Super Blower

r2d2jim · Jun 7, 2014

Our home is surrounded on three side with woods. In the fall the lawn gets covered with leaves. I am getting older and tired of raking. I have been looking for a big leaf blower to use. Couldn't find any that I liked or wanted to afford. So I built my own!! I picked up a used JD 6000 forage blower for $400 and modified it to make my "Super Blower". I removed everything on the blower except the fan, frame, wheels and hitch. I recycled some of the sheet metal to cover the fan inlet and add extra support. I had to cut the frame so that I could rotate the blower outlet to 90 degrees +- and used a piece of 2" square tubing in rebuilding the frame around the outlet. I added a platform on the back and added two pics of 4" PVC for use in carrying a rake, fork etc. The blower spins at 1000 rpm and will blow my hat off at 30 feet. I think I am going to like this new toy!! To date I have less than $500 invested!

Rustyiron · Jun 7, 2014

Looks very nice. I had an old chopper that I was going to make a blower or snow blower (the fan portion) with it. Never got "round to it". I bet that would be handy for burning the big brush piles, or at least helping getting them going.

jenkinsph · Jun 7, 2014

Looks great and not too much money in it either.:thumbsup:

My only concern would be turning too sharp with the driveline, I would have built this with a 3ph setup for this reason.

nc redneck · Jun 7, 2014

That is very cool and a great build. What exactly is a forage blower so I can start looking for one at a auction ? I would think they would be used for burning brush.
It is very similar in my quick attach front end sickle mower. Just made out of junk and a lot of hard work. It will be my next project, if I can find one.
Great build and thanks for posting it
Scott

r2d2jim · Jun 7, 2014

Yes, that was a consideration and still is. I thought that I would try the trailer type this fall and see how it works. If it is a major problem I'll probably change it over to a 3 point. I did try it around the yard and didn't seem to be much of a problem as long as I didn't turn real sharp. I use a compact 1140 MF tractor with turf tires to operate the blower. Weight on the 3 point was one reason I kept it as a trailer. Also it is easier to drop a pin in the hitch and go compared to hooking up a 3 point every time I want to move it. We'll see how things evolve!!

jenkinsph said:
Looks great and not too much money in it either.:thumbsup:

My only concern would be turning too sharp with the driveline, I would have built this with a 3ph setup for this reason.

r2d2jim · Jun 7, 2014

A forage blower is used by live stock owners to fill upright silos. It will blow chopped corn or grass 60 Ft. straight up an 8"pipe at a very rapid rate. If you look for one, get one designed to turn at 1000 RPM provided you have a tractor with a 1000 RPM PTO. Otherwise you can use one rated for 540 RPM, standard on most tractors. It just won't blow as strong. Good luck!

nc redneck said:
That is very cool and a great build. What exactly is a forage blower so I can start looking for one at a auction ? I would think they would be used for burning brush.
It is very similar in my quick attach front end sickle mower. Just made out of junk and a lot of hard work. It will be my next project, if I can find one.
Great build and thanks for posting it
Scott
View attachment 378450 View attachment 378451

8N Ren · Jun 7, 2014

Bad ***** blower man, me likey.

Grateful11 · Jun 8, 2014

We have an old New Holland 25 Forage Blower here on the farm we can't even give away. I've thought about doing something like this with it. Nice job.

hddnis · Jun 8, 2014

Neat idea.

Any chance of getting video of it in action? It would be fun just to watch it work.

Mr. HE

jenkinsph · Jun 8, 2014

Grateful11 said:
We have an old New Holland 25 Forage Blower here on the farm we can't even give away. I've thought about doing something like this with it. Nice job.

I could see one IMatch ready to put to work. I should start looking for similar forage blowers and build my own.

r2d2jim · Jun 8, 2014

Maybe sometime in the future as there isn't much to try it on now. And then I have to figure out how to upload a video!!!

CDN Farm Boy · Jun 9, 2014

I wished I'd have seen this last fall. There was an old blower in a pile of junk behind the barn from previous owners that I sent to scrap. A great idea if nothing more than "just 'cause I can"

Nice build

204saskman · Jun 12, 2014

I built one of these 2 years ago. Mine is 540. I think I'm gonna look for a bigger tractor or install a gear box to speed it up a bit mine works but doesn't blow as hard as it should. But I need to figure out how much faster I can go before it becomes a negative air.

CDN Farm Boy · Jun 13, 2014

Add a smaller fan to the opening to help feed the ambient air into the blower? Kind of like compound turbos on a diesel. Could be either belt drive off the PTO or possibly 12v - ford Taurus fans move lots of air.

r2d2jim · Jun 13, 2014

CDN Farm Boy said:
Add a smaller fan to the opening to help feed the ambient air into the blower? Kind of like compound turbos on a diesel. Could be either belt drive off the PTO or possibly 12v - ford Taurus fans move lots of air.

Great Idea. I'll keep that in mind!!!! My friend owns a salvage yard. I'll tell him to find me one. Any specific year??

CDN Farm Boy · Jun 14, 2014

Mid 90s if memory serves. I'll have to dig thru my notes to confirm

franklin2 · Jun 15, 2014

We have a couple of these at work.

Turbine Leaf & Debris Blower | Grasshopper Commercial Zero Turn Mowers

r2d2jim · Sep 27, 2014

Tried out the blower today and it works great. What used to take me 2 hours raking now takes me about 20 minutes using the "Super Blower". It will blow leaves 50+ ft. I blew them into a large pile and then hauled them away. I use engine speed to control the distance I want to blow the leaves. It is kinda fun to use.