So, what's the worst (best) thing to go through your snowblower?

JonKioti · Jan 17, 2010

And...what happened?

Keeping this discussion free of descriptions of live animals, I began to wonder what other people have put through their snowblowers, accidentally or otherwise.

A few years back I picked up a thick doormat with my father's Kubota snowblower. That jammed and broke a shear pin, but at least I got the snow cleared right to the front door.

The other day I was widening my lane, when a significant present from my friend's golden retriever "tinted" the snow coming out of the chute for a few seconds. Luckily (and I mean luckily) there was no wind blowing this towards me.

What that experience in mind I am considering a few passes over my lawn before the snow is gone now that we have two dogs.

Anyone else put anything besides snow through?

Jon

sunnyside360 · Jan 17, 2010

My neighbor left a set of tire chains laying in 18 inches of snow on the driveway in front of his garage. Being a good neighbor, I went over to clean off his driveway. The chains never made it out the chute of my snow blower but sure did a lot of damage. Besides repairing the impeller, had to replace auger, shaft and gear box. So much for shear pin protection.

Dirtnut · Jan 17, 2010

My cell phone.I had it in my shirt pocket and bent over to check something,it fell out & i didnt know. Got back on the tractor backed up & something rattled out the shoot & flew at least 30 feet.Well i cussed the kid under my breath figuring it was a toy,so i stopped the tractor went to pick up the piece that fell the closest to me,boy was i surprised to find the belt clip to my phone it survived but phone was in many pieces scattered in the woods to this day.It was a chore to try & convince the phone company they had to wait till spring to get the old phone because it was scattered under 2' of snow.They finally agreed to send me a new one.

joe48 · Jan 17, 2010

tire chain from walk behind snowblower at church.
I was lucky, it sheared PTO pin and still stalled the tractor.
had to load up and haul back home. Took me 2 hrs with pry bars and a cutting torch to get it out , dented the fan housing,bent a fan blade, and one small hole from the torch. All pretty easy fixes with a 6lb precision adjustment tool.

Gil Case · Jan 18, 2010

Worst I put through there was the Sunday Paper--man that is hard to read after it goes through the Meteor.

mnbowhunter1960 · Jan 18, 2010

Ditto on the door mat, had to cut it apart to get it out of the auger, but no damage.

PILOON · Jan 18, 2010

Decided to widen the yard a bit one time!

Forgot that I had tossed an old car generator out the door and never picked it up before the snows.

Trashed one auger totally, split open the gear box and bent the auger shaft.
(being a used blower I never realized the previous owner neglected to lube the auger shafts and she was rusted solid, so shear bolts never had a chance)

Cost me a blower as the parts were just too pricy! Was a 48" blower.(tractor is 48" wide)

The upside was that I found a 60" in great shape for a mere $400. and having had both widths on same machine has made me a strong advocate for 'wider than tracking' blowers.

richardbro · Jan 19, 2010

One garden hose...no, make that two - forgot about that one...
One blue tarp... no, make that two - forgot about that one also...

Note to Self, Clean Up the Yard Come Autumn!!!

jimmyj · Jan 20, 2010

It was a walk behind blower but my glasses went through it!! The shot about 20 feet and landed in a snowbank. Of course I could not see where they went and had to call my wife. It was Christmas Eve and I was clearing the skating rink before going to family dinner and I was freaked that the stores would be closed. My wife found them and they were essentially undamaged.