Snow Attachments Pull-type inverted vs front snowblower on compact

[Jasper7]

Shopping for new Kubota B2301 or Kioti CK2510 for my 4 acre forested property and 1000 mostly flat gravel driveway. I clearly want to face forward clearing snow. For some reason the Kioti front blower is insanely expensive. I can save a ton by opting for a pull blower on the rear. Nice that I can keep the FEL on too. Wondering if there are any drawbacks I知 missing here.

 

[RickB]

Front mount blowers are all insanely expensive by my yardstick. Low production numbers, complicated drives. I have seen inverted blowers and know a guy that has one. I couldn’t picture myself dragging one through 24 inches of snow or 3 foot drifts after a 6 inch snowfall and high winds. I used to live in upstate NY and I think inverted blowers are a gimmick. I had a rear blower and could clear within a foot of my garage door. Not happening with an Erskine.

 

[JerryK]

One of the reasons front blowers are expensive is that the subframe underneath, that the snowblower is mounted to in the front, is made heavy enough to transfer the blows a front implement encounters to the drawbar in the back. It is usually made to take front blades, brooms, and other front mounted devices.... not just the blower. They also require a added gearbox. A front blower is basically the same as a rear blower. The additional gear box allows the front driveshaft to connect at a lower angle than having to be connected in the same plane as the center of the fan, and the blower being able to be mounted closer to the tractor as a result. And, this gearbox can allow a bigger fan, the thing that does all the work. Plus the ' we can charge more for the stuff you really want ' thing. A rear blower is just mounted to the 3pt. To me, the second best option is a rear facing blower. It will handle big drifts/banks and usually is not that big a deal if your operator area is big enough/designed to let you sit a little side saddle. The rear pull are popular for contractors in residential areas because they can back in and blow out... then on to the next driveway. They have less to deal with close to the house. And, they are all about doing lots of drives faster for more money coming in. For me, the rear pull would be sort of useless. We get big snows that you would struggle to drive thru, let alone dragging a implement behind you while doing so. And every few years we get big drifting. But for lots of folks, the rear pull is OK. Erskine makes a front blower that is not tractor dependent, one which you can use on various makes, in case you are thinking of possibly changing tractors in the future.

 

[airbiscuit]

I have an inverted snowblower and I love it. I previously had a conventional 3pt snowblower and got tired of looking backward all the time. Because it is easier to use going froward, I can do the same area in half the time. If you can drive over it, you can blow it with an inverted. Also, It does scrape clean even though you drive over the snow first. Mine is mounted on a large frame 40hp tractor. Not sure how it would work on a 25hp small frame tractor. Here are the pros and cons as I see it:

Pros

• Good alternative to a front mount snowblower
• Significantly cheaper than a front mount snowblower
• Does a nice job of removing snow
• Can still use your loader
• Easy to attach

Cons

• Costs a bit more than a conventional 3pt snowblower
• Not meant for extremely high snow areas/4' drifts

 

[Fallon]

I couldn't use a pull blower here in Colorado on my new L4060 much less my old L3200. And a B is much smaller. We get plenty of snows I couldn't drive through & even bigger drifts a lot of the time. Unless you get small snows with no drifting a pull blower will be useless with the small ground clearance on a B sized machine. You need a push blower on the front or rear.

Different equation for bigger heavy machines with lots of ground clearance and operations that can plow/blow with the storm.

 

[airbiscuit]

Yep

 

[Hilbilly]

I have a rear facing blower that I've used for 10 years but had enough of the sore neck syndrome and got an inverted blower this year. For my conditions the inverted makes sense. I don't get drifting snow and don't usually get more than 12" in one event sometimes 18". But before getting the rear facing blower I would use a rear blade for all the snow events. If I could pull the rear blade for all of our snow events, I knew an inverted blower would be fine for my needs. I kept the rear facing blower and glad I did because we had one event that dumped 48" of snow in 24 hrs. Nothing worked for that except the rear facing blower. Another note here: people think the inverted blowers will not scrape all the snow away because you drive on it first but my experience is otherwise. The new inverted blower will scrape right down to gravel because it has a cutting edge and the weight to get it down. It works much better than my rear blade for this and better than my old rear facing blower because the old blower does not have a cutting edge.

I think there are a lot of considerations for determining what is best for your needs. Personally I think the front mount blower would be the best, IF you do not need to take it off once the snow season starts. From what I have seen there is a lot of work / time involved in mounting and unmounting them but they work awesome. You drive forward and can see everything that is going on and they spin faster so they blow the snow further and faster. However they are very expensive and you have to remove your FEL to use them. So if you don't have to use the FEL for anything else during the winter AND you don't mind spending the large amount of cash for a front mount, I would go that route. The rear facing blowers are much cheaper and work great plus they leave the FEL open for other uses, like a snow pusher or front plow. The downside is that you have to face backwards to use them. If your driveway is short that is probably not an issue. My driveway is one mile long and I only used the blower after the plow could no longer push the snow off the sides of the driveway. Then the blower would get used and it would take anywhere from 1 hr to 4 hrs to blow the snow. I can tell you from experience that KILLS the neck (well on old people anyways).

I now use the inverted blower for almost all of my snow blowing needs and leave a snow pusher on the front of the tractor. That works very well for maintaining the driveway and the areas around the house and outbuildings. But I still need the rear facing blower occasionally to blow snow away from buildings when it has been shed from the metal roofs. Here a front mount blower would be better but it only takes a few minutes to blow that snow away and switching from the inverted blower to the rear facing blower is not time consuming or difficult and I don't do it often.

 

[finn1]

My opinion is that once you have a front mounted blower, you will never consider anything mounted on the rear.

 

[MJ1964]

Shopping for new Kubota B2301 or Kioti CK2510 for my 4 acre forested property and 1000 mostly flat gravel driveway. I clearly want to face forward clearing snow. For some reason the Kioti front blower is insanely expensive. I can save a ton by opting for a pull blower on the rear. Nice that I can keep the FEL on too. Wondering if there are any drawbacks I知 missing here.

I run a 60" inverted Meteor on a BX 2670, no chain or weighted wheels. My driveway if flat, asphalt and about 200 feet near Hudson WI. It works great. As stated earlier, if it can drive through the snow, it can blow the snow. i have a FEL if needed, but so far I haven't and February 2019 was a record month for snow in our area. I would probably plan on making multiple runs if you think the snow is getting too deep. I would theorize that you could lift the blower off the ground a few inches and shave off some height if you are able to drive through it. It's just nice to be moving and looking ahead. You can go quite fast with a snowfall less than 6" It's also nice that the blower is behind you so you don't get much snow in your face

 

[PILOON]

Well I have had some experience with both front and conventional rears.
My mount is a CUT and I'll suggest you want lots of weight to operate a rear 'pull'.
Most CUT's simply are not heavy enough especially in wet compact snow.
You will find that your light weight will simply create a mine field of compacted ruts and ridges.
In dry fluffy snow no problem.
For a 'pull' be sure that you are heavy enough that your tires always make it thru to the road base no natter the snow condition.
If the old 'sore neck' is your concern then simply install a back up camera and never look back. (like as low as $50-100)
Added is the fact that 'pull type' and 'front mount' are almost double priced to conventional rear.
It's your money!