[AT] Now Snowblowers

[Ralph Goff]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gunnells, Bradley R" <brad-gunnells at uiowa.edu>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Monday, December 03, 2012 9:32 AM
Subject: Re: [AT] Now Snowblowers


>I never got a real good look at it (I was more interested in the farmers 
>daughter <grin>) but many years ago my girlfriends dad had a blower that 
>mounted on the front of his tractor. I believe it was something like a 4430 
>type John Deere with a factory cab. It had a front mount 3point (or 
>something close) and there was a PTO shaft that ran under the belly of the 
>tractor I believe to the rear PTO. I'd assume it also had hydraulic lines 
>to the remotes for turning the chute and raising the front lift.

Thats sounds like a typical front mount snow blower. They are a lot more 
money to buy than the rear mount due to the extra iron involved (hitch and 
pto shaft to the front). I've never used one but they would sure take the 
neck strain out of the job compared to my rear mount blower. One 
disadvantage though. On a two wheel drive tractor that snowblower up front 
is taking a lot of weight off the rear drive wheels. If you get the front 
wheels down hill too much or in a ditch you may find you can't back up or go 
ahead. With my rear mount blower all that extra weight is right on the drive 
wheels and makes a huge improvement in traction to a tractor that used to be 
marginal to useless in ice and snow.
Now here is a little reminder of how we did the job in the days before 
heated tractor cabs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZAp8DAPvkU

Ralph in Sask.