Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

My thoughts, more control with a stand alone  blower. What brought this to mind is my brother in law adding a blower attachment to his 10HP lawn tractor and thinks it will out perform a stand alone blower. The 10hp has to go into moving the tractor plus the blower gizmo thus loosing power. Maybe the unit he seen performing was a 20hp model. A ton of these things used in the bargain hunter. His thoughts are the price of a used tractor with blower gizmo less than a quality Toro or Ariens. Anyone here using a lawn tractor, and do they work well? Seems to me a 28" Blower would cut cleaner than a 44" attachment on a tractor. Easier to get past cars in driveway etc. What I do like about the tractor idea is it can be used to cut grass in the summer. Best to have seperate units for specifis jobs IMHO.

i have both and find the walk behind has it all over the tractor mount...............but................

my 7 hp deere doesnt seem to lack from losing hp while throwing ..........................

maybe something to do with the pully's ....i dont know why..........

the other bonus with my tractor mount is the 4 drives i clear , i get to sit down to do....................

my drive is steep and i found out that walking behind is a slippery deal.................the hard way..............

just my nickel's worth,

bill

Youve pretty much answered all your questions. Front mounted tractor blowers when new are EXPENSIVE, dont usuallt scrape clean, are awfull to brive around due to extra length, dont fit into sheds tooo well, dont fit between cars too well either.

You must remove the mower deck before install. And there are other problems.

Advantage, 1 engine to service, cool factor.  I see many people but them, then hate the handling so much, buy a dedicated blower that actually outperforrms their tractor.

I tend to lean towards the dedicated unit. The lawn tractor units are said to be front end heavy unless you get weights for the rear end. They are also quite long and not as maneuverable. I've never used one so I don't have personal experience.

I think it would depend on what size area you need to clear. I use a tractor mounted unit, because I don't want to be outside for hours. A driveway 100 feet long or less would probably be better cleared with a walk behind unit.

I just came across this site, saw this question and decided to reply.   It all depends on what you want to do and how much you want to spend.   I have a snow blower attachment for my garden tractor and I love it..  I prefer my setup over my neighbor's as he has a separate walk behind blower.  My neighbor has even commented to me that he thinks my setup is better.  I have found that I can go out and clear 10 inches of snow from my 140 foot driveway in about six minutes, whereas my neighbor takes at least an hour.  I'll admit that his blower is only about 24 inches wide, so he can fit in between his cars easier than me, but my blower was 42 inches wide.  That extra width allows me to clear off my driveway faster than him, but I can't fit into small spaces.  Of course I don't need to because when it's going to snow, I just move my cars so that they are behind each other in a line, that way I don't need to fit in any tight spots.

As for power, well, the tractor I used last year was an 18hp twin cylinder model with a 42 inch blower attachment, and it worked well for me.  I've used that setup for the past 15 years.  I just traded it in for a bigger machine, so I won't know till the winter how well it works.  I think it will do a lot better since the new machine is a 27 hp, 3 cylinder diesel with 4 wheel drive.  The blower attachment is 46 inches.  I also had the tires filled with liquid to add an extra 200 pounds to it and I also got the wheel weights that add another 100 pounds to it. 

The thing is, I have a bad back and arthritis, so I can't use a walk behind blower because I can only stand up for about 5 minutes before my back hurts, so I need to be able to sit down as I use a snow blower.  Also, I have an acre of grass to mow, so I need something a bit larger than just a riding mower, which is why I use a lawn and garden tractor.  Of course, a garden tractor is expensive, so you need to determine what you want to spend.  Even if I didn't have a bad back, I still prefer the garden tractor with a snow blower attachment because it's a lot easier to operate in deep snow.  A garden tractor has a lot more pushing power than my legs do.

OK, this is a really old thread, but as long as it's been bumped let me throw in this youtube video: [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwNxBTC5gno]Case 448 with 48" single stage[/url] This is a serious garden tractor, not a lawn tractor. 18HP, all hydraulic drive. So it's a bit apples and oranges if we're talking lawn tractors. That said, if you look at the part where he's at the bottom of the driveway, you can see the neighbor off to the left with a ?? walk-behind, the speed difference is quite noticeable.

I'd love to put a snowblower attachment on my WH 522xi Garden Tractor but I would really only be able to use it to clear my 150' of driveway. The rest of the areas I need to clear are better suited to a walk behind. Definitely looks like a lot of fun though. In my case, it would be hard to justify the cost of the attachment vs. the amount of usage. My driveway only accounts for about half the area I need to clear after a storm plus the wife would probably kill me if I bought another toy for my OPE!

Bill_H wrote:

That really throws the snow, but to be fair it weighs a heck of a lot more than any walk behind, has huge tires and a 48" wide mouth. That's all powered by an engine that's 7-8HP bigger than a walk behind. I've heard from one of my neighbors who had one that the garden tractor blowers snap shear pins constantly. Still my driveway is very long and one of those would be nice to have but there are places where it could get stuck. When I was plowed out before the guy would use a front end loader on his tractor and that was one of these.

