3PH Snowblowers - pros and cons

[RoyJackson]

What is the minimum snow depth where a blower makes sense? 6"? 12"?

I don't use mine until it's 5" or so...I guess you can use one with as little as 1 or 2 inches (seen videos on Youtube like that), but there is no minimum...jut what makes sense to you.

 

[buickanddeere]

A snowblower gets rid of the snow. Instead of leaving banks and berms of snow to cause drifting that would not otherwise occur.
Blading snow is for applications where it snows every week or two with enough warm weather between to melt the snow away.

 

[fishhead]

There are also 3pt throwers that allow you to drive forward....they're typically called "inverted" snow throwers. They're very popular in Canada, or other places that get heavy snowfalls.

I got one of these for this winter (inverted)and have probably used it 20 times or so, snowfalls from under 2" to accumulated snow about 18". I think for my use it may be faster than a blade/ plow as it makes the snow go away and on smaller snowfalls i am going full speed medium range (roughly 7 mph) I used to blade the same areas only slightly faster and then would spend extra time moving the berms and piles back. I ended up with some ice build-up after being away , scraped it off with my Fel and then just used the blower to make that stuff go away- efficient and fast. I think the rear pull is much nicer to use than either a front or rear push, it follows me at basically the same offset from my tires on straights and curves, If i really need to see the exact edge of the inlet i just look back and down, much better vis than the other options. So, not cheap, perhaps not the best for deep drifts (have used to get rid of piles up to 4 ft deep simply by backing into it then forward (not as fast a a rear push but much faster than the loader)). Rear pulls definitely merit consideration.

 

[PHPaul]

I started out plowing with a front blade on an open station JD750 compact. Worked, but COLD and traction was an issue.

Got into a situation where I could afford to put a plow on my Chevy K3500 truck. I plowed with a truck for years. Warm, yup. Quick...well, sorta, until you have to start winging back the banks because you ran out of places to put the snow. Expensive in terms of original purchase price and front suspension parts for the truck, and makes a thirsty truck even thirstier.

Bought a new, expensive truck and didn't want to beat it up with a plow, so I bought a used 3PH blower for the JD.

COLD? Betcherbutt. Snow gets blowed up yer skirt? Yep, that happens. But when you're done, you're done. No winging back. No worrying about where you're gonna put the snow. Nice clean job and I enjoyed doing it except for the snotsickles hanging off my mustache. Made a few bucks moving banks for folks with plows too.

This year, I added a nice, cabbed Kubota with hydro, live pto, power steering and HEAT! It does NOT get any better than that (well, maybe a front blower but I'm not even sure about that).

I wouldn't put a plow on my truck if someone bought me one.

 

[GManBart]

When you get more than a few decades of age behind you, turning around and driving backwards for long periods can be a real issue for old necks and backs. It's the primary reason I don't have a rear blower.

A front blower would be nice (but costly) except that I like to/need to use my fel in the winter and I don't want to have the pain of swapping them out all the time.

My fel and rear blade do nicely (and inexpensively) for me.

You can have your cake and eat it to. An inverted 3pt blower allows you to drive forward and keep your FEL bucket in place. It's win-win!

 

[gladehound]

I'm going to say something extremely controversal. I've used front blades, rear blades, rear mount rear face snow blower, standard buckets and a snow bucket with Edge Tamers. For deep snow the snow bucket is the most enjoyable and efficient to use ( for me). In did a 500 ft driveway with a 50 by 50 turn around in 45 minutes with 45hp tractor w power reverser. Half was drifted to ~4ft the other half was blown down to 18 inch. The drifted side was towards the road and had to enter though plow pack + drift. Not something most plows could move.

On light snows I used a hydraulic angle rear blade but think a reverse rear mount blower with snow bucket in front would be my 1st choice. But it's money!

 

[GManBart]

On light snows I used a hydraulic angle rear blade but think a reverse rear mount blower with snow bucket in front would be my 1st choice. But it's money!

I don't think that's controversial at all. A snow push box/snow bucket in front with an inverted blower would be a great combination. Add a hinged scrape blade with hydraulic actuation behind the blower and it would be about as perfect a setup as possible.

 

[RoyJackson]

I wouldn't put a plow on my truck if someone bought me one.

Neither would I...beats the **** out of the truck.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Only thing worse and probably even more expensive in the long run is to put one on a belt driven ATV.

Of course, where you live plays a huge part in all of this.

 

[chim]

My current setup is a rear blower and FEL. Each one is too handy to not have and that prevents me from wanting a front blower. Next time I get a birthday cake it will have 67 candles if the cake is big enough to hold them and looking backward isn't bad. I spent all day Sunday clearing snow, then when the landscape / snow removal outfit wasn't able to open our two facilities I sent our rollback to get my tractor. His 3/4 ton 4x4 pickups couldn't deal with the deep. Between my tractor, our Montana and the "PlowHoe" (Tahoe with a plow) we worked on snow Monday and Tuesday all day. Still have some stuff to trim back at our one location.