DIY snowblower chute deflector?

[SnowSeb]

I have a jrw snowblower that has hydrolic rotation of chute but manual deflector. I am looking for ideas on making a hydrolic or electric chute deflector /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif. I have no experience with hydrolics but willing to learn. Any ideas or plans/pics would be appreciated. pic shows current setup.

 

[boustany]

Junkman, me, and a few others have done this.

Here is my photo essay

Link

your can probably find a few others in the 'search' function, but you'll have to look back a year or more to get many of then.

Basic hydraulics is easy provided you don't have to worry about a lot of specifics like stress, etc, and you have a spare control such as for a remote or FEL.

I'm a fellow canuck I got my cylinder at princess auto (www.princessauto.com). You may be able to get one locally, but for a deflector you need a fairly small diameter cylinder, and from the looks of your set up, it looks like a fork ended cylinder is what you want.

Measure the minimum and maximum, which give you the extended and contracted sizes of the cylinder. It is very important that the cylinder not keep pushing or pulling your chute because if it does the chute will be bent or destroyed in a heartbeat. So, I' suspect you want a 1"bore like princess auto's 1200071, but the specific depend on your chute. Not everybody has a MIG welder, or feels ok with the idea of cutting up a perfectly new $100 part, so if you can't find the exact cylinder, go undersized or keep looking.

You probably want small hoses (there are probably stores around you who make custom hoses). You'll need quick disconnects which match your tractor too (they are all different).

I had looked at an electric deflector system. I had designed up one with a lead screw (threaded rod) and a wiper or window motor, or maybe an old cordless drill (because of the clutch). It was going to be a lots of work, and I wasn't convinced it would survive the weather.

I am very, very happy with the function of my home built solution. If you want to 'back and forth' this, don't hesitate to send me a PM (private message)

 

[PineRidge]

There have been many guys that have done so. Probably the most recent has been Junkman. He added rotation and chute control see his thread here

Wow talk about posting at the same time......

 

[pekabu]

My snowblower came with Linear Actuator. It's basically an electric version of a hydraulic piston. I haven't used it though so I don't know how well it works.

 

[Junkman]

Unfortunately, you have posted a picture of the wrong side of the chute. I believe that if you look at the first post linked picture of the chute on the boustany snowblower, you can get an idea of what you will need to do. I don't believe that the hydraulics are going to be much of a stumbling block, but rather the fabrication of the chute piston's mounting brackets that you will need to fabricate. I suggest that you study the pictures of previous posts, and even download them to a folder on your computer for easier viewing and comparison. Then make a cardboard mock up of what the brackets are going to be. Tape them to the chute and see how they look and measure the distance between the brackets in the open and closed position. This will give you an idea of the cylinder that you are going to need. You can purchase a inexpensive cylinder from surplus center or search e bay for one that will be appropriate. Princess Auto also has a good selection. Try to find a cylinder that will not require modification. Once you have the brackets in cardboard, then all you have to do is get the steel cut and weld it together. If you are not a welder, then I suggest that you look for a shop that can fabricate the brackets for you. Keep it simple and you can do it..... just take a lot of pictures and start a thread of the project. There are a lot of us here that will give you encouragement and advise to keep you going in the correct direction. It is up to you to take the first step...... I mean, make the first pattern.......... I pledge my support for 3 hours of posting....../forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Junkman]

Just did a Google search and found the manufacturers web page. I also found this picture.... If yours is similiar to this, then all you need to do is to add a cylinder and modify the factory brackets to accept a cylinder. I even found that they do offer a hydraulic system for chute opening and closing and that it is about $315 on this web page

 

[MadReferee]

That manual mechanism looks almost identical to the one that was on my Pronovost Puma. All I did was remove the arm and replace it with a Chief 2" x 4" tie rod end cylinder with a retracted length of 14.25" that I purchased from Surplus Center for $67.

You can measure between the center of the two outer most adjustment holes on the arm to get the cylinder stroke and the distance between the tab hole centers when the deflector is full open (pointing skyward) to get the retracted length.

Worst case you might need to fab a couple of bosses for the tabs to connect with the tie rod ends. Pretty simple job.

 

[MadReferee]

Here is the cylinder mounted.

 

[MadReferee]

Here is a closeup of the tie rod, tab, and boss.

 

[SnowSeb]

Sorry about the pic, i edited and change pic by mistake. It is now fixed and added a closup. It is similar to the web site you found. Would the size need to be a certain minimum for strength with the force of the snow going up when deflector angled down, or maybe that is not an issue? I'll need to get someone to weld it since i don't have a welder. I'll try the idea about cardboard to figure things out. I'm hoping to have this done on a tight budget but it will need to get done. Would princess auto have any of the hydrolic connectors? I'll check with them and dealer on monday.