Snow Blower

Marden

Marden

Location
Long Island, New York
My local news in NYC just showed a snow blower from a guy somewhere in Canada he built using a V8 Engine. They said it could blow the snow about 125 into the air. Very cool... literally !
 
Why is the bucket up so high ?

I run a 52", 2-stage, blower on a Deere 4400 (3-cyl diesel).
However, I don't use it until the snow is being pushed up over the car hood... :-)
 
Any of you guys have a secret you can share for clearing snow from a gravel lot? Ours is a total ice rink after being driven on with all the trucks.

Kinda afraid to use a 2 stage blower since I don't want the gravel to hurt the auger or get thrown 200 yards. Maybe adding an inch (?) of steel tines to the bottom of the intake? Like a mini Branch Manager rake attachment.
 
i personally dont like blowers for packed stuff anyways, as they dont scrape as well as some other methods, plow or loader bucket. Id say just apply sand and wait till spring, or go at it with a backhoe/loader/skidsteer and chip the stuff off. if its as frozen as you say the gravel should remain frozen to the ground as opposed to being scraped up.

just my .02

-Steven
 
By "tines" I assume that you mean "runners".
My blower has adjustable runners on each side. That sounds excellent. (Just make them adjustable ?)
The wider the better for gravel (???)

Gravel drives tend to have a crown (you knew that).
One inch of clearance isn't very much for gravel.

Two other suggestions:
1. My blower works best when I really feed it a lot ! (Don't go slow.)
2. When the snow is very wet, it tends to plug the auger, impeller, chute.
At least once a year I apply silicone spray to all the contact surfaces.

Obviously you have to get it before it gets paacked down.
 
[ QUOTE ]
By "tines" I assume that you mean "runners".
My blower has adjustable runners on each side. That sounds excellent. (Just make them adjustable ?)

1. My blower works best when I really feed it a lot ! (Don't go slow.)



[/ QUOTE ]

The trouble that comes with the runners, (i call them "shoes") and i adjust them on my machine every year, is that there is also a scraping blade inside the "throat" of the blower, which will actually get up all the stuck material on the ground, you dont want the actual auger scraping the ground (you will ruin the machine and wear away the auger itself) you can try removing the scraping edge as well in an attempt to get rid of the heaviest material and have still a little clearence to keep the machine from picking up stones.

the reason it works so well when fed alot, is there is all that weight of snow on that scraping edge, thus providing down pressure so it scrapes better, which in turn puts more snow into the throat to give more pressure... a little trick you can to is to just mount one or two steel plates, old barbell weights, whatever you have, to the top/front of the machine to give more weight on the front so it scrapes better as well, its this then makes it hard to do a "wheelie" so you can turn it around swiftly, but it makes long stretches of heavy packed white cement go alot easier.


Again, what i have found out after years of taking care of a commercial storage property where people were driving in and out over the snow all the time, it was easiest to let a thin "film" of snow develop to cover the gravel, and then you just plow and maintain that surface. think of any ski mountain, the parking lots are snow, but its that "crunchy" stuff that you get decent traction on, and if more is needed, plain sand will add traction without melting this protecting layer.

-Steven
 
That picture is from an industrial site we maintain for the winter.

The surface shown in the picture is 3-4 inch rip rap, @ 2500 feet in length 14 feet wide.

It needs to be as clear as we can get for tractor trailers access.

Plowing it is tough, PITA really, constantly adjusting the blade height to minimize digging in.

The bucket is high mostly due to habit as this place also has 1/4 mile of city sidewalks with a 6 foot fence along the edge of the walk.

Keeping the bucket high makes it much easier to use the blower going backwards as the bucket is higher than the fence.

The blower is an Erskine (sp), takes a beating and keeps chewing up snow,ice, and other crap in the snow.
 
Thanks guys. I actually was thinking of replacing the scraper bar with some bristles, like on a broom (what I originally called tines). My thought was that would get as close to the gravel as possible without leaving a layer untouched, which is what would happen if I raised the machine on runners. Now I'm thinking (dreaming) about putting bristles on the bottom edge of one of those snow pusher attachments for the mini. Or maybe even a somewhat stiff rubber flap, like mudflap material. Would scrape the gravel fairly close, but hopefully not push it.

Steve is probably right. Best to leave a little snow and live with it rather than chance ruining the machine. Appreciate the help!

So as not to derail: V12 Snowblower
 
I use the branch manager rake for light snow. The tines would work perfect for a bigger custom option. Great on gravel, smooths it out and looks great too!
 
[ QUOTE ]
Any of you guys have a secret you can share for clearing snow from a gravel lot? Ours is a total ice rink after being driven on with all the trucks.

Kinda afraid to use a 2 stage blower since I don't want the gravel to hurt the auger or get thrown 200 yards. Maybe adding an inch (?) of steel tines to the bottom of the intake? Like a mini Branch Manager rake attachment.

[/ QUOTE ]
Instead of using sand I would use gravel for traction. Then in spring your set.I use crusher run on my drive way. It is excellent traction to get up the hill and in spring it just adds too the driveway composition.
 
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