Craftsman lawn tractor snow plow ?

hey guys,

I have a Craftsman 17 HP (kohler engine) lawn tractor with a 42 " deck...
this works well for summertime mowing and fall leaf sucking/bagging ( i have the 3 pail bagging attachment)

now....my question is..

do any of you have any experience with the snow plows Sears sells for these?

this is specifically the unit I'm talking about:

http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/product.do?BV_UseBVCookie=Yes&vertical=LAWN&pid=07124443000


in addition to the plow for $199, (after reading about it on the web) it looks like i should get wheel weights and tire chains for it too...which will push me over the $300 mark.

I have a fairly long driveway, and I think this will pay for itself over time....and maybe I can plow some neighbors houses out for some extra $$$.

so, does anyone have any experiences with these lawn tractor plows?

thanks!

CaptTrev

I have a wheel horse 15horse, deck and a blade. Chains for the rear for sure but if I was going to buy a new one I'd get a blower on it instead. I have not used it for pushing snow in many years, every once in a while I use it to push gravel around but thats about it. If I was going to go whole hog I'd get the blower with it's own motor instead of using the PTO belt too...
Now I use a 20 something inch ariens blower.

They work, but you will need all the weight you can load onto the tractor. A snow blower works much better (but will not push dirt in summer).

My Dad had the same blade on a small 10 or 12 horse (I am surprised they still sell it). Get wheel weights, chains, and fill the tubes with calcium-carbonate and water (to keep them from freezing). You can only bite so much off the top of a drift or a sidewall of snow before losing momentum, and with limited traction the inertia is all you have working for you (the blower avoids these problems).

My dad has the same setup. It worked fairly well for him, but he ran into problems in more than 4-6" of snow. The blade tended to rise on him, and he had problems getting the tires/chains to dig in. (they also ruined the blacktop)
This year he ended up spending the $$$ and getting a really nice snowblower.

Buy a blower for it instead or if thats too expensive just buy a nice walk behind blower. My neighbor had one of them and usually ended up shoveling because the plow missed so much from rising up and over the snow.

Buy a Jeep and stop clearing snow.


Rev

IMHO, get the rear blade. It will work better, yet is harder on the neck.

I configured mine with a Johnson/Evinrude 50 HP trim Cyl set-up for up and down force. That is what is needed, IMHO, you need to be able to control its up and down pressure. If not, be a wimp and get a snow blower.

Just got off the phone with pops...

He tried the plow (Pennsylvania...18 or so inches) It got about 5' then had to back up and take a run at it....it just sucked.

He said F it and fired up the big ass snowblower....done in a few hours (he has a 300' driveway)

Unfortunately they're getting more snow tonight :wierd:

Rev Den said:

Buy a Jeep and stop clearing snow.


Rev

Click to expand...

well, trust me, this isnt just for me.

if it wasnt for my brother in his honda prelude, i probably wouldnt even worry about the snow in the driveway. i have more fun bombing thru it in my jeep when it isnt plowed!

but, here in NY it is required that you have the driveway/walkways/paths cleared sufficiently so that the mail carriers can get thru.

anyway, thanks for all the info and advice from everyone....the more i really look into it/hear stuff from people, the more i think a true walk behind snow blower is the best idea

Buy a Jeep and stop clearing snow.

Click to expand...

This is option #1. Works well. =)

However, my neighbor has a tractor and runs a plow on it. He was out for a good 2-3 hours on Saturday but then again, we had about 16" of snow. He was running chains in the back and was a hefty guy and he seemed to do OK. He even plowed 1/2 my driveway even though I told him not to bother. I guess he likes dirving the tractor as much as I like driving the Jeep......

I was thinking about getting a blade for my wheelhorse 17hp kohler. Right now i have a blower at the front instead, reason i was thinking blade is b/c if its wet snow, it gets klogged in the stack after blowing about 3 feet foward....no matter how many inches...powder like what we just got in CT this past saturday was no problem at all. Anyone else have a problem like this w/ a blower?? The old walk behind blower i used to have would handle anything. How much snow does it take before i cant push it w/ a blade w/ a chained and Wheel weighted 17hp tractor?

When I used my WH in NJ at my parents house it would handle about 5" of wet heavy snow and even that would push it around with the blade angled. That was on a circular gravel driveway w/chains. Powder it was OK to about 12" but we never got much powder in NJ, it was always the heavy wet stuff. I just had my ariens blower plug up for the first time in 5 years, all the snow under the newly fallen powder was melting underneath [warm ground with alot of water run off from the mountain we live on]. I almost reflexively was tempted to dig it out with my fingers but common sense took over and I used a stick.....I just set the two side skids up a bit higher to keep it out of the wet stuff. Now we have a sheet of 2" of solid ice from one end to the other and no place for the water to go. Township is out there now with 5 front end loaders and two dump trucks clearing out the 22" of ice w/4 ruts in it that built up on the road in front of the house.

I have a Crapsman 5 horse 2 stage snowblower, got it on sale at the end of one season, so far no problems, the only times it has stalled are because of a rock I hit (part of the end of my drive is dirt) and a chunk of wood, the rock snapped a vbelt , the wood just stalled it, I can get the whole 185'x20' done in about two hours unless the snow is wet, then it takes longer. I was considering a plow for the tractor, but this was a much better choice.

Here is a link to some good snowblower pricing if you can wait for the 3 days shipping, and yes shipping is free and there is no TAX if you don't live in WI. I purchased an Ariens 5hp Single stage and I am very happy with it. It is amazing for being only 80lbs and single stage. The 12 inches we got here in Michigan this past weekend was no match for it.

www.speedwaysales.com

I don't know about the Craftsman tractors but I have a Cub Cadet 20HP Garden Tractor. I tried to use it this summer to push dirt around and that didn;t work out to well. It worked for top soil and stuff but it couldn't break up the ground. I wound up buying chains for it and that helped alot but it still just wasn't big enough to do the work I needed in the yard. Because of this I was really worried it wouldn't push snow around. I was worried for nothing. The thing works GREAT for pushing snow. So good in fact I gave away my 5hp snow thrower. Also so good I do not plan to buy a trower. When I bought the tractor I was going to get a thrower right away but decided to hold off, I'm glad I did.

Now, I'm not sure how a lighter lawn tractor would work, but I don't use wheel weights, so with them a lawn tractor may work. The other advantage I have is I have a hydraulic lift for the blade so it doesn't float. I can lift the front of the tractor with the blade.

HTH,
B-loose