor combination will have it's ideal cubic feet per minute but that will vary by snow conditions. The deep storms challenge us to find the ideal setting for blower height and speed to efficiently get the job done.

And sometimes we get that rare storm that doesn't have an efficient way to get it cleared so we just muscle through as best we can.

That does apply to inverted blowers Reb954. I did that this morning while clearing my neighbour's driveway. Yesterday the snow was very dense and I had conditions similar, but not as deep as Hillbilly's. I plugged the blower similar to what Hillbilly describes three times. I finally was able to keep it going continuously by regulating the intake via the tractor's speed. I went down to another neighbour's to clear his yard for the annual New Year's Day party they have for our road. He has an 82hp, 4WD Ford 6610 with a rear blade but I end up clearing his place at least once a year because it gets too much to do it with his blade and bucket. The area I cleared had over 2' of that heavy, cement-like snow. I tried it going forward and could have done it but I could tell I might wreck something. So I did the first pass(it's only 100' long) by backing up and pulling ahead. Once I had that channel open I could do it all in one pass.

They have not cleared our road and only 4WD trucks can manage it. So neighbours walked down to get to the party and my one neighbour and wife drove down on their tractor. I put concrete blocks in the truck and was able to drive. But we left before dark in case we got stuck coming back home (an uphill drive). It was fine but if we met another vehicle we likely would have both been stuck as we could not pass each other.

Yesterday I was unable to get to one neighbour's(it is where the photos earlier in this thread were taken) I always clear because trees were down over the road. So I did a couple of passes for two other neighbours' on the way home.

Today it was -3 C and someone had cleared the downed tree. So I was able to get to the neighbour at the end of the road. The colder weather made a big difference. The snow was likely as deep but so compact that the tractor was likely 3" or so higher by driving over it, making it only as deep as the top of the front axle. I had to raise the blower to do the first pass and after that I could take the full depth. In all I did three passes over the whole area to progressively shave off the snow.

I realise inverted blowers are not the right choice for everyone. However, each year I am more confident they are the best choice for my situation.

Our storm was not as dramatic as Hillbilly's but we must have had at least two dozen momentary outages in the last few days and a few lasting 1/2 to 2 hours. They are cause by snow-laden limbs falling. Most of the snow is off the trees now and every thing is stable today. But the road people have still not cleared our road. No doubt they are busy with the main roads. We are a class "D" on their schedule!

 

[airbiscuit]

KCO, would love to see a video of you in action!

 

[Hilbilly]

Today was totally different!! The temps this morning were -10C and I could easily go through the snow with the blower. No plugging and I could vary the speed to prevent build up in front of the blower. What a difference cold weather makes even on snow that was heavy and wet, then rained on. Today it was almost like powder.

My next door neighbours were overwhelmed by all this snow. Even with all the equipment they have, nothing was working for them. Yesterday I opened up their driveway with the blower but really struggled to get up their steep (15%) driveway. After the first pass it was easy coming downhill. I went to check on them today and the wife was in tears. They've been struggling to keep their animals fed and watered. They had to hand dig pathways to the various animals and carry water and food to them. I took the blower and ran backwards through some of their paths, to open them up, so they could get their tractor in and out. Some of the banks were over 6 ft high but the blower went through them easily. Definitely a job for a rear facing blower.

I've been backing up, looking over my right shoulder for 3 days now. I think my neck is frozen in that position and I will never be able to look to my left side again.:laughing:

I think next year I will get an inverted blower for the normal snow events and keep this one for the crazy events like this one.

PS if this is deviating from the thread intent, I can start another thread about this storm event. I took some pics today but didn't want to lead this thread astray any more than I already have.

 

[groundcover]

Pics are always good !

 

[kco]

I think they might be boring videos compared to most.

The only tractor video I have made I posted when mowing my neighbour's trail:

https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/118882-lets-talk-flail-mowers-post4561017.html#post4561017

I just have my phone and find it challenging to operate the tractor and try to get a video(as can be seen in the referenced video).

