# Front mounting a skidsteer blower on a tractor



## jonaddis84 (Nov 13, 2008)

I am in the market for a compact utility tractor. Wanting to get a 4520 John Deere but am quite dissapointed that no one makes a front mount snowblower for the 4000 series tractors. (except I did see that Lorenz makes a kit to mount their blowers to the front, but it looks complicated and expensive.

My thought is this...JD sells the skidsteer mounting attachment for the 400cx loader so I know I could hook up a skidsteer snowblower to it, but the hydraulics are an issue. Im thinking though that with rear hydraulics on the tractor you could just get some hose extensions made and run the hyraulic lines to the back of the tractor.

What do you guys think?


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## Greeneverywhere (Nov 7, 2008)

The skid steer mount will work to mount the blower, but the hydraulics are only 12 GPM. You need to run a separate pump off the pto to get the GPM you need.


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## 3bladz (Dec 8, 2005)

An auxillary pto driven pump with about 30gpm and 3000psi would work, problem is you will need at least a 60 gal resevour or a hyd cooler.


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## cretebaby (Aug 23, 2008)

get a inverted 3pt mount like neige has


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## jonaddis84 (Nov 13, 2008)

Ive found a few companys that make the kit to adapt their rear 3pt mount blowers to the front of the tractor. But I like the idea of using a skidsteer blower because it would be an extremely quick attachment (instead of taking the loader off then installing all the 3pt stuff) only to take it right back off and put the loader back on again. Also the functionality of being able to just use the loader to move the blower around would be nice.

According to the JD brochure the hyd system is 12gpm like stated above, Ive found skidsteer blowers that are in the 12gpm range, granted that is the low end of their running range. But while the blower is running, nothing else hydraulic would be taking any flow away so it should be the full 12 gpm i would assume.


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## jonaddis84 (Nov 13, 2008)

cretebaby;633943 said:


> get a inverted 3pt mount like neige has


Had no idea what you were talking about until I came across it on Erskine's website. Sounds like the best of both worlds, a pull type 3pt snowblower.

I called Erskine to get their advice on a hydraulic skidsteer blower and the guy was extremely honest and helpful (A++ for customer service for them). He advised against it because even though according to Deere the 12gpm is within their operating range of 12-25gpm, he said its probably more like 9gpm and I would be quite dissapointed with its performance. He said the auxiliary pump would definitely work, and its not a bad deal, you can pick up a 21gpm Prince 540 PTO pump from Northerntool.com for $450, but the 21 gallon reservoir is what shoots that idea down for me.

He also said the performance of their front mount pto driven units is by far the best you can possibly ask for, and the mounting setup is a one time deal it does not interfere with the loader and is a quick attach...but you still have to remove the loader to put the blower on. And the other dissadvantage being the ~$8000 pricetag for a 73" unit.


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## cretebaby (Aug 23, 2008)

jonaddis84;634653 said:


> Had no idea what you were talking about until I came across it on Erskine's website. Sounds like the best of both worlds, a pull type 3pt snowblower.
> 
> I called Erskine to get their advice on a hydraulic skidsteer blower and the guy was extremely honest and helpful (A++ for customer service for them). He advised against it because even though according to Deere the 12gpm is within their operating range of 12-25gpm, he said its probably more like 9gpm and I would be quite dissapointed with its performance. He said the auxiliary pump would definitely work, and its not a bad deal, you can pick up a 21gpm Prince 540 PTO pump from Northerntool.com for $450, but the 21 gallon reservoir is what shoots that idea down for me.
> 
> He also said the performance of their front mount pto driven units is by far the best you can possibly ask for, and the mounting setup is a one time deal it does not interfere with the loader and is a quick attach...but you still have to remove the loader to put the blower on. And the other dissadvantage being the ~$8000 pricetag for a 73" unit.


 Erskine is a great company to deal with


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## 6090 (Sep 15, 2003)

cretebaby;634678 said:


> Erskine is a great company to deal with


I used to be the Erskine rep in Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. Great products and great company. And as somebody alluded to earlier in this thread, very honest. They will never oversell the capabilities of their products on a given tractor or skid steer loader. Their front mount pto driven blowers are the best in the industry.


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## Grass Master (Feb 17, 2008)

jonaddis84;633828 said:


> I am in the market for a compact utility tractor. Wanting to get a 4520 John Deere but am quite dissapointed that no one makes a front mount snowblower for the 4000 series tractors. (except I did see that Lorenz makes a kit to mount their blowers to the front, but it looks complicated and expensive.
> 
> My thought is this...JD sells the skidsteer mounting attachment for the 400cx loader so I know I could hook up a skidsteer snowblower to it, but the hydraulics are an issue. Im thinking though that with rear hydraulics on the tractor you could just get some hose extensions made and run the hyraulic lines to the back of the tractor.
> 
> What do you guys think?


