Snowblower Snowblower width
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PILOON
Super Star Member
The general rule of thumb is "about 6" wider than your tires" and another is "5 hp per foot of blower".
I run 60" behind a 20 hp and up to 5-6" of powder snows no problems but over that or with wet heavy snow you need to develop techniques.
Trick is to not lug the engine down.
With HST matching speed is easy but generally a slow process depending on snow type.
I run 60" behind a 20 hp and up to 5-6" of powder snows no problems but over that or with wet heavy snow you need to develop techniques.
Trick is to not lug the engine down.
With HST matching speed is easy but generally a slow process depending on snow type.
leonz
Super Member
As Piloon has said technique is everything,
You need to have loaded tires and good chains
if you expect to push a seven foot snow caster.
The great thing about a wider animal on the back
is you can take half cuts at a faster speed strictly
dependent on the snow depth, repeat the snow depth,
repeat the snow depth....
AND if you have heavy wet snow you need to slow down and
be sure you have cooking spray or fluid film to spray the chute
and spout and impeller to keep the snow from sticking due to
the heat from the friction of moving the snow.
Slow and steady speed wins the snow casting race each and
every time along with loaded tires and good 2 link V bar or
grader chains with chain tensioners.
You need to have loaded tires and good chains
if you expect to push a seven foot snow caster.
The great thing about a wider animal on the back
is you can take half cuts at a faster speed strictly
dependent on the snow depth, repeat the snow depth,
repeat the snow depth....
AND if you have heavy wet snow you need to slow down and
be sure you have cooking spray or fluid film to spray the chute
and spout and impeller to keep the snow from sticking due to
the heat from the friction of moving the snow.
Slow and steady speed wins the snow casting race each and
every time along with loaded tires and good 2 link V bar or
grader chains with chain tensioners.
beesnstuff
Member
mpham
Veteran Member
I run a 54 on my 20 and it can have a hard time with that. Slows/bogs the engine down in 12 inches of heavy wet snow. Have to crawl at times.
Everhard
Gold Member
I'm running a 60" on my Ck20s (not hst) - it ran it fine this winter, and I had to blow 2' of snow a number of times including clearing trails thru my property and my neighbours after the snow had sat all winter - I only have 2 speeds in reverse but the low gear seems to be slow enough for the heavy loads. When there was just a few inches of lighter stuff I could blow it using my higher gear which was great, made short work of clearing the driveway! Lol. Hst would certainly make it an easier task.
I don't think going much bigger would be a good idea though, you'd have to go so slow that it would be less efficient. Consider that your first pass will have to be slow given you'll be using the full width of the blower, in my case I run right up the middle of the driveway, then I can take a pass on either side that is maybe a third to half of the blower width at best and generally I can take that pass in high gear (with hst obviously you can vary your speed but same idea you'll be able to go much quicker) - so first past slow, then 2 fast passes and the long part of the driveway is done will be actually quicker than trying to run a much larger blower on the same tractor since the first pass will be slower, and even if you do it in 2 passes vs 3 passes doing it in 2 passes at a slow speed will still be slower than 1 slow pass and 2 fast passes.. Man I hope this logic is making sense! Lol.
Long story short I think like myself you'll find plenty of people running a 60" blower on a ck20 without any problems.
Key is watch your rpm's when you get into a heavy load and make sure you feather the throttle to maintain the rpm's and as you've got hst you have the luxury of being able to slow down/pause if need be if you hit some particularly heavy load.
E.
I don't think going much bigger would be a good idea though, you'd have to go so slow that it would be less efficient. Consider that your first pass will have to be slow given you'll be using the full width of the blower, in my case I run right up the middle of the driveway, then I can take a pass on either side that is maybe a third to half of the blower width at best and generally I can take that pass in high gear (with hst obviously you can vary your speed but same idea you'll be able to go much quicker) - so first past slow, then 2 fast passes and the long part of the driveway is done will be actually quicker than trying to run a much larger blower on the same tractor since the first pass will be slower, and even if you do it in 2 passes vs 3 passes doing it in 2 passes at a slow speed will still be slower than 1 slow pass and 2 fast passes.. Man I hope this logic is making sense! Lol.
Long story short I think like myself you'll find plenty of people running a 60" blower on a ck20 without any problems.
Key is watch your rpm's when you get into a heavy load and make sure you feather the throttle to maintain the rpm's and as you've got hst you have the luxury of being able to slow down/pause if need be if you hit some particularly heavy load.
E.
aeblank
Veteran Member
I don't understand the smaller blower, cause the bigger goes too slow logic.
