[AT] Snow Blower

[Gunnells, Bradley R]

I'm sure it adds significantly to the cost but a former GF dad had one for their long lane. He had a JD tractor and they put a front mount 3 pt. arm and it ran a driveshaft under the tractor to bring the power to the front. That looked like a nice unit to operate since it had a heated cab. Would probably scare me what he spent on that setup.

Brad

On Aug 16, 2010, at 5:50 AM, Mike Sloane wrote:

> 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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