Snow Attachments Not throwing snow very far.

[Shadow99]

Watch out when making a "zero-clearance," mods to a impeller housing! I found out the hard-way that some of the impeller's are not centered in the impeller-housing.
I did the modification this fall, & closed a 1/4" gap between impeller-blade & housing, right before in went up the chute.
I had a 1/4" gap at the 9 o'clock position, but it was about 1/8" at 1 o'clock position and less than 1/16" at the 6 o'clock position. Causing the mud-flap material to fold over & jam up, within the housing.
I cut the extensions down, so I left a 1/8" gap at 9 o'clock position. But even tho the impeller would now spin with less resistance, it still made a horrible "whap-whap-whap," noise, & shook the whole unit.
So I went with plan C, removed ZC mod, sanded, painted & re-waxed inside impeller, housing & chute.
It's worked great the past 2 storms we've had here in New England. I get to play this afternoon, in the same slightly-wet snow, we are getting now. Just waiting for it to stop snowing, by 3pm (weatherman says). Should be a good 4-6", enough to keep the blower happy.

Shadow

 

[DHD]

On a PTO driven snowblower, I think that if you can maintain PTO speed, the HP is irrelevant. The speed and configuration of the impeller is going to determine how it throws the snow, independent of how much horsepower is available. I'm assuming the tractor can maintain PTO rated RPM of course. I have a 60" blower with 18 PTO HP and it never begins to bog down (Of course, I haven't tried to take a full bite of 18" deep wet snow either.)

I agree.
I have a 64" blower with 27 HP pto, but know of folks using 72" blowers with the same pto hp.
A key element to successful snow blowing is ground speed and a hydrostatic transmission can be very beneficial in that respect.
If the blower acts like it's getting bogged down, just reduce the ground speed until the pto speed stabilizes.

 

[tdejong302]

I'm going slow and the snow is anywhere from 4-8 inches, some fluffy and some heavier by the road. Doesn't seem to matter if its heavy or fluffy. Just kind of druels out the end. (less then 5ft.). I am at 540 atleast my dash says I am. Blower is not bogging down. I have the power to blow back banks 2-3 ft. high. Just not enough something in the blower it self to really throw the snow. Will look at the impeller to see how much clearance I have. The impeller doesn't seem to be moving really really fast. The auger is moving fine. Impeller is about twice the speed of the auger. Doesnt' seem to wind down.

Just ran out and checked the impeller. It does have about 1/4 clearance at the top and maybe 5 eights of an inch at the bottom. I will add some fins and see if that helps.

 

[JerryK]

Still say you should look into the fan slipping on the shaft. Since it was a used unit, maybe the key in not in the keyway. See if you can mark one of the four impellers on the fan in relation to the shaft coming out of the tractor side of the gearbox...where the PTO shaft is attached. Then run it a little and see if it still lines up. [ easy to sit here running my mouth.... ]

 

[tcartwri]

On my Bobcat / Kioti, turning it up another 200 rpm results in almost twice the casting distance....

 

[PILOON]

I always run my 3 bladed PTO blower at the 700(+) rpm, like 7-8 yrs now. No problems at all.
I do select the lower 500 RPM if I'm into frozen snow banks or that heavy stuff the city plow plugs my entrance with simply not to bog the engine.

So far this season I am still on last years shear bolts.

 

[DHD]

Is there other way I can speed up the blower other then maxing out my motor/rpms. thx.

What is your engines rpm when the pto is at 540 ?

 

[jonnmero]

I used kids plastic snow slider inside the chute on the other blower. I used heat ( a torch) and molded it to the inside. Bolted the edge (use fender washers on the inside) with small bolts and cut off the extra on the outer edge.

Al

Any pictures of the modification? Sounds like a good way to modify my snow blower as the gravel and sand it also picks up ain't too kind to the painted steel surfaces.

 

[drizler]

I'm betting that rig of yours is right at the edge of the minimum power it need to do the job. My ancient TO 2o Fergy is 26, more like 20ish now days HP at the PTO. Since I got it just running my 6' mower deck required nearly BTW (balls to the wall) power. Plowing snow with the 7' blade is much the same. I notice even my new diesel 36 HP seems to want a lot more power than you think it would much of the time. \
Do what I do, fly it like an airplane. Forget the specs and put the power to it. It won't hurt anything , if anything it's good for it. After a bit of trial and error you will find that there is a learning curve. So much snow, so heavy at so much road speed will work best. At least with a new type tractor you can slow down the road speed and keep the PTO speed up something I couldn't do . All i could do was find the sweet spot and live with it more or less.