For a horsepower, you're moving a certain volume of snow. Period.
Bigger=slower ground speed, but hey, it's bigger so it's moving the same volume of snow.
I sized mine for 2-trips. Up and back on my driveway. Bigger is of minimal gain, since I still have to go up and then back. If its so small that I have to go up and back twice, that's a waste. If there's 2' of snow, I'll go 0.5mph. If there's 6" of snow, I'll go 3.5mph. Big deal. It's pretty natural to assume if there's 4x the snow depth it'll take longer and you'll have to go slower.
This all assumes an HST. Gear ratios are certainly a compromise. And of course, there is some physicality limit where the blower will "manhandle" the tractor, that's bad.
For a horsepower, you're moving a certain volume of snow. Period.
Bigger=slower ground speed, but hey, it's bigger so it's moving the same volume of snow.
I sized mine for 2-trips. Up and back on my driveway. Bigger is of minimal gain, since I still have to go up and then back. If its so small that I have to go up and back twice, that's a waste. If there's 2' of snow, I'll go 0.5mph. If there's 6" of snow, I'll go 3.5mph. Big deal. It's pretty natural to assume if there's 4x the snow depth it'll take longer and you'll have to go slower.
This all assumes an HST. Gear ratios are certainly a compromise. And of course, there is some physicality limit where the blower will "manhandle" the tractor, that's bad.
beesnstuff
Member
If your tractor stalls, or when your shear bolt goes you'll be going at 0 mph. Narrower blower is easier on the tractor. Harder to get stuck.
If you ever cleared 12' of snow from your driveway, you know what I mean. Winter 2013-2014, I had 12'+ on mine, I could not reach it with my loader.
I wish I had more power (JD 5083e) or a smaller blower.
aeblank
Veteran Member
True, regardless of blower size.
Not sure why that would be. Tractor abuse would be way (way way way) more operator dependent than anything else. The loads are nowhere near the material limits.
Perhaps. Having a little more room after cutting a path somewhere may help from getting stuck, but maybe not. I'll give you that one (it falls into my comment about the blower "man handling" the tractor).
I've never done 12' of snow. That is obviously an extreme situation. I think it might be fun for the first couple hours, and then suck for the entire rest of the day that I'd be digging out. Not even sure how I'd go about it. The only proper equipment for that seems like it'd be a loader-mounted hydraulic/PTO blower.
Maybe it's just me....... 100% happy with my "oversized" blower and wouldn't have it any other way.
beesnstuff
Member
Less stuff to blow per ft of driving
I used loader to dig under it, then ram into it to shake it off, once it collapsed to 6-8', use loader to move snow, the last 4' did it with blower. It took the whole day to clear our quarter mile driveway. Only few spots were 12', most of it was covered in 6-8'. And it was an extreme winter. Once in every 30-40 years type of thing.
You'll be ok clearing anything under 2', but if you get more snow than that and have a long driveway to clear, you'll wish you had a smaller, heavy duty blower just to cover your tracks.
aeblank
Veteran Member
But you're not factoring time into it. Why is driving more (per volume of snow) better on equipment?
8' wide at 2mph
4' wide at 4mph
It's the same........
Put a 12" bucket on the loader, it's less strain on the hydraulics.
Well if it ever happens, I'll come on and report if I had troubles.
Don't hold your breath.Anyway, I'm out. I'll take my opinion and go home.
I think you will be more pleased with the results using the smaller blower. All the arguing from the others aside, the machine is limited in HP compared to the machines that the 7 foot blower is designed to be used with. Your specs on the CK20 seem to have similar PTO HP as our old JD which was at the outer limits with a 60inch blower when the snow was anything worth talking about.
We use 7Ft blowers here on the DK and the International, both machines have at least 2 times the PTO HP you have and you must also consider the weight you will be pushing around. About 900 to 1200 LBS for the bigger blowers you might have to think about adding front weights
aeblank
Veteran Member
I agree that a 7' is big. IMO a 6' would be ok though.
Chains are a huge help too.
(I actually meant to say 60", not 6').
Chains are a huge help too.
(I actually meant to say 60", not 6').
Last edited:
Actually I would recommend 54inch with a 60 inch being the max for that machine. The only reason we used the 60 inch blower with the low PTO HP of the JD was because we needed a blower right now and knew we were getting a new tractor within a year or two. We actually purchased the blower based on the average PTO HP of the machines we planned on buying but in the end we got a bigger machine and had to buy a bigger blower for it anyway. Anyone want to buy a 60 inch blower?
aczlan
Good Morning
- Joined
- Mar 7, 2008
- Messages
- 17,540
- Tractor
- Kubota L3830GST, B7500HST, BX2660. Formerly: Case 480F LL, David Brown 880UE
We have a 7' on the back of our L3830 (about 35 PTO HP, powershift transmission) and it will lift the nose of the tractor off the ground if I don't have weight on the front. HP wise, anything more than 12" of heavy snow will bog the L3830 down to where I have to stop every 2-3 feet.
