Mckee 720 snowblower experiences

[CJONE]

There's an old saying ... if it works, don't fix it, so if your rig works as good as you say than don't worry about who built it. Odd that there isn't a tag on it somewhere that would tell... If not, then I guess you'll have to go online and search and hunt until you see one like it. Even if bigger or smaller it will look the same, have the same configuartion so not hard to tell.
Meanwhile, you're in the snow blowing business, the main thing is to keep unwante things out of the machine, a fence post or an old tire can really raise cain with things ... as the former owner of mine found out the hard way. Never go into somebody's place without knowing for SURE there aren't items under the snow. Most snow plows can deal with junk but a blower .... nope.
80warren

I USED to be in the business, 20+ years of commercial plowing, NO MORE. I just clear the banks at our church to no issues with tires or other garbage in the snow. No info on the gearbox but like you said I won't mess with it until I have a problem. I just like to go through everything when I rebuild something. This thing has shear pins for the driveshaft and the augers so I should be covered. CJ

 

[Stealth847]

Do you have any pictures of the modification that you made to discharge shut (hydraulic motor etc.)

 

[Dave M7040]

The McKee unit was also sold in John Deere Green and when I had a 720 I could get parts from John Deere.
I think the gear box is some standard farm thing because getting gears or seals was easy from JD.
I will try and track down my old one and take some pictures of the chute rotator I built using a simple 8 x 2 hydraulic cylinder.
The one area it was under designed was in the fan. It could not get rid of the snow as fast as the augers would deliver it.
It is a durable machine for low cost!
Dave M7040

 

[Dave M7040]

There are three approaches or designs for low cost snow blower chute rotators.
The best is the small piece of channel bent into a semi circle around which the chute rotator runs. The idea is that the semi circle matches the path that a large gear would follow because by having a cable around the chute and then trying to rotate the chute you really have set up a two pulley arrangement.
To simplify the design you can use a straight bar but it must be long. In the photo on the McKee 720 approx 42" . With this design you can attach the cables directly to the long bar. the cables should have a little slack in them as you are not exactly matching a circular path.
To use a short bar you must not affix the cables to the bar but rather run them around a pulley on the bar and then affix the end to the blower frame.
I can explain further if anyone wishes to ask questions.
Dave M7040