L4240 and snowplowing

[afoster]

I presently have a L3010 with Farm King snow-blower and a Horst Welding FEL snow blade on it as well as an after market cab. I really like the size of this unit and its maneuverability but finding it's weight is to light (tires are weighted) once I hit any packed snow. I've come across a L4240 with cab for sale which is not all that much bigger in size but weighs in at an extra 1200 lbs. I'm wondering if that extra weight is going to make that much difference in packed snow or not with the same plow and blower configuration. Does anyone have any experience with the L4240 in moving packed snow.

 

[ptwyz]

Got any pics of your rig?

 

[Eric McCarthy]

Wildfire is your man to talk to for sure. He had one of the badest Kubota's Ive been plowing and blowing snow anywhere. And heres a link to his video he posted on youtube with him playin on it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8IPKcCvCDk&feature=channel

 

[Wildfire]

I presently have a L3010 with Farm King snow-blower and a Horst Welding FEL snow blade on it as well as an after market cab. I really like the size of this unit and its maneuverability but finding it's weight is to light (tires are weighted) once I hit any packed snow. I've come across a L4240 with cab for sale which is not all that much bigger in size but weighs in at an extra 1200 lbs. I'm wondering if that extra weight is going to make that much difference in packed snow or not with the same plow and blower configuration. Does anyone have any experience with the L4240 in moving packed snow.

afoster first of all I have to apologize to you. I noticed your email come in the other day and I thought it might have been spam mail because it came directly to me and not though this site so my apologies to you for not answering your question.

Now to try and answer your question. I can't speak on the L3010 or even compare it to the Grand L 4240 because I've never operated a L3010. I can't tell you what the 4240 is like in hard packed snow because we don't get snow like that here. I have used the tractor in some very deep wet snow and it has more than enough power to go through it. The tractor will loose traction first in deep wet snow but you'll never bog it down.

I'm always fascinated with this tractor. The heat is unbelievable in the cab. When I first got the tractor I had a little trouble keeping the due off the rear glass but after adjusting the hot/cold mixture button it's perfect now. My tractor also has the three rear window defog which is great. I think all the Canadian models come with that along with a higher output alternator.

Another thing I really like about the 4240 is it's fuel consumption. This thing sips fuel. It's a very easy tractor on fuel. Now remember I don't use chains or even have the tires filled so I bet if you went with fluid filled rear wheels plowing though hard packed snow would be much better than with the set up I'm using.

Did you get an opportunity to operate the 4240 in your area? I think you'll be pleased with the 4240 if you decide to get it

If there's anything you need to ask just ask it and I'll answer it as honestly as I can.

 

[afoster]

We don't get wet heavy snow here, its generally fairly light even when we get a foot or more. Which tends to make people drive over it, till it gets good and packed down instead of having it removed after the snowfall. This works fine for them for awhile until that really big snowfall comes along half way through the winter and they get stuck driving in their lane-way and make huge ruts in the packed snow. That's when I get asked to clear the lane-way. However the packed snow still on the road just causes the snow-blower to float on that snow and not really clear too much and when I try to blade the snow away sometimes it will breakup the packed snow but other times it's like hitting a solid wall.
I have a feeling a very heavy piece of machinery is the only solution, but living in a very rural area that's not the most available solution. If going to a slightly larger tractor such as the L4240 with its added weight could possibly breakup the packed snow I would consider this as an option. But in the mean time I'll just be telling people that if the snow is too packed down that they will have to get someone with larger piece of equipment to come out and clear it for them.

 

[Wildfire]

After reading your reply I don't think you should even consider a tractor for that type of work. I used to operate heavy equipment in a Northern environment in a town called Labrador City. Snow clearing was some of the tasks we were performing.

We would plow snow on parking lots that held over a 1000 vehicles and by the time we would get to those lots the vehicles would have the snow packed down really good. So good in fact we had to drop our plows and pick up our buckets and scrape the entire lot with the buckets and believe me, it was rough on the machine and we were operating a very heavy Caterpillar 966 C front end loader.

I can say for certain that the FEL's on these Kubota's would not take kindly to that type of punishment and you would end up tearing the crap out of the machine and it's FEL.

Even now where I do my snow clearing I lease a big Cat that I operate myself to do the heavy stuff like you described. Don't expect a small machine like a 4240 to do what it wasn't intended to do. Just my 2 cents worth.