Pros/Cons of Front Mount Snowblower vs Rear Mount

[gravelman]

To my knowledge it has a front pto. I only use the scraper box to move small piles of snow off the bottom of the driveway and not to plow the road; I use it more like a finish tool when using the blade in front. Was just curious about using a blower instead on the front and to keep the box on the back for quick pushing situations. Also, as a tag-on, curious about the best blowers for thick, heavy west coast snows on a 50hp turbo tractor (front or rear).

Unless you have ALOT of driveway or widen roads for a town...i would put blower on back. There will ALWAYS be a storm the blower can't handle easily. This way you have the bucket or a plow on the front to get out of a jam. i speak from experience :cool2::cool2:

 

[hugho]

Just bought my neighbor's Kioti DK50 and been plowing my 1.5 mile long driveway with it this year. Considering getting a blower next year and wanted to know the pros/cons of the front mount to the rear mount. I am thinking with a front mount I can leave the box scraper on the back to quickly push piles while blowing with the front. It is not uncommon to get 4' snowfalls here and a couple of times last year I had to make 2 passes with the blade to get down to the road because of so much snow. Anyone have any experience comparing the two? Ideally, I'd like to get a hyrdaulic front blower, but I need to make some money this summer to afford that, so most likely I'd be looking at a pto for the front.

We get 200-250"/yr and I have done our farm driveway with a big hwy surplus rear mount blower and a more modest 6', and 2 front mount snow plows on a tractor and my cummins pickup plow. I gave up on blowers years ago. The pickup plows are screaming fast and when the snow on the sides gets too deep I brink out the 70 hp kubota to clean up. I would never use a blower again as they blow rocks and animals and children as well as snow and require maintenance

 

[triangel]

I have a t1510 New Holland with a front mount new holland snow blower on it, and from my experience the front mount is the way to go but saying that I had a rear mount for 20 plus years and used it on my New Holland for about 10 years and it did the job. Pros you are looking forward and as you get older that is a nice feature, but you need front wheel assist or a lot of rear ballast and chains or you will not move it' also I found that it requires more power if you have a midmount pto than the rear. I had an 84" farm king dual stage on the rear and I moved a lot of snow with it . when I got the front mount it is only 72" dual stage but because you are going thru another gear box at the front to reduce the speed from 1000 rpm to 540 or so it loses power. but the convince of not looking back makes it worth while.

 

[grsthegreat]

I have a t1510 New Holland with a front mount new holland snow blower on it, and from my experience the front mount is the way to go but saying that I had a rear mount for 20 plus years and used it on my New Holland for about 10 years and it did the job. Pros you are looking forward and as you get older that is a nice feature, but you need front wheel assist or a lot of rear ballast and chains or you will not move it' also I found that it requires more power if you have a midmount pto than the rear. I had an 84" farm king dual stage on the rear and I moved a lot of snow with it . when I got the front mount it is only 72" dual stage but because you are going thru another gear box at the front to reduce the speed from 1000 rpm to 540 or so it loses power. but the convince of not looking back makes it worth while.

I find with my hydraulic blower i dont need chains, but since i do swap out with the front plow i do need chains. Trying to run my plow without chains means driving sideways.

 

[pstahl]

I had this Inland blower on the three point on an 84 JD2350. I later built the power unit and modified it to run on the front. It was great and still is now setup on my JD 5105M. Let's just say I never looked back! There is no comparison having it on the front and it is all set up with quick disconnects so I can put on my bucket or forks if I need to.

 

[RoyJackson]

I had this Inland blower on the three point on an 84 JD2350. I later built the power unit and modified it to run on the front. It was great and still is now setup on my JD 5105M. Let's just say I never looked back! There is no comparison having it on the front and it is all set up with quick disconnects so I can put on my bucket or forks if I need to. View attachment 678867View attachment 678868

Very cool!
So, you added a hydraulic motor? Does it drive the installed PTO gearbox? Or, did the motor replace the gearbox?

 

[pstahl]

So, the blower is powered by a CharLynn 6000 series hydraulic motor. The power unit is driven by the 540 rpm PTO. The key is a 1:5.51 speed increaser that I bought from Surplus Center. That allowed for a much smaller hydro-static pump. The combination pushes 30gpm at up to 3,000 psi to the motor on the blower. The hydro-static pump allowed for a much smaller reservoir and of course the pump pressure adjusts based on the load.

 

[pstahl]

Very cool!
So, you added a hydraulic motor? Does it drive the installed PTO gearbox? Or, did the motor replace the gearbox?

I just realized you were asking a different question. The CharLynn motor drives the original PTO gearbox on the blower. The motor is a 112-1064.

 

[PILOON]

At one time I mounted a blower on my CUT front end forks and drove it direct via chain drive.
Also briefly operated a 7 ft blower on a TN 60.

While easy on the neck I did discover a few negative aspects.
Due to up front length and overhang turning and up close work was tricky as you could only guess where the blower corners were.
On turning that wide sweep posed a challenge, not great for any 'up close work' like near cars in a parking area.
With all that extra weight up front traction and ride were compromised.
The TN60 installation nearly self destructed due to stresses at the mating points.

LOL, my CUT setup worked reasonably well up to the point that it ingested a hidden object and self destructed.

Most popular with suburban contractors is rear mounted reversed blowers that work in a pulling mode.

Seems big front mounted rigs are mainly on huge loaders and self powered are dedicated to highway snow bank removal and large parking lot accumulations in my area.