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731 Posts
I don't understand what is so hard about making a three point turn. It is not like a manual transmission where you have to coordinate a gear shift and clutch. On my 1026R, I just move my foot over 3-4" to the reverse pedal and push down and back to forward and go. I also very seldom use the 4WD for blowing. My drive is gravel and about 1/10 mile slightly up-hill to the road. I do have a heavy TekTite Cab, and Chains. I did add Wheel Weights a couple of years ago for side to side stability, they didn't make an appreciable difference with my snow blowing. This fall, I replaced the Turf Tires with the Versa-Turf and I do think that has helped some on the front end being pushed around a little. I also run my blower in the full float mode 95% of the time the rest of the time the blower is lifting the front wheels off the ground to better scrape the hard-pack and the county road blacktop at my driveway entrance and the cement pad in front of my garage. It took me about 3 hours to clean up my place after the Blizzard and Lake Effect Snow this past week and slightly less than 1/2 tank of diesel. Using my old 445 and the same blower, it took about the same amount of time and was a lot colder with-out the cab. I used the 445 from 1994 to 2013 when I got the 1026R and haven't looked back. The 445 did have the 50 and 72 pound weights and chains and I did get stuck a couple of times per season in the early years, but as I gained experience with my property it happened less often. I also have gotten the 1026R stuck a couple times since 2013 so they are not UN-stoppable. Before I retired, we had a 425 and 47" blower we used to clear sidewalks and replaced it with an X738 and eventually added a X758 and the crew liked both tractors. We still chained the rear wheels and added the single 50 pound weighs to both tractors. When I priced out my 1026R and the X7xx diesel, when I added the PTO and the three point, the price was very close. With the 1026R I could and did get the FEL. Also the X738 we got at work had the three point added as we wanted to use a rear blade to clean in front the office doors and found out it would not work. The three point is controlled by the Snow blower chute rotation control so when we rotated the chute the blade went up and down in the most inopportune times. The one series have a truly independent three point for rear implement operation.
