A little fun on the Weekend. - I made a small video :)

[SensibleNick]

The Tractor is a Foton (sometimes called a "Europard") FT254, (25 horsies, 4WD)and the Snowblower is a Chinese hunk of re-modelled washing machine.
After putting some rubber tips on the impeller I've closed the blade clearance nicely, and it's shifting the snow really well

Enjoy!

https://vimeo.com/85804077

 

[Baby Grand]

Nicely done!

 

[skyhook]

What size is the blower?
Tractor seems to handle it quite well.

 

[SensibleNick]

What size is the blower? Tractor seems to handle it quite well.

I'm pretty sure it's 1.65m, which works out to be 65".

It's a genuinely terrible quality thing: the clearance between impeller and housing ranged between 25mm and 15mm when I got it . I've now closed the gap with some hefty rubber tips to the impeller, but it's still a 10mm gap in places.

Still: we needed one and I hadn't got time to build one, and it now chucks snow higher than my house

 

[doxford jim]

What size and type of rubber did you use for the tips ? Would a truck mudflap say 3/16" thick be strong and durable enough for that service ?
Is the material you used 100% rubber opr does it have some reinforcing fabric in it ?
If you can chuck the s now some 30 or 40 feet into the air, then your blower is working well all things considered.
Is it used at 540rpm PTO output speed ?
Thanks

 

[doxford jim]

Oooops, I forgot to ask if you used some old conveyor belting for the blower tip add-ons.
Thx

 

[SensibleNick]

Yup, it's old conveyor belt, about 10mm thick. Very sturdy stuff with 3 layers of reinforcement ply in it.

They're clamped between the back of the impeller blades and some 5mm plate in order to sandwich them nicely, and some counter-sunk M10 bolts hold it all in place so it doesn't get in the way of the snow.

The thickness of the material you're going to want to use will depend on what sort of a gap you're trying to close. I was trying to close 15mm of open space so I wanted something stiff.. and I still have a 10mm gap in places so I wanted that 15mm of rubber to be flexible enough to let a 10mm stone go through - otherwise I'd have plated it with steel.

I got a meter of old belt from a local gravel-pit and swapped it for a couple of beers. :thumbsup:

And I'm cheating: running it at 720rpm. :ashamed:

That said, I'm still a kid at heart. Efficiency and speed aren't really what I was going for: I still think a huge rooster of snow is fun. It works well at 540rpm though and shifts a lot of snow, but just doesn't chuck it as far.

 

[doxford jim]

Hi Nick,

Thanks for your reply.

On my old snowblower I used some 1/4" thick mild steel plates bolted to a three bladed fan to close the 3/4" gap I had. It has worked well and even at 720 rpm there is no vibration felt from the added mass to the blade tips. With deep snow I can chuck the snow maybe 40ft at 720rpm - less at 540 of course. Shallow snow (say up to 6") is really as waste of time and fuel for me - my blower works best with deep snow (say 12" or more).

I thought about using conveyor belting after I did my mods - it would be much more forgiving on impact (steel plates were fitted to about 0.025" clearance). After seeing how well you blower throws snow, I may revisit my mods in the spring or summer if I am able to scrounge some old belting
A better controlled clearance would make for better performance.

Thanks