Converting a Snowblower to front mount (help)

[dourobob]

Thanks Chuck

Not sure what a Range 1 Super is - who makes/mfgs/sells it?

Bob

 

[kennyd]

Bob,
Have you seen THIS in the classified section?

 

[dourobob]

Thanks
Yes, I saw the ad and sent an email to the seller but I haven't heard back. I don't know how else to contact him. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

Bob

 

[kennyd]

Sorry to hear that, I guess you have searched fot the model he listed?

 

[dieseltoys]

I just thought I would jump in here with my two cents about hydralic blower conversions now that I got around to scanning a couple of photos. I used to own a 5ft one that I converted myself from 3ph to fel mount. The tractor was an L245DT and as I quickly learned these are not really the best with the blower on the 3ph for a few reasons. One being that with only two reverse gears, RL was still too high to deal with more than 6 inches of snow. Second, the unit did not have live pto and if you had to stop, the blower would also stop turning with a full load of snow in it and usually ended up plugging the chute upon restarting. By putting it on the front I gained a couple of lower gear ratios and the ability to keep the unit running constantly, not to mention the usual advantages like looking forward and having the blizzard of snow further away from me. If I remember right I ended up with a 28 GPM pump through the formula of one gpm per hp of transfer. THe tractor was rated at 25hp. I had it direct coupled to the spline on the front of the engine crankshaft with a lovejoy coupling at the pump. I calculated the flow at 3000rpm based on the ci displacement of the pump and selected an appropriate hydralic motor to give me the right impeller speed. The valve I used was good for 30 gpm with 2500psi relief setting. This was just right as a few times I hit something with the auger and it actually stalled the blower without shearing a bolt or stalling the tractor. Rick is right on with the tank sizing, I had 25 gallons in mine and it would heat up pretty good after an hour or so of use, I never actually measured but I'd estimate 150F. The unit was mounted at the bucket pivots and had a 3ph top link to adjust the angle of attack. The bucket roll circuit was used to rotate the chute through a linkage as you can see in my third pic. The cylinder on the right side was locked solid so it couldn't move. I also employed the use of a pair of check chains to limit the height it would raise and protect the hoses from streching too far, although I could still get it up about 16 inches off the deck. This unit worked excellent, I used it for five seasons before I parted with it. It would throw snow about 30-35 feet and I could chew into anything, my shop had a steel roof and the pile that would slide off would get 5ft high and solid as concrete yet I could chop away at it and send it flying. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Steve

 

[dieseltoys]

Here's the other side. The hydralic tank is one I made from scratch with a proper suction strainer and a filter on the return. The valve was mounted on top of the tank and actuated by a lever next to the loader valve that would pull it by a cable

 

[dieseltoys]

Here's a closer view showing the linkage for the chute rotation.

 

[dieseltoys]

Here's one showing the unit in action cleaning up the side of my shop, the building was 60 ft long. and I would try to keep ahead of it and had to do it at least couple times a season. One year before I started doing this it piled up too much and caved in the steel in a few places. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[dourobob]

Hi Steve
That is a very impressive piece of work.
I am curious about a number of things but let me start with four questions:
1 - what was your total investment (approx) for the conversion?
2 - how much shop time di it take?
3 - was there any issue with weight distribution having the tank at the front AND on the right side (versus centred or all the way across the frame or at the rear of the tractor.
4 - If you were doing it again would you do anything differently?

Thanks very much.
Bob

 

[Jim_W]

Hey Bob,
How are you doing?
Totally different direction in the conversation here but have you considered driving frontwards through the snow with the blower on the back facing the front?
I know for certain I have seen a picture of a modern auger-type blower that can be mounted this way somewhere on the net, but of course I can't find it now.
I did find this which looks to be an older and maybe bigger thing than you want.
I have an old V type that faces frontwards and I find I have no problems with driving through the snow (a set of chains really helps).
Jim

 

[dourobob]

Hi Jim
Good to see you on the TBN board. I'm not fully recovered from the eye surgery yet but making steady progress.

Thanks for the link - interesting idea. I have see the "drag along" type and I'm not sure if I could get into the areas around the house with the set up - I'll do some more thinking on that.

Bob

 

[dieseltoys]

Hi Bob, thanks very much on the comment. Well to answer your questions I did this conversion about ten years ago, at the time I think I spent around $1000 cdn for everything. The pump and hyd motors I sourced through the Surplus center: I have their recent catalog but unfortunately the identical components are no longer listed as their inventory is constantly changing. I think Rick had some estimated prices in his post for some of the components which looked pretty close, all depends how much time you want to spend researching and shopping around. Northern tool and equipment in Minnisota or Princess Auto in Canada are good sources for hydralic stuff too.
There was some machining involved to make up the coupler between the motor and fan input shaft and the stub shaft off the front of the engine to drive the pump which I was able to do myself as I have access to this type of equipment. I would say I had at least 30 hours of shop time in on this due to some of the engineering involved, it might have been more if I factor in the research and running for parts.
As far as weight disribution the tank being offset was not even noticeable although the unit was probably about as heavy as a loader bucket full of dirt. Not much of a concern if you have 4wd and power steering, unfortunately mine didn't have the latter and it was a little awkward in tight areas but the rear brakes always helped with that. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
If I did it again the only thing that would have been nice was some sort of quick attach system to switch between the loader buckets and mounting the blower as the pins were a bit of a pain to line up sometimes. The switch between bucket and blower would take about 15-20 minutes once I had it all perfected. But the improvement in usefulness and performance having the blower up front was well worth the effort, the only thing that would beat it was a hydro driven machine and a direct drive front mount unit, which incidently is what I upgraded to eventually.
Another note, if your machine has a live pto I would probably opt for a rear pto pump and maybe the resevoir in the rear too unless you want to mount a rear blade. (I did prefer to have my rear blade on to be able to push and scrape if I needed to) It's also important to run large enough hoses to handle the flow volume. My only concern in your case it that you do have a larger machine and will have to get a pretty large pump and motor, at least 30 gpm to transfer enough power and a fairly large resevoir or some type of oil cooler. Hope this all helps.

Steve

 

[RobertN]

I think I found a possible solution, which is bolt on for the most part. In my previous repoly, I mentioned setting it up with a hydraulic motor, and using a skid steer typ disconnect for the snow blower and your loader bucket.

Well, somebody has one available. It is made so you can put a 3pt w/pto on a skidsteer. For a tractor, it would need a skid steer atach plate put on the loader arms, and remote hydraulics.

Check out these links; some even show implements installed.
www.skidsteersolutions.com/pages/9/
www.top-power-tools.com/buy/12839

Possibilities... /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[dourobob]

These are great Robert - thanks
Now, does anyone have similar websites/pictures of the PTO and undercarriage set-up for front mount blowers that seems to be the main alternative to hydraulic (except, of course, for the drag behind style which I am still investigating).

Bob