Snow Attachments Snow PUMP

[fitterski]

Reading through this, I started thinking, are dry snow and wet snow enough different that you need different fan for each? or is it simply a different fan speed that would allow you to blow both effectively.

If you are using a hydraulic motor, can you vary the speed? If you slow the fan down, will the auger be too slow? Perhaps you need two hydraulic motors, one on auger, one for fan and figure out the right speeds for the conditions.

Maybe ground speed determines auger speed while type of snow determines fan speed??

Just thinking outloud.. wishing you the best.

Thanks, I always need confidence

It all comes down to HP, how many tons can your engine push vertically to what height per minute. Once you have that you just have to stay on the short side or your engine will stall, maybe make some expensive noises too. I can't give you all the answers, I'm studying full tilt, but I can tell you that wet snow IS like water, in fact a local maverick fabricating family take their $45k rigs to a boat ramp in open water for a final shakedown to see if their reputation will hold! 400hp start stalling in 6-8 inches with a nominal 10 foot swath

 

[fitterski]

Looking at some of the skidsteer blowers. It seems a 84in one with 50gpm@4500psi is about the largest one I could find. Going back to what I first suggested about using hydraulics,50 gpm@4500psi is going to take about a 145hp engine to pull the pump. ...

In my case the distance to pump is a given, one of the variable is (due to cost, opportunities, etc) the tons per minute where I can take a small hit if unavoidable. The minimum swath is 7 feet, the width of my loader or of a small truck. I designed my present rig to run at 15 km/h in 6" of relatively dry snow while pumping 100 feet to the side downwind. As soon as I feed it faster OR in deeper snow OR wet snow I have to slow down dramatically as I leave the design envelope. I am not the least bit interested in doing it at fast walking clip, only on the run @ or above 10km/h. Less than 150 HP delivered to the fan would not make the exercise worthwhile. I would feel better with 300+. The hydraulics option is more of a convenience one as it eliminates a load of headaches for a few dollars more.

As it is, hydraulic or not, I'm scoping-in a range beginning with my Jimmy and 150-175 hp, up to a 400HP Duramax on an F250 bare-*** wreck. I'd like to avoid digital engines altogether but that may not be possible. So in all of this there is a good chance for pumps from 3-8 inches and motors from 8-22 but the hydraulic decision will be one of the last, after everything else is in the yard and being fitted because only then will I know what the success probability/possibility of a mechanical solution will be.

 

[fitterski]

What is your current blower fan RPM? If you are using what used to be a 540RPM PTO blower, I would aim for 600-800RPM on the blower.

How much clearance is there between the fan and the outside of the fan housing? If there is more than 1/4", I would add HDPE sheets to close up the tolerances on the fan to the point where it will pickup a dime that you set in the bottom of the fan.

Here is what I did on our 7' Loftness blower (which runs on the front of the tractor from the rear PTO via a pair of gearboxes and a long PTO shaft):
View attachment 496602 View attachment 496603 View attachment 496604

At the closest point, the HDPE on the blower fins just brushes the HDPE that goes around the outside of the drum.
The other thing I would look into doing is to add a drum eject to your current snowblower such as this one ( http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/snow-removal/332389-drum-eject-snow-blowers.html ):

They are supposed to be more efficient at throwing lots of snow out at the cost of only being able to blow it out to one side or the other.

Aaron Z

I've noticed those fan blade extenders myself, I made my own fan and I can make one again in any diameter, any depth any tolerance so aftermarket-like extensions would not be needed. The biggest part of ths is th eright steel AND getting out of town for balancing (that alone $300, they might double that for a 48"). and The present clearance is about 1/4" and I don't think I could easily build tighter than that with my tooling and resources, or want to for that matter. When ice forms in the bottom drum because I forgot topark it nos down and I have to break it up with a 10 pound sledgehammer then micro clearances and refined tip-decorations somehow fade in significance. The current rpm for my 36" fan is whatever I decide to give it but the engine being red-lined at 2700 I can't go much above 1000. This is already around limit (based on experience) for 36", but if for example I went to a smaller fan to save weight then I could increase it. Engine red-line is one limit, fan diameter another i.e. tip speed in mph above 100 starts becoming problematic AND more DANGEROUS.

