Snow 3 point hitch mount vs front snow blower mount

[ruko]

I have front mount mid PTO snow blower on my HST JDeere small tractor. I'm going to upgrade to a higher HP tractor, not JDeere. I'm considering a rear mount 3 point snow blower because of the cost difference and the hassle of connecting the drive shaft to the mid PTO, etc. Trying to decide between HST and shuttle transmissions. Plowing backward appears to be hard enough besides having to hold an HST pedal down. I would appreciate any ones thoughts/suggestons on this.
Thanks

 

[airbiscuit]

How long is your road/driveway? How big a tractor are you considering?

 

[RSR]

How flexible is your neck, and how long will you have to be looking behind?

I manage it, but I could see how it could become bothersome getting older. The best strategy I've found is to essentially sit cross-saddle in the seat and work the hydrostatic pedals with your left foot.

As nice (and expensive) as a front snowblower is, it also decreases tractor functionality. During the winter I use my loader with pallet forks for bringing in wood each week. That ruled out a front snowblower.

If I was ONLY snowblowing all winter long, I might have thought harder about it.

 

[KennyG]

I had a 3 point blower for a while, and have switched to a front mount plow. If the snow gets over a couple of feet deep, I'll put on the loader and clean up the edges. The blower was OK, but a lot slower and, as has been noted, backing up is not ideal. HST and backing up was never a problem. For heavy wet snow, I would want the HST.

 

[airbiscuit]

For about a thousand dollars more than a 3pt snowblower, you can get a Rear Pull snowblower. I love mine.

 

[RjCorazza]

I'm in the rear blower camp, but I don't run the blower that often. I have never given a second thought to operating an HST and rear blower... Non issue.
Some day I will get an inverted blower with a hydraulic rear blade. Backup to garage, drop blade, and go!

 

[ruko]

How long is your road/driveway? How big a tractor are you considering?

Almost 1/4 mile total. Looking at at least 40 HP which almost doubles what I have now. I want to run a brush hog or maybe a mulcher to cut down acres of buck thorn I have on the property.
Thanks.

 

[oldnslo]

I have run rear blower on both geared and HST transmission tractors and there are pros and cons to both. Gear drive is nice in that you do not have to keep your foot on the go pedal to keep moving which does limit your ability to move in the seat. Our one gear drive tractor also had three speed power shift for each manual gear so could change speed without clutching this was a nice feature. HST is nice since you can now instantly change your speed for drifts, working around buildings etc. I find this useful for lower HP tractors where you are power limited. I have not used a shuttle shift but suspect would be similar to gear drive for maintaining speed.

Limited exposure to rear pull type and would be a little concerned on 40 HP tractor having the power and ground clearance to use one.

 

[airbiscuit]

I love my MK Martin Meteor Rear Pull snowblower. I do my same area in 1/2 the time it used to take me with my 3pt rear blower. Front blowers are great, but expensive. With a Rear Pull blower, I also retain the use of my loader. My 40hp New Holland has all the traction and power I need - no issues. I bought mine from Iowa Farm Equipment. I got a great price and shipping was less than I expected.

Iowa Farm Equipment - 563-946-2121
Iowa Farm Equipment -- Contact Us
-

 

[ruko]

My neck ain't that flexible anymore. Good thought about a front blower decreasing the functionality of the tractor. It would be nice to have the bucket and the grapple available without the hassle. I experimented backing the whole drive way and I guess I could do it although really not very comfortable. I wonder if it's possible to use mirrors which I don't have on my tractor? My new tractor will have a heated cab and big mirrors.

Thanks

 

[shooterdon]

I love my MK Martin Meteor Rear Pull snowblower. I do my same area in 1/2 the time it used to take me with my 3pt rear blower. Front blowers are great, but expensive. With a Rear Pull blower, I also retain the use of my loader. My 40hp New Holland has all the traction and power I need - no issues. I bought mine from Iowa Farm Equipment. I got a great price and shipping was less than I expected.

Iowa Farm Equipment - 563-946-2121
Iowa Farm Equipment -- Contact Us
-

Agree. My pull blower is on an LS and it works very well. $4k for a 74" FarmKing two years ago. No driving in reverse and I have an adapter that lets me mount my back place on the SSQA so I can plow and back drag as needed.

One hint. I can use the front blade to windrow the snow into the center of the drive, then run down the center with the blower and clear the snow out. It reduces wear and tear on the moving parts of the blower by and having more snow to blow lets the blower work better. For heavy snowfalls I do not use the blade. Also, increasing the volume of snow by windrowing the slushy crap helps the performance of the blower. Blowers to not like slushy snow.

 

[ruko]

i have a thought about the uncomfortable backing up problem. How about installing a back up camera on the tractor. I see on the net they aren't too expensive(120$) and some have a 7 inch screen. Wireless, 1080p and digital. I could face forward, back up and watch the monitor. No sore neck. I'm excited.

 

[airbiscuit]

A rear facing camera would help. You do understand that with a Rear PULL snowblower, you drive forward when blowing snow? They are worth the extra $1,000.

 

[finn1]

I wouldn’t even consider a rear blower, nor would I consider a tractor without a cab for blowing snow.

Not sure how a pull blower would work on a compact tractor in a 24” snowfall. Seems like a recipe for disaster.

 

[killingitcountry]

How flexible is your neck, and how long will you have to be looking behind?

