Snow Equipment Owning/Operating What You Find When Blowing Snow

[Al Mac]

It happens every year.
When blowing snow yesterday I found the sales flyers. They are rolled up and put into a tube type plastic bag and dropped at the end of the lane.
With one large snap it broke the shear bolt on the blower and it seldom hurts the flyers much.

Over the years I have put several things through the blower that were under the snow. Most times it happens when I am moving the snow back to make more room. Things like 2x4 ,dog chain (that was a no fun),someones pants that had blew over here in a storm, 5 gal gas can with about 2 gal of gas in it that my son left out and got drifted over and once on lovely relaxing New Years Eve day I was cleaning up and got a little close to the chain link fence. Well several hours later I had the blower and fence cut apart and the fence patched (repaired in spring). It destroyed the tines on one side of the blower.

The drinking started just after that with several friends that evening laughing at what was my end to the year fun.

Al

 

[irvingj]

No, I haven't had as much fun as you have.

Only the occasional fist-sized rock (live on a dirt road), tree limb, or small furry creatures that travel in tunnels under the snow. (Yuck!)

 

[oosik]

Ha,ha,ha - likewise - I've never experienced those joys - blowing snow. Rocks, furry small creatures and the occasional wood fence post/tree limb and, oh yes, those blown shear bolts.
I gave up my snow blower when I got the Kubota. The rear blade and bigger tractor are now able to break down the frozen berms along the driveway. I don't miss all that time going in reverse and, in particular, the stiff neck.

 

[Looking4new]

I have got the bottom step on the stairs leading into the house, a skid/pallet, many rocks thanks to the dog and a hydro pole. (The hydro pole I was trying to blow way too close to it.) I have taken out 4 shear pins and one shear bolt in the 3 winters I have owned this one.

 

[NewfieDan]

We have bushes along the edge of our driveway. Managed to hit one, it took almost a year before it grew back. It's still little oddly shaped. The first time I used the tractor with the front blower I somehow managed to introduce the running blower to the blade.

It's amazing how much a blower will move a steel blade, and how loud the sound of shear bolts breaking can be. Especially when you're not used to it. I ended up bending one of the auger tines a little, but it's still useable.

 

[Thomas]

Years back got into neighbors Christmas tree lights the big bulb type,pull least 75' bulbs right off side of house with out a problem....what a #@^& mess.

 

[FatTire]

Snagged a couple splits of firewood. Didn't hear anything but the snow coming out of the shoot suddenly turned brown, and I thought "WTF?" for a brief moment before "clunk-clunk-clunk" and then the shear bolts let go. Ooops.

 

[hutchman]

Two garden hoses (two different times) that the kids left out in the driveway. Got a little too close to the back door once and caught the rug/mat. That was fun cutting out.

 

[PILOON]

Came spring one year and I decided to accelerate the melting process by blowing back some snow banks.
Well clean forgot that I had an accumulation of scrap hidden under the snow. (long winter not short memory)
Snow blowers simply do not digest an old car starter.
Blew the gear box wide open, twisted the auger, bent the auger shaft.
In sum it added to the scrap metal pile.

What I did not know was that the augers were well rusted to the main shaft and that the PTO shaft had no protection in that a much higher grade of sheer bolt was installed. (like 12).
I later found that grade 5 was what is called for.

Live and learn. Winter now has blue flags on 4 ft Rebar poles. (I slip blue PVC tubing onto the ends, light blue is very visible + I had it)
I use Rebar as wood, plastic etc break or bend just too easily

 

[Looking4new]

When I posted I had forgotten about the many concrete blocks I have hit AND the doggie doo-doo. Brown lumpy snow, anyone?

 

[bigtiller]

It happens every year.
When blowing snow yesterday I found the sales flyers. They are rolled up and put into a tube type plastic bag and dropped at the end of the lane.
With one large snap it broke the shear bolt on the blower and it seldom hurts the flyers much. Al

That is the reason I always said no to anyone who wanted hire me to blow out their sidewalk and driveway. And a lot of people ask when they see a heated cab on your lawnmower/snowblower.

 

[CDN Farm Boy]

When I posted I had forgotten about the many concrete blocks I have hit AND the doggie doo-doo. Brown lumpy snow, anyone?

Lol! In the spring as the snow melts in the dog area I actually go on purpose and blow it over the fence into the corn field. Sure beats shoveling it!

