Does anybody sell an "upspeeder"?

[Tiny Tym]

You pays your money, and you gets what you pays for!

I bought an "inexpensive" PTO snowblower. It's a no-name brand that was probably made in China. It's sturdy enough, but the fan diameter is only about 16.5 inches. At 540 RPM, it hardly lifts the snow at all, even with the chute removed!

According to my calculations I need to get it up to about 750 RPM to blow a reasonable distance. I think that should lift it about 30 feet.

Are there any gearboxes available that will give me a 40% boost, or am I going to have to get creative?

(It only needs to handle about 15 HP.)

 

[SensibleNick]

... might be a bugger to get in the USA... but they certainly exist..

http://www.albroco.co.uk/pdf/step_up_boxes.pdf

Potentially daft question: Are you sure you only have a single speed PTO output? My cheapo Chinese tractor has selectable 540 or 720 ...

 

[Redneck in training]

Assuming from your handle you have TYM tractor. My has mid 2000 rpm PTO. If that is also your case you could mount it in front. Where did you buy your el cheapo. I need one too.
The above gearbox might not work. If it is geared then it will reverse the rotation.

 

[jobguy]

On the farm in the 60's dad used old stick shift transmissions to gear something up or down. Sometimes installing it backwards. No clutch needed as shifting was done when nothing was running.

 

[Jerry/MT]

You pays your money, and you gets what you pays for!

I bought an "inexpensive" PTO snowblower. It's a no-name brand that was probably made in China. It's sturdy enough, but the fan diameter is only about 16.5 inches. At 540 RPM, it hardly lifts the snow at all, even with the chute removed!

According to my calculations I need to get it up to about 750 RPM to blow a reasonable distance. I think that should lift it about 30 feet.

Are there any gearboxes available that will give me a 40% boost, or am I going to have to get creative?

(It only needs to handle about 15 HP.)

I'd imagine your blower is designed for 540 pto rpm. Most tractor engines deliver 540 rpm at the pto at an engine rpm that's less than max rpm. So you can maybe get some overspeed on your blower by runnning the engine at higher rpm. Some tractors have both 540 rpm and 1000 rpm pto's so if you have that you can use the 1000 rpm pto speed and maybe not run at 1000 rpm but some lower level.
The downside of overspeeding, (and this depends on the ammout of overspeed), is increased wear on the blower as a minimum and possible blower damage and colateral pto damage at worse.

 

[Tiny Tym]

... might be a bugger to get in the USA... but they certainly exist..

http://www.albroco.co.uk/pdf/step_up_boxes.pdf

Potentially daft question: Are you sure you only have a single speed PTO output? My cheapo Chinese tractor has selectable 540 or 720 ...

Thanks Nick!

That looks it would get the speed right, but as noted above, it might be turning in the wrong direction. If there is an idler gear in there it should be OK though.

My tractor is a Tym 23 HP diesel with a hydrostatic drive, and the PTO only has a single gear. It won't go much over 540 even at full throttle.

It's interesting that your tractor can run at 720. It would not rurprise me if that's what my blower was designed for.

 

[Tiny Tym]

Assuming from your handle you have TYM tractor. My has mid 2000 rpm PTO. If that is also your case you could mount it in front. Where did you buy your el cheapo. I need one too.
The above gearbox might not work. If it is geared then it will reverse the rotation.

Thanks - Yes, could be the wrong direction. It's not clear from the drawings.

I have the 23 horse TYM, but no mid-PTO. 2000 rpm would be too fast and running the engine slow to bring the speed down won't produce enough power.

I bought the blower from a lawnmower repair shop in town. No idea where he got it. It looks identical to the one pictured in the link below, but the specs are for completely different machines!

PTO Snow Blower,3 Point Hitch Mounted Snow Blower

 

[Willl]

Maybe,,,

SNOWBLOWER IMPELLER KIT

 

[Tiny Tym]

I'd imagine your blower is designed for 540 pto rpm. Most tractor engines deliver 540 rpm at the pto at an engine rpm that's less than max rpm. So you can maybe get some overspeed on your blower by runnning the engine at higher rpm. Some tractors have both 540 rpm and 1000 rpm pto's so if you have that you can use the 1000 rpm pto speed and maybe not run at 1000 rpm but some lower level.
The downside of overspeeding, (and this depends on the ammout of overspeed), is increased wear on the blower as a minimum and possible blower damage and colateral pto damage at worse.

Thanks! I've tried cranking up the revs, but I can only get it up to about 600, and it does not help much.

I did a bit of scouting around. All the PTO mount blowers seem to run the fan direct from the pto. The smallest diameter is 20 inches, and that might be a bit small as the max lift it can produce is only 24 feet. Woods use a 24" fan which should lift to 35 feet.

The maximum lift I can expect with my 16.5" fan at 540 RPM is only 16 feet. It's not that the height is that important, but I think I need the velocity to keep the chute clear.

(It's snowing like crazy here at the moment! - North Idaho.)

 

[Tiny Tym]

Maybe,,,

SNOWBLOWER IMPELLER KIT

Thanks! Yes, I'm thinking of doing that too, but I'm pretty sure I've got to crank up the speed as well.

 

[George2615]

It's possible the PTO snowblower you bought was made for a tractor PTO speed of 1000 RPM and you can only do 540.

 

[Tiny Tym]

Thanks everyone.

Took the plunge and ordered some bits to gear it up a bit. The plan is to use two #50 roller chains with 24:17 sprockets mounted on the blower, along with some pretty hefty bearings. The parts were not very expensive

I'll post if it actually works!

 

[crazyal]

It's possible the PTO snowblower you bought was made for a tractor PTO speed of 1000 RPM and you can only do 540.

I was wondering the same thing. It's possible that it was designed for a tractor with a 2 speed pto and it's made for the faster speed.

 

[Tiny Tym]

It sure doesn't work at 540, so I think you must be right! A 40% speedup should give me the same blade tip velocity as a 24" fan, so I figure that ought to do it. If I get greedy and try to get too much speed, the fan will overload the tractor.

 

[Mace Canute]

I hate to mention it but are you sure the blower is made for the rotation of your pto? I've seen some references to different tractors (some Kubotas?) having the opposite rotation on the pto from normal. A long shot and one I'm pretty sure you would have noticed but... :confused3:

 

[Tiny Tym]

Ah, right! Er well, no. It is rotating in the correct direction and it does actually lift the snow, a bit.

With the chute removed it it looks a lot like a blender overflowing!

I'm waiting for the FedEx truck to show up with the parts I ordered, but it's snowing so much here there is a good chance he won't make it.

 

[Willl]

With the chute removed it it looks a lot like a blender overflowing!

That would be a good vid. :laughing: