B2660 snowblower throwing distance

MAMtractorguy · Dec 13, 2008

What distance should my B2100 with a B2660 front mount snow blower throw snow? I used it the first time this morning and the max distance at full engine RPMs was maybe 12 feet. Is this normal? The snow was a little wet but not bad. Anybody else with the same blower have better results? Thanks

Mickey Mahoney

Ductape · Dec 13, 2008

My B2400 with the same blower, but only 50" wide would throw snow about 40 feet........ sometimes more. I found that the more i stuffed into it's mouth, the further it would throw it........ as long as i could keep the RPMs up. Real wet slushy snow didn't throw as well, and snow 4" deep or less didn't throw as well either. Overall, i was more than happy with the performance. I wouldn't inagine my 3 more HP made a huge difference.

leonz · Dec 13, 2008

Mickey Mahoney said:
What distance should my B2100 with a B2660 front mount snow blower throw snow? I used it the first time this morning and the max distance at full engine RPMs was maybe 12 feet. Is this normal? The snow was a little wet but not bad. Anybody else with the same blower have better results? Thanks

Mickey Mahoney

Ah yes, the proverbial why did it not do as well as the pictures show it doing:

Any two stage blower unless its a bigger tractor rear blower or a rmonster "snow pump" suffers from this as it is warmer snow and more congealed/sticky-happens with the single stage units even more so simply due to thawing and the weight of the snow on top of other snow and a solid auger.

The solid auger moves more snow at once which is wonderful thing for powdered snow but the wet stuff yuuck!

Taking a smaller 1/2 or 1/4 bite also helps a lot with the efficiency end of things- a few extra passes but it works unless it is total mush where a salamander works wonders.

Using the blower after it gets colder at nightfall will help some too.

A quick fix is a can of WD fourty sprayed everywhere snow contacts the blower-auger, chute, fan blade surfaces, fan drum housing, you will need to do this several times during the snow blowing exercise as it does wonders for the process even more so with the colder temperatures and powder snow but do not do it while its running or while standing along side it running-it gives one a new definition of peeing the wind.

MAMtractorguy · Dec 13, 2008

I think it's going to snow more tonight. I will have to try the WD-40 trick, thanks.

SPYDERLK · Dec 13, 2008

Mickey Mahoney said:
I think it's going to snow more tonight. I will have to try the WD-40 trick, thanks.

How deep is your snow? I find they throw best if you feed them heavily-just so you dont bog down the engine. If the snow is only a few inches try going faster up to a speed where the engine is working hard. Should throw any snow, wetordry, 30 feet at least.
larry

MAMtractorguy · Dec 13, 2008

Maybe my problem was the amount of snow. I bet it was about 8" of snow. Thanks

Evil the Weasel · Dec 13, 2008

Mickey Mahoney said:
Maybe my problem was the amount of snow. I bet it was about 8" of snow. Thanks

That should be more than enough snow to throw it a good distance. If it's really sloppy stuff, I either get a clogged chute or not much of a throw. The last few snows have launched an impressive distance. I can stop traffic on my road with the whiteout I'm causing

smfcpacfp · Dec 14, 2008

I don't think it makes much difference how far you throw it, as long as it goes a 5 or 6 feet back from the edge that you want cleared. My first blower didn't throw snow very far and one year when we had a particularly large quantity of snow, it made a particularly high wall near the edge of the driveway which kept collapsing, and I had to hire a big front end loader to come and push it back.

If you want to shoot it a long distance, angle the chute at 45 degrees, crank up the rpm's and when it is wet, take a small cut, go slow, so that the engine maintains max rpms.

When the snow is dry (cold temperatures) take a big cut since there is little moisture in the snow to get volume.

As I said, unless it is a photo shoot, I just want to throw it 10 feet or so, just to get it out of the way. It consumes a lot less energy.

Here is a movie of my little Kubota. The snow was pretty wet (April 11th around 30 degrees). Notice the small cut and slow speed, gives me plenty of distance.

YouTube - Kubota B3030HSDC snowblower

irvingj · Dec 14, 2008

Mickey- One other thing you might consider is the "normal" direction of the throw-- that is, if the discharge chute is working with the direction of the fan's rotation, it will throw a lot further than if the chute is trying to "reverse" the flow---

Not very well explained, but on my 2310, as well as on the Kubota in the above video link, the fan direction (clockwise as you face the blower) is oriented to throw "normally" to the left of the tractor; if the chute is pointed left, there will be much less resistance in the discharge chute.

Under heavy snow conditions, as much as possible I always try to blow to the left. My old walk-behind was the same, though its favored direction was to the right.

This is the same principle involved in "squirrel cage" (axial) blower fans in HVAC equipment: discharge always is set to favor fan rotation rather than work against it. Hope this helps-- try it!

I also agree 100% with Ductape & Evil-- it's somewhat counter-intuitive, but often an increase in speed, resulting in an increase in volume into the blower, will make a dramatic difference. Just be sensitive to bogging down, and back off a bit if necessary.