I was at the local dealer yesterday and from what I saw that is not the case, at least not at the temperatures we get here. It was a new snowblower, only used twice, and there was significant wear to the plastic impeller. They were trying to see if the metal impeller from the 47" would fit.
I was at the dealer expressing my displeasure with the lack of shear bolt (or other form) protection for the impeller on my 59" blower. I have a lot of trees overhanging my long driveway so have had problems with finding branches that were broken off and hidden in the snow. The problem is they get jammed in the impeller and break the casting the impeller mounts to. Still feel it's a poor design to have no protection for the impeller other than breaking $250 piece.
