snow blade

[nfarr]

I have a 20/52 fastrak and have been servicing about 12 lawns a week, all under 15000ft2. Some have asked me to do snow removal for them this year. Has anyone used the snow blade, or the snow blower and what has your experience been?

Thanks,

[mowerconsultant]

The blade is brand new, you will not have to much input there, but in our testing (upper Midwest snowbelt) it worked excellent.
Same goes for the snowblower.
How many driveway's do you plan on doing?

Pj

[nfarr]

That is good to know. I am considering getting a walk behind snow blower for walks and the blade for the Fastrak. I would like to do about 40 driveways each snow fall. I am a home services/remodeling contractor as well as rehabber. A good amount of my business comes from Real Estate Agent referrals. A couple have asked me to do snow removal at their vacant listings. In order to justify the expense I would need to do quite a few homes.

[mowerconsultant]

I would shy away from doing 40 driveways each snowfall with the FasTrak snowblower.
Get yourself a couple good commercial duty walk behind snowblowers or a plow truck.

Pj

[gps_jetskier]

So you've been testing a Hustler snow plow or someone elses?
Is there a link for what you've been testing?
The other post I made wasn't a Huslter version.

gpshemi

[mowerconsultant]

So you've been testing a Hustler snow plow or someone elses?
Is there a link for what you've been testing?
The other post I made wasn't a Huslter version.

gpshemi

We tested the last couple of winters with a FasTrak snowblade, these are just now being made available to dealers to sell.
The Fastrak blade is a Hustler model, not aftermarket.
We will be testing a blade on the full frame Hustler / Super Z's this winter.

Pj

[nfarr]

I bought a nice walk behind snow blower, however, I am still interested in the blower for the fastrak. I called my dealer in Cols OH and they tell me that they are not available and do not have any future availability dates??? ie out of stock at the distribution level.

[mowerconsultant]

We have had a huge demand for them recently.
E-mail me your information and I will see what I can do.

Pj

[gps_jetskier]

I'd like to see how you mount the plow.
Does the deck stay on? That's the only part I don't like about the plow.
On the other hand taking the deck off every year is kinda a pain too.

gpshemi

[gobucks]

I just purchased a 18hp 52" FasTrac yesterday. I have trying to get researh on the snow blade with no luck. I am going to order one #927574 from Friesen Fab & Equipment Co.(614-873-4354) on Monday. If you are in Dublin OH they are right down the street.

[gobucks]

We tested the last couple of winters with a FasTrak snowblade, these are just now being made available to dealers to sell.
The Fastrak blade is a Hustler model, not aftermarket.
We will be testing a blade on the full frame Hustler / Super Z's this winter.

Pj
I just purchased a 18hp 52" 2005 Fastrac. I have a 1600ft driveway, which I am going to pave next spring. Do you reccomend the new Fastrac snow blade or a good 2 stage walk behind blower?

[mowerconsultant]

That is a pretty long driveway.
How much snow do you get in a normal winter?, I see your in the Columbus Ohio area, you can get some good snowfalls there.....
I am thinking a snowblower for your FasTrak may be a better choice.

Pj

[mowerconsultant]

I'd like to see how you mount the plow.
Does the deck stay on? That's the only part I don't like about the plow.
On the other hand taking the deck off every year is kinda a pain too.

gpshemi

The deck does not stay on.
This is on the FasTrak.
I should have some pictures in a week or so.

Pj

[nfarr]

I just purchased a 18hp 52" FasTrac yesterday. I have trying to get researh on the snow blade with no luck. I am going to order one #927574 from Friesen Fab & Equipment Co.(614-873-4354) on Monday. If you are in Dublin OH they are right down the street.

I bought my 20/52 Fastrak from them this past year. They gave me a good deal and are really easy to work with. They were going to see if they could get me some specs, drawings for the blade, but I don't have them yet.

Nathan

[theservicingdealer]

If you cant find a blower We have one in stock and would gladly ship it to you!!!
Spear Street Mowers
Charlotte VT
802-425-4556

[markindetroit]

I have a full size Super Z that I bought in 2004. I love the mower.
I am just puzzled as to why someone would want to plow snow with this. I live in Michigan and live on 12 acres witha 300 foot driveway. We get occasional 3-6 inch snow falls, sometimes more. I can't imagine trying to push that much snow with my lawn mower. I mean the Super Z was designed to cut grass, which it does very well. Trying to adapt it to do other things for which it wasn't designed, to me, doesn't make sense.
I just bought a Catapillar frontloader/backhoe to plow my snow and to use around my property. But I would never try to add a mower blade to the underside to cut the grass. They have totally different purposes and uses. I just had to write as it would seem like a waste of time/effort to plow snow with my Super Z.

