If you're tired of spending hours clearing snow with a bucket, it's probably time to look into a skid steer blower attachment. Let's be honest, pushing snow around with a plow or a standard bucket works fine for a little dusting, but when the real winter weather hits, you end up with massive piles that take up half your parking lot or driveway. A blower changes the game because it actually moves the snow out of the way instead of just shuffling it into a heap.
Choosing the right one isn't just about picking the biggest one on the lot. There's a bit of a science to matching the attachment to your specific machine, and if you get it wrong, you're going to be frustrated. You want something that chews through the slush and sends it flying, not something that bogs down your engine every time you hit a drift.
Why a Blower Beats a Plow Every Time
Most people start out with a plow or a pusher. It's the cheap way to go, and for a lot of folks, it's enough. But eventually, you run out of places to put the snow. If you're working in a tight residential area or a crowded commercial lot, you can't just keep building "snow mountains" that block lines of sight and take until July to melt.
A skid steer blower attachment solves this by throwing the snow far off to the side or into the back of a dump truck. It's about efficiency. Instead of making five passes to push a pile to the edge of a lot, you make one pass and the snow is just gone. Plus, you don't have to worry about the "trail-off" that happens with plows where snow spills out the sides and leaves a mess behind you.
Understanding Hydraulic Flow
This is the most important part of the whole process. Before you even look at a price tag, you need to know what your skid steer can handle. These blowers are powered by your machine's hydraulic system, and they are hungry for power.
Standard Flow vs. High Flow
Most skid steers fall into two categories: standard flow and high flow. Standard flow is usually between 15 and 25 gallons per minute (GPM). If your machine is in this range, you need a blower designed specifically for it. If you try to run a high-flow blower on a standard-flow machine, it'll barely spin. It's like trying to run a professional car wash off a garden hose—it just won't work.
High-flow machines (usually 30-40+ GPM) are where the real fun starts. A high-flow skid steer blower attachment can throw snow 30, 40, or even 50 feet. If you've got a big property or you're clearing municipal roads, high flow is the way to go. Just make sure the attachment you buy is rated for the exact GPM and PSI your machine puts out. If the blower is rated for 30 GPM and you pump 45 GPM into it, you're going to start blowing seals and breaking things.
Two-Stage vs. Single-Stage Design
When you're shopping around, you'll mostly see two-stage blowers for skid steers, and there's a good reason for that. A single-stage blower uses the same paddle to scoop the snow and throw it. They're okay for light, powdery stuff, but they struggle when things get wet and heavy.
A two-stage skid steer blower attachment uses an auger to chew up the snow and ice and pull it into the center. Once it's there, a separate high-speed fan (the second stage) grabs that snow and launches it out of the chute. This design is much more powerful. It prevents the "clogging" feeling you get with cheaper units. Even if you're dealing with that nasty, frozen slush the city plow leaves at the end of the driveway, a solid two-stage unit will usually chew right through it.
Picking the Right Width
It's tempting to buy the widest blower you can find so you can clear a path in fewer passes. But bigger isn't always better. You want a blower that is just slightly wider than the tire track or track width of your skid steer.
If the blower is too narrow, you'll be driving over un-cleared snow, which packs it down and makes it harder to remove on the next pass. If it's way too wide, your machine might struggle to push it through deep drifts. A good rule of thumb is to have about two or three inches of overhang on each side of your tires. This gives you enough clearance to maneuver without putting unnecessary strain on the hydraulic motor.
Features That Actually Matter
Manufacturers love to list a hundred different specs, but a few things really stand out when you're out in the cold at 4:00 AM trying to get a job done.
- Poly-Lined Chutes: Snow is sticky. If the chute is bare metal, wet snow tends to cling to it, eventually causing a clog. A lot of high-end attachments use a poly liner or a specialized coating inside the chute to keep the snow moving fast.
- Electric vs. Hydraulic Chute Control: You're going to want to change where the snow is going. Some units use electric motors to rotate the chute and tip the deflector, while others use hydraulics. Hydraulic is generally more "bulletproof" in extreme cold, but electric is often easier to install if your machine doesn't have extra hydraulic ports.
- Replaceable Cutting Edges: The bottom of the blower is going to scrape against pavement, gravel, and ice. Over time, it wears down. Make sure you get a model with a bolt-on, replaceable cutting edge. It's a lot cheaper to replace a steel bar than it is to weld a whole new floor onto your attachment.
Don't Forget About Maintenance
I know, nobody likes talking about maintenance, but a skid steer blower attachment lives a hard life. It's constantly exposed to salt, moisture, and sub-zero temperatures.
Check your shear bolts regularly. These are designed to break if you hit something solid—like a frozen stump or a hidden curb—so that you don't destroy your expensive motor or gearbox. Keep a handful of extras in the cab. There's nothing worse than being halfway through a job and having to quit because a fifty-cent bolt snapped and you don't have a spare.
Grease everything. Seriously. The auger bearings and the chute rotation mechanism need plenty of grease to stay moving. If you let them dry out, the salt will seize them up before the season is even over. A quick walk-around with a grease gun every few hours of use will save you a massive headache later.
Operating Tips for Smooth Clearing
Once you've got your skid steer blower attachment hooked up, there's a bit of a learning curve to using it effectively. First, don't just ram it into a drift. Let the blower do the work. You want to maintain a steady ground speed that keeps the auger full but doesn't "overfeed" it to the point where the engine RPMs drop.
If the snow is taller than the blower, you might need to do it in layers. Raise the attachment, take a pass off the top, then drop it down and clear the rest. This keeps the chute from getting overwhelmed. Also, pay attention to the wind! It sounds obvious, but there's nothing more annoying than blowing a beautiful stream of snow only to have the wind whip it right back onto your windshield.
Wrapping It Up
At the end of the day, investing in a skid steer blower attachment is one of the best moves you can make if you live in a place that gets real winters. It saves your back, saves time, and honestly, it's a lot more fun than pushing a plow. Just do your homework on your machine's flow rate, don't skimp on the width, and keep those shear bolts handy. When the next big storm hits, you'll be the person finishing the job in half the time while everyone else is still struggling with their piles.