Rear Inverted Snowblowers 2019

[kco]

I finally got a video and photos of my blower clearing about 6" of snow this morning.

Also, here are a few of my blower fan showing the shape and bracing for the blades:




The back of the fan blades are quite well braced. The bottom of the plate that restricts the opening is bent on mine too. I need to straighten it. It has happened before but it does not bend the blower blades.

Here are a couple of photos of blowing snow this morning:




And here are links to a couple of videos from this morning:

20200111 Clearing Driveway 1 - YouTube

20200111 Clearing Driveway - YouTube

My dog was barking at his friend who came to see what we were doing.

 

[airbiscuit]

Nice videos and narration by dog.

 

[airbiscuit]

I got the one with the manual deflector. The dealer didn't have the hydraulic kit in stock and wanted too much for it anyways. I can easily add one myself later, for a lot less.

I ran the blower last night with the deflector in the highest setting because that is where it was set. Today I will set it down one notch and try again. I plan to take some videos of the Farm King, then mount the Meteor and take some video of it. I will also,get some pics of the new blower, to post here. I will need to use the old blower today to blow back the banks at the bottom of my neighbors shared driveway. The banks are too high for the inverted blower and need to be pushed back.

Funny thing is that I used to dislike the Meteor because it wouldn't blow the snow very far. However after I welded beads across the ends of each fan blade and used Fluid Film on the chute and fan, the blower works well and throws the snow further. Not sure what the biggest contributor was. The tighter fan clearance or the Fluid Film. I'm thinking it was the tighter clearance. I closed the gap from about 1/2" to just touching in some places. The gap was not consistent.

Okay, I figured that as long as my new blower is in pristine shape, I should go ahead and spray the blower and chute with Fluid Film. That stuff gets great reviews, but nobody told me that my snowblower would now have that farm fresh smell

 

[shooterdon]

Bent blades are likely why it as shaking and rattling

 

[shooterdon]

Bent blades are likely why it as shaking and rattling

Did you catch some junk or were they like that when delivered?

 

[Hilbilly]

I finally got a video and photos of my blower clearing about 6" of snow this morning.

Also, here are a few of my blower fan showing the shape and bracing for the blades:

View attachment 636578 View attachment 636580 View attachment 636579


The back of the fan blades are quite well braced. The bottom of the plate that restricts the opening is bent on mine too. I need to straighten it. It has happened before but it does not bend the blower blades.

Here are a couple of photos of blowing snow this morning:

View attachment 636582 View attachment 636581


And here are links to a couple of videos from this morning:

20200111 Clearing Driveway 1 - YouTube

20200111 Clearing Driveway - YouTube

My dog was barking at his friend who came to see what we were doing.

Those pics and videos are great. Thanks.

Here are some pics of my blower fan. 2 of the blades are bent back at the tips and the other 2 have been rubbing. It looks like the shaft that the fan rides on worked itself forward and eventually 2 blades hit the restrictor plate and bent it then the other 2 blades were scraping it as they went by. From what I can figure the retaining rings for 3 of the bearings on the fan shaft must not have been tightened enough which allowed the shaft to move. But what caused the shaft to move forward.

I moved the shaft back and tightened the retaining rings so I can use the blower until I find out what Farm King intends to do about this.

 

[airbiscuit]

What's the deal with the double rollerchain? Is that a coupler of some sort?

 

[aczlan]

What's the deal with the double rollerchain? Is that a coupler of some sort?

Yes, the rods between the links span both chains and it allows a little bit of misalignment.

Aaron Z

 

[airbiscuit]

So let us know how it works after your repairs. What would you consider appropriate warranty repair?

 

[Hilbilly]

So let us know how it works after your repairs. What would you consider appropriate warranty repair?

I think they should replace the fan and the plate. I could do it but don't want to because there is quite a bit of work involved plus this is a new blower. I shouldn't have to do any work on something that is new. It might have 1 hour on it.

 

[kco]

The Meteor fan design looks like a bit more robust than the Farm King. The steel looks thicker and the reinforcement for the blade runs the entire depth of the blade. You can see the bend in the plate that restricts the drum opening on my blower in the third photo.

