Snowblowing Question

[ToddyKioti]

Hey all,

I am fairly new to this site and you do not hear much from me because quite frankly, I have little knowledge on tractors and their operation. All I know is that I have always wanted one, and now have it!...

That said, I was hoping you guys could shed some light on the PTO speed of a tractor (perhaps a ck25hst), and enlighten me to the pro's/con's of the two speeds.

I have a strong 1/10th of a mile driveway that I share with two other "neighbors". Last year alone I spent $400 having all the snow removed (and not one cent from the "neighbors" but that is another story. Me being a DIY person, thought it would be a great idea to get a snowblower for the tractor.

Here are the issues:

1.) The blower is an older Kubota model that was made for both front/rear PTO's. I did not realize this at the time of purchase but hey, the price was right

2.) At 540RPM, the snow only goes 10+- feet, not enough to clear the entire driveway. Yet, at that speed, the engine does not even know that it is blowing snow.

3.) At 1,000RPM the tractor runs great and the snow is thrown 30 feet plus, more than enough to clear the driveway and route 202!. At this speed however, the engine does get "bogged" down a bit, not to the point that it is going to stall, but it is clear that she is working. Kind of like a lawn mower going through some tall/wet grass (RPMS drop slightly below the red mark)

I have heard that Diesel engines should not be bogged as it may lead to premature failure. What do you think about this situation? And the little lady is starting to ask operational questions...do you think my seat time is in jeopardy?

 

[DK35vince]

How fast are you going? Can you slow down a little more when the motor begins to labor to hard ?

 

[Ductape]

I would suggest figuring out which way the blower is currently set up. Every blower i've seen is built to run at 540. Front mounted blowers have some method of reducing the input speed to slow the blower down, since front (crank driven) PTOs and mid PTOs turn at engine speed. This is usually done with a gearbox (on JDs), or a chain and sprockets (like my Kubota). My suspicion is yours should be running @ 540. Does your PTO shaft directly drive (with no method of reduction) your impeller? If this is the case.... it does sound as though the performance of your blower is a bit sluggish. What I might do, is find some middle ground. I might run the blower on the 1000 rpm PTO speed........ but only run the engine at say... 1800 rpms if the indicator on the tach says 540 PTO speed is at 2500 rpm. As far as bogging the motor, i'd slow the tractor down a bit. Hydro is obviously infinitely adjustable, or blow in a slower gear if its gear drive. I doubt that you are doing your motor any harm by "working" it. What you want to avoid is lugging.... making it work very hard at say, 1200 rpm, where it tries to stall.