Novice Snowblowing questions

   / Novice Snowblowing questions #1  

JCA

Silver Member
Joined
Mar 10, 2004
Messages
122
Location
Maine
Tractor
Kubota B7510
I'm a displaced southerner, living in Maine, pushing a B2650 front-mount snowblower with a B7510. This is what I bought the tractor for: blowing snow. Bought it last spring; I'm just now getting used to it. I've reported some of my earlier troubled here already.

Today I went out and tried to blow a bunch of wet, heavy stuff. It's in the high 30s today and it's melting. Not much of it on the ground; maybe 2 inches, less in spots. Thought I'd get it off before it melts completely and turns to ice.

I succeeded in blowing snow (4' wide) about halfway up my 800' driveway. I wasn't really throwing the snow; more dropping it. Went about three feet; not far enough to clear the driveway, but one more pass and I would have had it off the edge. NO big deal.

Then the trouble started. The chute clogged. So I shut the blower off, got a stick, and cleared it out. Started back up again. No snow came out; just clogged right back up again. Checked the shear pins; everything is sound, nothing seems to be broken. Engine is running at full speed. Got off, cleared it out again, started it up--nothing. Clogged right up again. Same thing, two more times.

So what's the moral of this story? Is my snowblower just incapable of blowing this kind of stuff? Is it just me, or does this happen to everybody? Are snowblowers only for the somewhat fluffy stuff? Is my snowblower broken in some way that's not obvious? Or is my tractor just not powerful enough?

Please help out a hapless 40-year-old southern boy who's far from home (and expects to stay there for a long time).

/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

Jim
 
   / Novice Snowblowing questions #2  
I'm guessing you have an auger and a fan. The auger is the horizontal shaft that scoops the snow into the blower, the fan is what actually throws the snow out the chute. Did you check to make sure the fan is turning? It sounds like the fan is not operating if the snow is simply jamming up at the chute.
 
   / Novice Snowblowing questions #3  
What you are trying to move isn't snow, but more like a snow slurry.... mostly melted crystals. When you try to push this through the blower, it warms even more and becomes heavier. I suggest that you pour some hot water down the chute to clear out the mush and get rid of it before it freezes solid. In the future, when you are using the snow blower, make sure that it is when the temperatures are low enough to keep the snow in the frozen state. It is also important to keep the snowblower moving internal parts that contact snow well sprayed with a cooking oil spray. This will keep the snow from adhering to the painted surfaces. Also given the fact that you have the same snowblower as Boustany, who has had shear pin problems, I suggest that you check to be sure that you have the proper shear pins in your machine before you run into problems. Welcome to the North of North America. See these two posts for more information...
Post 1
Post 2
 
   / Novice Snowblowing questions
  • Thread Starter
#4  
Bob:
You've described my setup perfectly: an auger and a fan. But I checked all the shear pins; everything's spinning.

Junkman:
So what do you use to push the wet stuff around? Do you have a blade for conditions like this, or what?

Jim
 
   / Novice Snowblowing questions #5  
JCA,

Welcome to the great white north. When it's "high 30's and melting" just wait a while and let Mother Nature dissolve it for you. No snow blower is going to chuck a pile of slushy very far.

BTW: Where I grew up in northern Michigan, we called "high 30's" bad ice fishing weather. It will soon pass.
 
   / Novice Snowblowing questions #6  
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Junkman:
So what do you use to push the wet stuff around? Do you have a blade for conditions like this, or what?

Jim

)</font>

As the infamous Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia said....... G-d put it there, let G-d take it away. If you don't know who Mayor LaGuardia was, that is another indication of your youthfulness and your Southern roots.... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif Learn more about the Mayor here.......
 
   / Novice Snowblowing questions #7  
Jim
Did you pull the shear pins out to make sure they are still in one piece. Sometimes when broke they will still spin the fan, But under load they stop. Kind of hard to see from the driver seat. Just try pulling your fan shear pin out to make sure it still in one peace.
Bob
 
   / Novice Snowblowing questions #8  
Bob...... not to disagree, but as a point of information, when a shear bolt breaks on most snowblowers, the head of the bolt and the retaining nut both fall off and the only thing left is the broken piece on the inside shaft that needs to be removed. While it is possible that this broken piece will give some resistance to movement of the fan, I doubt that it would be sufficient to keep you from moving the fan by hand. On some of the Kubota tractor snowblowers, the fan drive shaft uses a unique type of shear bolt set up that has the bolt holding two flat pieces of steel together. With this design, it is a physical impossibility for the shear bolt to break and not have the two halves fall to the ground. Without pulling up the parts manual for his particular snowblower, I am not certain which design is being used in this application.
 
   / Novice Snowblowing questions
  • Thread Starter
#9  
Bob,

I'm using a loose-fitting shear bolt, so I'm sure it would fall out if it broke. Wouldn't hurt to give it a pull, though, would it?

Junkman, et al. This long driveway/private road of mine tends to ice over and become impassible. Did it yesterday after some freezing rain. The guy driving the sand truck came down forward instead of backward and nearly killed himself. Nothing you can do about freezing rain (except put down sand), but I've been living here long enough to know that the more snow you remove from the driveway, the less ice you end up with. Even a southern boy has figured that out. That's one way I convinced the wife to let me buy the tractor; told her I could do a better job of managing the snow than the guy we pay too much money to do it for us. Now I've got to deliver on that promise.

/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

Jim
 
   / Novice Snowblowing questions #10  
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( ................... told her I could do a better job of managing the snow than the guy we pay too much money to do it for us. Now I've got to deliver on that promise.

/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

Jim )</font>

If you are going to become a true Maniac, then I suggest that you also invest in a snow plow blade for the slush removal part of the job. Snow removal is just like servicing the tractor. You need the correct tool to do certain aspects of the job. I have a truck mounted snowplow and I purchased a snowblower for my Kubota this summer. I have found that both are required for complete snow removal on my long driveway unless I risk doing damage to the lawn. I plow the snow to the sides and then I blow the windrows of snow onto the lawn so there is no buildup along the edges. I used to plow the snow far enough back that no matter how much snow we got during the winter, there was no choking of the width of the road by the snow mounds. That was before the lawn was planted. Now, if I were to try that, I would dig up the lawn and have to do a lot of repair work in the spring. If you want to remove snow like a professional, you need professional tools to do it. The snowblower is only one half of those tools. A snowplow blade is the other half, either truck or tractor mounted. If you were not in such a heavy snow area, less might be enough, but that is for you to decide. I only offer my opinion and there is no way that I can be correct with this opinion for every instance or circumstance. These are personal decisions that one must make. I only can give you my experience and my solutions for similar problems.
 
 
Top