# Low flow Bobcat with snowblower?



## Alta Lawn Care

I rented a Bobcat S130. I'm thinking about putting on an Erskine 16 gpm snowblower. The Bobcat is 16.9 gpm which is considered low flow. The Bobcat dealer is worried that it might not work that well. He likes the high flow set ups and says they work well. Anybody use a low flow Bobcat with a snowblower?


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## MnM

i have never operated a high flow before so i couldnrt compare. But i have a low flow a it works just fine. maybe you could go a bit faster with a high flow but use what you already got.


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## Mark Oomkes

If you will be buying one down the road, get a hi-flow. Definitely. LoFlow sucks in the long run. Never stop kicking myself for not getting that option when I bought mine.


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## RipT

As I have both versions of QuickAttach (same as Erskine) for two different machines, the HighFlow is the way to go if you are free to choose both machine & blower. The lo-flo (15 gpm in my case) certainly works, but may be slower than you want for regular commercial use and/or deep snow.

In my case the lo-flo set-up is primarily for drifts and situations where I was not able to "plow-with-the-storm" and faced a mile or so of several feet of virgin snow. (It happens!)

So, depends on what you will be using it for, and of course, $$$$

Good Luck


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## blowerman

We run two blowers, both Bobcat & Erskine. They get used for condo driveways. 
You need to look at what type of work they will be used for. I ordered a Bobcat 873G with highflow and a erskine blower in highflow 5 years ago. Before the dealer finished the sale, they contacted Erskine, described my application and the factory suggested lowflow. Without the volume of snow and given the short distance, the cost wasn't worth the slight increase in performance. To this day we run the blowers every snow, 1 inch and up and have no problems with lowflow.
That's just my experience.


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## NICHOLS LANDSCA

Also it depends on the machine/frame size, usually the large frame size low flow is more than small machine. Example my 247B (small frame) is 15.6gpm low flow and my 252B (large frame) is 22gpm low flow which is the same as the 297C. The 252 spins my stumpgrinder faster with more torque, which should be the same for the snowblower.


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## RipT

It is important however for the hyd motors (two) on the blower to be matched to the available flow of the machine. Erskine, QuickAttach and Bobcat will do this when a blower is ordered. If you are buying a used blower or one that is "in stock", be aware. It is not that expensive to change out or rebuild the hyd motors for a different displacement within the same series at least.

This is a case where bigger-is-not-better in that the performance of a blower with hi-flo motors will not be satisfactory at all if not supplied with close to its rated flow.

Blowerman makes a good point, in that how fast you can move through the snow is more important than how far it will throw in many cases. More a factor in heavy wet snow conditions than dry powder.


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## Alta Lawn Care

Man it's great to hear from you guys. Thanks for the advice. We see a lot of wet snow here in Vermont and the condos I need this machine for don't require a long throw, so it seems a low flow set up might do the trick.


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## Plowin in VT

Alta - Are you out of the Williston area?


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## Mark Oomkes

Alta Lawn Care;482090 said:


> Man it's great to hear from you guys. Thanks for the advice. We see a lot of wet snow here in Vermont and the condos I need this machine for don't require a long throw, so it seems a low flow set up might do the trick.


Might want to reread the above advice. If you're getting heavy, wet snow, you're going to want the hi-flow option for the blower, long throw or not.


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## Alta Lawn Care

PHP:


Alta - Are you out of the Williston area?

Out of Winooski. I plowed in Williston last year but swore it off this year because it's so different than say Burlington or South Burlington (it snows there when it doesn't in surrounding towns). Where are you out of? What's your business name?

Adam


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## Plowin in VT

Just sent you a PM.


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## HELLSCANYON

*Hi-Flow or Low-Flow*

I have run both Low flow and High flow snowblowers and I would most definately recommend a high flow system in wet snow conditions. My experience with a low flow snowblower in wet conditions was not good. I spent about as much time unplugging the shute as I did plowing snow and moving very slow to boot. Just my 2 cents.


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