However, if we get a good snow and easy conditions I may try to get one of my snow clearing.

 

[airbiscuit]

Hard to take a video and operate. You'll bet better shots if you can get a friend to take the video.

 

[kco]

Today was totally different!! The temps this morning were -10C and I could easily go through the snow with the blower. No plugging and I could vary the speed to prevent build up in front of the blower. What a difference cold weather makes even on snow that was heavy and wet, then rained on. Today it was almost like powder.

My next door neighbours were overwhelmed by all this snow. Even with all the equipment they have, nothing was working for them. Yesterday I opened up their driveway with the blower but really struggled to get up their steep (15%) driveway. After the first pass it was easy coming downhill. I went to check on them today and the wife was in tears. They've been struggling to keep their animals fed and watered. They had to hand dig pathways to the various animals and carry water and food to them. I took the blower and ran backwards through some of their paths, to open them up, so they could get their tractor in and out. Some of the banks were over 6 ft high but the blower went through them easily. Definitely a job for a rear facing blower.

I've been backing up, looking over my right shoulder for 3 days now. I think my neck is frozen in that position and I will never be able to look to my left side again.:laughing:

I think next year I will get an inverted blower for the normal snow events and keep this one for the crazy events like this one.

PS if this is deviating from the thread intent, I can start another thread about this storm event. I took some pics today but didn't want to lead this thread astray any more than I already have.

I imagine our normal conditions are similar Hillbilly. If so, I think an inverted blower is the best solution. In heavy storms like these I usually end up helping a few neighbours who don't have blowers. That said, the neighbour that I just did 1/2 his driveway yesterday called in the evening to thank me. Instead of going to the New Year's party he used his CK2610 with a rear blade and loader to clear the rest of his 1/4 mile driveway. It is a challenging, steep driveway and he doesn't have chains. Still, he managed to clear it in 6 hours. That is possible because he has a steep drop off the entire driveway so he just has to get the snow over the edge.

He did order chains for his tractor but they will not be here until next week.

If you do decide to get a new blower you should order early. My understanding is there is about one crop of blowers made and shipped per year. One of the neighbours on our road is a co-owner of Timberstar Tractor in Vernon and was at the party yesterday. They also sell Meteor blowers(I got mine there). But he was using a normal push type on his long driveway. An order for an inverted blower was delayed for a customer so my neighbour loaned him his pull type and he brought home a used regular blower to use until he get his back.

Also, he just came through your area a couple of days ago. He delivered a used tractor to Edmonton and went via Clearwater, etc. Coming home he had to stop overnight in Clearwater because of the poor driving conditions. He saw several cars and 3 or 4 semis in the ditch between Clearwater and Valemont.

At any rate, it is likely best to get an order for a blower in before summer, or at least discuss it with the dealer.

 

[Hilbilly]

KCO, thanks for the heads up about ordering a blower in advance. I've been researching inverted blowers for quite awhile now and have downloaded as much info as possible from the websites of the main ones available in western Canada. I've also made up a spreadsheet with theoretical performance info for the different fan diameters and depths and I've watched every video I could find for them. I can't find info about the fan depth for the inverted Meteor blowers and assumed it is the same as the Meteor I have now (7"). Based on the info I have gathered so far, I'm leaning towards a Pronovost P-INV-80. It has a 26" fan that is 10.5" deep. That will process a lot of snow quickly, as long as I have the HP to drive it. Someone on this forum posted a video of his JD3720 tractor using one and I was very impressed with how fast he was moving. That tractor is 44 hp and mine is 60 hp, so I think it would be a good match for me. The videos I've seen of the Meteor inverted blowers don't show it moving very quickly and usually just blowing a few inches of snow. I would love to see a video of yours to see how fast you go and how well it deals with snows deeper than a few inches, maybe a foot or so, which is fairly common around here. I know there are some dealers in Kamloops that deal with MK Marten and will order an inverted Meteor blower if I want one but I don't know if any of them are Pronovost dealers or is they could get one if I wanted one. I did find a dealer for them in Edmonton and could have one shipped here (at a cost) but they're not cheap. I suspect the Meteors may be a little less expensive and easier for me to get. I just want to make sure the one I get will be what I really want and will be a good match for my tractor and conditions.

