Snow blower performance

[Dan33Klein]

Hi all.

I know this subject probably has been beaten to death and I did some reasearch.
But I would still like to get some suggestions

I bought a 3pt blower yesterday for my new B2650.
It has a 4 Blade 20 fan on it
No shear pins or anything is broke. It is solid with the pto shaft and will bog the tractor when pushed in a pile so the fan is not slipping.
When throttled up all the way (dash reads 582rpm) the snow is barely thrown out of the blower and just seems to puke out the top.

I plan on spraying it down with fluid film. And try to tighten the impeller to housing clearances with rubber.
I have a feeling the snow that痴 already fallen will be the last we will get so I have to experiment and play with it while I can.
Any suggestions?

 

[jgayman]

What was the consistency of the snow? Was it light/fluffy or was it wet/slushy?

What brand / model of snow blower?

Can you post a photo of the impeller and housing clearance?

 

[Dan33Klein]

I haven’t been able to locate a tag on the snow blower to get make and model.
I will look harder tonight and get some pictures.
The snow was pretty fluffy and dry. Which is unusual for Illinois. Usually the temp is right around the freezing mark and it’s oretty wert. But it was definitely good blowing snow.
I will get some pictures tonight and look into it some more. I am going to do some more blowing when I get home from work. Sounds like it’s going to be melted towards the end of the week.

 

[Dan33Klein]

Here is a picture.
The gap is prolly 5/8 or a little more.
I still can稚 find make and model i didn稚 see any tags and now it痴 covered in snow.
I took a video but not sure how to post it.

 

[shaeff]

Wow, that gap is huge and likely plays a large roll in your problem. Imagine sucking water through a straw with a big hole in the center. There's not enough of a pressure created by the fan when air and snow can sneak right by through that gap.

I bet that if you build a decent impeller kit to close up that gap, you'll get WAY better performance out of the blower.

 

[Dan33Klein]

I’m hoping that is the issue. I got a feeling we won’t be getting enough snow the rest of the season to use it. I plan on disassembling it for paint so I will rebuild the impeller at that time. I had my wife engage the pto and take it up to speed and it didn’t seem like it was really blowing a lot of air out of the chute.

 

[moship]

It should definitely throw snow much further than that even with the gap you describe between the fan and blower housing even with wet heavy snow.

Can someone watch the fan when under load to see if the fan is slowing down when under load? It sounds like it is running full PTO speed when not under load, but is slowing/slipping under load. Couple of thing come to mind. Broken shear pin and the inner shaft is corroded to the outer shaft of fan. In this condition there is enough friction to drive the fan without any snow, but would slip when under load. The drive gear that drives the fan input shaft might have a broken or sheared keyway. Again enough friction to appear to be ok but slips under load.

I'd mark every shaft and corresponding gear/fan/other to see if any are moving relative to each other.

The bogging could be coming from the auger being under load and not the fan.

Perhaps by posting pictures of the blower and some of the details someone might be able to ID.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Looks like you have found your problem with that gap!

SR

 

[KennyG]

I bought a cheap used Chinese blower a few years ago. If the snow was wet at all it would barely clear the snowblower. I put flaps on the impeller and now it throws snow at least 20 to 30 feet in all conditions. Try the impeller kit.

 

[Dan33Klein]

Here are 5 pictures. After using a tape measure it looks like he gap is actually about 7/8 from empeller to housing at the 9:00 position

 

[Zick]

Buy something like this to fill in the gap.

SNOW BLOWER IMPELLER KIT™ - 1/4" 4-Blade Universal - Modifies 2-Stage Machine | eBay

 

[jgayman]

Here are 5 pictures. After using a tape measure it looks like he gap is actually about 7/8 from empeller to housing at the 9:00 position

I was just getting ready to respond saying that the 5/8" gap should not cause the conditions you are seeing but if the gap is truly 7/8" at places then it is definitely something to look at. Still, I would do as one of the other posters suggested and have someone watch the impeller while in operation. It is also possible that the impeller key is sheared and allowing the impeller to slip on the shaft when under load. WITH THE TRACTOR OFF you should also be able to verify if the impeller is slipping by turning it by hand.

 

[Reb954]

When throttled up all the way (dash reads 582rpm) the snow is barely thrown out of the blower and just seems to puke out the top.

I just reread your original post. When you say "dash reads 582rpm", are you saying that is the engine rpm? If it is, no wonder it "pukes out" the snow.

 

[Dan33Klein]

No 582 rpm at the rear pto.

I have some rubber conveyor belt. I’m going to try to make the impeller kit.

I will do some more checking. But I know the impeller is solid with the pto shaft. When I got the blower the impeller has some dirt and debris in it and was froze solid. The pto shaft would not
Turn. I even put a pipe wrench on the yoke at the gear box and it would not budge(because the impeller was frozen). Once it all thawed out in the garage everything turned free

 

[Reb954]

I'm wondering if the blower is setup for a 1000 rpm blower.

Does there appear to be any gear reduction box on the blower?

 

[KennyG]

I'm wondering if the blower is setup for a 1000 rpm blower.

I initially wondered about this on mine but adding the impeller kit made it operate very well. I think my clearances were less than are reported here.

 

[RjCorazza]

I’ll put my vote in for WAY too much gap between the fan and housing. I looked at my LuckNow blower and the gap is less than 1/8 inch.

 

[Dutch445]

looking at the pto drive, and the chute rotator system, it looks like that blower
is quite old, and without a brand name who knows where it was made.
if it's from the 50s or 60s it may very well perform as designed
impeller kit may certainly help either way.

 

[Dutch445]

could this be a similar brand blower? if so, maybe it helps us narrow down what brand the blower is,
notice the spout rotation in this Loftness (pic stolen from another BB)

 

[Dan33Klein]

Don’t 1000 rpm pto shafts have a higher spline count?
There are other blowers out there with the same siZe or smaller fans that do a lot better job and are only splinting at 540 rpm.

I think the impeller mod is in order. To bad I will have to wait till next winter to see if it works better.