Hydraulic Chute rotator for BX 2750

[Dyer retired]

I am going to rig my BX 2750 snowblower with a hydraulic chute rotator. I can see from other threads that hydraulic motors are preferred by the majority over electric, so I want to go with hydraulic. I am not interested in buying the Kubota kits, because I can't imagine paying those kinds of prices for something people seem to be able to do much cheaper. I have looked at enough threads that I know pretty well how I'm going to mount the motor and have seen all the problems that people have had with twisting the rotator coiled steel that engages the chute grooves, hooking the motor to the chute rotator shaft, etc.

I know that this is going to be embarrassingly basic, but I know absolutely nothing about hydraulic motors. I think that I'll need the smallest of available motors out there to turn this thing, because you can turn it with two fingers using the manual control (absent ice, dirt buildup, etc,) so I would think that it shouldn't take much. I see motors on E-Bay that are listed as new (surplus or something) from $29.00 to $499.00. I think the $29.00 rig would cover me, but what do I need to know about these motors. I assume that since they have two inlet ports (most that I've seen) the motor will rotate in either clockwise or counter clockwise directions?

If the above is correct, can I just hook the hoses to the control lever that would normally control the bucket movement, since my snowblower doesn't do anything but lift/lower and there are two ports empty, which would allow me to turn the chute left by pulling the control stick left, etc.

Is there a particular hydraulic motor brand that I should be looking or, or staying away from, etc.

Any thoughts, suggestions, recommendations will be greatly appreciated? Also, keep in mind that I'm in Maine, so I only have another few weeks (9 months of winter, with 3 months of bad skiing) left before winter returns, so I need to get working on this.

Weather update for Belgrade, Maine: 37 degrees and warming into the 40's by mid afternoon here. We just may make it to summer after all!

Thanks in advance. Dyer, retired

 

[pat32rf]

I sure hope you get an answer soon as the electric system I made out of a power seat adjuster motor quit working once the ice and snow built up on the shute..I have an old hydraulic salt spredder motor to try next.

 

[Dyer retired]

I sure hope you get an answer soon as the electric system I made out of a power seat adjuster motor quit working once the ice and snow built up on the shute..I have an old hydraulic salt spredder motor to try next.

pat32rf,

Me too, but it's not as urgent as the warmer days approach. I get this stuff in my head and I want to get it taken care of.

I did read a bunch of posts on various problems with the hydraulic systems overpowering and destroying the worm gear (on my particular BX 2750) and people had lots of solutions for limiting the force of the hydraulics after it reached a certain point. Well, I just took off the chute and continued the groves that the worm gear rides in for the full 360 degrees around the base (drill and cutting disc.) I have no intention of ever pointing that chute back at myself. My thought was that I will have the cushion of having time to let go of the joystick rotating the thing... and not destroying the gear because I wait a revolution too long to let go. So, that part of it is ready.

I also knew from previous posts what I would need for hoses, quick connects, etc., so I have that ordered. I am really just waiting for the answers on what type of motor I need to be looking at.

Sorry to hear about your electric motor, but I suspect that while it was working, it was far better than the cranking? I'm guessing from what I read that any hydraulic motor will work, it's just a matter of how fast it rotates, how much torque, mounting issues, whether it's reversible, etc., so your spreader motor will probably be fine? For some reason I'm cranking that chute all the time and feel like life will be much sweeter when I'm just running the joystick to do it.

The weekend is coming and TBN'ers will be catching up on the postings...I'm hoping to get some advice over the next week or so. I'll let you know how the project goes once I figure out which motor I go with. Dyer, retired

 

[Tig]

I am not a hydraulics expert but I have been researching a low speed hydraulic motors for a different project. I think an "orbit motor" may be what you need. They are low speed. I'm sure an expert will be by soon to weigh in on this.

 

[hwp]

I think all hydraulic motors are reversible if plumbed with a two-way valve. I don't have a hydraulic motor for rotating the chute on my snow blower - I have a simple swing arm with a cable wrapped around the chute and a regular hydraulic cylinder.

I do have a hydraulic motor on my mower deck to raise and lower the discharge flap. To reduce the speed of the motor I put a washer with a very small hole in a fitting and that works fine.