That's why I didn't order one or buy one of the other, bigger / better, rear facing blowers that were available in Kamloops earlier this year. I figured I would use this winter as a trial to see if there was a way I could back up without having to look over my shoulder and to try and envision using an inverted blower in the various snow conditions we experienced this year. So far I haven't discovered a way to back up that works well, other than looking over my shoulder and am now leaning towards an inverted blower. I think that, with my front plow would be a very good setup.

In any case here are some pics from today. Note that these pics are after the snow fell 2 days ago and then got rained on. So the depths are now less than they were when the snow fell. The pic of the tractor by the house is me cutting a path to my basement so I can get more firewood to the house, using the Ranger. If you look inn the background there is a wood fired hot tub that is completely buried and it is 4 ft deep.

 

[PEJ5]

Today was totally different!! The temps this morning were -10C and I could easily go through the snow with the blower. No plugging and I could vary the speed to prevent build up in front of the blower. What a difference cold weather makes even on snow that was heavy and wet, then rained on. Today it was almost like powder.

My next door neighbours were overwhelmed by all this snow. Even with all the equipment they have, nothing was working for them. Yesterday I opened up their driveway with the blower but really struggled to get up their steep (15%) driveway. After the first pass it was easy coming downhill. I went to check on them today and the wife was in tears. They've been struggling to keep their animals fed and watered. They had to hand dig pathways to the various animals and carry water and food to them. I took the blower and ran backwards through some of their paths, to open them up, so they could get their tractor in and out. Some of the banks were over 6 ft high but the blower went through them easily. Definitely a job for a rear facing blower.

I've been backing up, looking over my right shoulder for 3 days now. I think my neck is frozen in that position and I will never be able to look to my left side again.:laughing:

I think next year I will get an inverted blower for the normal snow events and keep this one for the crazy events like this one.

PS if this is deviating from the thread intent, I can start another thread about this storm event. I took some pics today but didn't want to lead this thread astray any more than I already have.

You are a kind neighbour Hillbilly. That is a mind boggling amount of snow.

 

[airbiscuit]

It's official, viewing posts on TBN costs you money. I just ordered an MK Martin / Meteor 68" Rear Pull Snowblower from Iowa Farm Equipment - Iowa Farm Equipment -- Contact Us . Shipping was way less than I thought, and all in, I saved many hundreds compared what my local dealers wanted. Now I just have to wait for delivery :drool:

 

[Hilbilly]

It's official, viewing posts on TBN costs you money. I just ordered an MK Martin / Meteor 68" Rear Pull Snowblower from Iowa Farm Equipment - Iowa Farm Equipment -- Contact Us . Shipping was way less than I thought, and all in, I saved many hundreds compared what my local dealers wanted. Now I just have to wait for delivery :drool:

Enjoy your new blower and every time you use it, appreciate the fact that you don't have to look over your shoulder while blowing snow.

KCO,

Do you know how deep the fan is on your Meteor blower? I'm going to try and get some pricing for the 78" when our phone lines come back in service. I'd be interested in what you paid for yours so I can get a sense of comparative costs with other inverted blowers I've priced so far. If you don't mind could you PM me. I'd also like to know if your dealer friend has any in stock. I'm even considering an 87" blower just for the extra width. We've been without phones for 4 days now and the forecast is that it wont be restored until Jan 20. There is no cell service here either. So my only means of communication with the outside world is email.

PEJ5,
I was over at the neighbours again today and ended up blowing a path into one of their outbuildings so they could get access to their bigger tractor. It was a struggle as it was all uphill and the snow was at least 4 ft deep.

 

[Hilbilly]

I forgot to post todays pics.

 

[kco]

Hi, Hillbilly. That is an insane amount of snow.


