Rear Blade What size rear blade for my JD3520 for scraping slush?

aa777888 · Jan 23, 2022

Looking to augment my 60" Frontier front mount snow blower and up my slush removal game. We've been getting a lot of wet snows lately and the blower can't handle the last couple of inches of slush, of course.

I can do the math easy enough. I've got 4" wheel extenders on the JD3520 so the rears are 68" outside edge to outside edge. A Frontier RB20 series 72" blade will give me 1" either side at 15 degrees of angle and be a little easier to store/maneuver when straight across. The 84" blade will give me a little over 2" at 30 degrees of angle but be somewhat more of a PITA to store/maneuver.

What say you all: 72" at 15 degrees for slush/scraping or the 84" at 30 degrees and put up with the wide blade?

Thanks!

bigtiller · Jan 23, 2022

nyone · Jan 25, 2022

Do you have a landscape rake or any other type of angled 3pt attachment? Slush and small amounts of snow can be moved with a rubber edge bolted on a rake.

al3 · Jan 25, 2022

Do you use driveway markers? When you switch from blading to blowing, any excess blade will overhang the edge of your drive/cleared path. To avoid clipping tall markers they’ll need to be located progressively further (or driven in the ground lower) from the drive as the length of your blade increases. Non moveable objects, such as trees, retaining walls, shrubs, etc.. can also snag/obstruct an overhanging blade as you blow the extreme edges.

A small thing, but still an annoyance, and is relevant to what you asked. A bigger annoyance if your marked drive includes tight radius turns.

Other than that, bigger equals fewer passes equals less time in cold, as long as your tractor HP is up to the task. There are times when the slush is so heavy my low 20HP rated CUT reaches a point where it can’t push any more using a 7 foot blade. Not too often, but it happens. That said, if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't go smaller.

And BTW, agree that blading slushy snow is better way to deal with it. Clearing plugged blower chute isn’t fun. Just have to remember blade swing radius when blowing around garage doors and the front walkway next to the house….

al3 · Jan 25, 2022

mo1 · Jan 27, 2022

aa777888 said:
Looking to augment my 60" Frontier front mount snow blower and up my slush removal game. We've been getting a lot of wet snows lately and the blower can't handle the last couple of inches of slush, of course.

I can do the math easy enough. I've got 4" wheel extenders on the JD3520 so the rears are 68" outside edge to outside edge. A Frontier RB20 series 72" blade will give me 1" either side at 15 degrees of angle and be a little easier to store/maneuver when straight across. The 84" blade will give me a little over 2" at 30 degrees of angle but be somewhat more of a PITA to store/maneuver.

What say you all: 72" at 15 degrees for slush/scraping or the 84" at 30 degrees and put up with the wide blade?

Thanks!

A Frontier RB21 (there is no RB20) blade does come with up to a foot of offset. This does allow the blade to stick further off to the side. If you have a gravel driveway, you will want the 7' blade (RB2184) as it will stick comfortably past your tires which you will want for blading gravel back onto your driveway from the edge of the ditch. If you have a paved driveway, I'd go with the 6' blade.

I have a 7' blade (RB2284) which has 18" of offset and with it fully offset and with 30 degrees of angle, it only sticks about 6" outside of the rear tires of my 5075E (which is about 6 1/2' wide.) It works fine but in retrospect I should have gotten the 8'er.

BackRoad · Jan 28, 2022

84" with 30 degree angle of attack.

The greater the blade angle you can achieve while still covering your tire width, the more efficient the slush/snow will flow to the outside windrow edge.

And if you look, you can find back blades that offset at the 3PH end also, allowing you to move the angled blade further out to the side so you can plow road and ditch edges without needing to run your tractor right along the edge.

It's well worth the search!

...//TJ

Thomas · Jan 28, 2022

Check out off set rear scraper blade...comes in handy.

oosik · Feb 12, 2022

I run a 96" Rhino rear blade on my Kubota. I can offset and angle. Gets the blade 14" outside the rear tire on one side. Very handy where I have 20 foot drop offs on my driveway. Tractor is still on the driving surface - snow is being propelled up and off the edge. Getting ready to hose the mud off the rear blade. Been down clearing ditches on the driveway.