 

[sugarmaple]

Most factory made snowblower chute rotation is done using the hydraulic cylinder working a cable run around the chute near the swivel. I suspect it is a less expensive solution in a production setting.

 

[Dyer retired]

Well, I finished the chute rotator project on my BX 2750 snowblower just in time for summer. I had fun building it and learning how to do a crappy weld, but then clean it up with some grinding. It works great and no major problems in the build. I got the motor new and fairly cheap, but found when it arrived that it was BSPP thread on the unit, so I had to get a bunch of adapters. I could not seem to find a 1/2 BSPP to 1/4 inch NPT...only 1/2 inch BSPP to 1/2 inch NPT and then another adapter from 1/2 inch NPT to 1/4 inch NPT. You get the picture. I would have preferred a lower profile, but it doesn't bother the operation at all. Everything else went on precisely as designed... by following the theory of measuring 458 times and cut once, drill once, etc. My wife is happy because I managed to only grind one finger down to the bone while dressing up a weld and I didn't burn the house down when doing the initial welding, so it was a great success!

Just wanted to show it off now that it's done. Dyer, retired

 

[bx24]

That turned out great. What are the specs on the motor? (model number etc)

I always wanted to build something like that but I was not sure what motor to get. How long does it take to rotate 180 degrees?

 

[Dyer retired]

That turned out great. What are the specs on the motor? (model number etc)

I always wanted to build something like that but I was not sure what motor to get. How long does it take to rotate 180 degrees?

bx24,

Thanks, I had fun building it. Picking the motor was pretty straight forward. I looked for the cheapest motor that would do the trick and found a White roller stator 3.2 cu. in. reversible from Surplus Center for $119.00 (Surplus Center item # 9-7563.) If you do a lot of shopping on e-bay, you can find motors for much cheaper....I just didn't have a lot of experience with e-bay and read on TBN many times of people purchasing from Surplus Center without problems, so I spent the extra. I knew that the smallest hydraulic motor out there would turn the worm gear that rotates the chute, so that made it easy for me. I had already figured out that I would be connecting the motor to the worm shaft with half couplings, so I ordered those at the same time. The only thing that I didn't catch until I had ordered the motor was that the ports were BSPP, so I had to go through a couple of plumbing adapters to bring the connections back to NPT. It wasn't a big deal, just made the profile a little taller than I wanted. The motor has a very simple two hole mount and Surplus Center had a mount available for it for $34.00 (their item #933) that was perfect for how I intended mounting the motor to the base I was building, so I got that and it worked out great! The metal fabrication took a little longer, but only because I took my time. I cut out all the pieces of steel from stock and a friend brought over his portable MIG welder and gave me a lesson...about two hours of welding and drinking coffee....mostly drinking coffee. I did lots of measuring and mocked everything up to make sure the motor lined up perfectly with the worm shaft, so I was able to do everything once...instead of my normal "hurry up and make lots of mistakes" method.

It works great and will rotate through 180 degrees as fast as a few seconds at full throttle (which is the setting I run when snowblowing anyway,) but you can feather it and make it creep slowly enough so that you can hardly tell it's turning. I read on TBN about others that have similar setups and have ripped the worm gear apart by turning the chute through the stop on the base by accident. I remedied that by cutting, or continuing the slots all the way around the chute base, so I can actually turn the chute through 360 degrees. I have no intention of ever doing that, but it gives me the luxury of not worrying about mistakenly pushing the chute too far one direction or the other and ripping the worm gear out.

If you don't count labor, and you don't.....I have a little over $200.00 into the whole thing. The hoses, adapters, and couplings are cheap. I was surprised by the price of the quick connectors on the control end, so that added to the total. I wanted to be able to disconnect and connect quickly, so I went ahead with the expense. People kid me about spending that kind of money just so I wouldn't have to hand crank the chute, but they miss the point.....I got $500 worth of fun out of building it. The bonus will be to control the entire snowblower function from one joy stick.

Have fun putting one of these together and let me know if I can offer any more of my limited experience to help. Dyer, retired

 

[bx24]

Good info thanks. I am trying to picture you getting a little carried away and accidentally burying yourself because the chute is pointing towards you!