[gobucks]

That is a pretty long driveway.
How much snow do you get in a normal winter?, I see your in the Columbus Ohio area, you can get some good snowfalls there.....
I am thinking a snowblower for your FasTrak may be a better choice.

Pj

I just ordered the blade last week. If it does not work well for this size driveway, I will sell it and get the blower..

[gobucks]

On average I shovel/plow snow in Columbus, Ohio about two or three times a year. I went back and forth as to purchasing a John Deere tractor (which is is better suited for mowing and plowing) or purchase a Hustler mower (which we all know is designed more for mowing). I will be spending about 95% of my time mowing and the other 5% plowing. Since the majority of time will be spent cutting grass, I decided to purchase a machine that is more suited for mowing. I can't justify purchasing a Catapillar frontloader/backhoe to plow my driveway 3 times a year.

[gobucks]

I bought my 20/52 Fastrak from them this past year. They gave me a good deal and are really easy to work with. They were going to see if they could get me some specs, drawings for the blade, but I don't have them yet.

Nathan

I ordered the plow last week and allowed Corney to sell it to someone else (I'm not in need of it yet). Where you the person who purchased the plow and if so did you use it this past week? Work Well?

[gps_jetskier]

I live in Lapeer. My drive is something on the order of 360 feet. I can't imagine why you would say it's not a good idea. I have a back blade on my tractor and that's the biggest pain in the neck (literally) there is. I mounted a blade on the bucket to push snow, I can plow in both directions, but even that isn't ideal. You're constantly changing gears, and it's a long rig when it's all together. I think a Z-plow would be slick - provided it's engineered correctly. Talk about a fast mover. It would make short work out of it just like grass. Built it for the full size Hustler Z....I'm in...

gpsjetskier

[chopsticks33]

j/w...will there be pictures?

[blackandgold]

We have been selling a snow blade for the full size Hustler Z & Super Z for 3 years now. Feedback is that it seems to work pretty good. The deck needs to come off and you raise and lower the blade with the deck lift assembly. Wheel weights and chains are also available. One drawback is that it makes the machine pretty long- sticks out front of the casters about 2 feet

[gps_jetskier]

Would love to see some pictures of the Hustler Z plow Blackandgold. Have any? How much is the setup?

[mowerconsultant]

j/w...will there be pictures?

I will have some pictures soon.
Due to circumstances beyond our control, I cant get them for a few days.

Pj

[nfarr]

I ordered the plow last week and allowed Corney to sell it to someone else (I'm not in need of it yet). Where you the person who purchased the plow and if so did you use it this past week? Work Well?

Yes, I ordered one the day after you did. He told me that he had spoken to you about it. I got it last Thursday and put in on that night. I tried it out by running it in the parking lot of the self storage off cemetery road at 270. By the time I got it together, it was after midnight and I was able to push the 3-4" of snow with no problem. When I got home, I did my driveway in about 5 mins. My drive is not huge, however, I can park six cars on it.

On Friday I used it for about 6 residential driveways and one apartment complex off West Broad. It was not heavy enough to get down to the pavement after cars had driven on the snow, however it did a great job on the driveways, wider walks and entries.

It is easy to maneuver with the fastrak and pushed the snow with no difficulty. I also bought the tire chains, However, I could not get them to stay on the tires??? It would have been REALLY helpful to have them when loading on my trailer.

It was easy to assemble (Corney had it mostly done before my wife picked it up) with the exception of the springs that keep the blade in the air. They had to be sprung one at a time and I was not able to move it down once in place. I have not tried to post pictures to this forum, however, I will take a couple and try to get them on the site. The only negative was the number of times, I hit a seam or some other obstacle causing the pin that holds the blade at angle, to jump out.

All in all, I am glad I bought the snow blade.

If you want to try it out, shoot me an email after the next snow. Probably this week.

Nathan nathanfarr@hotmail.com

[gps_jetskier]

Oh man. Sorry to hear about the fire.

I work for a company that makes housing products and a few years back we had a nasty fire in the corporate office. We lost everything. It burned engineering to the ground. To make matters worse, the network admin had left us about 2 weeks earlier, and the back up systems were not working. We had nothing. No computers, no data. 25 years worth of data pretty much gone. We asked our suppliers to send us whatever they had on file from quoting and that's what we used to start rebuilding.

Glad it wasn't THAT serious.

gpshemi

gpshemi

[mowerconsultant]

Oh man. Sorry to hear about the fire.

I work for a company that makes housing products and a few years back we had a nasty fire in the corporate office. We lost everything. It burned engineering to the ground. To make matters worse, the network admin had left us about 2 weeks earlier, and the back up systems were not working. We had nothing. No computers, no data. 25 years worth of data pretty much gone. We asked our suppliers to send us whatever they had on file from quoting and that's what we used to start rebuilding.

