Snow 2360 snow blower opening height

[tsteahr]

Hello, Can anyone tell me the opening height of the 50" blower?

I have one on order but unfortunately it has not arrived yet. I had to clear 20+ inches of snow with my lawn tractor and the 36" single stage blower. That blower opening is only 18" high. It is a real PITA to clear snow that is deeper then the blower is tall. Drive forward a few feet, reverse, clean up the overrun, then do a few more feet. It took hours to clear my drive. Normally it takes about 30 minutes if I can keep moving.

In any case I sincerely hope the opening of the 2360 is quite a bit taller. I'm hoping somewhere between 26-30"?

Thanks

 

[Tig]

I don't know the specs on the 2360 Blower but my 50" blower has a cutting height of 25". Even if the snow does get too deep, you can drive on through and make a second pass. It's more like play than work.

 

[tsteahr]

Thanks for the info Steve.

25" would have been enough. Even if the snow was a little over the top of that, with mfwd there would be less worry about getting stuck. With my 2wd lawn tractor I had to be careful even with wheel weights, chains and a additional 140lbs hung off the back of the grass catcher frame.

The largest single snowfall in 20 years and my blower is a week late. Oh well, it would have been fun with the GC...

 

[AMCS]

You're going to love your blower when you get it. It is so much more powerful than your lawn tractor and with the power steering and hyd lift much less work to use. You'll be amazed at how far it will throw snow and being able to power down you can take off more hardpack than ever before. If throwing slush I suggest removing the wire guard in the chute to help prevent clogging and ease manual removal of clogs. It's not as easy to get in tight places as the lawn tractor but really cleans out the open spaces. Once I have a good base I float it and let it work.

 

[tsteahr]

You're going to love your blower when you get it. It is so much more powerful than your lawn tractor and with the power steering and hyd lift much less work to use. You'll be amazed at how far it will throw snow and being able to power down you can take off more hardpack than ever before. If throwing slush I suggest removing the wire guard in the chute to help prevent clogging and ease manual removal of clogs. It's not as easy to get in tight places as the lawn tractor but really cleans out the open spaces. Once I have a good base I float it and let it work.

Good tips. I will remember removing the wire when blowing slush. I am so looking forward to hyd lift with the PS. My lawn tractor has a hand lever for speed control. When I clear my neighbors gravel drive I need one hand for steering, one hand for speed control and a third hand for holding onto the manual lift lever so I don't suck up gravel. After 90 minutes my arm is ready to fall off. That blower is not light when you have to keep it off the ground.

With the GC it will be foot control for speed, one hand for PS and one hand for hyd lift height. It will be heaven. I can't even conceive what it would be like to have a heated cab. That would be cheating.

 

[Jaylegger]

The spec sheet states the cutting height of the 2360 is 19.1 inches, my measuring tape agrees with this.

 

[ScottAW]

You're going to love your blower when you get it. It is so much more powerful than your lawn tractor and with the power steering and hyd lift much less work to use. You'll be amazed at how far it will throw snow and being able to power down you can take off more hardpack than ever before. If throwing slush I suggest removing the wire guard in the chute to help prevent clogging and ease manual removal of clogs. It's not as easy to get in tight places as the lawn tractor but really cleans out the open spaces. Once I have a good base I float it and let it work.

I'll second all of this! I have used mine in two snow storms so far, one that was a good 14", and another that was 6-8" or so, followed by rain. Did a great job in both. I only ran into issues when I was cleaning up the second one in pouring rain, and at the end of the driveway where the plow had pushed pure slush/water mix I had the chute clog up. **** wire guard made getting the clog freed up a royal pain. I have since removed the guard to prevent clogging as easy and make it easier to clean out.

Word to the wise, shut the tractor off before cleaning clogs. Yes, I know you can disconnect the PTO. But freak stuff can happen. Following a lock-out/tag-out mental process can save a finger or two, or with this blower an arm or limb. I had a close call with a walk behind unit where the mechanism that engaged the auger had frozen over. Was cleaning off the unit with it idling and did not realize the auger was still slowly turning while the flywheel was still whipping fast. Was knocking snow off the chute and my fingers grazed the rotating flywheel portion. Never been so scared in my life, pulled off my glove and had three swollen and bruised fingers, but they were all still attached.

So....just advise. Always shut off the equipment, remove any chance as slim as it may be of having personal body harm or worse happen.

 

[tsteahr]

Scott. Wow. Lucky! Thanks for the tips. I agree 100% on the lockout tagout approach. Once you take this approach as a matter of routine the peach of mind is well worth the extra few moments. General situational awareness is also essential. Keeping your head focused on the task. I find when my mind wanders off what I am doing is when I am at the greatest risk. I try to always think about the what-if's, always look for the potential problems to try to prevent them from happening. Much easier than dealing with consequences.

About the 19-20 inch height. That seems to be the common opening. I looked at the specs of the large frame Simplicity walk behinds and they are also just under 20 in.

Jaylegger - Thanks for looking up the manual and verifying the number. In all honesty It shouldn't be a issue. It is very rare in my area to get single storms in excess of 20 inches.