The price for my for my Meteor 75" pull-type when I bought it in 2011 was $4,504. That includes $130 for adjustable skid shoes and $600 for hydraulic rotation. The blower came with fixed, welded skid shoes. The hydraulic rotator included hoses and couplings. Taxes were additional to the $4,504. Freight was free because I ordered in the summer and the dealer orders enough blowers and other MK Martin equipment to get free shipping. That's another reason to order early if you can. When I bought the Meteor I also looked into a Lucknow which is also built in Ontario. Noble Equipment had a good price but thought the shipping might be up to $1,000. I never did get an actual firm quote for the shipping because I went with the Meteor.

The fan on mine is 8" deep by 23" in diameter. They no longer make the 75". They replaced it with a 78" with a 23"diameter x 8" deep fan. As you likely know, the 87" has a 27" x 10" deep fan, the same size as in 2011. What is interesting though is the 2011 blowers had 4 blade fans and the newer models have 5 blade fans. Intuitively, it seems like a 5 blade fan might have some advantages. Others viewing this thread my have ideas about that. That's why I put the information here rather than PM you.

I don't know if Timberstar has any pull-types in stock. I'm not sure what size my neighbour was using but I think it was likely a 75" or smaller since he uses it on a Kioti CK35. They usually try to estimate what they will require for a season and order them early. There's likely a good chance if any blowers were over-stocked this fall they are gone now!

Timberstar is owned by two brothers, John(my neighbour) and Jake Wiebe. Their business was large printing machines for printing on lumber and plywood in mills. They are like huge ink jet printers and they sell them all over the world. They started the Kioti business in 2009 and it has turned out to be very successful. Give Jake a call at (250)545-5441. He is very enthusiastic and likes talking about equipment even if you aren't buying from him. He and John are both knowledgeable about blowers and will gladly share their knowledge.

Thanks for the photos. All this would be more fun if it was a bit colder.

Cheers

 

[Hilbilly]

Hi, Hillbilly. That is an insane amount of snow.


The price for my for my Meteor 75" pull-type when I bought it in 2011 was $4,504. That includes $130 for adjustable skid shoes and $600 for hydraulic rotation. The blower came with fixed, welded skid shoes. The hydraulic rotator included hoses and couplings. Taxes were additional to the $4,504. Freight was free because I ordered in the summer and the dealer orders enough blowers and other MK Martin equipment to get free shipping. That's another reason to order early if you can. When I bought the Meteor I also looked into a Lucknow which is also built in Ontario. Noble Equipment had a good price but thought the shipping might be up to $1,000. I never did get an actual firm quote for the shipping because I went with the Meteor.

The fan on mine is 8" deep by 23" in diameter. They no longer make the 75". They replaced it with a 78" with a 23"diameter x 8" deep fan. As you likely know, the 87" has a 27" x 10" deep fan, the same size as in 2011. What is interesting though is the 2011 blowers had 4 blade fans and the newer models have 5 blade fans. Intuitively, it seems like a 5 blade fan might have some advantages. Others viewing this thread my have ideas about that. That's why I put the information here rather than PM you.

I don't know if Timberstar has any pull-types in stock. I'm not sure what size my neighbour was using but I think it was likely a 75" or smaller since he uses it on a Kioti CK35. They usually try to estimate what they will require for a season and order them early. There's likely a good chance if any blowers were over-stocked this fall they are gone now!

Timberstar is owned by two brothers, John(my neighbour) and Jake Wiebe. Their business was large printing machines for printing on lumber and plywood in mills. They are like huge ink jet printers and they sell them all over the world. They started the Kioti business in 2009 and it has turned out to be very successful. Give Jake a call at (250)545-5441. He is very enthusiastic and likes talking about equipment even if you aren't buying from him. He and John are both knowledgeable about blowers and will gladly share their knowledge.

Thanks for the photos. All this would be more fun if it was a bit colder.

Cheers

Thanks for the info kco. Very much appreciated. The PM suggestion was only because I thought you may not want to publicly post prices, since the salesman was a neighbour.

