Snow 3720 snowblowing air restriction Indicator

[gbowling]

I have a 3720 cab tractor with 59" front snowblower. I snowblow about a mile of road on a pretty regular basis.

About half way through, I get an air restriction indicator. Presumably from snow/ice getting into the grill or air intake. I say presumably because sometimes cleaning it all out doesn't seem to turn the light off right away but that's not the big issue.

The big issue is that I can't seem to do a lot of snowblowing without this being a problem. I don't have an "indoor" place to keep the tractor, so it never melts off and continues to build up ice especially around the battery.

Has anyone done any mods or have any suggestions as to how to keep this from happening?

Thanks, gbow

 

[beenthere]

Cover the grill so ice and snow cannot get in. Don't mean that to be trite, but the plug of ice/snow needs to be cleared out and then kept from getting back in there.
Going to be up to you to figure out your next steps to avoid the problem. Good luck with it.

 

[gbowling]

So it works ok to cover the grill? I was thinking if I covered that it for sure wouldn't be able to get enough air.

 

[beenthere]

Time to find that out.. After you thaw out the ice that you suggest is plugging it up now. And that is I assume you know what is plugged.

Just dawned on me... Is this "air restriction" the one on the air cleaner? Or something else?

If the one on the air cleaner, then has the filter been changed out? Should be evident if there is good air flow into the air cleaner and past a clean air filter.

 

[toolbox5]

pick up a spare primary air filter to swap out when it happens , ice builds up on filter , that's what we do at work .

 

[gbowling]

Thanks, I'll remove the air filter and see about getting a 2nd one to swap out.

 

[gbowling]

Haha, ok so I removed the air filter. In the past I had thought this was due to the grill getting snow and ice embedded in it and cutting off the air to the engine cabin area where the filter draws air. My reasoning was that ever time I cleared all that out, the air restriction light went off.

Boy was I totally wrong! Removing the air filter revealed that it was totally encased in snow/ice! I'm surprised the thing ran!

So, now I'm drying that all out and then need to do as beenthere suggests and find a way to block the grill openings in the hood or possibly do as toolbox5 suggests and get a 2nd filter and rotate them.

Thanks, gbow

 

[HEC]

On my b2650 I relocated the air intake down slightly behind the radiator and I no longer get any snow in the air intake , worked good for me ,not sure what your set up is like .

 

[Yellowfever440]

I know a few people that put panty hose over the air filter intake on smaller machines to keep the snow out and it seemed to keep a lot more snow out of the filter.

Hopefully you caught this soon enough the engine didn't hurt something else. Sometimes that much suction on the intake system in the colder and they find air in other places or crack tubes and hoses and start sucking air that wasn't filtered.