Adding Tabs to a Snowblower Auger to make it serrated.

[Hilbilly]

Anyone done this?

I sometimes use my rear facing 3PTH snowblower to blow back piles of snow but when they have gone through a thaw and freeze cycle, they're like cement and my smooth edge auger won't bite into the pile without a lot of effort (likely abusive to the blower too). So I'm thinking of welding on some triangular tabs along the edge of the auger to produce a serrated edge. Thinking this might make the auger bite into the frozen pile easier and then I could blow the bits away.

 

[Wyobuckaroo]

My approach to this so far has been to break up the piles a little with the FEL first. Then my 3pt snow blower will handle them pretty good. It will handle chunks up to about twice the size of a basket ball OK, but you must go slow and take small cuts at the pile..

I have thought I would add an inch long section of about 1" angle iron on end at each of the legs from the center roll to the auger. That is only 4 per side so it should not be too much extra strain on the sheer bolt.

Many don't seem to understand this smaller equipment is not necessarily a one pass, full width and done project.. They don't have the money or equipment to compete with the big road plow equipment..

Like the old saying up north here goes...
You can eat the whole bear... Just not at one meal..

 

[leonz]

Hello and good morning Hillbilly,

I would be more worried about frying the four bearings that support your augers if you did weld the tabs to the flights like that.

The other issue is clearance between the welded tab and the cross auger housing within the entire length of the housing from the lower cutting edge to the top edge of the cross auger housing.

If your snow blower has an open housing it could work but I would be more worried about frying the 4 bearings.

It would be better to simply take one or both augers out and use a Sawzall to cut small notches in the
auger flighting if the steel is thick enough to justify working on the augers as they will cut into the snowpack.

Using the Yamaha walk behind snow blowers of every size as an example they have protruding cross augers with
teeth cut into the auger flights.

If you can break up the snow pack you will have an easier job of clearing the snow pack.

 

[PILOON]

Yep, I like the idea of notching the augers as well.
You'll note that many blowers have that feature.

One problem with notching however is that you will weaken the auger somewhat and it might distort if worked hard.
If you weld adding 'teeth' would be one option.

 

[Hilbilly]

There are only 2 bearings on this blower. One on each end of the auger and they are cheap to replace too ($13 each). I think it would be easier on the bearings and the auger assembly if the auger could chew up the ice, rather than having the tractor force the auger into the piles.

There is a lot of room between the auger and the housing, to add tabs. So clearance is not an issue. Plus adding teeth would not weaken the auger, like cutting pieces out of it, would.

Using the bucket to break up the piles is OK but tedious work, especially if you have to work long piles from the ends. That would involve using the bucket to pull back the mound, then turn around and use the blower, then do the same thing over and over again. It would be much easier to just run the blower into the pile, if the serrated edge worked well. I have the ability to use my rear facing blower on the 3PTH or on the FEL. For this type of work, it would work best on the FEL, since I could raise it and cut the piles down from the top.

Just wondering if anyone has done something like this or has first hand experience with the difference between a smooth edged auger and a serrated one. I might just give this a try, if I get some time and get into the mood. Worst case scenario is I cut them off if it doesn't work. Then I will be back to where I started and will have gained some knowledge, which I would share here.

 

[shooterdon]

Just curious why you have piles of frozen snow to work through. One of the reasons I got the blower was to move snow away and not be dealing with piles of the stuff. I had 8' piles last year using the plow truck but none this year. The county plow leaves a bit of a pile when it does its thing, but I get to it before it freezes and even if I got lazy, it makes more sense to use the FEL (I have a Piranha bar) to address it.

You have a new blower and I would ask the dealer/manufacturer if you will void the warranty if you decide to modify it. I like your idea to put on small tabs/teeth over grinding notches. I have a smaller version of yours, and the only concern with teeth is clearing out the auger housing after use. I use a crow bar as it fits about perfectly, but a "tool" smaller in diameter would still work.

 

[Hilbilly]

Just curious why you have piles of frozen snow to work through. One of the reasons I got the blower was to move snow away and not be dealing with piles of the stuff. I had 8' piles last year using the plow truck but none this year. The county plow leaves a bit of a pile when it does its thing, but I get to it before it freezes and even if I got lazy, it makes more sense to use the FEL (I have a Piranha bar) to address it.