There is that popular mod for the impellers to seal that gap everyone mentioned. It's real purpose is to stop clogging with the wet stuff they say. I just did mine but haven't gotten to try it yet since no snow. I just used a 2" by width of chute piece of old treadmill for mine, mud flaps work too. Make em tight to a bit too long as they will wear in fast just like a ring in a cyl. Like I said I doubt it will be of significant help for you now but still will help with the mush and it's only 3 pieces of scrap and 6 self tapping sheet metal screws. Lots of youtube vids on how to if you need it.
I heard of a few guys who had eccentric impellers. For the life of me I can;t see why they would be like that or have a huge gap in the end of the auger to wall clearance. My 2002 Ariens looked like new when I got it last year . I found the bushing that supports the auger had one huge wear notch on it. That cause all sorts of headaches and what a pain to change. Had to take the entire bottom gear drive apart just to pull it out.
.

 

[Amvcane]

As others have stated adding rubber extensions will help greatly with wet slushy snow. This will also increase your fan dia. To 16 1/4 " which will slightly increase your blade tip speed. Now with your fan diameter maximized you can only increase your pto speed which was also mentioned many times. Increasing to 600 rpm at the pto will give you an 11% faster speed at the fan blade tip which you should find as a great improvement. Also you mentioned you were going slow. You should be feeding the blower as much snow as it will handle without the engine bogging down to much. You will eventually learn how fast by looking at the stream of snow and the sound of the engine woking hard. Think someone called it BTW. You need snow to throw snow. There has to be a steady stream of snow coming out the chute. The snow thrown needs more snow just behind it to push it farther, fluid like. Hope suggestions from all will help. Give us some pics to look at.

 

[kco]

As others have stated adding rubber extensions will help greatly with wet slushy snow. This will also increase your fan dia. To 16 1/4 " which will slightly increase your blade tip speed. Now with your fan diameter maximized you can only increase your pto speed which was also mentioned many times. Increasing to 600 rpm at the pto will give you an 11% faster speed at the fan blade tip which you should find as a great improvement. Also you mentioned you were going slow. You should be feeding the blower as much snow as it will handle without the engine bogging down to much. You will eventually learn how fast by looking at the stream of snow and the sound of the engine woking hard. Think someone called it BTW. You need snow to throw snow. There has to be a steady stream of snow coming out the chute. The snow thrown needs more snow just behind it to push it farther, fluid like. Hope suggestions from all will help. Give us some pics to look at.

I also think keeping a good steady flow of snow is important. It is particularly necessary in small (depth) but wet, heavy(weight) snowfalls. Under those conditions the chute will plug up if you don't keep a steady stream going. As already noted, you can regulate the amount of snow with higher ground speed. Also, don't taper the speed if stopping. Either stop quickly or lift the blower so the snow clears the chute and does not have a chance to plug it up. It's the same for starting--don't creep into it. If I forget to do that under heavy, wet conditions of small depth it inevitably ends in having to unplug the chute.

Cold, frozen or dry snow doesn't require the steady stream to stop the plugging, but keeping the chute full does send it further as noted by Amvcane.

A bit off the topic, but still connected...I find a tree planter's spade the most effective tool for clearing a plugged chute. Here are some examples:

Bushpro - Tough Gear for Tough Jobs

 

[tdejong302]

I pushed the motor/rpms past the pto mark. I maxed out the tractor and the blower blew better. Not sure of my rpm.s but blower seemed to work a lot better. Thank you for all your suggestions and help. I will ad some extensions to help and should be good to go. Can't express how appreciative I am knowing people will take the time to help so I don't harm my tractor/blower etc.

Just was tinkering with some other stuff learning my tractor and checked rpms that I was at and when the tractor was maxed out it was around 2800. This made the blower work right or better.

 

[Shadow99]

I'm glad you had a chance to try out some of our suggestion's, you will learn the right combination of tractor rpm vs tractor speed, for the various snow conditions & depths.
Got 6" of medium-density snow over yesterday & last night, afterDon't a proper warm-up, rev it to 2800 rpm's & cast the snow over a 5' high fence & into neighbor's backyard.
Us New Englander's are supposed to get hammered this coming Tuesday!
Heard predictions of greater than 3ft! Whoa, I don't need that much!

Shadow

 

[jonnmero]

Heard predictions of greater than 3ft! Whoa, I don't need that much!

What one needs and what one gets, sadly, when it comes to snow, seldom match! Earlier years we got snow evenly distributed from November and all through March. Now it is nothing till mid January, and then the chutes open. Strange new weather pattern!