I manage it, but I could see how it could become bothersome getting older. The best strategy I've found is to essentially sit cross-saddle in the seat and work the hydrostatic pedals with your left foot.

As nice (and expensive) as a front snowblower is, it also decreases tractor functionality. During the winter I use my loader with pallet forks for bringing in wood each week. That ruled out a front snowblower.

If I was ONLY snowblowing all winter long, I might have thought harder about it.

I'll echo what has already been said. I have a Kubota BX25D with a front mount BX2755HD blower. It's a great set up but it makes the tractor a single purpose machine which sucks. I end up changing from loader to blower and back again after large snow-falls to maintain functionality and versatility of my tractor. I'm getting pretty good at it and can do it in about 10 minutes. A loader mounted blower would be ideal ... if only tractor manufacturers would give us a tractor with hydraulic remotes on the loader that could flow like a skid-steer. That would be a real game changer in my opinion. I wold literally never take the loader off again.

- James

 

[airbiscuit]

I wouldn’t even consider a rear blower, nor would I consider a tractor without a cab for blowing snow.

Not sure how a pull blower would work on a compact tractor in a 24” snowfall. Seems like a recipe for disaster.

If I regularly got 24" snowfalls, I probably wouldn't use a rear pull snowblower. Neither the OP nor I live in the UP, and seldom get snowfalls of over 20". His 40hp (cabbed) tractor will be big enough.

 

[ruko]

A rear facing camera would help. You do understand that with a Rear PULL snowblower, you drive forward when blowing snow? They are worth the extra $1,000.

Yes I understand how the pull blower works. Watched multiple videos on the subject. It is definitely interesting. I'm considering it.
Thanks

 

[ruko]

"I would literally never take the loader off again." Totally agree.

 

[hube2]

I have a rear blower. When I was looking at tractors I debated the possibility of a front blower. I've been living here a long time and I know what I have to deal with when it comes to snow. The biggest downside for me of a front blower would be that I would not have the bucket when I needed it and if I needed it I would need to swap out the blower for the bucket every time. I get huge drifts. This winter I have had to pull down these drifts several times with the bucket so that I could blow it out of the driveway. With my old tractor/blower without a bucket this used to mean getting out a shovel and hacking down the drift so that I could get through it. It's not the amount of snow around here, though we get a lot of it, it's the wind and drifts that will kill you.

Yes, backing up all the time can get tiresome, but once I am on the tractor I generally do not need to get off until I'm done. I could not imagine taking the time to switch the blower and bucket when it's freezing out there and the wind is howlin.

And maybe my tractor is different or I am more nimble for my age than I think, but I can turn almost completely sideways in the seat and not have an issue with reaching the peddles and other controls. So I'm not really craning my neck at all while I'm backing up.

It is slower to blow snow, but I cannot say it is slower to blow snow backwards than frontwards. I've done both. I clear an area that is 120x60 feet. Takes about the same time as it did if you consider the difference in tractor size. The old one was a lot smaller and took a lot more time. You can only go as fast as the blower can dig through the snow.

Another advantage that I've found with the rear blower is that I can blow around tight curves through 2 foot of snow. I could not do this with the last front blower I had, the thing could only blow snow in is straight line. If I needed to turn I had to go back and forth making small angle changes until I could start moving in a new directions. With the rear blower I just turn it into the snow and keep on chooglin.

What someone uses, really has nothing to do with what someone else uses. Everyone's driveway and snow conditions are going to be different. The equipment you get should consider what you will have to deal with rather than what someone else is doing or what someone else thinks is best.

 

[KWentling]

My neck ain't that flexible anymore. Good thought about a front blower decreasing the functionality of the tractor. It would be nice to have the bucket and the grapple available without the hassle. I experimented backing the whole drive way and I guess I could do it although really not very comfortable. I wonder if it's possible to use mirrors which I don't have on my tractor? My new tractor will have a heated cab and big mirrors.

My advise is go sit in the tractor that your looking to buy and see what lookin back is going to be like. In my Kubota M7060 which is a utility tractor and bigger than you are considering,
There is not room enough in my cab to turn yourself much in the seat due to the fender liners of the cab interfering with my knee. You should also take note of how operating the HST pedal will be. I tried the camera/monitor for backing and didn't work all that well. Mirrors were probably better. How useful those are has a lot to do with how defined the edges of your road are. Mine can be hard to see, and about half my blowing is done in the dark. I blow about 3/4 mile road about 16' wide with an 84" Woodmax. That blower is now mounted on the front. Our Wyoming snow seems to always be on the move so drifting is why I use a blower. I was a little leary of a rear pull because wind blown snow can get hard enough that the tractor can ride up on it. Wasn't sure if a rear pull would stay on the road surface or ride up with the tractor. That could have been remedied by using the loader to break it up I suppose.

From having read a lot of these post, everybody's experiences are different. If it's in the budget and you can justify the cost of the rear pull or front blower that is my recommendation. If you need the loader in the winter go rear pull. If you don't have neck issues a 1/4 mile drive doesn't take that long to blow and if your road has well defined edges you can probably get it done with mirrors or camera so the conventional rear blower would be more cost effective.

HST work great for close quarters and being able to match speed to conditions. Mine is hydraulic shuttle and I have to clutch at times and change gears at times because I can go from 3' drift to bare ground in 15'.