We run a Kubota M 7040 with a skidsteer quickattach on the lift arms, we had the dealer order a Sweepster axillary tank pump which mounts on the 3 point and runs off the PTO. The idea was to run an Erskine es2000 blower off of the 540 pump supplied from sweepster, it didn't take long to realize this was not going to work. Turns out the sweepster pump was flowing 18 gpm within spec, however this setup was designed to run a broom and as such the pump only generated 1800psi the blower operate on 3000psi.

As this was a first for us as well as the dealer we both shared the expense in fixing the issue of pressure, the dealer came up with a solution, first; in order to generate the 3000psi we had to can the original pump as it was not designed to handle that kind of pressure; second after ordering a pump that could handle 3000psi we needed an overdrive to bolt the pump to as the pump could not spin fast enough with the 540 on the tractor, it now spins at 1200 rpm. Lastly after everything I mentioned above the original relief valve on the sweepster system could not be adjusted to higher than 2100 psi, we had to ordered a new relief valve and now after 4 months of waiting it is assembled and waiting for snow. Sorry for the novel but I wanted to explain how our great little idea turned out to be a real pain. I'll post some picks later.


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## Grass Master (Feb 17, 2008)

This is the 7040 with our hydraulic setup. As you can guess the bare aluminum case is the overdrive and the blue case is the pump itself.


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## Dodge2 (Nov 13, 2008)

Very cool. Wish i had one.


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## BlackIrish (Dec 22, 2007)

Nice set up. How wide is it?


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## Grass Master (Feb 17, 2008)

BlackIrish;637150 said:


> Nice set up. How wide is it?


The blower is 7 feet.:salute:


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## Dodge2 (Nov 13, 2008)

Grass Master;636211 said:


> We run a Kubota M 7040 with a skidsteer quickattach on the lift arms, we had the dealer order a Sweepster axillary tank pump which mounts on the 3 point and runs off the PTO. The idea was to run an Erskine es2000 blower off of the 540 pump supplied from sweepster, it didn't take long to realize this was not going to work. Turns out the sweepster pump was flowing 18 gpm within spec, however this setup was designed to run a broom and as such the pump only generated 1800psi the blower operate on 3000psi.
> 
> As this was a first for us as well as the dealer we both shared the expense in fixing the issue of pressure, the dealer came up with a solution, first; in order to generate the 3000psi we had to can the original pump as it was not designed to handle that kind of pressure; second after ordering a pump that could handle 3000psi we needed an overdrive to bolt the pump to as the pump could not spin fast enough with the 540 on the tractor, it now spins at 1200 rpm. Lastly after everything I mentioned above the original relief valve on the sweepster system could not be adjusted to higher than 2100 psi, we had to ordered a new relief valve and now after 4 months of waiting it is assembled and waiting for snow. Sorry for the novel but I wanted to explain how our great little idea turned out to be a real pain. I'll post some picks later.


Could you give me a link to the website where you got your pump.


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## 02DURAMAX (Dec 27, 2006)

huh????????????


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## Grass Master (Feb 17, 2008)

Dodge2;693567 said:


> Could you give me a link to the website where you got your pump.


The local Kubota dealer worked out the parts list for this combo. It works great now however the tractor in low range and first gear with the pto at 540 rpm's travels 1.5mph too fast for the blower to clear snow.

If you are looking to do a combo like this go with a hydrostatic drive on the tractor.


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## Dodge2 (Nov 13, 2008)

Thanks Grass Master.


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## Rowski (Oct 24, 2005)

Might want to check out this company.

Frontlink inc..

John Deere 4520

These setup is very pricey. A few years ago I priced a front hitch and pto for my New Holland TN70DA. It was around (if memory is correct) around $10k does not include install. Had to be fabricated in Netherlands. Would take 2/3 of a year to get.

I really like the setup. Looks strong and very well thought out. The front hitch and pto is very popular in Europe. Most tractors can be ordered factory with similar setups. For instance my model New Holland can be bought from the factory with this similar setup. I can look up parts on New Holland site for system. But after many phone calls the setup is not offered in the USA as a factory option.

I had this idea for a while. I am not an expert. But after looking at the number the aux hyd pump pto drive is not possible, not efficient, 540 pto is to slow and overdrive looses efficiency even further.

Best of luck!


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## charlesaf3 (Feb 10, 2009)

*kubota m59*

Possible solution is to get a Kubota m59 backhoe. I've got a skid steer QA with 16 gallons of hydraulics to the front, and haven't had any trouble running non-high flow skidsteer stuff on it, like a PHD and Harley rake.

Thinking about putting a snowblower like the SB200 on it, but haven't come to a conclusion. Don't really need it, but it seems like it'd be nice to have.


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