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It's Time...!!! ;-)

That is true of normally aspirated engines that rely on atmospheric pressure to charge the combustion cylinder, but the LX3310 is a Turbo diesel. Turbo engines don't suffer the same loss with altitude, so I should be getting the full 31 hp. I am about 500' above sea level.

A plow isn't a great option for my driveway or Gary's because our driveways are too long. With a plow, you can only push snow so far before the weight builds up, exceeding the tractor's ability to push it, usually because of traction. A plow also has the drawback of building up large piles that can get in the way and take forever to melt away. Plows are also kind of tough on the pavement. With a blower, you can remove snow from an unlimited length of driveway because you are literally throwing the snow out of your way, relocating it off of the driveway. Blowers are not great for light snow falls (<2 inches). Plows do better on those light snow falls. I would say that blowers are tougher to use and require more skill than a plow. Financially, a plow costs less than half as much as a blower.

I've found that if I use the weight box with the snow blower, I lose front wheel traction and steering effectiveness. The weight box does put weight on the back wheels, but it lifts weight off the front wheels. I am so tempted to have my back tires loaded. Maybe I'll take your suggestion and try some wheel weights, because I can remove them in the summer.

My engine speed was full throttle, 2,500 rpm, which is recommended in the snow blower operators manual. I kept the HST in low range. I have to agree. Blowing snow takes technique and skill, but it's so much smoother and more enjoyable than plowing.

I too was disappointed with the "plowing" effect. This tractor is new to me, but this wasn't my first time in the snow with it. That didn't happen during the first two snow removals. This snow was so darn sticky and it packed together so easily that I virtually couldn't get snow to the fan without plowing to some extent. It's February 29th, so the chances of us getting a nice light fluffy snow fall here in Connecticut before spring is dwindling fast. I may not get a chance to try it out in powder until next year.... :-(

Lot of folks have commented similarly. But I have to say, I just watched my video again and I'm not sure I agree. That first pass was brutal, cutting a path uphill. But once I got through that, I was taking very small bites and my ground speed was keeping the blower nicely loaded so that it maintained good snow velocity in the chute without slowing the engine too much. The snow was deep and wet, which used up every one of those 31hp. But I was really impressed with how the machine did.

Thank You! This snow fall was really tough. I've been blowing snow with my 1025R since 2016 and I've never seen snow this sticky. I am really liking the LX3310. Don't get me wrong, I really loved the Deere, but this machine is a bit larger with a lot more grunt to it.

You didn't get to see it, because I didn't want my video to run for 37 minutes, but that is what I end up doing. By coming straight into those garage doors, the blower will leave a long berm parallel to the doors. Once I have a wide enough spot where I can come in from the side without driving on (and packing) untouched snow, that's just what I do to deal with the berm.

"Better save up your money for tractor repair!" Too funny... I love it...! Don't try this at home. But.... I do work for a Kubota dealer. How better can I learn what these machines are capable of than by pushing them to their limits. I'll tell you what, the LX impressed the heck out of me in that heavy snow. I pushed the heck out of it. I cleared 5 driveways that day, totalling about a mile in length. During those hours of hard operation, I burned a few of gallons of diesel and broke 2 auger shear bolts. No biggie. I roll with a dozen spares and a couple 1/2" wrenches.

Agreed. Stupid at its finest. I could only watch like 2 minutes

Kubota also makes an LX2980, their Commerical Blower. It has a bigger box, a bigger fan, wider 3-piece chute and a one-piece auger. It is probably the better match for the LX3310. I know it would have handled this snow better. Kubota's front snow blowers are made by a company named Rad-Tech. They make snow blowers for a number of OE companies, including John Deere... ;-)

I try to keep the load to where the engine speed does not lower by more than 10%. In this case, that would mean 2,250 - 2,500 RPM. This stuff was packing and plowing in front of the blower, so I was pushing it a little harder than that just to get the snow to the auger. Once I got that first path cut, I was able to take partial bites, but even those built up in front of the blower.

@@MikeSouzaProjects like I said moving to fast been operating since 72 shouldn't move faster than the blower can swallow it, if it's piling slow down, good luck rookie

That's one way of dealing with the snow... :-)

Yeah, I went about 10 feet in medium range before I knew it was time for low range.

I'm still getting a feel for this machine. It's a bit different than the Deere 1025R that I learned on. This snow was super sticky, which caused a lot of packing and plowing. I felt that my speed was about right, but I'm getting a lot of feedback here to the contrary. So I will take those pointers into the cab next time it snows. Thank you!

Exactly.

Thanks for sharing your experience. I've got a feeling there's some ballast fluid in my future....