I would recommend no more than 6' on your tractor and a 5' would probably be a better fit.
Aaron Z
I am not familiar with the specs of the L3830 but wonder how fast your trying to go with that much power bogging down by a few hundred RPM should not be a problem. We must remember that the volume of snow our blower is designed to handle is the limiting factor for a given HP range and trying to move more volume than it can handle will bog down just about any machine. If for chance you are extremely over powered for the blower you would probably bust the shear pins rather than stall but the same limiting factor of the volume will still apply.
leonz
Super Member
It is another reason these manufacturers need to offer a solid auger
option for rear and front mounted snow casters.
The solid auger on a single stage unit limits the amount of snow
that can be conveyed and cast away at the same time and
flooding and plugging is a worst case scenario.
If they used the solid auger design used by the Zaugg folks for thier
single stage units on the two stage units these two stage units would
cast the snow much further and not plug and choke.
option for rear and front mounted snow casters.
The solid auger on a single stage unit limits the amount of snow
that can be conveyed and cast away at the same time and
flooding and plugging is a worst case scenario.
If they used the solid auger design used by the Zaugg folks for thier
single stage units on the two stage units these two stage units would
cast the snow much further and not plug and choke.
aczlan
Good Morning
- Joined
- Mar 7, 2008
- Messages
- 17,540
- Tractor
- Kubota L3830GST, B7500HST, BX2660. Formerly: Case 480F LL, David Brown 880UE
First gear in reverse, runnign wide open (no load speed of ~613RPM on the PTO), I stop to let it catch up when the PTO RPM drops below ~370RPM and it isn't letting up.
I have to upload the video my wife took, of me making a sledding path in 12" of settled snow. The tractor can handle 6" of settled snow ok, but past that it gets hairy.
Aaron Z
Everhard
Gold Member
As I said earlier 60" works great with the Ck20 - the tractor itself is more then heavy enough (certainly compared to any other equivalent hp tractor) and while the gear version might have 1-2 more hp at the pto over the Hydraulic version I think the flexibility of the Hydraulic version will easily make up that difference.
As I have the gear version and used it in many types of conditions this year I can safely say it never struggled 99% of the time, the only time I had to either raise the blower to take less of a bite or simply stop to let it clear was when I was blowing the heavily compacted snow piled up at the end of the driveway by the road plow which had sat there for a few days till I got home to clear it. At that point it was between 2-3'. In that circumstance the hydraulic version would have been nice given I have only 2 reverse speeds, the hydraulic version would have allowed me to move slower into that deep stuff.
Point is aside from that one circumstance it easily handled anything else. And that's with an old snowblower that I'm sure doesn't blow snow as nicely as some of the blowers I've seen posted up on here!
Regarding chains for the original poster -I use chains but my driveway is reclaimed asphalt, I have some decent hills to go up as well so I use chains on the rear. Never had an problems with traction. If you've got a paved driveway I don't know what effect chains would have on it - not sure if they would damage the driveway or not.
E.
As I have the gear version and used it in many types of conditions this year I can safely say it never struggled 99% of the time, the only time I had to either raise the blower to take less of a bite or simply stop to let it clear was when I was blowing the heavily compacted snow piled up at the end of the driveway by the road plow which had sat there for a few days till I got home to clear it. At that point it was between 2-3'. In that circumstance the hydraulic version would have been nice given I have only 2 reverse speeds, the hydraulic version would have allowed me to move slower into that deep stuff.
Point is aside from that one circumstance it easily handled anything else. And that's with an old snowblower that I'm sure doesn't blow snow as nicely as some of the blowers I've seen posted up on here!
Regarding chains for the original poster -I use chains but my driveway is reclaimed asphalt, I have some decent hills to go up as well so I use chains on the rear. Never had an problems with traction. If you've got a paved driveway I don't know what effect chains would have on it - not sure if they would damage the driveway or not.
E.
Tractor Tom
Silver Member
Agreed, I had a CK20 for 8 years. My 54in Blower was all the 20 could handle. The Blower would bog down in heavy or deep snow. Much more than a few inches and you couldn't take a full bite, and you'd have to move very slowly. 54in worked, but I wouldn't go any larger.
