Hello, I've had a B2320 for 18 years and have finally decided it's time to put a snowblower on it instead of plowing. I've started to look into the whole front vs rear blower question and it seems to me I'll be better off with a rear(I know the backing up will drive me crazy) and keeping the plow on the front for the small accumulations. Don't seem to be many choices for a front mount and the prices of those considerably more. Driveway is about 400ft, gentle hill through the woods, asphalt. Do rear mounts throw snow as far as the fronts? Anyone have any experience with a rear mount that they like and would suggest? Is 50" or so about the max size? Thanks for any insight.
Snowblower for B2320
- Thread starter jsramrod
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North Idaho Wolfman
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L3450DT-GST, Woods FEL, B7100 HSD, FEL, 60" SB, 743 Bobcat with V2203, and more
Yes rear mounts throw far. In my area most commercial blowers use rear mounts reverse with a few switching to rear pull . Most are rear push.
Why? Leaves front loader open for a snow bucket, blade, sweeper, plow, light duty bucket or whatever for when doing edges or when blowing not appropriate, or when snow is small or you need to get close to buildings ir doors [although newer rear pulls getting much better for sure] whatever a front impliment would work better or quicker.
I am very very retired and blow a lot and I find using a rear reverse perfectly fine for full days work no problems. I'm used to it and so are my family members etc... that work our equipment so i don't see the critical problems others may experience. YMMV. personal pref, availability and budget all come into play.
I am told blower manufacturers are swamped with orders so find stuff for next winter may be tough.
Thanks for the reply! I’ve used the Kubota plow for all 18 years, but the last 10 spent saying, I really wish I had a snowblower. The rear blower sounds like the ticket, I can leave the plow on for the small amounts and cleanup. There’s a place nearby that sells the Pronovost lines so I can start there to see what a new one would go for. Thanks again!
Check your local Craigslist or Facebook marketplace. I found mine on CL. Used once, sat for 2 years because he didn’t like it. Practically brand new. A little more than half off from new. Got lucky. Just find one a little wider than your tractor. Don’t think brand will make much difference. Good luck.
Hadn’t thought much about the width until you mentioned it but makes sense it needs to be wider than the tractor or I’ll be riding on snow. Thanks for the input, search has started on both of those sites.
BAP
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2012 Kubota 2920, 60MMM, FEL, BH65 48" Bush Hog, 60"Backblade, B2782B Snowblower
Go onto facebook marketplace. There are a lot of 3pt hitch snowblowers for sale. The biggest thing to watch out for is to not get one too big for your tractor. A B2320 isn’t very big and doesn’t have a lot of PTO HP. A 60” snowblower would be as large as I would go. There is a 60” 3 pt snowblower for sale on the Marketplace in Western Mass right now. Don’t know anything about it.
I have a B2620 and I have a rear blower for it, only because I use the loader almost daily. But now I don't use the blower on the tractor at all ever since I discovered the joy of a front blower on my cabbed RTV, LOL
As far as size, I have a couple more horsepower than your 2320, but I could have easily gone bigger with my rear blower. It is either 51 or 53 inch wide? The loader bucket is one and blower is the other but I can't remember which is which.
But I should have went with a 60 inch at least. It would easily handle that.
As far as size, I have a couple more horsepower than your 2320, but I could have easily gone bigger with my rear blower. It is either 51 or 53 inch wide? The loader bucket is one and blower is the other but I can't remember which is which.
But I should have went with a 60 inch at least. It would easily handle that.
Tractor width is 45” so sounds like at least a 50” unit but could go up to 60” based on ItBMine’s experience. I’ve seen some 51” Land Prides and Lynx units but will expand my search to a little larger. Thanks for all the replies, they got me going in the right direction!
I bought a SB1051, which is I think 51 inches wide. My 1880 is 48 inches wide. Works good. Surprised your tractor is slimmer than the 1880. Make sure you verify weight for your 3 point.
NoJacketRequired
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B7510 & LA302 FEL & B2782 blower, B7510 & B2781 blower, B2410 & B2550 blower
OK, I'll be the guy to post the dissenting opinion. Please bear with me...
Buy once, cry once.
You seem like a guy who keeps his equipment a long time. That means you keep it from one stage of your life to the next. This is an extremely important consideration. We, as humans, degrade over time. We get to the point where we take less and less BS from everything, including our equipment.
Backing up with a snowblower eventually gets old. I watched my father "age out" from backup snowblowing - that's why I built him a really nice cabbed B-series tractor with front-mounted blower and rear-mounted box scraper. With this equipment, and in his 80's, he could once again look after his long laneway.
Yes, it costs a bunch more cash to buy and install a font-mounted blower. Spend the money, and never look back (pun intended).
In my avatar you'll see my old B2410 with a front-mounted blower - that was my last open-station tractor. I now operate a pair of B7510's with front-mounted blowers and rear mounted box scrapers. After many years of moving snow in a part of the world that gets REAL winter, I can't think of a better combination for use with a compact tractor.
Parenthetically, the B2410 in my avatar came (used) with the front-mounted blower. My four previous tractors all had rear-mounted blowers. After switching to the front-mount I no longer experienced neck and shoulder pain. Lesson learned.
Buy once, cry once.
You seem like a guy who keeps his equipment a long time. That means you keep it from one stage of your life to the next. This is an extremely important consideration. We, as humans, degrade over time. We get to the point where we take less and less BS from everything, including our equipment.
Backing up with a snowblower eventually gets old. I watched my father "age out" from backup snowblowing - that's why I built him a really nice cabbed B-series tractor with front-mounted blower and rear-mounted box scraper. With this equipment, and in his 80's, he could once again look after his long laneway.
Yes, it costs a bunch more cash to buy and install a font-mounted blower. Spend the money, and never look back (pun intended).
In my avatar you'll see my old B2410 with a front-mounted blower - that was my last open-station tractor. I now operate a pair of B7510's with front-mounted blowers and rear mounted box scrapers. After many years of moving snow in a part of the world that gets REAL winter, I can't think of a better combination for use with a compact tractor.
Parenthetically, the B2410 in my avatar came (used) with the front-mounted blower. My four previous tractors all had rear-mounted blowers. After switching to the front-mount I no longer experienced neck and shoulder pain. Lesson learned.
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You raise very good points. I keep my equipment forever, and take care of it so that I can. I actually started out looking for a front mount but my reason for switching to rear mounts wasn’t cost as much as it was such significantly fewer options available on my older unit. Seems like there’s only a couple of units that will fit, and of course they’re not as readily available as the rear mounts. Your advice is sound though, so I really should try and find something for the front. My neck hurts and I haven’t even started backing up yet……..
I blew snow for close to twenty years with a three point blower and its been twenty years since it left the farm. Even when I was young my neck didn't like any part of it. I move all my snow with a snow bucket on my skid steer. We just don't seem to get the big snows like we use to. If I ever need another blower it with be a front mount on the skid steer. I don't even own a three point blade. You might consider looking for your model tractor with a blower on it and take the blower off and put on yours and resale the tractor. I did this for a buddy to get a loader on his older tractor that we couldn't find a loader for. He didn't want to up grade tractors.