Snowblower powered by Hydro motor??

[ryanwheelock]

Anyone ever make a snowblower run off a hydro motor. I've heard of it before but never seen one or talked to anyone that has used one. Most front mounted blowers I've seen all run off a mid-pto or have a gearbox and pto shaft running from the rear pto.
I would like to fab something up but would like to know more about how much GPM is needed to run a good hydro motor to power about a 8ft snowblower. Weres a good place to buy a hydro motor?
Thanks
Ryan in Northern Michigan

 

[Roger in Iowa]

An 8 footer would like to have 100 HP or so. Hydro unit of that size is thousands of dollars. Similar to what is used on combines for size.

 

[JayinNY]

Look on some skidsteer sites for ideas. They have hydro snow blowers for them.

 

[ryanwheelock]

I dont have a snowblower yet, but could be a 7ft or smaller if have problems getting enough power threw the hydro motor.

 

[Jim in Ma.]

I run a Cat skid steer with a 5' hydro powered blower blower. that machine will eat iced up snowbanks with ease. Just keep the RPM's up.

 

[mmidlam]

would the hydraulic drive from a junk haybine work on a snowblower?

 

[Anonymous-0]

yes we had a 8 ft blower mounted on a dodge power wagon in late 80's we powerd it with a 360 v-8 with hyd drive we used 60 gals a min. and it ran a hyd motor that in turn run thought and cog belt to get the speed to move snow it worked very wellhere in the finger lake of new york

 

[paul]

It's a wonderful idea, but generally you need 80& of the machines power to come through the hydraulics, and other than special high-flow skid steers, we just don't have anything like that on the farm.

You can do it, but to power a 6 foot plus blower is going to take a _serious_ hyd motor and a serious hyd pump which is going to be _seriously_ expensive. No getting around that, you need 40-120 hp to power a 5-8 foot blower to satisfaction, so you need some real spendy hydraulics if you want to go that route. It's been done, it works well, just takes money.

--->Paul

 

[Anonymous-0]

I have an ASV RC 30, 10 gpm, 3000 psi, hooked an old 4' 3ph 2 stage blower to it, used a hydraulic motor I got from Surpluscenter.com. I think the motor was around $300. I just got a motor that would turn 5-600 rpm, with the above specs. Surpluscenter has a page of hydraulic formulas that can help you choose a motor for your application. I have about 15 attachments for that ASV, now, 3 are powered by hyd motors, almost all of the parts, I got from surplus center.

 

[RodinNS]

It can be done... if you don't mind spending into the 5 figure range.
Really.
80-100 hydraulic HP is 100-120 shaft HP when you figure losses. Probably going to fall into the 60-80 gpm range depending on the pressure to get that kind of power... and honestly, probably closer 80 gpm and 4000 psi.
Big pump. Big lines. Big motor. Big oil resevor and big cooler.
A shaft drive would be a lot easier and a lot more efficient.

Rod

 

[JMS/.MN]

I have a 4625SX Gehl skidloader, and the dealer says I can run a snowblower attachment with it for typical small yard, but should have the high flow hyd option to do serious work without overheating. Those gpm specs would be easy to trace. A number of mfgrs do make 5-6 foot blowers for universal mounts, and you could get spec ideas from them.

 

[buickanddeere]

Tractor, skid steer, an old combine or old forage harvester?

 

[ryanwheelock]

I guess it isnt as common as I thought, sounded good because I wanted to mount it on one of my loaders on one of my tractors. With it mounted on the loader it could be rasied up and down a couple of feet. I've got a Vee-plow on my truck but my driveway goes threw a hay field and I have drifting problems, even with making the banks down wind the truck sometimes can barely get threw. Impossible with a straight blade on a pick-up, too much snow to move and pushes truck to the side.
Guess I need to find a gear box that converts the rear pto so a shaft runs under the tractor. Having a hard time finding who makes the gear boxes, thought about fab-ing up a transfer case but would like to find one from a company that makes em.
Thanks for the in=put
Ryan in Northern Michigan

 

[JMS/.MN]

Don"t need a gearbox- local shop has mounted several on the front- just used a chain to a shaft running under the tractor. If direction needs to be reversed, that can be done with an intermediate gear on that chain.

 

[buickanddeere]

So the goal is to cut through 8ft tall drifts?
It would be cheaper to find a triple auger snowblower.And just keep the blower on the back three point hitch.
Or in the fall put up some snowfence upwind of the driveway.

 

[Anonymous-0]

You could also drive one from an auxiliary engine, that would eliminate plumbing a drive line under the tractor. I've seen truck mounted units that run an independent engine, to run the blower. Check airport and gub'ment auctions, some show up there.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Just seen an ad in the latest JD propaganda magazine for a loader mount hyd. snow blower, driven by large pump off pto. then through large lines up to front! sounds expensive but not impossible!

 

[paul]

Just go to a farm auction & buy a 3pt rear snowblower, 8 foot wide, for $800-1500. Put it on the rear of your loader tractor, and you can blow out the driveway, and use the bucket for cleanup around buildings and hard snow.

Best of both worlds.

Keeps a lot of weight on the rear axle, which is what you need in snow. Putting all the weight up front is no picnic. The cost of the transfer shaft, or the hyd setup, makes it real spendy & less of a good thing than what you might think trying to put a blower on the front of a regular tractor.

Once you blow snow, the ridge doesen't build up and it all becomes a lot easier to maintain a clear driveway. It'll work out fine on the rear of most tractors with live pto, and a low rear gear.

Unless you have some special need, it works out better to put it on the rear as intended. The front mount sounds good on paper, but ends up being more hassle & doesn't work as good in most cases once you actually do it on a regular farm tractor.

--->Paul

 

[buickanddeere]

This summer I seen a brand new JD 7230 with a SL FEL roll up to the plant last summer.Upon examination a 1000rpm front pto and a front mount three point hitch was noted.On the same tractor.
Last November the tractor disappeared for a few hours. It returned without the loader. Instead had an ordinary everyday two stage three point hitch pto snowblower on the front. No modes, no nothing just hook on and go.
Works great in and around the complex.Moves tons of snow per minute.