Electric Chute Rotator for 3 Pt Mounted Snowblower

Searching for ideas to build a 12v Chute Rotator for my Tractor Mounted Snowblower. I don't have auxilary hydraulic's on my 1720 Ford Tractor so I'll have to go with Electric drive. I have seen them mounted on small tractor blowers and BobCat as them on their blowers(very expensive). If anyone has done one of these projects, I'd sure like to hear from you.

Von "I sold my Zamboni to get a Unimog, and now that's gone too" Kittleberger used an electric window motor from an automobile, documented in the thread: Converted my snowblower chute to electric! photos .

I have a front mount 5 foot Erkine snowblower on my JD 4500 and use 2 - 12 volt linear actuators that operate the rotation of the shoot and the up and down of the upper flap. Having remote hydraulics, I will soon switch form the electrics to hydraulics. Roger

I have a Skid Steer blower from hanson. It uses a small 1000 winch with Power in and out. I have seen them for $99 at VIP.

I have a 5' blower mounted on the 3PT of my Mit180D which I converted to electric .

Was lucky and found an electric wheelchair drive motor.
Being geared down for torque at low speed it was ideal.
I fitted a sprocket to the shaft and wrapped a matching chain around the snow shute with a screw to tension the chain.

Spead is just right and enough torque to break loose from ice.
Paid $50. for motor and $12. for a suiutable sproket.

You might consider the import electric winches sold on EBay for ATV,s at about $50 or so as they would provide correct speed and suitable torque.
Mounted in a verticle fashion and rewinding the cable a la 'capistan' method would work very well.
Also they even have the forward/reverse switch already provided.

Up my way, Cosco stocks them for $59.00(cdn)

Thanks Piloon. You wouldn't happen to have any pic's of your conversion. I thought about a winch w/a belt drive tensioner, still brain storming and open to suggestions. Thanks...

Maybe I could furthur explain the winch re-winding.

What you'd wish to do is sort of wind the cable around the drum like the snowblower hand crank is done.

They generally have the center clamped with perhaps 5-8 turns going one way from the center clamp area and then a similar no of turns going the othrt way.

Purpose is that when one side pulls the other unwinds, ready to reverse the direction.

Then you'd take the lengths of cable and wind about one full turn around the shute in different directions.
Again the idea being that when on side is pulled (unwound) by the winch the other is winding on some reserve to repeat the process.

All in all you probably don't need more than 5-6 ft of cable to do the job.

I'd simply mount the winch vertically to the backside of the blower mainframe in such a manner that the cables run reasonably straight.
Closer to the shute the better.

Those little ATV winches are rated for 1500-2000 lbs so for sure they will do the job.
They provide a 3/16 aviation type cable, but I'd change that over to a 1/8" as it is easier to work with and besides 1/8" SS aircraft cable has a rating of 2000 psi.

If the winch proves to be a bit slow but you could always add a sleeve to the center of the drum to increase the ratio.
If I recal the center is about 1/2" so that could be sleeved up to even 2". Anything would work for a sleeve. Even wood or plastic tubing. You could split in half to install as the wrapped cable would hold it firmly in place.

I'll load a pic of my installation (wheelchair motor) along with a suggested mounting for a winch drive.

Hope that helps.

<font color="blue"> "I sold my Zamboni to get a Unimog, and now that's gone too" </font>
Look like he is going to have to change his tile "Now With 2 Unimog's". /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
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Better late than never.

Wheelchair motor installation on snow blower shute.
The motor body (right) is covered with a 6" length of 4" PVC pipe (painted red) and held in place with tye-wrop.
Reason was to provide a 'rain hat' for the motor's protection.

I mounted a cheap winch in conjunction with my manual chute crank. It works well and hasn't given me grief. It took a little trial and error but I'm happy with it. I like the idea of an actuator for the top of the chute.......it never ends