Homemade snowblower chute rotator and deflector

[Harrygoodwrench]

Bought a new 54" SB54 Meteor 3PH snowblower off season last spring. Was thinking about putting a hydraulic or electric chute rotator on it. After getting sticker shock at $1200. for the hydro motor and over $1000. for the electric motor and that didn't address the deflector issue. I decided there must be a reasonable way.
I decided on the winch system. I'm a Harbor Freight IT member and picked up a 2K Badlands winch for $38. Trouble is a winch only pulls in one direction. So it was either hook up a spring return system or make the winch pull both ways.
I removed the cable and redrilled the cable slot with a set screw to center the cable allowing it to be bidirectional pull.
Mounted on a fabricated plate, measure cable and secured both ends to the chute. Winch turns chute effortlessly and at a reasonable speed.
I bought a linear 12V motor on Amazon for $40. and put a bellows boot on it. Hooked up the electrics and as the deflector is a little slow it does the job.
We will see how well my new system works. Last year we got over 200" of snow so I'm hoping for the best.

 

[Cycledude]

What does your Meteor have for shoes ?
The shoes that came my 72 inch Meteor aren’t worth crap. Bought some aftermarket bolt on shoes last year but we didn’t get much snow so didn’t get to use the blower.
Mine came equipped with swivel and tilt.
Looks like you did a nice job rigging yours up hopefully it works out well for you.

 

[bdhsfz6]

Nice build at a great price!!

In ran into the same problem with my Woods SS74 Blower. When I bought it new, I couldn't afford the extra $1400 for the hydraulic chute rotator, and that didn't even include a deflector.

Instead, I bought this Woodmax kit that included both a rotator & deflector:

Hydraulic Chute Rotator & Deflector Kit

WoodMaxx? has a hydraulic chute rotator and deflector kit that is perfect for turning your manual crank snow blower chute into the hydraulic version. Visit WoodMaxx.com today.

woodmaxx.com

It was fairly easy to adapt it to the Woods blower but the price was considerably higher than yours though:

Now, I don't have to leave the cab to make adjustments.

 

[Harrygoodwrench]

What does your Meteor have for shoes ?
The shoes that came my 72 inch Meteor aren’t worth crap. Bought some aftermarket bolt on shoes last year but we didn’t get much snow so didn’t get to use the blower.
Mine came equipped with swivel and tilt.
Looks like you did a nice job rigging yours up hopefully it works out well for you.

Looks like my MT Martin Meteor SB54 has the same crappy shoes like yours. It will have to wait until spring to address a way to re-engineer this.

 

[dstig1]

Nice. I have seen that same basic technique done before so you are on solid ground. If you haven't heard of them Surplus Center is a great resource for lots of components and often at good prices. They have new stuff as well as "surplus" but it can be hit and miss sometimes on the more unique stuff. Hydraulics are always expensive, but sometimes needed. Electric stuff seems to make a lot of sense for this application.

What part of Upstate? I grew up in Chautauqua County. We got a lot of snow when I was a kid.

 

[Harrygoodwrench]

Nice. I have seen that same basic technique done before so you are on solid ground. If you haven't heard of them Surplus Center is a great resource for lots of components and often at good prices. They have new stuff as well as "surplus" but it can be hit and miss sometimes on the more unique stuff. Hydraulics are always expensive, but sometimes needed. Electric stuff seems to make a lot of sense for this application.

What part of Upstate? I grew up in Chautauqua County. We got a lot of snow when I was a kid.

I'm in southern part of Herkimer county. We don't get as much as Chautauqua county but we get the shadow effect from Tug Hill. We had 200+ inches last year and have more than doubled the normal snowfall from November 15th to December 15th at 36.8" so far as per the weather guy.
I usually use my snow pusher but the snowblower is definitely the tool of choice for deep snow.

 

[dstig1]

Never heard of Herkimer before, had to look it up. Adirondacks foothills, it looks like. Beautiful country. Upstate NY is all quite beautiful country. Too bad it is ruined by NYS government...

Agreed on the blower being best for deep stuff. Living up here now, we tend to get smaller snowfalls that are lighter, but we also do get some heavier dumps. I built a rotary broom for my tractor from an old unit that I refurbed and modified and it works great for the light stuff, but when we get 6" or heavy snow, it is not happy. I've got a wild hair to make a snowblower front end to swap out with the broom, but no place to put it to start, and it would take some serious engineering. Might be a plan for retirement project, perhaps...if I can reorganize and gain some more space.

Here is my build thread if you are curious

Sweepster Rotary Broom - rebuild and modification

I'm going to start this thread a bit ahead of time so I can actually get input along the way rather than just showing finished pics as there are some areas I am less certain of. I have started taking apart bits of it but probably won't get seriously into it until Spring/early summer when it...

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