Here is a pic of a very similar model to what he ha, his is like 1 or 2 sizes smaller than this one. But he does own a farm, so it's not the small one and this would get stuck. He'd have to push himself out with the bucket. That's because we have a 12-14" dropoff that's damn near invisible in the winter right near our garage. Any plow truck that goes a wee bit too far ends up stuck. A walk behind is slower but you won't go flying off the edge either.

I know this is beating a dead horse, but I could resist because we have just been pounded with  3 snow storms. the first was 15" the second was 27" and just yesterday another 14". I stumbled on this site looking for a cab for my Cadet.

Here is my story:

I have a 3184 Cub Cadet (18 hp) with a 42" mower deck and a 45" snow blower. All I can say is: SWEET! I have about 1 1/2 acres to mow and about 12,000 sq ft of drive way.

I bought the mower new without the snow blower. When I ask the Dealer later about a blower, he said: "You don't need to spend $2400 on the Cub Cadet blower. I have a 28" Toro walk behind that would be more the enough". So I bought the Toro and was waiting for my first snow fall. When it snow I proudly open my garage door to about 8" of snow, fired it up and started out. It was throwing snow pretty good, but I have a 3 car garage and the parking area is 50ft x 45ft and the Toro only thew the snow about 25ft. So I knew I would have to blow twice a much when I got to the far side.

Well I never got there, I wiggled and prodded the Toro all the way to the end of my driveway (300 plus ft). That's when it quit! No blower, but worse, no drive! Had to drag that sucker all the way back to the garage to find the belt came off. put it back on, ran for 10 minutes, came off again. 6 hour later and over a dozen belt reinstalls, I finished. Called the dealer, they picked it up. They called me and said that there was a factory recall because of the belt and it wouldn't happen again.

Got it back in time for the next storm, worked about 30 minutes and the belt popped of. 6hours later, I finished, called the dealer and told him to pick up this piece of junk and take my Cub Cadet too and put the blower on it pronto!

The next snow storm was about a foot, but I was ready. This baby throws snow 50 ft plus and I am just sitting their riding along, no wiggling, pulling, just sitting there watching it do the work. I cleared the whole place in about an hour and a half including the snow bank for my mail box. I was a happy camper!

It is 5 years later now, and it is still going strong, takes about an hour to change from blower to mower. I have had 2 shear pins go, both were my fault for hitting a concrete step.

The last two weeks we have been hammered with snow, The Cadet just tunnels under the 30" of snow! I need to mount a higher plate on it! Yesterday was the best, I do my driveway the sides of the road in front of my house (because the town plow can't throw it up high enough to clear the snow banks).
 I noticed 2 of my neighbors shoveling, and wondered why they weren't using there blowers. I drove my Cadet down to them and they started smiling. The walk behinds could not get through the pile at the end of the driveways. No weight, tires would just spin, and they both sheared the pins trying.(and they have nice blowers) It took me a half hour to clear both of their 200ft driveways including the piles of snow at the end. That...was fun!

If I had to do it again, I would opt for 26hp. (call me Tim the tool man) arrh, arrh, arrh!

Final verdict: Their is no way a walk behind can even be compared!

doski531 wrote:

Hmmmm, not so sure about that statement. This walk behind can go through 30 plus inches of hard pack snow. And I can sneak it past my car in the garage. Also can be use on 30 inch sidewalks...

http://www.abbysguide.com/ope/discussions/55432-0-1.html

Can not sit on it though

rubinew wrote:
You should see if Yamaha has a sulky for it. 

I have a new JD x540 tractor that I was sorely tempted to get a snow thrower attachment. I decided to get the Honda, even though the Honda was significantly more expensive than the attachment for two reasons:

1) Here in Maryland, we tend to get 8-15" snows, with more of the 8" variety. I thought the tractor attachment was overkill for most of our snows

2) In terms of maneuverability, the JD is very nimble as a grass cutter, but with that big attachment up front, I knew I'd be able to do parts of the driveway faster, but then I'd need a blower anyway to do the brick walk or around the narrower parts of the property.

Now that said, this global cooling ;) seems to be bringing a lot more snow over the past few years. If this trend continues, I may look for a used snow thrower attachment and keep it in the attic of my shed and set it up for the winter. Especially as I grow more decrepit with age, the idea of sitting on a tractor is appealing. And 3 1/2 hours of muscling the Honda around yesterday left my shoulders a little sore (in a good way).

For now though, I am completely thrilled with the Honda.

(P.S. if you haven't driven a tractor with power steering, it will change your view on cutting grass)

tkrotchko wrote:
I have yet to experience power steering on a tractor, but hydrostatic transmission on a tractor was worth every penny.  No more notchy gated shifter, no more stopping to change gears, no more wishing the speed could be just a big faster or slower when trimming close to trees.

I had 3 tractors without power steering before I got my 522xi that does have power steering. There's no way I could go back to no power steering at this point!