 

[ChuckinNH]

Word to the wise, shut the tractor off before cleaning clogs. Yes, I know you can disconnect the PTO. But freak stuff can happen. Following a lock-out/tag-out mental process can save a finger or two, or with this blower an arm or limb. I had a close call with a walk behind unit where the mechanism that engaged the auger had frozen over. Was cleaning off the unit with it idling and did not realize the auger was still slowly turning while the flywheel was still whipping fast. Was knocking snow off the chute and my fingers grazed the rotating flywheel portion. Never been so scared in my life, pulled off my glove and had three swollen and bruised fingers, but they were all still attached.


A manager that I worked with wasn't so lucky. He has a front mount snowblower on his riding mower / garden tractor. The chute clogged on his, and he disengaged the blower, but didn't shut the tractor off. He had his hand in the chute when the lever to engage the blower vibrated into the engaged position. He lost half his thumb, and varying amounts of three fingers. Still, he is lucky that he didn't have his whole hand in there, since I don't think the blower would have cared.

 

[ScottAW]

Ugh...that's horrible.

I still recall it like yesterday. Not only was it fairly painful throbbing, but my stomach clenched right up at the thought of just how close I came to being "disabled", and how it would effect my ability to function in life, not to mention my career since I am a design engineer and work on computers and am hands on with fabrication and such. Was a really big wake up call for me, and all along i was thinking "I know better than to do that, why did I just do that???".

Word to the wise, shut the tractor off before cleaning clogs. Yes, I know you can disconnect the PTO. But freak stuff can happen. Following a lock-out/tag-out mental process can save a finger or two, or with this blower an arm or limb. I had a close call with a walk behind unit where the mechanism that engaged the auger had frozen over. Was cleaning off the unit with it idling and did not realize the auger was still slowly turning while the flywheel was still whipping fast. Was knocking snow off the chute and my fingers grazed the rotating flywheel portion. Never been so scared in my life, pulled off my glove and had three swollen and bruised fingers, but they were all still attached.


A manager that I worked with wasn't so lucky. He has a front mount snowblower on his riding mower / garden tractor. The chute clogged on his, and he disengaged the blower, but didn't shut the tractor off. He had his hand in the chute when the lever to engage the blower vibrated into the engaged position. He lost half his thumb, and varying amounts of three fingers. Still, he is lucky that he didn't have his whole hand in there, since I don't think the blower would have cared.

 

[irvingj]

tsteahr- I'll second what's already been said... that blower on the 2310 is amazing, a quantum leap from my 8hp Toro walk-behind. With dry snow, 50'+ is not unusual; with really wet snow (wet snow followed by rain), mine will drop back to about 30', though I have to go more slowly. I can deal with that!!

I was even able to attack high (4'), icy road plow build-up at the top of my driveway by raising to full height, going in slowly, backing up, lowering blower, going back in... I was able to remove the pile right down to the ground that way. Also helped a couple of neighbors remove their vision-obstructing, end-of-driveway piles in the same fashion.

To quote a recent ad campign, "You're gonna love it!"

 

[tsteahr]

I was even able to attack high (4'), icy road plow build-up at the top of my driveway by raising to full height, going in slowly, backing up, lowering blower, going back in...

That is a big difference. With the lawn tractor the manual lift raises the blower up about 3 inches off the ground. It would be a big help if the 2360 can be lifted up higher for a brief period (so long as that does not put a excessive angle on the drive shaft).

With the 20" of snow I got my lawn tractor was nearly overwhelmed. The GC is a much bigger machine and I suspect it will be far more capable in similar conditions.

 

[AMCS]

Before I bought my 2310tlb I had been using a Sears garden tractor first with a front blade and eventually with the snowthrower. My neighbor had the lawn tractor and the heavier garden tractor did a much better and faster job removing snow. With the fabric cab it made life good. Unfortunately a couple years ago while throwing snow with a packed auger I was manually lifting the thrower, moving forward and hit something. I tore something in my shoulder and had a good excuse to buy the 2310. After a few months of using it for projects I wish I had bought one years ago. It is a quantum leap over the lawn tractor and you won't believe what a snow monster it is.

 

[AMCS]

When I clear my neighbors gravel drive I need one hand for steering, one hand for speed control and a third hand for holding onto the manual lift lever so I don't suck up gravel. After 90 minutes my arm is ready to fall off. That blower is not light when you have to keep it off the ground.

With the GC it will be foot control for speed, one hand for PS and one hand for hyd lift height. It will be heaven. I can't even conceive what it would be like to have a heated cab. That would be cheating.

I seem to remember that with my garden tractor I could raise the thrower, crank up the mower height knob then lower the thrower onto the new setting to keep it from digging into the gravel. I also made some 3" wide skis on the adjustment feet to keep it from digging in as much when soft. I still wish I had another hand when also adjust chute direction and deflection. I have thought about moving the switches to on or near the joystick but haven't jumped into that project yet.

 

[irvingj]

tsteahr- I don't mean to mislead you, there is a limit to how high the 2360 blower will lift -- about a foot off the ground, perhaps a bit less.

But that puts the top edge of the blower nearly 3' off the ground, and with the power available, my 2310 has no problem chewing its way into the snow bank or pile, 3" thick, crusty, icy layers not withstanding.

After you'e gone in a few feet, the top will collapse and "eagerly enter the gaping maw of the 2360, to be blown into oblivion" (yee haw!!)....

Well, OK, I've been reading too many mystery novels! But you get the idea!

Just be sure to tell your wife that this is really work! Have a merry!