(snipped for brevity) Considering a B2601 with 55" BX2822A front mount snowblower. The B2601 ~49" wide and I'm thinking of wheel spacers. Will the BX2822A fit, and what's it is like to mount a snowblower after taking the loader off?
I have a smaller tractor, BX2370, so my experience relates but isn't exact.
A rear-mount blower is great for some people. However, the older a person gets, the more difficult it becomes to do multiple things at once, like twist around and operate pedals and steering while not blowing ranch lawn lamps out. Now clearly I'm not saying old people can't do things, just that wherever your skill and mental set is now, it will become "more difficult the older one gets." Plus Older->Colder, so working against more clothing is more challenging, which again is doable, I'm just mentioning it because others tend to overlook it. Despite the additional expense, from my reading most members here seem to prefer a front-mount blower.
@Speed25 helped me with not-quite-new snow equipment and made the situation affordable (plus he has mad crate building skills).
In my case front-mount has a mid-PTO drive shaft that goes to the front lift that once mounted stays on the tractor for the season, and while not too complex it's a bit of a challenge to get on, but I'm old so that's likely factoring in. Switching between a plow and snowplow is easy: pull up, push in, throw a locking leaver (and pin it), connect 3rd function hydraulic lines, and I'm off. Sometimes the front driveshaft on the blower doesn't fully line up perfectly, but over-all it's actually easier than messing with a 3-point shaft in the cold.
For me, it's either the loader or the front lift, the loader stand gets caught on the lift tongue otherwise (and that sucked--don't do what I did by trying to make both work at the same time without
more carefully checking clearances).
I'm running a 50" blower, with deep (1-1/4 foot plus), wet, heavy snow that means creeping along slowly (I have a
video on that), so you should be about the same with a 55".
I have two sets of 2" wheel spacers so can get out to 4" per side, 8" wider total, and in the woods that's great. On pavement there are several reasons why spacers aren't great. First it makes turning much, much harder, especially with a blower out front (the tractor has more of a tendency to want to go straight). Second, if you're in 4WD it screws up the turning radius even more. Third, it's worse with rear chains, and fourth: worse yet with front chains. And, when turning one rear wheel cuts the corner short, so while blowing turning works best with a long, sweeping turn, narrow stance, and blower that's wider than the wheel track. I have a weight box out back though it's narrow enough that's not an issue.
Keep things clean and lubed, with fresh non-gummy grease and it all goes together pretty well.
The only thing I'd really change is to put a blade out back so I can blow and scrape at the same time.
Hope this helps, it's not exactly what you're looking to do and I'm not sure what fits a B, but with a fairly universal lift up front (BX2751, seem my Profile->
About section for details) I can plug in several different things easily.