 

[aczlan]

I had almost 3/4" clearance in the bottom, so I needed it, but the HDPE also helps with letting the snow slide around the drum easier and off the paddles easier (which gives better throwing distance). With 1/4" clearance, you should be tight enough.
Do you have a drain hole in the back of the drum? Our Loftness has a ~1/4" hole in the back (just in front of the "back wall" of the drum) to let water drain out rather than freeze in the back.

When the speed starts going down, does the engine currently bog down?

Aaron Z

 

[fitterski]

th edrain hole is 1/8, I'll punch it up to 1"...

About the polyeth, I'm definitely going to look at it for inside the discharge chute and maybe the backwall of the fan drum but sometimes there's even gravel going through there, I keep telling y'all it's a very violent environment once you get out of Toro stuff .

 

[Redneck in training]

I have this project and am starting to get dizzy trying to keep up with all the different threads on different forums according to the subsystem involved. I will attempt to concentrate the general topic to this appropriate forum.

The initial project now serving it's 8th season:

Deutz powered JD Snow Blower from **** 29 - YouTube
http://trixtar.org/3/tinkerings/blower/blower.html

The next "wide-open" upgrade in the oven, for now just
a doodle-sheet:

http://trixtar.org/3/tinkerings/blower2/blower2.html

I've already sprayed articles into 2 other forums about it, for those who might wanna get spooled up. The general objective is to blow snow at a higher speed and farther, much higher and much farther, to leave power-margin for tons of soaking wet slush.

To double the mass flow of snow and throw it 4X as far will require 8X as much power. In other words doubling the speed of the blower pump will require 8X the power. If you want to advance through the snow twice as fast but throw the snow twice as far the required power will be 4X as large.

 

[RedNeckRacin]

Why not scrounge up a cheap gasoline motor? A chevy 350 can be had for cheap and rebuild parts are even cheaper. I think summitracing has brand new crate motors for under 5k. Here is a 350 circle track at 350hp for $3764 Chevrolet Performance CT35 Circle Track Crate Engines 1925862 - Free Shipping on Orders Over $99 at Summit Racing I'm curious to see how this project progresses!

 

[franklin2]

Why not scrounge up a cheap gasoline motor? A chevy 350 can be had for cheap and rebuild parts are even cheaper. I think summitracing has brand new crate motors for under 5k. Here is a 350 circle track at 350hp for $3764 Chevrolet Performance CT35 Circle Track Crate Engines 1925862 - Free Shipping on Orders Over $99 at Summit Racing I'm curious to see how this project progresses!

Having a small block chevy talking to you at full bore on the back of a Ford f250 pickup blowing snow 100 feet in the air? That would be you-tube worthy.

 

[leonz]

For all the work your doing it may be better for you to just invest in a
Pronovost TRD800 model with the rotating impeller drum and just do a bit of
welding surgery to build a mount for the Duetz engine to power the snow
caster with a 1000 RPM gearbox.

You would need a small pump with a 3 spool control valve to control the 2 motors
for the chute and impeller drum rotation and the cylinder used to control the spout angle.

 

[fitterski]

Why not scrounge up a cheap gasoline motor? A chevy 350 can be had for cheap and rebuild parts are even cheaper. I think summitracing has brand new crate motors for under 5k. Here is a 350 circle track at 350hp for $3764 Chevrolet Performance CT35� Circle Track Crate Engines 192586�2 - Free Shipping on Orders Over $99 at Summit Racing I'm curious to see how this project progresses!

They ARE on the list of candidates as part of a possibly hydraulic solution mostly because they start easy in cold weather and because a hydraulic pump doesn't care much about the rpm where the power is available. On the current rig any mechanical reduction beyond the present 2.5:1 would be too problematic without a weight increase and no weight increase at all is available. All aluminum versions weigh-in at less than 500 lbs which could be interesting but I haven't kept up to date about gas engines at all (since my Corvette/Mustang days). I pay 500-1000 for engines good enough to rebuild with just a standard kit & I have never built an aluminum engine.