Looks like its working pretty well, and you are on a slight hill which makes it look like it'll work extremely well in my pretty flat driveway, only issue is I'll have to make sure to adjust the skids to keep it out of the rocks...just ordered my blower about a week ago so I'm hoping I get to use it this year...last year we didn't hardly get any snow so no big deal, but the year before I really could have used it, we had 2 feet of snow here. I have the XT1 42" with the 18HP engine, seems to have plenty of power so I'm sure it'll do fine with this blower. I picked up the tire chains and ordered the rear weight kit and 2 extra weights, that should hold it down.
Have no idea if it works or not, still haven't had enough snow here yet to even try it :(. Only snow we've had so far was maybe a 1/2". So now that I have it, it'll never snow enough to ever use it LOL.
I'm considering getting one of those attachments for my XT2. How reliable has the snowblower been for you? Is it low maintenance? Do you have a big driveway? TIA!
Michael Ferrari I’m still very happy with the mower. It has plenty of power for doing the jobs around the yard and always starts up right away, even on the cold winter days. I’ve really only got two issues with the mower. One is that it is loud, but I wear ear muffs and really can’t expect a super quiet mower. The other is the throttle/choke lever. Every now and then my knee will bump it up. Doesn’t happen often, but just something to think about. Otherwise I’m very happy with my purchase. Thanks for watching and if you have any other comments or questions feel free to ask!
Sorry for the very late reply, looking to make a purchase of one of these blowers soon. Did you put extra weight on the rear of your XT1? My biggest worry will be whether or not you have enough traction to keep the tractor moving forward.
Scott H- Hi Scott, I'm very happy with this mower. Oil changes are easy to do, deck is simple to remove, and cuts grass like a dream. Only downfalls that I have is that it's a little loud, but you kind of expect that with a mower. Wearing earmuffs solves that problem. The other issue is the choke lever sometimes gets bumped by my knee while riding. This happen more so when I first got it compared to now. Otherwise I think you will be very pleased with your purchase!
I do still have this tractor/snowblower. All continue to work well. The lawn mower has been exceptionally good. The snowblower works well in powdery snow at any depth and decent in the plowed snow when the snowplow goes by. For this, you have to take swipes at it and not all at once, otherwise the belt will start slipping. Same goes with wet slushy snow. Once you get the feel for speed and what it’s limitations are, you shouldn’t have a problem. But it’s belt is really the Achilles heal for this snowblower. The machine has all the power you need, but it’s such a big cut you have to know what’s to much for it to handle in those heavy conditions. All said though this last winter I put it through its paces and cleared the sidewalks that had drifted 4’ high.
This is what I see when I watch this video. The snow that is getting in to the impeller area is not getting any help from the silly so called 3 stage option, it is coming from the left and right sides of the bucket area where the snow goes right by and never even touches the silly 3 stage.
Kielbasa Glen it really works. The 3x portion Works excellent on the heavy Mound at the end of driveways. This video doesn't do it justice. Busts through it like crazy you just crawl through with your tractor.
When driving through the snow as fast as he is, you can see in some areas the forward rotating sides not only move the snow toward the center, but as they do so they start tossing some snow intent of the snow blower. Eventually what gets tossed out info builds up and can force you to show down. There 3rd stage impeller prevents the buildup from happening so you don't have to show down for self made snow piles. On the other hand when hitting drifts, if you don't have enough power, ie 17hp, you can grab too much snow at one time and big down the mower/blower.
I bought the three stage walk behind last year, not very impressed with it, snow doesn’t feed into it very good, impeller won’t chew ice chunks at end of driveway, 10 pack of shear pins on hand
It handles light to medium weight snow very well. If it’s a very heavy wet snow you have to go slow. Otherwise the belt starts to slip. For instance when the plow goes by and you have that really compact snow, it will slip if you go to fast or take to much. Best thing I’ve found is to attack it with half the blower instead of the whole thing. So with deep snow it shouldn’t be a problem. I’ve had it in a foot deep powder before and it will blow the snow 40’ no problem. I hope this answers your question. Unfortunately I’ve only gotten to use it once this year and it was for 3 inches...
hi Jeremy, Pls. could use help me measure the width and height of the rear black cage where the hitch pin connects. I was trying to buy a rear sleeve hitch 19A30019OEM or 19B30019OEM and customer service dont know the LxWxH. I wanted the dimensions so that I can see if it will fit a cub cadet xt1 Lt42 model. I may have to modify it a little. but since customer service says it was only designed for XT1 GT50, I figure the rear cage dimension of the DT50 would tell give me an idea of the attachment bracket dimension. I measure the width of my XT1 LT42 as 13 in. also, what is the height of the normal rear hitch hole from the ground? Thanks Harry
Hi Harry, hopefully I can help you out here. the width is 13 1/8" X 15" From the pin hole to the top of the black metal just under the seat area. The pin hole sticks out 2" from the metal box and is 9 3/4" from the ground. There are two bolts on the rear carriage that hold my weight rack in place. These are mounted on the right and left side and the dimensions to the holes are 6 3/16 from the bottom of the carriage and 2 1/8" from the face of the carriage. If you need any more help, let me know and maybe I could send you a picture with the dimensions if that helps! Good Luck, Jeremy
Thanks Jeremy, A picture with the dimensions will be great. Also, What is the Horse power of your machine? The manual also said the bracket attachment I am trying to mount is better on machines with rear tire wheels of 22 or 23 in and larger. What is the real wheel diameter of you cub cadet XT1 GT50? thanks Harry.
pittfan924 I haven’t had any problems with mine. I do have snow chains and a weight on the back which helps out considerably. If you didn’t have those I think you would have problems. Keep in mind my driveway and road is fairly flat with only a small incline. But as long as you are throwing snow you should have enough traction to keep moving.
If your still wanting more traction I have a 1967 Cub Cadet (104) also with an open differential, so I run RV antifreeze inside the rear tires + concrete wheel weights, totaling somewhere in the ballpark of 250lbs wich the XT3 garden tractor should handle that amount of un-sprung weight with zero issue at all. I believe the XT3 even has a cast iron rear end so you could hang weight off the back too.
Do you have to remove a bunch of stuff to switch back to the mower deck in the spring? I just ordered the same blower, but what parts of the blower mounting system can stay on the tractor, and what all do you have to remove?
How hard is it to raise/lower the auger? Are there "settings" to where you raise/lower it? Or is it simply and all the way up/all the way down kind of thing? I'm thinking specifically of where I have to go over my grass to cut a path to my oil fill on the side of my house. Thanks!
Brandt Hamilton It requires very little effort to raise and lower the blower. It has 1 pin position that holds it about 3 inches above the ground. However, if you need another inch or so, simply pull the trigger to drop the snowblower and push down on the rod to raise it over the higher ground. When the snowblower is down, it uses the skid pads similar to a walk behind blower to go over the terrain.
Honestly, I think it’s more of a gimmick than anything. It throws snow just as good as any 2 stage snowblower I’ve used. But this is all Cub Cadet makes now for their lawn mowers I believe. It works great, but if there is a price difference between the two I think I would opt for the less expensive model as your not getting any added benefit from the 3 stage.
If I recall the XT1 series all uses the same size rear tires so just find chains for 20 x 8 x 8 tires and you'll have what you need. You do not have to buy the $65 chains from Cub Cadet, I got mine at Tractor Supply for $50, but I've seen other places online for around $40...so you may want to do a little shopping around before just settling on 1 store.