You have a new blower and I would ask the dealer/manufacturer if you will void the warranty if you decide to modify it. I like your idea to put on small tabs/teeth over grinding notches. I have a smaller version of yours, and the only concern with teeth is clearing out the auger housing after use. I use a crow bar as it fits about perfectly, but a "tool" smaller in diameter would still work.

I got the inverted blower about half way through our snow season. Before getting it, I was using the old method of plowing snow to the sides of the driveway and then using the rear facing blower when the driveway got too narrow. After getting the inverted blower I took the front plow and used it, in combination with the inverted blower to pull the banks back onto the driveway and then blow the snow away, before any of those banks got too hard.

It's my rear facing blower that I am thinking of adding the tabs to. I'm not going to do this to the inverted blower, since it will be used only on freshly fallen snow.

The need for the tabs and blowing back piles is for other areas. I have 2 buildings with metal roofs and when they shed the snow, later in the season or after it has been thawed and refrozen, it is like cement. I can't use the inverted on this stuff because it is too deep. I also have piles that I have pushed up with the front mounted plow / snow pusher that are closer to some of my buildings and I would like to blow them back further. I also have a third location where this would be very helpful and that is at my daughters house. Her husband uses a plow truck to look after snow at their place and they end up with high banks of snow all around their buildings. When it melts it causes all kinds of ponding around their buildings, especially the house and the house uses a very large sump pump system to get rid of ground water from their footings during the spring runoff. This additional water does not help. In the past I have carried snow out of their property onto the local road and dumped it into the roadside ditches but there is far too much snow to do this this year. By the way their sump pump runs at 90 gpm for most of the spring. We are concerned that this year will be much worse and I would like to either blow the snow further away from the house or get a dump truck and carry it away. However those snow banks are rock hard now, which brings me to the desire for a blower that chew into them.

 

[Reb954]

At times I have thought about adding the teeth to my auger, just too many other projects of a more important nature so I will be curious as to how yours works out.

This is all subject to change but my initial thoughts are to weld the two ends of 1/4" by 1" angle iron to the inner face of the auger, spaced 60 degrees apart. I have about 1-3/4 turns of the auger on each side of center so that will give me roughly about 10 teeth on each side. The 60 degree spacing should limit the number of teeth in the snow bank to 4 on each side at any given time which shouldn't add too much pressure on the auger/shear bolt and actually may reduce some of the pressure by providing a cutting action rather than a rubbing action. Placing the teeth on the auger surface facing the center should help apply force against the packed snow to help break up the packed snow better than placing them on the trailing surface. I haven't really decided on whether I would want to extend the teeth out beyond the auger diameter, I probably won't but I don't have a good feel yet on whether I should or shouldn't.

Here is a picture of my auger so maybe it will help you visualize what I am saying.

 

[Hilbilly]

I would think that the tabs / teeth would need to extend past the outer edge of the auger or they would bit into the snow, to break it up. I could be wrong though.

 

[MF RED in MT]

Just curious why you have piles of frozen snow to work through. One of the reasons I got the blower was to move snow away and not be dealing with piles of the stuff. I had 8' piles last year using the plow truck but none this year. The county plow leaves a bit of a pile when it does its thing, but I get to it before it freezes and even if I got lazy, it makes more sense to use the FEL (I have a Piranha bar) to address it.

You have a new blower and I would ask the dealer/manufacturer if you will void the warranty if you decide to modify it. I like your idea to put on small tabs/teeth over grinding notches. I have a smaller version of yours, and the only concern with teeth is clearing out the auger housing after use. I use a crow bar as it fits about perfectly, but a "tool" smaller in diameter would still work.

I've also have snow that slides off of the roof many, many snowfalls later, and sometimes it has over 6" of ice (on the bottom) along with 2' of snow on top of the ice (roof is 7//12 pitch but the covered deck is just slightly less and connected about 4" underneath the main metal roofing, all roofing is fastened with screws).

I have learned to stay away from this ice with my snowblower until springtime when I switch to my FEL, unless I'm willing to use up a lot of shear pins.

Normally springtime thaw is a problem with snowblower discharge chutes being clogged completely with ice.

No flavored color of my neighbors tractors has been exempt from this around this area.

That is why I finally lined the inside of my snowblower discharge chute with .125" UHMW last year.

KC