Newbie concerned about snow

[Friver]

Thanks for the info. We had our first snow yeaterday - just a dusting, but an early dusting. Still framing the Garage(toy barn), so getting nervous about finishing before the real stuff hits.
I dont expect to purchase tractor till I am sure I am going to have a place to keept it, but that is only about a month away. I had been talking with a Kubota dealer in town here and he came up with what seems to be some fairly decent numbers, but I havent pulled the plug yet. There is another Kubota dealer about half way between my home and my "2nd home" and this dealer also handles Woods equipment. I am talking with him now. After reading some of the posts on here, I thought it was worth looking at the Woods BH.
Now I am wondering if I should be looking at a Woods Snowblower instead of the Kubota.
I had to stretch to justify the B3030, so I just cant go for any more horsepower.

Friver

 

[m7040]

Remember you can never have too much HP. It is all about travel speed since most tractors can handle large mowers or blowers if you go slow enough.

 

[WayneW]

I had to stretch to justify the B3030, so I just cant go for any more horsepower.

Friver

Have you considered a "basic" tractor such as the B7800. It'll provide the same PTO HP as the B3030 for less $$$.

If you are looking at 5' blowers you will want 22.5 PTO HP at the least. I have a B7610 (18 PTO HP) with a 4' front blower and it works fine. The 4.5 hp per ft is the lowest I'd want to go. 5-5.5 hp per ft would be better, esp in deep, heavy snow.

Also keep in mind that larger tractors have larger blowers with bigger augers and wider shutes. That transmits into moving larger volumes of snow more quickly, which all takes lots of HP to do. The L series blowers are larger than the B series blowers, which are larger than the BX blowers.

 

[Stoweski]

My drive is well packed down with good gravel , but I groom it every year also so the weeds and grass don't creep up on me, and it just looks good.Go to a site called driveway groomer.com. as they have a very good and very inexpensive way to keep a drive looking good, or if you want to spend more DR has a very good one also.

Herb

Hey Herb... nothing like product promotion! I assume you bought it... how do you like it?

Get ready, snow is coming!
Keith
Kubota B7610

 

[cheesehead]

If you are still framing the toy house consider having at least an 8 foot high garage door for your tractor. That will eliminate the need to fold the ROPS and eliminate toy house damage when you don't fold the ROPS.

 

[Friver]

Weather has settled down a little, so framing is on. the "toybarn" will have 9ft garage doors, so I should be in great shape for avoiding damage to the overhead.
I have considered the B7800 and I am still considering it. My original thought was to go with the B3030 if I went Rear mount snowblower or to go with the B7800 if I went with the front mount. Equipped that way, they came in about the same price. I somewhat prefer the B3030 and it has - according to the brochure - 23 PTO HP. That may not be on the high side, but it sounds like it should be enough to run the blower.
I only have a couple of acres that I intend to use this on, and I typically buy something, take reasonable good care of it and hang on to it for a long time. I expect this to be my one and only tractor (or, to last for at least a loooonnnng time). I am still considering other accessories - Grapple, chipper, box scraper but will wait and talk with dealer about those.
Thanks for the help and I appreciate any advice.

Friver