Snowblower Snowblower Question - How fast can I go?

[etgjr]

I live in the U.P. of Michigan where we get lots of lake effect snow. I have a Kubota 4330hst and am thinking about getting a snowblower to keep the 1/2 mile road open to my camp.
Here is my question; with a 6 foot blower, how fast (miles/hour) can I blow snow under the following conditions:
6" of no moisture fluffy snow?
12" of no moisture fluffy snow?
18" of no moisture fluffy snow?
6" of moderate moisture snow?
12" of moderate moisture snow?
18" of moderate moisture snow?
6" of heavy wet snow?
12" of heavy wet snow?

Thanks in advance, Ed

 

[trlong]

etgjr,

Would love to give you an easy answer but, that's a lot of what-if's. What 6' blower may be significant (especially when dealing with the deep/wet snow), front or rear mount, short or tall discharge chute, impeller clearance ... If rear mount/rear facing, I don't think you'd want to be backing up very fast. If rear mount/front facing, your front end traction, clearance, tires, and steering would dictate a lot. If front mount (my preference) you can probably go the fastest but, only within the abilities of the blower and your safe steering.

In any event, I don't think you want to try high range for any type of work, other than simple transport from one place to another. Keep it in low range, feed the blower enough snow to keep it blowing but, with wet snow, don't push it so as to clog the impeller/chute. If any one has the same tractor with a 6' blower (similar to whatever it is you're looking at) they'll probably have more info but, a lot has to do with trial and error as the snow is not snow, is not snow...(how many words for snow do the Inuit's have?).

Good luck,

Tom

 

[Dutch445]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I live in the U.P. of Michigan where we get lots of lake effect snow. I have a Kubota 4330hst and am thinking about getting a snowblower to keep the 1/2 mile road open to my camp.
Here is my question; with a 6 foot blower, how fast (miles/hour) can I blow snow under the following conditions:
6" of no moisture fluffy snow? <font color="red"> FASTEST </font>
12" of no moisture fluffy snow?
18" of no moisture fluffy snow?
6" of moderate moisture snow? <font color="red"> SOMEWHERE IN THE MIDDLE </font>
12" of moderate moisture snow?
18" of moderate moisture snow?
6" of heavy wet snow?
12" of heavy wet snow? <font color="red"> SLOWEST</font>

Thanks in advance, Ed

)</font>

Could be anywhere from 1-2 miles per hour,, up to 7 or 8,, depends on conditions, and all of those other variables mentioned above.

a snowblade, that can broadcast at an angle, would probably be the fastest overall, until the snowbanks got so big that you couldn't keep the drive as wide as needed.
/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[bncsauve]

I can tell you about my experience. I have a 5' JRW rear mounted mower (back up style) on my 25 hp Kioti. About 20pto hp. I only have 2 speeds in reverse. At pto speed on the engine, no matter how much snow was on the ground, I would not be able to blow snow in high gear. It would be too difficult to back up at that speed and I'm pretty sure the blower would not be able to keep up. In low gear, you only really have one choice and that is how ever fast your tractor goes in reverse at pto speed. (doesn't matter how deep the snow is.) For me that's about walking speed. I have never had snow that I couldn't move in low gear at pto speed. I have used the blower so far from 3" up to about 6" of very heavy wet snow and up to about 18" of moderately dry snow. I will also add that if I want to go slower, I use the 1000 rpm setting on the pto at a lower throttle speed unless I start bogging down the engine. Hope this helps.

 

[44trxfun]

I agree with all the advice you've gotten thus far. I would just add to listen to your tractor and blower. Between performance and the sound, I think you'll be able to adjust to conditions for optimal speed. Have fun!

 

[George2615]

Ed,
I also agree with the others. It's a slow go no matter how you look at it. If you go too fast in heavy wet snow, you'll probably overload the blower and bust a shear pin. That's how you know your going too fast. I've plowed over 40 years but the snowblowing I did was always slow going. That's how I found out how fast to go, I sheared several pins then figured I better slow down and let the blower chew its way through.Usually the low moisture fluffy stuff can be blown away pretty brisk speed.

George

 

[Deerlope]

Ok thats an easy question. Just watch you RPM's and when drops below what you got it set at you are going too fast. RPM's tell a lot of what your attachment is doing.

 

[etgjr]

Thanks everyone for your input.

What I'm trying to get a sense of is how long it's going to take me to run a decent 6' blower 2 miles in various conditions. Thats 4 runs on my 1/2 mile road.

Sounds like I'm looking at around an hour maybe a little more for a "decent" snowfall. Could be more with a whole lot of wet stuff. Will probably be less with 6" of "fluffy" stuff.

-Ed

 

[robison]

I have 3/4 of a mile to clear where I live, two shared driveways, a 1200 foot cul-de-sac street, and two regular driveways. That takes 1-2 hours. There are stops to adjust the chute, move things, and forward and reverse to work around stuff.

A continuous straight road would be faster but if it has driveways etc it gets shower

 

[cag]

Ed I have a CK30 HST with a 6' snowblower, I can work in High gear in a minimal snow fall but it's not suggested, most will say high range is for travel, I mostly do my work in mid range, one of the roads I maintain is about 3000 feet long, 12 inches of snow takes about an hour, I crank up to full RPM an away I go, when the RPM drops I slow down, this is due because the snowblower is at full capacity of intake and I have to give it a chance, that being said I found the snowblower to be faster then the truck fisher plow combo, HST is the best trany in my view for the snowblower attachment(FASTER) When you do purchase try to get the dealer to throw in a set of skid shoes, I find them to be very valuable for uneven surfaces, I attached a pic of the little beast...cag