In town doing driveways I've lost count of how many flyers, newspapers and phone books I've put thru the blower. If the delivery people are dumb enough to leave them in the middle of the driveway, I'm going to do my best to put it on the front lawn. Once I put the same flyer bag thru the blower 4 times, the first 3 never hurt it but shredded it on the 4th.

Spring is always fun in town for water shutoffs as the frost is coming out. Make quite the racket and usually end up half way down the block. Yikes!

 

[timm9]

Over the years we have ‘sucked up’ some of the most bizarre items with newspapers and Dog Toys being some of the biggest PIA’s. The synthetic dog toys can really get wedge in, with me resorting to an OA Torch to get it out.

One time I actually got an entire Rubbermaid garbage can that was on its side and made it past the Auger and was into the Fan. That required a complete dis-assembly of the Auger and Fan. My crew got the biggest kick out of an incident I experienced. I was in a residential driveway with about 3 feet of snow and completely ‘unaware’ of the fact the storm had brought down multiple ‘lines’ (i.e. cable, phone, etc.) that were buried and not visible. As I progressed up the driveway I was not aware that the cable line was ‘spooling’ onto the Auger. When the ‘end of the cable’ flew up and hit the windshield I had to head back to the shop to change my underwear.

One of our County guys was running an MT trackless doing push back and got a 5 Gallon Propane Tank. Fortunately the shear pins gave before the tank (with fuel) punctured.

 

[Looking4new]

Lol! In the spring as the snow melts in the dog area I actually go on purpose and blow it over the fence into the corn field. Sure beats shoveling it!

In town doing driveways I've lost count of how many flyers, newspapers and phone books I've put thru the blower. If the delivery people are dumb enough to leave them in the middle of the driveway, I'm going to do my best to put it on the front lawn. Once I put the same flyer bag thru the blower 4 times, the first 3 never hurt it but shredded it on the 4th.

Spring is always fun in town for water shutoffs as the frost is coming out. Make quite the racket and usually end up half way down the block. Yikes!

As I started reading that I was thinking you blew the crap into the neighbours yard.

 

[oosik]

You can blow all the dog poo you want - just always be up wind & don't stand in the brown fog.

 

[CDN Farm Boy]

As I started reading that I was thinking you blew the crap into the neighbours yard.

LOL!

Well, sort of...it's not my field but he lives 1/2 hr away

 

[FatTire]

Over the years we have ‘sucked up’ some of the most bizarre items with newspapers and Dog Toys being some of the biggest PIA’s. The synthetic dog toys can really get wedge in, with me resorting to an OA Torch to get it out.

One time I actually got an entire Rubbermaid garbage can that was on its side and made it past the Auger and was into the Fan. That required a complete dis-assembly of the Auger and Fan. My crew got the biggest kick out of an incident I experienced. I was in a residential driveway with about 3 feet of snow and completely ‘unaware’ of the fact the storm had brought down multiple ‘lines’ (i.e. cable, phone, etc.) that were buried and not visible. As I progressed up the driveway I was not aware that the cable line was ‘spooling’ onto the Auger. When the ‘end of the cable’ flew up and hit the windshield I had to head back to the shop to change my underwear.

One of our County guys was running an MT trackless doing push back and got a 5 Gallon Propane Tank. Fortunately the shear pins gave before the tank (with fuel) punctured.

Yikes, that's a scary one. Who would leave a propane tank any place it could be hit???

 

[Kubotafan]

I have picked up a child's doll, a Rubbermaid garbage can cover that I had to cut out with a propane torch, and newspapers and fliers. One time the papers jammed into the fan tight enough to break a shear pin. Usually they are shredded. I also picked up a large bird feeder that had fallen off a post and was buried in the snow.

The worst story I heard was a fellow who wanted to do a neighbor a good deed and clean out his driveway. He caught a dog chain buried in the snow. It wrapped around the auger, pulled the attached dog out of its dog house, and into the blower. End of dog and end of story. A sad story but true. I don't know how the neighborly relationship turned out.

 

[Cat_Driver]

I remember seeing a crew of snow removal guys pile snow 20 ft, in the air and cover a pair of cars in a shopping center.
My guess is they didn't get them out till spring.

 

[joecoin]

I pulled 10 feet of 1/4" nylon rope into my walk behind. I couldn't believe how far I was able to throw that machine.

Went out and bought a very nice shovel after that.