59" Deere blower on a 720

[gravelyctry]

Some quick background:

My driveway is about 3/8 of a mile long, with curves, and about half of it drifts badly.

I've spent the last 7 years clearing it with a 30" walk behind. If it's bad, it can take me 5 hours or more, and at the end, I'm beat. Also, if it's blowing, the lane will be half blown closed by the time I'm done.

So anyway, I've been looking at the Deere snowblowers, as I've got a 720 lawn tractor, but I just couldn't justify spending the kind of money they wanted for them, and I couldn't find a good used one. Finally, the local dealer got a snowblower in on trade that was about 5 years old, but hadn't been used! It was a 59" front mount blower made for a compact utility tractor. It was sold with a 790 compact, but the buyer found it too difficult or time consuming to switch between the loader and the blower, and just put the blower in his shop.

At first, I was thinking, "Yeah, right, sure." But looking at the blower, there wasn't a scratch on it anywhere - inside the impeller housing, the augers, the inside of the chute, etc. There was original paint on everything - no touch up paint, either. So I bought it. When I got it home, the first thing I did was to adjust the shoes on it, and found that the paint wasn't even worn off the bottom of them!

I ended up buying the quick-tach bracket that Deere makes for their 54" blades, beefing it up, and then fabbing up some new brackets to mate up to the blower. I got everything tacked together last night and everything looks and runs great. I'll even be able to reuse the driveshaft that the blower had on it.

It's a pretty heavy unit. The input uses a gearbox instead of the chain drive that the 47" and 54" units have on them, and the auger gearbox is quite a bit larger as well. I'm hoping this translates into a longer life and better reliability.

So, now that I have this thing, I probably won't see another flake for 5 years. I'll try to get some pictures of it later this week and post them.

It was really a pretty simple fit up. I was really surprised. There weren't any hitches or problems, and the mounting brackets were very simple as well.

I've also got the front drive and mounting attachments now for a 790. If anyone would like this stuff, let me know. The dealer wouldn't split it up from the blower.

I figured I'd post this here in case someone wants to consider a 59" front mount blower for their X700 size tractors.

Neil

 

[sunnyside360]

Seems like you did really well in acquiring a like new 59 Snow Blower. That unit will move a lot of snow in relatively short order so your road clearing time should be almost insignificant. I have over half a mile to clear and my 59 works great throwing snow 30 to 50 ft away from the road. It's a real animal.
Now, you need a cab if you don't already have one and work will be more like play.

 

[mfreund]

Congratulation on the new blower. I used to have a 322 w/ a 46" thrower. I used to clean all the neighbors drives because it did not take enough time to do just mine. Wish I still had it.

 

[couch-man]

I have wondered for a long time about mounting the 59 in snowblower on a 2305 if your X720 is working it okay a 2305 should. Any issues with the hydralics lifting with your set-up? Speed with a heavy snowfall on first pass? Want to see pictures of mount and modifications, please.

 

[Nuru]

I am considering a 64" PTO blower Frontier for unit and even though it may not get a ton of usage - the few times I would need it will be enough to save the time instead of being out there for hours with my blade when I could be inside enjoying more space and heat in my house - even though 6 hours recently in my tractor was pretty easy and comfortable

It is a cabbed' unit!

 

[Spudland_Dave]

I am considering a 64" PTO blower Frontier for unit and even though it may not get a ton of usage - the few times I would need it will be enough to save the time instead of being out there for hours with my blade when I could be inside enjoying more space and heat in my house - even though 6 hours recently in my tractor was pretty easy and comfortable

It is a cabbed' unit!

IMO Nuru....go with the 74" Frontier (SB1174) its only a hair more money and better sized for a 3x20....
I've got that exact blower (in a red paint job) on my 3520 cab and its a perfect match.