The fan size is important to me since that dictates the volume of snow the blower can process and how far it throws it. The distance is only important if there is some minimum that a person needs to throw the snow. For me that is about 20 FT, 30 would be better. I just need to get it across the driveway from one side to the other and the bottom part of my shared driveway, with the neigbour is quite wide. The important part for me is the combination of diameter and depth because that determines the volume. The higher the volume the faster I can travel. I've noticed that some manufacturers indicate the housing size and some indicate the fan size, which makes it hard to compare blowers. Are the dimensions you provided the size of the fan or the size of the housing it rides in?

My driveway is 1.5 Km long and I expect it would take 4 passes to do it completely. So a total travel distance of 6 KM. With my current blower and my previous tractor is would typically take 2 hours to make one pass down and one pass back up on the other side. However,when I was doing this, I was blowing snow that was plowed to the side as many times as possible before having to blow it. Which meant it was very compacted. Not the same as blowing freshly fallen snow. I would prefer not to have to spend that much time blowing snow, every time it snows and my thinking is that with the inverted blower you are committed to blowing every snow fall. Correct me if that is wrong.

It's odd that when blowing that deep snow, in the pics above, the blower was working well and would throw the snow about 30', if I didn't push it too much. It was still a very slow travel speed but that is to be expected when trying to move that much volume with a small fan. I didn't run out of HP but had to slow down to let the blower catch up. Today was a nice day and I managed to do about half of the blowing using the mirrors. My 66 year old neck appreciated that after 3 days of looking over my shoulder.

 

[fishhead]

I believe that fan diameter has an impact of throwing distance with a bit of a side effect on volume - it seems that greater fan diameter really eats up hp. The depth of housing seems to change the volume pumped more. As always there are optimal combinations but i think if i was most worried about volume and speed i would look hard at the drum depth. once the snow goes far enough more distance just eats up power-though way more fun

I would think with a normal say 4-6 inch snow that you could drive around maybe 8-9 kph (probably faster) as you would have 56 pto hp over 80 inches and i have 35 pho hp on a similar 74 inch blower . Can often run those speeds downhill or on the level in those conditions. So 20 minutes down and back?
I find there are times you do a quick and dirty down and back and others where you have the time to really clear it all.

one thing you could look at that was mentioned in another thread is a nitrogen accumulator on your 3ph
these help with the shock from bouncing while roading the blower- probably not required for civilians

Thanks for the info kco. Very much appreciated. The PM suggestion was only because I thought you may not want to publicly post prices, since the salesman was a neighbour.

The fan size is important to me since that dictates the volume of snow the blower can process and how far it throws it. The distance is only important if there is some minimum that a person needs to throw the snow. For me that is about 20 FT, 30 would be better. I just need to get it across the driveway from one side to the other and the bottom part of my shared driveway, with the neigbour is quite wide. The important part for me is the combination of diameter and depth because that determines the volume. The higher the volume the faster I can travel. I've noticed that some manufacturers indicate the housing size and some indicate the fan size, which makes it hard to compare blowers. Are the dimensions you provided the size of the fan or the size of the housing it rides in?

My driveway is 1.5 Km long and I expect it would take 4 passes to do it completely. So a total travel distance of 6 KM. With my current blower and my previous tractor is would typically take 2 hours to make one pass down and one pass back up on the other side. However,when I was doing this, I was blowing snow that was plowed to the side as many times as possible before having to blow it. Which meant it was very compacted. Not the same as blowing freshly fallen snow. I would prefer not to have to spend that much time blowing snow, every time it snows and my thinking is that with the inverted blower you are committed to blowing every snow fall. Correct me if that is wrong.

It's odd that when blowing that deep snow, in the pics above, the blower was working well and would throw the snow about 30', if I didn't push it too much. It was still a very slow travel speed but that is to be expected when trying to move that much volume with a small fan. I didn't run out of HP but had to slow down to let the blower catch up. Today was a nice day and I managed to do about half of the blowing using the mirrors. My 66 year old neck appreciated that after 3 days of looking over my shoulder.