Glad it wasn't THAT serious.

gpshemi

gpshemi

Fortunately no one was hurt.
We are back up and running administratively speaking, everything in the office (IT systems, phones, etc... running on generators.
Production is going to be shut down for a couple weeks while they get every fixed.

Pj

[mowerconsultant]

I was able to get some pictures from HQ today.
These are all I have, it shows the FasTrak in action with the blade on it.
.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y248/mowerconsultant/work/FTblade120905L-1035.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y248/mowerconsultant/work/FTblade120905L-1033.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y248/mowerconsultant/work/FTblade120905L-1030.jpg

[gps_jetskier]

The deck is still on!
So how does it mount up then?

Thanks for the pictures. Looks better then the one that I gave a link for. I thought the attachments to the frame looked rigged on that one. However, it's a universal model too. Hustlers would be purpose built. I see there is a pedal for something - lifting or rotating the blade I'd guess.

What's the blade size on the Hustler Z?

gpshemi

[mowerconsultant]

The deck is still on!
So how does it mount up then?

Thanks for the pictures. Looks better then the one that I gave a link for. I thought the attachments to the frame looked rigged on that one. However, it's a universal model too. Hustlers would be purpose built. I see there is a pedal for something - lifting or rotating the blade I'd guess.

What's the blade size on the Hustler Z?

gpshemi

It mounts up to the front frame of the tractor.
The pedal is for raising and lowering the blade.
I don't have any info to share at this time for the Hustler Z / Super Z blade, it is not anywhere near being available.

Pj

[blackandgold]

Does the FasTrak Blade work on the MiniFastrak?

[gps_jetskier]

blackandgold,
Do you have pictures of the Hustler Z plow you've been using? How much are they?

gps_jetskier

[mowerconsultant]

Does the FasTrak Blade work on the MiniFastrak?

No it does not.

Pj

[captken]

where can I get a coat like the guy in the picture is wearing? Can you buy one?

[mowerconsultant]

where can I get a coat like the guy in the picture is wearing? Can you buy one?

Not from us.
We had those made for working the outdoor booth at the 2004 GIE, plus winter use.
There were only a few made, and they were gone pretty quick.
You don't want that one anyways..... it has the old logo on it......:)

Pj

[davidcalhoun]

How is the testing going for the blade that will fit the full size frame?

[mowerconsultant]

How is the testing going for the blade that will fit the full size frame?

Not sure, I have not heard, I dont work in the department that does this.
I will ask around and see what I can find out.

Pj

[heiert]

I have the snowblower and I love it. It used to take me 2 hours min with the walk behind and now it only takes me 1/2 an hour. The blower throws the snow a good distance. I live on a farm in Minnesota. Lots of snow this year. I do look like a snow man by the time I am finished. But they have a cab available now and am seriously thinking about getting one.

[gps_jetskier]

What unit do you have the snowblower on? Do you recall how much it was?

gps_jetskier

[heiert]

What unit do you have the snowblower on? Do you recall how much it was?

gps_jetskier

I have the Hustler Fasttrack, 18 hp Honda with 52 inch deck. I paid $1,500.00 for the unit.

[heiert]

What unit do you have the snowblower on? Do you recall how much it was?

gps_jetskier

I don't know what I did wrong to reply to this question but it did not show up. So if it does show up twice I apologize.

gps_jetskier,

I have the Hustler Fastrack with the 18 hp Honda, 52 inch deck.

heiert

[gps_jetskier]

Ouch.

Nice setup, but more then I was thinking. Is it a pain to put on and take off?
I assume the deck comes off for that. I'm on a full size Hustler Z. The deck is pretty heavy.

gps_jetskier

[heiert]

gps_jetskier,

I change it out by myself. The deck does come off. It really is an easy switch. I would say about half hour to 45 min. But then mine is not the full size Z.

The price did hit the pocketbook rather hard. But I feel it was worth it in the time saving for blowing snow.

Not shure I care for the Honda Motor in the winter. Seems really cold blooded.

Tim

[chopsticks33]

just me wondering again...but do you have any pics to post of the blade?

[mowerconsultant]

just me wondering again...but do you have any pics to post of the blade?

Not yet.
I will ask around and see what they can do about getting me some.

Pj

[chopsticks33]

ok thanks.

[gobucks]

I'm selling my Fastrak Snow Blade, Tire Chains and Weight Holder due to my one neighbor (we have a shared drive) purchasing an ATV with a snow blade. He has taken over plowing the snow and my blade is just taking room up in my garage. The blade has only been used for one season and has always been stored in the garage. It is in excellant condition. It is very easy to put on and take off (you do not have to take off or mess with the deck). If you are interested call me at 614-348-0023. Blade is located in Powell, Ohio.