Thank You! Pricing a tractor is not a straight forward task, because there are so many options and add-ons. The LX3310 I have is no longer available, it's been replaced by the LX3520. If you option out an LX3520 with the Cab, the same snow blower and hydraulic chute deflector you see in my video, you're going to find the price around $35K (2/25/24). Add a front loader and the price goes up, etc... Kubota has a pretty good tool for configuring a tractor, they call it "Build My Kubota". Check it out, whip up a build and add the options you want. If you run into items you don't understand, I'd be happy to answer questions as I'm sure your local dealer would too. Where in this great country are you located? shop.kubotausa.com/buildmykubota/

Thanks for the advice. I am really liking the LX3310 so far. That heavy snow was a pressure test, and it did great.

Sadly, in Connecticut our snow is often wet and heavy. But this snow was not typical. It was really sticky and it packed really easily, which made it tough to get it into the blower as it would sheet up and plow in front of it. I really had no choice but to push the tractor a little harder than ideal to get the snow to build up enough for the auger to feed it to the fan. I use some Griot's Garage spray wax, just because I have it (use it on my cars, bikes) and it works pretty good. But I had not yet sprayed this blower. It's brand new, just came home last month.

This snow was freakishly heavy. Yeah, my LX defiantly worked hard, but I was very pleased with it. My other tractor, a Deere 1025R, would not have performed nearly as well.

You are running to fast. That is why you are pushing snow. If you keep doing that you are going to have far more damage than just shear pins. You have to give it a chance to clear the snow out of the first stage. I have an open station kubota and it gets cold so you stop and warm up. If it gets really deep Raise the blower up and take two passes. Good luck

Going down hill definitely makes a big difference. In the beginning of the video you can see my driveway, which is next to Gary’s. It’s also a good pitch, but because I get to come down, that first pass is much easier. There have been times when I’ve done as you suggested, driven up the snow and worked down. The R14s do well in the snow. I was a little reluctant to try that on this event because we had 11”.

@@MikeSouzaProjects I understand your point, but the snow on the driveway actually HELPS with traction to a point. I'd bet that you'd have been fine. But as long as doing what you did worked for you, that's the important thing.

Much too fast for those conditions

And slow down …

You absolutely DO NOT lose 2/3 or your power on a hydro. YES, there is SOME loss with a hydro, but nowhere near what you think. I own both, large and small tractors, and both gear and hydrostatic transmissions.

@@JeffGeorgalas I got my information from a Kabota sales personnel I bought a L 3902 I tested a L 3302. Hydro It wouldn’t pull two bottom plow the L 3902 Gear Dr. will easily pull a three bottom plow.

@@steveedinger9869 I don't care where you got your information, it's wrong. NO hydrostatic Trans tractor loses 2/3 of it's power due to the transmission. It's about a 15% loss at most, depending on the HP of the tractor. Oh, let's see a video of your 37.5 HO machine pulling a 3 bottom plow buried all the way down. You've got a CZcams channel, why don't you have videos all over the place of your machine putting in work?

There definitely is some loss through an HST. The LX model is not available in gear drive. Even if it were, I'd still go HST because my wife uses our tractor quite a lot and I don't think she would if it were gear drive. She likes the simplicity.

Determining the right ground speed when blowing snow definitely takes some feel. If you go too slowly, the blower won't load with snow and the snow won't blow very far. Keep that up and the chute will clog. You need to go fast enough to load the blower fan and keep the snow velocity in the chute high, but not so fast that you reduce the engine speed too much, which also reduces the throw distance and chute speed. That snow was the heaviest I've encountered in the 8 years I've been blowing snow with a tractor. I was probably pushing it just a little more than I should of, because this tractor is new to me, and I want to find its limits. But I wouldn't go too much slower than I was going.

Velocity of the fan blade isn't determined by ground speed........it spins at the same speed until it slows down by excess snow delivered to it by collection augers and the resulting lower engine RPMs....going slower (ground speed) would have been your better option to allow the blower to handle the snow.... coating the blower with some anti stick substance also is an option but doesn't usually last very long..... also making sure the blower is not warm because that also adds to poor performance as the snow sticks easier to warm surfaces........most of your problem was due to the operator@@MikeSouzaProjects

Both of the dogs are trained in scent work and tracking. My wife competes with them. My wife, who had no idea that a bear walked through the yard just minutes before, was in the front yard and called the dogs. That's why Major (the black German Shepherd) broke off his tracking attempt. If she hadn't called them, I bet he would have tracked that bear down.

@@MikeSouzaProjects cool.... and maybe having those dogs around is a good thing if you have bears in area !!! cheers

Nope. Just passing through. We love living in the countryside.

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