2360 Snow Blower scraper blade

[irvingj]

I had an idea mine might be worn down... took another close look at it this AM, and sure enough, it is. With the skid feet fully raised, it's now bottoming out on two 1" wide strips on the underside of the blower box, which is why it's leaving a layer of snow --nicely packed & smoothed down, I might add-- on top of my paved driveway.

Has anyone (yet) replaced their blade? Any idea what it runs $$? Any alternatives to MF "official" parts that folks have discovered?

I see where it's bolted on with a bunch of carriage bolts, so it shouldn't be too hard a job to do. WBB in NH

 

[CDN Farm Boy]

Up here, most of the guys doing driveways for a living use UHMW plastic for the cutting edges. Ours are 1.25" thick x 8" wide on 96" inverted blowers mounted on 120 Maximum tractors. We get several hundred hours of use out of them before beeing worn enough to replace. Never have to worry about scratching the asphalt or interlock. Not exactly cheap but should last a lifetime on a little blower/tractor like yours. You'd have to find a specialty plastics shop to get it.

 

[irvingj]

Thanks for the suggestion, Farm Boy. I see where UHMW is very rugged stuff; seems others on TBN are using it, too. Do the folks who use it up there have a "sharpened" (angle-cut/beveled) edge on it? Do you know if it can it be readily cut with a wood-blade bandsaw? Sounds very interesting, especially the part about not being so rough on pavement.

My blower is in its 6th winter now, but I do frequently use it as a tool to dig up icy or heavily packed chunks that have frozen down, by lifting the front end of the tractor with the blower and moving forward. That method is quite effective, but obviously rough on the steel edge... though I think 6 winters isn't too bad a lifespan considering what I've put it through. WBB

 

[CDN Farm Boy]

We don't sharpen ours any, they start at the full 1.25" thick and get replaced once they've worn to 1/2" or so -- if they make it that long. Often times they get damaged from hooking man-holes & curbs after loosing a couple bolts but we tend to beat on them hard as time is money. It's easily cut, drilled etc with any standard woodworking tools.

One thing that we did find with them is you need to use carriage bolts with counter-sunk heads to hold them on. We'd tried using flat-head bolts with resessed allen heads (easier to pre-drill) but found that the taper has a tendancy to try to split the UHMW. I'd guess you could get by with a 3/4" thick piece. You need the heads counter-sunk enough that there is room for wear on the blade before the head is exposed.

 

[irvingj]

For those interested, I've found that a replacement blade (M-F part #4263527M1), with square holes for the carriage bolts, is a surprisingly reasonable $59 from my MF dealer. (I was expecting $100++...)

I've ordered one... but in the meantime have flipped my scraper blade. It's 2-1/2" wide x 48-3/4" long by about 1/4" thick (haven't yet verified thickness). As the holes are centered in the 2-1/2" width, I was able to flip over it to get some blade sticking out from the blower box. Though not a beveled edge, it works much better than it did, and will keep me going until the replacement blade arrives.

Still think that UHMW Polyethylene sounds interesting....

5 below zero this AM, already a bit below zero now, and expected to drop to -12 tonight. Cold enough to stay inside!!

 

[Thomas]

Better put extra log on the fire tonight.

 

[irvingj]

You bet, Thomas! Was at -12.7 earlier, now at -12.4, so I guess it made it to -12!! Fortunately, the wind finally quit....

Just glad I don't have a layer of fresh snow to remove (AGAIN) this morning! Had a heck of a time getting the little Iseki diesel started yesterday; ended up using the block heater for a couple of hours, then needed a battery charger, and finally used my hi-temp heat gun on the intake manifold before the tractor finally fired up.:grumpy: Still a heck of a lot faster than shoveling!

 

[Thomas]

-15 on the other side of the hill.
Lets hope Friday storm stays south as they say,for it will brisk clearing snow Saturday...those NH speed bumps [frost heaves] starting to bloom.

 

[CDN Farm Boy]

-12 or -15? Geesh, I wish. 9:30 pm last night was -30 C (-22 F) on my truck. Tonight with the wind is to be below -40.

 

[irvingj]

Well, it's all relative, isn't it?

I remember, when I was MUCH younger, the winter --I didn't have a car-- when I would jog the first mile and then hitchhike to get home, about 5 miles, from a job I had at Dartmouth Med School.... must have been early 1968, I think...

We had a solid week of below zero, hitting -20 and lower at night and -10 to maybe zero for a high during the day.

When the weather finally broke and we had highs of +10, it actually felt like a heat wave!!

...And does anybody remember the early 60s GM cars that had this little green light on the dash? When it was -20, the vinyl seat was hard as a rock, the battery very slowly turned over the engine and you prayed for ignition, and it finally --to one's extreme relief-- started, and then this little green light came on that said "COLD"? NO %^$!!!!:laughing: