[lawnlandscape]

I do not see a post about these for a few years... I have been casually looking at these for a number of years.

We do A LOT of residential snow removal, so... I think one of these would come in very handy. However, the videos of I have watched.... they look very weak and slow.

Does anyone have one? How do they work? What have you heard?

The only company I can find that makes them currently is SnowVac and an 8' option STARTS AT $12,500!!!! (Way to much)

Do you know of any one else that makes them?

We have lots of 3/4 ton trucks.. which we like the idea of using because of the ability to get from house to house quickly.

Let it Snow.

 

[hansenslawncare]

I do not see a post about these for a few years... I have been casually looking at these for a number of years.

We do A LOT of residential snow removal, so... I think one of these would come in very handy. However, the videos of I have watched.... they look very weak and slow.

Does anyone have one? How do they work? What have you heard?

The only company I can find that makes them currently is SnowVac and an 8' option STARTS AT $12,500!!!! (Way to much)

Do you know of any one else that makes them?

We have lots of 3/4 ton trucks.. which we like the idea of using because of the ability to get from house to house quickly.

Let it Snow.

The company you mentioned is the only one I've heard of as well. I've been told that you can modify some of the components in their blowers that allow the truck to move faster.

That's about all I know.

 

[jasonv]

Well, snow blowing IS slow. You can't use the truck's inertia to do the work. Think about what you can do with a 10 horse walk-behind blower. They throw pretty good, but they don't move fast. Now widen up for a truck width, you'll be looking at roughly 50 hp to be able to move as fast as a walk-behind snow blower. I'm going to guess that you probably want to move about 10x as fast as a walk-behind, so think on the order of 300-500 hp for a "serious" truck mounted snow blower. It obviously can be done, but the question is... is it worth it?

And try to picture what would happen if you hit something with that..

 

[Triple L]

Try this guy, his products look very nice

http://www.bearfabrication.com/

 

[goel]

I noticed a flyer in arctic Snowplows (not arctic sectional) office the other day for one that mounts on their plow frame.

The blower was made in the USA, but I can't remember the mfr.

Can't imagine they would be useful for 99.9 percent of the time unless your paid hourly.

 

[Triple L]

Everyone uses tractors with inverted blowers for residential plowing, How can this be any different??? Same concept, blow the guys driveway clean, he's not talking about blowing parking lots with the thing.........

With a custom made back drag edge on the front of the thing I can see buddy making a killing with the thing, $35-40 a pop fly around customers would be more happier no big pile of snow at the end of the drive and with poly cutting edge no concrete scrapes... Wicked awesome idea

 

[goel]

YouTube it. Tell me about visibility and speed and effectiveness after you hang a snow blower and motor on the front of a truck.

Tractors are made to supply hp to the pto. Visibility is a tad bit better also.

If they are that effective don't you think someone like Paul (neige) would have tried it with the 3500 or 4000 driveways they do? All I see them running is ag's with inverted blowers. The you tube videos also show them knocking off driveways in 30ish seconds.

 

[White Gardens]

YouTube it. Tell me about visibility and speed and effectiveness after you hang a snow blower and motor on the front of a truck.

Tractors are made to supply hp to the pto. Visibility is a tad bit better also.

If they are that effective don't you think someone like Paul (neige) would have tried it with the 3500 or 4000 driveways they do? All I see them running is ag's with inverted blowers. The you tube videos also show them knocking off driveways in 30ish seconds.

Thumbs Up

....................

 

[Herm Witte]

Years ago I owned a Hanson truck mounted snow blower which the Snow Vac is based on. It generally lacked power and I believe we had a 27 HP model. I suspect that since you plow with a truck you would be disappointed in the operating speed at which a truck mounted snow blower such as you described would operate. The only way You might be happy with a truck mounted snowblower would be one with an alternative power plant that might run a blower hydraulically with considerably more HP than what is available in a truck mounted one. Since you "do a lot of residential" and have a lot of trucks, you may want to consider replacing one of your trucks with an inverted blower on a Ag tractor then you would have one around. We have been pleased with our inverted blowers.

 

[Triple L]

YouTube it. Tell me about visibility and speed and effectiveness after you hang a snow blower and motor on the front of a truck.

Tractors are made to supply hp to the pto. Visibility is a tad bit better also.

If they are that effective don't you think someone like Paul (neige) would have tried it with the 3500 or 4000 driveways they do? All I see them running is ag's with inverted blowers. The you tube videos also show them knocking off driveways in 30ish seconds.

I'm not trying to fight, when you have 1000 driveways close together of course your going to use a tractor, the OP, obviously does not, and that's why travel speed is important to him, he already has a few trucks and maybe he needs them in the summer time already so what's wrong? Neither me and you have ran one but I did have a few inverted snowblowers so that I can speak from experience.... biggest part was the drive time hands down where the tractor is at a great disadvantage

 

[Grassman09]

A few truck mounted snow blowers vids here. He is running a diesel engine in the back of the box to power the blower.

 

[Jeremie444]

Something tells me the customer may have an issue with a snowblower that belches black smoke in a cloud like that in their driveway. I love diesel but that's crazy. Not to mention how would the visibility be backing up? And it still wasn't moving all that fast.

 

[jasonv]

Something tells me the customer may have an issue with a snowblower that belches black smoke in a cloud like that in their driveway. I love diesel but that's crazy. Not to mention how would the visibility be backing up? And it still wasn't moving all that fast.

That engine is definitely not running correctly in that video. As mentioned in the comments, it has since been repaired.

But aside from that, that video really does illustrate the point I was making earlier, because that size of an engine and it was still going pitifully slow. Snow blowing really takes a lot of power.

Edit:
Takes a train:

^^ 2500 HP!!!!
Source: http://www.hazegray.org/rail/snow/rotary/

Here's what 700 HP gets you:

 

[goel]

I'm not trying to fight, when you have 1000 driveways close together of course your going to use a tractor, the OP, obviously does not, and that's why travel speed is important to him, he already has a few trucks and maybe he needs them in the summer time already so what's wrong? Neither me and you have ran one but I did have a few inverted snowblowers so that I can speak from experience.... biggest part was the drive time hands down where the tractor is at a great disadvantage

Lol, yea me too Chad.

But, we are all in this to make money. If they were a viable option, or even somewhat successful everybody knows that we would see at least 1 in every town running around blowing white to make the GREEN.

 

[2ExploreSnow]

I believe Fair Manufactoring in Menno, SD had mounted blowers on trucks. That was done over 10yrs ago. Typically it was a much heavier truck than a 3/4 ton. It involved a 2nd engine mounted on a flatbed and a PTO (underneath the truck) connecting to the front blower.

Not the best way to go about this. It's possible, yes. It's crude but it works. The amount of time, energy, $$$$ to retrofit all this in a usable way pretty much makes it impracticle, unless one has all the materials at hand. and let's not forget of reinforcing front end to handle the weight of the blower. And yes, I'm keeping in mind a smaller&lighter auger design or ribbon, not a dual fan which are heavier. Again, for a 3/4 ton truck, not some big dumptruck or one with that has a front pto.

Either use a tractor with front PTO or drive backwards (as mentioned earlier) -- OR -- use a 'loader with an engine mounted on the blower -- which gives the operator the option to move tall piles/drifts.

 

[2ExploreSnow]

... I'll add. I understand making this work by using some extra trucks that you have. I'm with your concerns that it would end up being relatively expensive and slow. The ones with larger fans can move, but tend to be much heavier, hence my recommendation.

 

[Mick76]

Here's what you can do with a little modification......

 

[holtjeffrey71]

Well, snow blowing IS slow. You can't use the truck's inertia to do the work. Think about what you can do with a 10 horse walk-behind blower. They throw pretty good, but they don't move fast. Now widen up for a truck width, you'll be looking at roughly 50 hp to be able to move as fast as a walk-behind snow blower. I'm going to guess that you probably want to move about 10x as fast as a walk-behind, so think on the order of 300-500 hp for a "serious" truck mounted snow blower. It obviously can be done, but the question is... is it worth it? And try to picture what would happen if you hit something with that..

I had a Hansen. It had a 27hp Kohler engine. I could go as fast if not faster than a walk behind with a foot of snow. Obviously if it is wet you have to slow some. It would throw atleast 50 feet. Rio bad they went out of business. I paid $7500 in 2004 for it.

 

[Hydromaster]

looks slow,
You can hear it bog down

Wow , it didn’t repost….and no gaps…crazy.

 

[Hydromaster]

a pto driven, + stacks