Snow Equipment Owning/Operating Pictures of your snow weapons

[Rustyiron]

32* snow sucks!
Tractor is "dressed" for the winter.

I'll be playing with the snow tomorrow sometime.

 

[airbiscuit]

Tested out the WIFO Inverted today It Wings the snow and drove it through a couple feet on the unplowed loop drive way 3 storms worth and did not get stuck or have to pre plane with the bucket

Still have to bucket the berm at the road

So, what's the verdict? Are you happy with your purchase? Did it's performance meet your expectations?

 

[sd455dan]

So, what's the verdict? Are you happy with your purchase? Did it's performance meet your expectations?

Yep. It Really did do Well.

kind of a long post , but here goes

As posted earlier I left the other end of the loop driveway alone since Before all these storms piled up. Wanted to see if blowing going forward and not pre cutting with the bucket was possible with deep multiple storm snow.
Pretty sure there is 2 feet there.
It took most of the 50 or so HP at the PTO but expected that with the large 27 inch diameter impeller.
My tractor is rated at 2000 RPM and PTO speed is 1900 RPM, don't generally rev it that high- bush hogging or tilling, so getting the largest impellor was part of the plan to make the most of hopefully running a bit under 540 and taking advantage of the fan tip speed.

I made it all the way through WITHOUT stopping then turned around backed up (3 point lifts this unit nice and high) and repeated going back up the drive . Had I tried that with the bucket It would have taken at least twice as long if not 3 times.
The tractor would have made it several feet and then would have had to bucket off to the side.

I still need to use the FEL to clear the plowed in part of the drive from the hi way department but that is what the bucket is still good for. Not sure that I would use a rear facing blower for that either lots of ice and compressed chunks it would have to shred.

I even made some trails for the wild turkeys.


Several things that impressed me with the WIFO Inverted so far

Impeller to housing clearance is Tight, less than a quarter inch.

I Got a bit more width. With the built in "wings" the outside width is actually about 87 inches.

Snow does not go over the top of the back of the blower, even the time i did bog the engine the high back plate seems to keep it in the box and the perforated top cover acts as a coarse rock/debris shield.

If in too high of gear in the really deep stuff the load can start to bog the engine , but that is where an Inverted or front mount shines with a tractor like this one that came with only a high or low reverse gear.

With 6 forward gears there Is a gear that will get the job done effectively.

A bit extra weight as well- if the decal on the side is correct it says 1275 lb. Actually needed to add a couple extra pounds of air to the rear tires to reduce side wall bulge,
Lots of steel

Nice welds and Good powder coat Job.

The entire Blower drive is Really quiet.

Checked the 90 degree box ( a Comer) no heat was detectable after the deep and heavy snow test wasn't expecting any either, Nice tight lash with very little drivetrain play.

It had the correct, at least for my remotes Quick connectors.

I still need to contact the dealer and see if there is a longer stroke cylinder for the deflector. For now I made a steel extension
(not in the pic below) and it gave enough range for "almost" all needs but a longer cylinder would give Full range.


Would I recommend a WIFO Blower as a well built, well priced, quality unit, with only one day of initial use.?

Yeah I would. Very Impressed.

I Think Inverted blowers in general are eventually going to be the dominant style here in the US "eventually"

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

You need a cab on that thing. You've already got the hydraulic chute controls.

 

[Hilbilly]

Good to hear you like the blower, especially after such a long wait.

I have often wondered how my tractor (53 pto hp) would perform with a larger fan like yours. The fan on my blower is only 23.25" x 7". It performs well and throws the snow a long ways but I sometimes wish the fan were bigger so I could travel faster. Oh well, I still have an inverted blower that works great and no more looking over my shoulder for hrs at a time.

If you get a chance, post some more pics and a video would be awesome.

Hoping you get more snow to play with. Enjoy.

 

[airbiscuit]

I keep saying that if dealers kept s demo on the lot, they'd sell a bunch.

 

[Gordon Gould]

We got 15" here. Pushed hard and turned to polished concrete when you moved it. Wife took this while I was out plowing.

Edit: Thankfully the ground was frozen.

gg

 

[LouNY]

We ended up with 12" of soggy wet heavy crap. Even just walking on it packed it down to 4" block.
Then to help even more where the previous small storm hadn't been squeegeed off the temps were high enough
that the new warm wet snow sucked what little bit of frost was in the ground out of it.
So real easy to move gravel, dirt and sod in places, then numerous sticks and limbs had fallen off trees and
several small trees had fallen from the weight of the snow that I couldn't use the blower just the bucket
and backblade. Most of the trees were under 6" butts, so just shoved them off and over the banks with the bucket.
The warm temps today have shrunk the snow level down to under 8" in most places.

 

[grsthegreat]

We still have about 30” on ground, measured in area i dont move snow in. Been staying cold. I like that alot better than snow, melt,snow,melt routines.

there saying to expect another 7-10” next storm. Time will tell

 

[sd455dan]

Good to hear you like the blower, especially after such a long wait.

I have often wondered how my tractor (53 pto hp) would perform with a larger fan like yours. The fan on my blower is only 23.25" x 7". It performs well and throws the snow a long ways but I sometimes wish the fan were bigger so I could travel faster. Oh well, I still have an inverted blower that works great and no more looking over my shoulder for hrs at a time.

If you get a chance, post some more pics and a video would be awesome.

Hoping you get more snow to play with. Enjoy.

Your kubota has a bit more HP at the PTO.

The engine in the Rhino is a very long stroke, long rod, under square design , but fairly large cubic inch engine at 3.26 liter it does have a very good torque rise. Only 100 RPM above PTO speed to the governor speed

I knew that i would run the blower at around 1600-1700 RPM so wanted the largest diameter fan in this overall width of blower.

Did test the theory by selecting to high of gear in the deep stuff... the tractor can definitely be pushed to run out of power, but the blower is still willing. It does an excellent job of moving the snow with the auger which is 20 inch in diameter haven't really seen it try to over stuff itself yet.
It also (after looking more closely at it) has to two center flipper flights to throw the snow directly into the 4 blade forward cupped impeller.

Did take a short video just holding the camera and looking around on the unplowed drive way. Got the horses attention with the flying snow.

Will see if I can upload it to youtube and then share a link.

Did some more blowing with it today and So far even in the fields just can't get The tractor stuck. It does probably help to have fairly tall R1s lots of ground clearance and for its HP a heavy tractor

At least with a mid sized tractor starting to think the worry over driving over the snow with an inverted is over 'Blown"

It actually works better to leave the bucket up in the air not moving any snow and put the tractor in first or second 4x4 and lift the blower just a little if it hooks something. I took it out to the plowed IN by the county, drive end and removed the peak of the berm with the bucket and then just backed over it. berm was still large enough that the blower was hanging in the air even with the 3 point all the way down.

I was amazed, the WIFO just chewed it up and spit it out. Very happy with this inverted blower . It is a Pleasure to use and IS going to save me TIME.