# How much power for snowblowing?



## Scavenger

I'm going to be building a new house this summer which will give me a one mile private driveway. My property is a 200 acres farm in Canada. My driveway will be about 3/4 of a mile in the bush and 1/4 of a mile in open fields. The bush shouldn't be a problem, but the drifting in the fields could give quite a bit of accumulation.

I've asked my farmer neighbour about what sort of tractor I'd need for snowblowing. My neighbour has older tractors (Case and JD). He said I'd need a 50+ HP tractor. He said the problem with the 25-40HP units is that they can't remove the snow fast enough,even at the slowest speed possible. He says you end up riding the clutch to slow down, which will ruin the clutch in time.

I was thinking about getting a 30-35HP Kubota with a front-mounted blower. Do newer tractors have slower speeds that would eliminate the clutch-riding issue? 

Thanks.

Richard


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## JDFANATIC

I disagree with your neighbor. As long as the blower is sized to the tractor, you will do just fine. I know with my JD2210 (sub-CUT), and a 46" single-stage blower, I'm able to run at full speed (8.5 mph) or very close to it almost all the time. I do agree that hydrostatic drive is better able to match the ground speed to the conditions than a manual gear tractor.


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## Scavenger

Thanks for the reply. I'm thinking I'd want a blower that was at least 60" so I could do one pass out and then a narrower cleanup pass back in. Would a 30HP HST do the job with a 60" blower? Would a 25HP be enough? I expect one foot drifts, daily, on the field portion of the driveway.


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## wass

Hi, I used to use a V style 60in blower with a 40 hp tractor and it wasn't any fun at all. I know some people who use twin feed auger types to the fan with 40 to 50hp tractors and claim they work well. The blower I use now is a twin auger two stage, 72" and push it with an 80hp tractor. It's not enough with much more than 6in of snow. A hydrostat would work a lot better, but you need a heavy tractor to handle it. Mine is about 8000lbs and isn't quite enough either. You are talking about a lot of work. They used a 120hp Farmall with my blower and I wish thats what I was using, but the little one has the cab!


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## JDFANATIC

Scavenger,

For a 60" blower, you'd need more than 25 hp. I think wass is right thinking you need about 40 hp. For grins I just checked out the Deere website and they show the 29.5 hp 3120 with a 59" 2-stage. BTW, I'm talking about front blowers here and not 3PH mounted ones. Is that what you were thinking?


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## Scavenger

Yes, definitely a front blower. I don't want to get a sore neck from looking over my shoulder for two miles. My lower back is bad enough without aggravating my upper back.


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## ktm rider

I have a 2.5 mile driveway up over a mountain and I snowblow it with a 64" Ber-Vac blower hooked to my Yanmar BD2000 which only has 20 hp at the pto. It works great and I never had any problem with lack of power. 

My first 1.2 miles are through tight woods with trees on both sides of the road
I think you will find that the blower will actually work better for you in the "bush" than a plow will. Once you plow it a few times there is no where else to put the snow and the blower will chuck it out through the woods.


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## Scavenger

That's good to hear. I suspect that the blower will have no trouble with volume in the bush. It's the drifting snow in the fields that concerns me. Good point about using a plow in the bush. I had actually been warned about using a plow in the fields. When you build up the banks on the side of the road, they apparently act like little snow fences and the road fills up more quickly than it would if there are no banks (ie: using a blower).


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## ktm rider

Be sure and blow the snow as soon as you can. Wind blown snow will quickly turn into wind blown concrete and is tough to move at all when it does this. Be sure when you are plowing that you plow wide enough to put the next batch of snow. If not you will have a road that is 3 ft. wide with 10 ft. snowbanks on each side... This is not good , I have done this before... 

I would also go with a front mount blower if you can swing the cost of one. Mine is a 3pt. blower and I just sit on the hood of the tractor facing the rear of the tractor with the steering wheel between my legs. Looks ridiculous but saves my neck and is really quite warm:thumbsup:

I also have to go through about a half mile field. I would HIGHLY suggest investing in some snow fence and be sure to put it about 30-40 ft. off the road. I did this this past year and it worked great. Big drift in front of the fence but not on my road...


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## wass

KTM, you might have glanced off another variable. Your blower is a single stage? How far will it move the snow? My 2 stage will blow it about 40-60ft and well out of the way. Wondering how much more power that takes?:smoking:


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## Scavenger

Sitting on the hood. That must be a funny sight. Since I'll be teaching my wife how to use the snowblower when I'm away, I don't think she'd go for sitting on the hood.


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## JDFANATIC

Scavenger,

Somehow I can see some of us trying to convince your wife to straddle the hood for old-time TF times! :furious: Who will be the intermediary . . . archdean?


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## Scavenger




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## Scavenger

I knew the tractor crowd was trouble.


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