Snowblower Is something wrong with my snowblower?

[quickervicar]

That JRW isn't geared for 1000rpm PTO, is it?

I would also suggest using a paste-type automotive wax in the chute & blower. It tends to last longer than the sprays, but if the sprays work for some people, great!

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Snowseb, I keep coming back to this thread to see what others are saying because I have not had this problem and most of what I deal with is fairly heavy snow (we rarely get powder snow on the south edge of Lake Michigan). For the past 2 seasons I've used a Buhler Farm King 60" snowblower. Prior to that I used a 54" front mount Cub Cadet blower for 9 years (acutally that is still used, but now at my office instead of at home). I can never remember either unit clogging up for me under any condition (except that time I wrapped a garden hose around the auger /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif )

I went out last night and looked very carefully at the design of my blower. First thing I noticed is my discharge chute is shorter than yours is. Much shorter looking in fact.

Also, I never wax, WD40 or PAM my discharge chute. (well I do WD40 the whole unit at the end of the season before I put it away)

My chute never clogged for me, but when I blow the really heavy slush it seems to flow out of the chute like water from a hose without much pressure. It simply spills the slush over to the side, throwing it maybe 5' to 7' off to whichever side the chute is aimed. I guess I wonder if the length of your chute is a large part of the problem as the snow in contact with chute itself would create friction and slow down the movement of the snow to a point that it simply clogs???

I'm wondering if other folks who have clogging problems with wet snow have tall chutes like yours?


EDIT: Snowseb, one more thing I noticed about the design of your snowblower. The fan is blowing snow up a square shaft into a round tube which then goes back into a square shaped chute. I think the transition from that round transition to the squared off chute may be where you lose some velocity and that may cause the snow to clog down into the round part? On my blower, the design is slightly different, the fan blows snow up in a square through a round transition, but the chute is NOT square. The metal chute has several folds in it to more closely mimic the round transition so the snow doesn't get a chance to spread out to fill the back of the chute like yours does. I also checked my Cub Cadet, it has a rounded chute as well, and it does not rise in a vertical like yours does, it starts out with a slope to direct the snow right from the start. I've attached a diagram of the Buhler Farm King blower, you can see the rear of chute is shaped to more closely match the round transition, further, it also starts out with a slope/angle instead of a straight rise before it diverts the snow in any direction.

You might consider simply shortening your chute? Or if possible, shortening and reshaping the rear of it?

 

[JimMorrissey]

I don't believe the blower needs to be modified. The problem begins around the blower fan housing and continues up into the chute.

In extremely wet conditions (slop snow) I have experienced the same chute clogging situation. It's only happened a couple of times in the last four years, but I know what he's talking about and I DID NOT have a chute that was long or out of the ordinary. It is very frustrating. Believe it or not, PAM was effective when it was applied to dry metal.

In the rare times that it does happen, use the loader.

 

[slowzuki]

The Lucknow blower we use has a long chute and can't blow wet stuff. We just use the bucket then.

Ken

 

[Bob_Skurka]

I was just looking at SnowSeb's other thread, the one where he wants to add a hydraulic cylinder to the top of his chute. I noticed MadReferee has a PUMA blower. Here is a picture of his chute. Notice the shape of his chute, it is nearly identical to mine. The rear folds in the metal much more closely follow the curve of the round transition. Also notice that his chute seems to slope or angle right from the transition as opposed to rising in a straight vertical. Mad's Puma chute and my Buhler chute look like twins. (see the diagram of the Buhler chute in my previous post)

I'm just guessing here, but I suspect that those two things combined might be part of the reason why some folks have a problem with snow clogging and some folks don't???


Mad Referee's Pumu chute showing the contoured shape of the back of the chute

 

[AndyMA]

I had serious problems with my New Holland blower plugging in wet snow until I lightly sanded/steel wooled the inside of everything. Made it very smooth and then applied a very slippery epoxy type paint. Once I did that and applied silicon spray no problems. Also make sure you continue running at full speed after you make a pass to clear everything out. If it stops it freezes quick on the cold metal.

