[AT] Snow Blower

[tmehrkam at sbcglobal.net]

Being snowless in Texas I have been following this thread out of curiosity.

My first impression of the machine is that it would be a royal pain in the neck. Glad to see that common sense still works, 

--- On Mon, 8/16/10, Mike Sloane <mikesloane at verizon.net> wrote:

From: Mike Sloane <mikesloane at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [AT] Snow Blower
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Date: Monday, August 16, 2010, 5:50 AM

When I was in the tractor and implement selling business, you could 
generally go by the weight and price when comparing similar items.

That being said, I never sold a new three-point snow blower. The reason 
was that there were so many barely used ones available if someone really 
wanted one. And there lay the problem: Almost anyone who has ever used a 
rear mounted snow blower decided to sell it immediately afterward. There 
are many reasons for folks being unhappy with them, but the first one is 
that they are literally a pain in the neck to use - after a very short 
time, you find yourself in pain from having to twist yourself around to 
operate the machine. The second problem is operating in reverse - older 
tractors have only one speed in reverse, and even modern tractors have 
maybe two speeds (too fast and too slow). I guess if you have a hydro 
you might be OK, but a snow blower needs to be fed into the snow just 
right. And, of course, a snow blower does just that: blows snow. If you 
happen to have the wind shift, you wind up being dumped on, and if you 
have a cab, the whole back of the cab gets instantly blanketed and has 
to be cleaned off. Then, there are the usual problems with all snow 
blowers - clogging with wet snow, jams from the machine "finding" hidden 
objects (rocks, children's toys, hunks of fallen trees, etc.), shooting 
small objects long distances into cars/trucks/houses, etc. The only 
advantage of a three point mounted snow blower is that it adds a fair 
amount of weight to the back of the tractor for traction when pushing 
snow with a front blade/bucket.

If you are still determined to try a three point blower, I suspect you 
would be better off either borrowing one from a disgruntled neighbor or 
buying a good used one, rather than investing good money in a new Asian 
manufactured one. You can generally find a good used blower for under 
$1000. Put a "wanted" ad in your local "Penny Saver" magazine or 
newspaper, and you will have a dozen responses the next day.

Mike

On 8/15/2010 7:26 PM, Dick Day wrote:
> I just received the 2010 Northern Tools catalog.  As I said in a previous
> post concerning Harbor Freight, I normally do not buy big-ticket items from
> Northern or HF.
>
> However... in the new Northern catalog, a 3-pt snowblower  did catch my eye.
> It's a Canadian product from a company called Braber...
>
> http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200435197_200435197?cm_ven=natural&cm_cat=netconcepts&cm_pla=Yahoo&cm_ite=braber%2Bsnowblower
>
> $1399 for a 72" blower is mighty tempting.  It lacks the bells and whistles
> on the more expensive units. The cheapest I've ever seen new around here
> (Nebraska) has been around $4800.
>
> Ever heard of Braber?  Thoughts?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Dick Day
>
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>
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