 

[Jay4200]

I just bought a n.h. tc18. It came with a aftermarket blower. The problem I have with it is its not blowing very far. PTO's say 540 on the tractor. Its only blowing snow 5-8 ft. Is this normal. Also should I leave the pto engaged on the blower as I pull forward. And one last dummy question.... how high should I lift my blower when its on. I have heard lifting it too high wears out the pto. Any help, advice or suggestions you can offer is greatly appreciated. This is my first real (well small real tractor) and I'm learning on the run. thank you. Any suggestions on where to get decals for my tractor. The pto' lift and 4 wheel drive don't have any decals left.

No, it is not normal. Some blowers are designed for higher-speed PTOs. You'll have to find an owner's manual for the model you have. If you look inside and there is any type of reduction from the shaft to the fan, it is a higher-speed blower.

Your tractor RPMs have to be at absolute full-blast for the blower to work properly - if you are one of those operators who like to keep RPMs down to be 'nice' to your tractor, that might be the problem. Your tractor wants to be screaming it's guts out (full PTO speed) or the blower will not throw very far. Also - do not play PTO engage-disengage games - just leave it running when repositioning. If you chop the throttle or disengage the PTO while there is snow in the blower, it can pack up like it is full of concrete, which will not only break every shear pin in the thing, but also requires 45 minutes with a pick-axe to clean it out. Been there, done that.

You can stress the U-joints on the PTO shaft if you lift the blower too high, but it generally isn't a problem - just lift the blower up all the way with the PTO disengaged and spin the auger by hand - you'll know/hear if it is hanging up.

My blower doesn't throw particularly far compared to some I've seen: this are pics of my blower throwing 24" of wet mashed-potato snow (Freak Halloween blizzard of 2011). Yours should throw the same 20-30ft with normal snow.

 

[jonnmero]

You can stress the U-joints on the PTO shaft if you lift the blower too high, but it generally isn't a problem - just lift the blower up all the way with the PTO disengaged and spin the auger by hand - you'll know/hear if it is hanging up.

Just check the PTO shaft is not too long! Next door the boys were Jinma dealers, and they had two customers who didn't cut the shaft to the proper length (short enough), and the PTO gear box on the tractors got smashed. Expensive repair!

 

[drizler]

Re: Not throwing snow very far. I would definitely mod that impeller

I just went out a couple more times and cleaned out my blown in drive with my modified Airens 24" manual push blower. The idea behind the seals is stated to help with slushy wet stuff. Well when it comes to regular snow it is simply amazing. I usually run it at 85 to 95% and when it's over 6" deep I run it balls to the wall. Not anymore. Yesterday I idled it down to see how it did and was simply amazed at how it ate through the snow at under 2/3 throttle. You know the spot where it's not idling but just before it starts to get annoyingly loud. Amazing, a solid chute of snow looking like it was coming out of one of those play dough kids press toys. Sure when the crap gets heavy I'll be right back up there but for routine snow no more full bore operation.
I don't know much about tractor blowers but they can't be all that different . If I was having headaches of any sort I would invest the couple bucks involved in this mod and go for it. :cool2: Your machine will operate far better and you will be much kinder to your tractor all the while. Just make sure you have a completely centered impeller with equal distances all the way around the intake tube. Im one of those guys who doesn't mind tinkering with things to make them better and I have done quite a few over the years. This one probably tops the list of $$ vs. results.:thumbsup:

 

[Shadow99]

I'd hate to say it again, but a "zero-clearance kit" on a Ford 715a snowblower, will not work!
I tried this fall, to remove the 1/4" to 5/16" gap nearest to the chute exit. I used mud flap material with an aluminum plate backer, bolted to the 3 impeller blades. On the Ford, the impeller blades ARE NOT CENTERED, in the impeller-housing!
Adding these WILL CAUSE the blades to bind/lock-up, in the housing! Trust me when I say it absolutely SUCKS, to remove them after it jams!
Run up the RPM's & it will work fine for you!

Shadow

 

[KennyG]

It's pretty straightforward to find out if an impeller kit will help. Just slowly rotate the impeller and find the minimum clearance point. If it's more than 1/4 inch or so, the kit will help some. My 3 point blower was over 1/2" minimum. I mounted all the flaps for zero clearance at the tightest point. Made a big difference. It hasn't clogged since and throws twice as far.

 

[zzvyb6]

There could be a more simple explanation to this problem: This Meteor might have a 2000 PTO rpm input gearbox or chain drive and he's running it from a 540 pto. Its pretty easy to tell if this is the case. Turn the PTO over by hand and count the number of spins of the blower fan. Should be about 1:1. If it's about 3:1 its a configuration problem.