Andy

 

[SnowSeb]

a few more pics, is the inside of the bottom of chute look like this, square into round. That is where it plugs and does not even make it much higher than that. So that is why it think height of chute is not the main problem.

 

[SnowSeb]

and the spacing of the 2nd stage paddles and the round opening, is that a problem like someone mentioned.(if i understood right.)

 

[SnowSeb]

the outside of the "square into round part". Would changing that part to more closely match to round part help. When wet the snow fall through the space between the bottom square and the higher round part.

 

[MadReferee]

Another thing that may effect the wet snow performance is the impeller fan. The Puma fan has a 20" diameter and is 6" deep. It has 4 impellers that each have a 6" scoop like paddle end. These can move a lot of snow. See attached picture.

I have never used any type of lubricant to help move snow.

 

[Av8r3400]

Maybe rivet some rubber or plastic squeegees on the impeller blades?

 

[MadReferee]

Looking at your pics that were posted while I was doing mine, I would think that your paddles are about the same size as mine, 6" but your fan diameter looks much smaller. That being the case, I wonder if the gearing for the fan is causing it to spin too slow. A slow spinning fan cannot generate enough oomph to move heavy wet snow up that chute, thus the clogging. The fan does not spin at PTO speed but is geared much slower. Just a thought.

 

[SnowSeb]

To answer a few of the other questions, yes it is a 540 rpm blower. I did use pam on a dry surface. I do understand that wet snow can be a problem, but last storm started out with normal fluffy snow, then turn into wet snow around 10pm, then wet rain/drizzle by about 11- 11:30pm. By about 1 am it would not go through chute. (i have about 35 driveways to do) Unplugged it, tried again, plugged again. Stopped blowing until about 5:30 am, again no go. At that time i saw about 4 other tractors/blower that could blow the snow, only out the chute and to side a foot or 2 but still no plug. I asked a guy who does close to 100 drives and he said it plugged twice during the whole storm. His blower had shorter, round chute, with the bottom more opened up, not that tall round part, so the snow did not plug, but spilled over to the side.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Sorry to say it, but based on everything you wrote, I'd say there is a fundamental problem with the design of your chute, the transition and or the fan blade design or size. If I was you, I'd be looking to trade it in on a different brand.

The fan blade size and gearing determines tip speed. A larger fan will have higher velocity at the tips than a smaller fan will have. That may also be a factor? What size fan do you have? 16" and 20" are fairly common sizes. If you have a 20" fan then I guess it all goes back to the transition point at the base of the chute. The transition tube may be too small.

 

[SnowSeb]

anybody ever try lining the inside of chute with Crazy Carpet, that stuff is very slippery, would last longer than sprays and are very cheap to buy. Maybe fasten them inside with stainless rivets. Any thoughts about that spacing between paddles and round part it spins in, what is normal spacing.

 

[MadReferee]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Any thoughts about that spacing between paddles and round part it spins in, what is normal spacing. )</font>

The Puma spacing from paddle tip to the round shroud is about 1/8" on the inside (closest to tractor) to almost 1/4" on the outside. It's very efficient in picking up gravel and stones and throwing them up and out.

 

[SnowSeb]

See pics for more measurements. All in inches.
Fan is 21 1/4, hole 21 3/4, depth 7 inches....

 

[SnowSeb]

feeds into chute square 7x5 with a rounded side...

 

[MadReferee]

With those measurements that blower should be able to throw any type of snow when running at whatever engine rpm generates 540 rpm PTO speed.

However as I mentioned earlier, the gearbox could be setup so that the fan and auger spin way too slowly. I would investigate that first by calling JRW and see what they have for specs.

 

[SnowSeb]

then square chute is 9 1/2 wide at bottom to 7 inch wide at the very top. Sorry i said before it did not squeeze in. but wet snow never makes it up that far anyways. How do those measuments compare to other blower designs.

Well, i'm supposed to be helping the little lady with chores around house.... so gotta go!, you guys know how that is /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif, i'll check in later.