The blue arrow in this photo points to the gap which is filled with ice:



The edge of that plate should be right against the drum opening.

 

[airbiscuit]

KCO, I am curious about the PTO connection on tghe Farm King. On my Meteor, the PTO shaft goes directly from tghe tractor to the fan (with the second PTO universal joint). On the Farm King, is there a stub shaft that goes from th efan to some sort of hanger, and the PTO attaches to that?

 

[Hilbilly]

The Meteor fan design looks like a bit more robust than the Farm King. The steel looks thicker and the reinforcement for the blade runs the entire depth of the blade. You can see the bend in the plate that restricts the drum opening on my blower in the third photo.

The blue arrow in this photo points to the gap which is filled with ice:

View attachment 636654

The edge of that plate should be right against the drum opening.

There are so many things about my old Meteor that are better than the FK. The Meteor uses an oil bath gear where this is open gears. The Meteor uses a #60 chain for the auger drive, the FK uses a #50. The steel for the fan is way thicker on the Meteor and the bracing is MUCH more robust. The auger bearings on the Meteor are grease-able and the FK are not. The auger flights on the Meteor have right angle bracing stiffeners and the FK does not. On the FK there are 3 bearings for the fan drive shaft and 2 of them are not grease-able either. The FK website states this blower is suitable for tractors with 60 - 90 hp. My tractor only has 53 PTO hp. I think a 90 hp tractor would tear this thing up.

The restrictor plate shown in photos 5 and 7 was flush with the fan housing before I used the blower. The fan blades hit that plate and bent it out.

Hoping I will not have hassles about the warranty. I also need to check with the dealer to see if he filed the warranty registration card. Even if he did, it may not have reached them yet.

 

[airbiscuit]

Now I am installing the last, and I thought easiest piece to my snowblower - the PTO. The tractor end goes on just fine. the blower side goes on about an inch and stops. My old one had the push button one on each end. This one has a slotted end and t bolts that cinch it down. I can still wobble it, but it won't go any farther. It is not in a handy place to get at it.

Any suggestions?

 

[Hilbilly]

Hard to tell without seeing it. Does the blower end shaft have a slot with a key in it? If so you may not have them lined up properly or the key could have a burr on it that is preventing it from sliding into the slot on the driveshaft.

Got any pics of that shaft and the end of the driveshaft?

 

[airbiscuit]

I'll get some pics. The shaft coming out of the blower is a standard PTO spline.

 

[Hilbilly]

Does the driveshaft have a collar around the end that connects to the blower? If so that needs to be pulled back as you push the driveshaft onto the blower shaft.

If I don't respond for a while or a few days it is likely because our power went out again. We are in the middle of a nasty storm with high winds and heavy snowfall. Temps are plummeting and supposed to get down to -34 over the next few days. Good time to have a cab tractor

I've go to go and put the new blower on the tractor and head down to my daughter's place to get rid of snow. Her husband's plow truck broke down and they will get snowed in. I was down there last night too.

 

[airbiscuit]

Thanks to Hillbilly, and a DUH top me. Thanks, because I took some pics, and then removed the snowblower from the tractor for better pics. Then as a test, I put the tractor end on the blower and it slid on. Tried the blower end again and no-go. Then I took the clamping bolts out, and it slid right in! They protrude slightly so go in the groove of the PTO shaft to keep it from sliding out - DUH.

Here's how one decision can affect a series of events. It has been quite cold, and I was assembling this snowblower and lubing up my old snowblower at the same time. I took both PTO Shafts into my warm basement to grease. I should have attached the PTO to the blower when it was unattached from the tractor, but I had put it on th tractor to get it into my pole building. I thought this thing would just slide on, so that started my cascade of wrong decisions. The other thing is that is the heaviest PTO shaft I have ever dealt with.

So, now I just wait for snow!

 

[jpm]

Some days it just goes that way. It's good that you got it figured out

 

[Hilbilly]

It would be so much easier if there was only one universal connection method.