Considering a CRI snow pusher.

[mwark]

I currently have a rear mount 72" blower. I use my bucket as oftent as the blower. I have close to three acers that I keep clear, most of it is turf.
I'm giving strong consideration to adding a 72" snow pusher.
I've not been able to find much info on CRI but I really like the looks of their tool. Any feedback or advice would be very much appreciated. Thanks!

CRI snow pusher

 

[5030]

A snow pusher relies on the size and weight of a tractor to be able to push the pile generated by it. Why you always see snow pushers attached to large articulated front end loaders in commercial use, simply because tractors lack the weight and tractive effort to push especially heavy and wet snow into a pile of substance. Little compact tractor equals little weight and tractive effort equals limited pushing capacity.

Myself, I have a 9 foot commercial (retired) power angle plow on the front of my M9 cab tractor and a lot of times, even with chains on the front drive wheels, the plow will steer the tractor, especially in heavy wet snow.

 

[mwark]

My thougt is that 6060 has no problum pushing the 72" bucket well over 100yards in the heavest of snow. The same size pusher shouldn't be a big leep.
I'm guessing that with the loader, loaded tires and rear blower I'm pushing 6000lbs.
BTW I'm in Piscataquis county, we can get serious snow here.

 

[leonz]

You really do not have enough weight to use a snow pusher.

The snow will build up and will weigh 52+ pounds per cubic foot
and just keep rolling and compacting and then you have to raise
the loader and keep pushing until it stops you again.

Have you thought about mounting wings on your snow blowers
side weldments and attaching slick sheeting to the wings and
your snow blowers impeller housing and the chute to reduce
clogging and snow build up and by doing so increasing your
casting distance?

 

[mwark]

You really do not have enough weight to use a snow pusher.

The snow will build up and will weigh 52+ pounds per cubic foot
and just keep rolling and compacting and then you have to raise
the loader and keep pushing until it stops you again.

Have you thought about mounting wings on your snow blowers
side weldments and attaching slick sheeting to the wings and
your snow blowers impeller housing and the chute to reduce
clogging and snow build up and by doing so increasing your
casting distance?

This is interesting. The tractor in the CRI ad is much smaller than mine. Do you think these manufacturers deliberately missleading us. I'm not picking on CRI, nearly every manufacturer have pusher that they promote 30-40 hp tractors.
As far as the Blizzard 72" blower, I'm able aggressively feed it the heavest of snow with no issues.

 

[leonz]

It is nothing more than a sales pitch, it is nice and shiny, and they have a
convenient mule to use for the photography.

You have to have a lot of mass and adhesion/traction to be able to use these things.

The other thing they won't tell you is if you hit something with it screws up the
geometry of the loader causing it to wrack/twist

Then the loader arms and pins are damaged.

Then you have to decide how soon you can find a machine shop with the experience
of using a line boring machine to fix the damage to line bore the loader arms as they
may well have to remove the loader if the boom pivot pins and bushings are pinched
and hope the mounting frame still has the proper geometry and if not those bushings
have to come out and then the loader arms are bored out for new larger bushings.

If the inner welds are not reinforced with steel angle iron and there is no reinforcement
like box tubing welded to the rear plate in the rear of the pusher to keep the side weldments
from spreading it will not last to long.

Save your money for a wider rear mount snow blower like the Pronovost P-860 TRC model
with the rotating impeller drum that bypasses the chute to discharge the heavy wet snow
left or right.

 

[mwark]

I did a review of my stats. I'm moving about 7000lbs with 62 hp and I'm learning that this is not nearly adequate for a 6 foot snow pusher. My original post was to try and learn more about the manufacturer, CRI. I would love to hear from others that have tried a pusher with a setup similar to mine and learned the hard way. Thanks.

 

[RjCorazza]

I added 24" wings to my front blade used on a similar weight L4060. It works well for smaller snows, or when I can push the snow off to the edge of the long rural driveways I plow. Angling the blade makes it relatively easy to push a pile off to the side.

I wouldn't try to plow a parking lot with it though.

 

[oldnslo]

Snow pushers are like snow blowers in that the consistency of the snow makes a big difference in weight and power required to operate them. Light dry fluffy snow suspect you would have little to no problem with that pusher. Wet heavy snow and I suspect you would run out of traction quick.

No experience on CRI equipment.

 

[mwark]

Snow pushers are like snow blowers in that the consistency of the snow makes a big difference in weight and power required to operate them. Light dry fluffy snow suspect you would have little to no problem with that pusher. Wet heavy snow and I suspect you would run out of traction quick.

No experience on CRI equipment.

I get what you're saying regarding differant types of snow, I've lived in Maine my entire life. My confushion is why would a 6' HD bucket be any less challanging than a 6' pusher? In fact the bucket will very often pick up turf (lots of it) that the pusher likely will not.