Re: Mid mount vs rear PTO for lower - which is stronger?
Ummm, hate to break it to you, but I think you've been fed a bit of an old wive's tale. Torque is a function of engine power plus drive line speed reduction ratios. Both mid and rear PTO are driven by the same engine, so same torque is applied to them. The rear PTO is designed to operate at 540 RPM, so the speed reduction is done inside the transmission case of the tractor. The mid PTO spins at engine RPM. Front-mount blowers contain the speed reduction hardware necessary to drop that 2500 RPM from the tractor down to 540 RPM for the snow blower's impeller.
Net of some minor considerations like efficiency of the actual driveline (how much power is lost per U-joint x how many U-joints, and similar small factors) the mid and rear PTO's conduct the same amount of power to the implement.
Now let's get down to brass tacks. And some real-world examples. I have a B7510 HSD with a Kubota B2782B front-mount 63" blower. That's 21 engine HP, or 16 HP estimated at the PTO. I also have a B7200 that's spec'd at 17 engine HP and 14 PTO HP. It's turning a 51" Meteor rear-mount snowblower.
Yes, the tractor horsepower ratings are different but there's a way to mathematically compare the differences in power and snowblower width. If you take PTO HP and divide by inches of snowblower width, you'll get a HP per inch rating. The B7510/ 63" blower combination gives us 0.254 hp/inch. The B7200 / 51" blower gives us 0.275 hp/inch. Yup, the smaller tractor SHOULD have a power advantage over the bigger tractor. This would make one believe the smaller tractor should throw the snow further. And your original statement concluded that rear-mount blowers throw further than front mount blowers, so, since the smaller tractor has higher hp/inch AND has a rear-mount blower, it should throw the snow further, right?
Not so fast!
Snowblower mechanical design as a LOT do do with how well that engine horsepower is pot to work moving snow. Just ask anybody who owns an older blower with a 3-blade impeller. They'll tell you they just don't work well at all in wet snow. Likewise, ask anybody who has added rubber strips to the tips of the impeller blades how much of a performance difference they saw when they tightened up the fit of the impeller to the housing. These factors can have a huge impact on how far a blower tosses the snow. How far that snow flies is more a factor of VELOCITY as it exits the chute than it is a factor of raw horsepower or to which end of the tractor the blower is attached.
Now, for some real-world experience. In the past two weeks we've had a fair amount of snow fall here - approaching two feet for us. I've had the pleasure of operating both tractors and blowers in the same snow. The B7200 / 51" rear mount blower is a better match between blower and tractor than the B7510 / 63" front mount blower. I say this simply because the smaller tractor/blower combination seems to have more power reserve. This is borne out in our calculations of HP/inch.
BUT... the rear-mount blower on the B7200, despite having more HP/inch, forms a snow windrow at about 35' from the cut, while the front-mount blower on the B7510 forms a windrow approximately 50' from the cut.
The bottom line is that old wive's tales are just that, and it's unfortunate that you initially asked your question of people who were willing to share old wive's tales rather than facts. I do hope you'll see from the above analysis that front mount vs rear mount has nowhere near as much effect on snowblower performance as has the mating of inches of cut to PTO HP, and, ultimately, the quality of the snowblower design.
