Had the tractor since fall of 2011; finally got a real snowstorm here in New England. (OK, there was one wet 6" snowfall last year, which showed that the blower could handle slush - a big relief.) Two feet of moderately heavy snow, drifting to four feet in places.
Performance was good. With wind high and moving around, the price of adding hydraulic chute rotation seemed like a bargain.
It's not a miracle machine. Up against my Ariens 9526DLE, it moved snow about as well as 2X the horsepower would suggest. In other words, very slow forward speed was needed. Much easier to handle, of course, and also better able to deal with the deep, plow-packed piles at the street end of the driveway. Only major lack was the heated handgrips of the Ariens - will the accessory outlet power a pair of motorcycle gloves? Oh, and rain pants next time: not only did my upper legs get cold from melting blown snow, but the jeans then froze solid.
Overall, I'd say that with this kind of snow, it cleared about twice as quickly as the Ariens, with about 1/10 the effort. With slush, much faster and no stopping to clear the chute. I still have a lot of narrow paths to do, so the Ariens stays. Good to have backup anyway.
One part of the job is a path over mowed meadow (rougher than lawn) to clear access to an oil tank. I can now confirm that while the 47" blower clears (just) wide enough to clear a way for the R4 tires, even a moderate turn puts them into snow. And tighter turns take a few passes to clean up - not much work, fortunately. But I did find that a path I had carefully measured, staked and test-driven on dry ground doesn't work at all when there's a lot of snow and the ground is slippery. (Dry snow over dry grass is not much better than ice.) Just couldn't follow the tight turns while pushing the blower.
While backing and forthing on that part, I suddenly heard a loud clatter. Throttle down and PTO slapped in as fast as I could move. Turned out the whole snowblower with its mount had detached from the front hitch. Fortunately, other than a little scraped paint, I don't think there was any damage - could have been pretty serious, but I shut down before busting a hose or jamming a shaft. (The shaft was pulled partway out, but never came loose to whiplash around.) It took about half an hour of back-straining work to take it apart, drag pieces into correct orientation and reattach. Worked fine afterward, but I'll re-grease everything whenever the crusted snow melts clear just for luck. Good news is that I was able to fix it solo.
I still don't know how both locking pins came out. Best guess: drag from the packed snow rolled them (one forward, one back) into the detents, and the thing just fell off. Anyone else ever have this happen? Maybe I'll wire down the two pins for luck.
A few other observations:
- The second drift-cutter blade I bought was quite important. They really ought to include both; couldn't be more than $5 OEM cost.
- My hands kept doing what they'd do if it were a loader up front instead of the blower. As a result, I kept swinging the chute without meaning to, and got several blasts of wind-driven snow in the face.
- I left off the ballast box completely this year. Handling was much better with that weight distribution. But traction was really not adequate in some cases, even in 4WD. I'm trying to decide between chains and just using the Ariens on the grassy sections. Don't want to add weight to the machine to minimize ground damage, and it would need to be a lot heavier to make a difference.
- The Ariens ate a buried entry mat that wind must have moved around before the snow started. Had to replace both shear pins on the auger. While doing that, I compared with the JD 47" pins, which are spindly by comparison. Harder metal, more conservative fail point, or different design with lower torque on the shaft?
Another question: in 4WD, at full throttle and with the PTO engaged, engine speed was right on the PTO mark, dipping slightly under load. In 2WD, I had to throttle back slightly. Would it be safe to run at full throttle, with blower RPM going a little above standard shaft speed? I don't want to blow anything up or cause excessive wear, but every bit of power helps in that deep snow.
Thanks, and I hope this is useful to other 1026R newbies.
Performance was good. With wind high and moving around, the price of adding hydraulic chute rotation seemed like a bargain.
It's not a miracle machine. Up against my Ariens 9526DLE, it moved snow about as well as 2X the horsepower would suggest. In other words, very slow forward speed was needed. Much easier to handle, of course, and also better able to deal with the deep, plow-packed piles at the street end of the driveway. Only major lack was the heated handgrips of the Ariens - will the accessory outlet power a pair of motorcycle gloves? Oh, and rain pants next time: not only did my upper legs get cold from melting blown snow, but the jeans then froze solid.
Overall, I'd say that with this kind of snow, it cleared about twice as quickly as the Ariens, with about 1/10 the effort. With slush, much faster and no stopping to clear the chute. I still have a lot of narrow paths to do, so the Ariens stays. Good to have backup anyway.
One part of the job is a path over mowed meadow (rougher than lawn) to clear access to an oil tank. I can now confirm that while the 47" blower clears (just) wide enough to clear a way for the R4 tires, even a moderate turn puts them into snow. And tighter turns take a few passes to clean up - not much work, fortunately. But I did find that a path I had carefully measured, staked and test-driven on dry ground doesn't work at all when there's a lot of snow and the ground is slippery. (Dry snow over dry grass is not much better than ice.) Just couldn't follow the tight turns while pushing the blower.
While backing and forthing on that part, I suddenly heard a loud clatter. Throttle down and PTO slapped in as fast as I could move. Turned out the whole snowblower with its mount had detached from the front hitch. Fortunately, other than a little scraped paint, I don't think there was any damage - could have been pretty serious, but I shut down before busting a hose or jamming a shaft. (The shaft was pulled partway out, but never came loose to whiplash around.) It took about half an hour of back-straining work to take it apart, drag pieces into correct orientation and reattach. Worked fine afterward, but I'll re-grease everything whenever the crusted snow melts clear just for luck. Good news is that I was able to fix it solo.
I still don't know how both locking pins came out. Best guess: drag from the packed snow rolled them (one forward, one back) into the detents, and the thing just fell off. Anyone else ever have this happen? Maybe I'll wire down the two pins for luck.
A few other observations:
- The second drift-cutter blade I bought was quite important. They really ought to include both; couldn't be more than $5 OEM cost.
- My hands kept doing what they'd do if it were a loader up front instead of the blower. As a result, I kept swinging the chute without meaning to, and got several blasts of wind-driven snow in the face.
- I left off the ballast box completely this year. Handling was much better with that weight distribution. But traction was really not adequate in some cases, even in 4WD. I'm trying to decide between chains and just using the Ariens on the grassy sections. Don't want to add weight to the machine to minimize ground damage, and it would need to be a lot heavier to make a difference.
- The Ariens ate a buried entry mat that wind must have moved around before the snow started. Had to replace both shear pins on the auger. While doing that, I compared with the JD 47" pins, which are spindly by comparison. Harder metal, more conservative fail point, or different design with lower torque on the shaft?
Another question: in 4WD, at full throttle and with the PTO engaged, engine speed was right on the PTO mark, dipping slightly under load. In 2WD, I had to throttle back slightly. Would it be safe to run at full throttle, with blower RPM going a little above standard shaft speed? I don't want to blow anything up or cause excessive wear, but every bit of power helps in that deep snow.
Thanks, and I hope this is useful to other 1026R newbies.
