Loader Moving a snowblower up front

[HighTwelve]

I own an L3010 and a rear mount Woods snowblower. Actually, somebody else OEM’d the snowblower for Woods but that’s another story. The snowblower works fine as does the tractor moving snow while backing up, but every winter I get to thinking about mounting it somehow in front.
My L3010 has a Great Bend loader on it which uses a skid steer flat plate mounting system for the bucket. I’ve already bought standard mounting plates and with some welding rigged up a snow plow for the tractor and also a set of pallet forks.
Creating a custom three point hitch in front looks doable, but how much of a problem would it be to get a continuous PTO link to the mid tractor male PTO stub (which, BTW, I have never had any reason to use).
I know that this would result in a lot of weight out front, but I normally run a 700 lb weight box on the 3 point when I’m using the loader anyway.

 

[nybirdman]

I think it will be a lot more complicated than just a front mount.Blower rotation direction for one problem:Mid pto speed may be another problem.My BIL has a front mount but has to remove the FEL and drive off the
"rear" PTO via a shaft.This was designed to be a front mount not a conversion.

 

[dodge man]

I agree, the mid PTO turn something like 3 times faster than the rear PTO.

 

[rbargeron]

Rotation direction and speed both need to change. Might be easier to sell the blower you have and shop for a front-mounted blower compatible with your tractor's ptos. A possibility is to find an Erskine FM front mount model driven from the rear - it has a mirror-image blower head with a long shaft from the back. An example to look at here.

You'll notice the Erskine turns the other way. The pto shaft is driven by a rear box. They have hydraulic raise/lower and chute turner. These look huge but they mount/dismount reasonably easy and do a great job. They are very rugged so buying used is usually low-risk. Prices vary a lot. I've had several blower styles over the years and the Erskine is the winner in my book.

p.s. a couple blower projects here and here. IMHO these were each easier than rigging up a front 3-pt hitch would be. Take care, Dick B

 

[JWR]

Hey Hi 12 -- in your shoes (and if you have a little bit of adventuresomeness about you...) I would consider an hydraulic motor driven front blower as follows:

1) Use your existing snowblower
2) Do some web shopping and find a 'good' (meaning strong) front mounted 3pt hitch with the hydraulic motor and male pto shaft, etc. included. I have seen those advertised and just forget where. Direction of turning is no issue as most of them have a direction change feature AND it can't get any worse than swapping the two hoses. Cut and try that until you get it right. One example is Skid Steer Quick Attach Adapter | Skid Steer Solutions and pictures of it down below.
3) RPM of course does matter. Have some serious dialog and discussion with the seller of the front 3pt hitch and PTO and find out what the available RPM range is versus what you need on the snowblower. I suspect they will both home in on 640 rpm for obvious reasons.
4) Available power matters too -- more discussion with the front 3pt hitch mfr. That is probably buried in their specs.
5) The rest is mechanical mating -- I'm pretty sure you can get the front mount 3pt rig to fit a standard SSQA. Probably have to work hard to do otherwise. I think it is very likely you can do this project without any welding (!)
6) This will involve a rear PTO mounted pump and a set of hoses to run up front. Be sure to use larger diameter hoses than one would use for non-motor devices. Very likely you will want to run a free-wheeling overrun clutch in the back OR better yet a valve that allows freewheeling of the blower when you shut it down, etc. That sort of plumbing/valves is used by "Laneshark" in their front mount rotary cutters and solves MANY issues from my personal experience. Lookup Laneshark and you'll get the idea.
7) OOPS, I forgot you will need to include some sort of hydraulic fluid sump/tank for the pump to draw from. I do not think for winter/cold operations that the tank needs to be very big. If intended for hot weather I would go to a larger sump/tank. I'd add a filter in-line too.

p.s. I do NOT think you want to try running the blower off the tractor hydraulics at all. I've tried that with large front cutters before going to a LaneShark. Much larger tractors than your 3010 lack the realistic oomph to give you robust hydraulic drive for those kinds of "motor" applications.

If I lived where I had "frequent, regular, many days per year" snowblower use, (and already owned a rear blower) this is how I would do it. Avoids all the issues of routing mid-pto shafts and u-joints and strange rpm differences, wrong rotation direction, etc. On top of that, this rig would allow you to try all sorts of other things on the front of the tractor.

Second picture below actually shows a snowblower attached to a skid-steer using one of these rigs.

 

[Dave M7040]

There is another solution. Drive the blower from the rear pto. This takes care of rotation direction and pto speed.

It will limit the lift height of the FEL.

Look on this web site.
SNOWBLOWERS made in Ontario, SMYTH WELDING & MACHINE SHOP 519-529-7212

Gearbox "D" is the one for this setup.

Personally, I like the inverted blower.

Dave M7040

 

[aczlan]

There is another solution. Drive the blower from the rear pto. This takes care of rotation direction and pto speed.

I have a 7' Loftness that is setup that way on our L3830 and it works very well.

Aaron Z

 

[Fallon]

Inverted are great if you have a big machine, but wont work on smaller machines or if you get lots of drifting. No way I could have made one work here in Colorado on my old L3200. I'm dubious I could make it work on my L4060. We get a lot of wind & serious drifting here though, which means you have to drive through those drifts & not get stuck.

Less drift prone areas, or an outfit that can plow (blow) with the storm can also make them work better.