Snow Equipment Owning/Operating Discharge distance ?

[CobyRupert]

I had the throttle wide open and the tach needle was well past the 540 mark. It never came close to bogging down or slowing the engine even a little. It absolutely wasn't a hp issue. I felt it was a velocity problem. The distance did not change if I feed less snow into the blower. My dads little case 446 with a single stage blower easily tossed the same snowfall two to three times as far. I guess I was expecting it to do better. If I blew from the center of the driveway I couldn't blow it over the edge and would end up double blowing everything. I'll wax up the fan housing and spray her down with some silicone spray and add some rubber sweepers to ends of the fan then hopefully give everyone an update of how much better this performs. We'll see on the next snowfall, thanks for all the responses guys!

Something seems wrong. My little belt driven 4' Belco on the front of my LX280 lawn tractor throws 3x farther. Like others have said: Either fan is slipping because of broken shear bolt, gap between fan and housing is too big , or gearing is too slow. From the picture it almost looks like auger is slow too (i.e. not keeping up with feed). It would take 2 people, but wonder if someone with a 540 pto blower could tell you the gear ratio / fan speed of a good working blower. As in, 1 revolution of the pto shaft = x revolutions of the fan. I think a truer comparison of 2 blowers would also compare the fan tip speed, or the distance the tip travels on 1 pto revolution, where that distance = [3.14 (Pi) x Fan diameter). Thus, if fan diameter is 2 ft and 1 pto shaft revolution = 2 fan revolutions you can say that blower fan is 3.14 x2 ft x 2revs= 12.56 ft/PTO rev, then use this number to compare against another blower.

 

[timbertime]

my old farmking ran at 540 ...no gearing to change that.

This is what the brochure says for my Frontier blower:
PTO speed is 540, impeller speed is 540, auger speed 190

There is a gearbox, but apparently the PTO shaft rpm's are passed straight through. The gear box also drives and provides the 90* turn for the auger chain sprocket shaft.

Thanks Guys! This is what I was looking for and gives me some hope. I'll work on improving the fan for more efficiency and see how it works on the next snowfall.

 

[aczlan]

View attachment 351629
Found a pic the wifey took while I was out

Can you lift the deflector on the end of the chute any more? I was working on a Craftsman 11/30" last week and moving the tip of the deflector down 1/2" dropped my range from 15' to 5'
Looked like a smaller version of the snow coming out of your chute.

Aaron Z

 

[Scooby074]

I dont see much wrong there with a heavy wet snow.

Wet being key.

Just count yourself lucky its not packed tight as sardines!

Im guessing, that its a RAD industries unit. Likely very close in design to my Kubota that is a RAD unit. What you have happening there is basically what happens with mine in very wet snow.

Advise is to run it a full engine RPMs. Also make sure the upper deflector is all the way up. You can also tighten up the fan to housing clearance to reduce any bypassing with rubber or UHMW plastic.

But in all honesty the RAD units arent great throwers. Adequate but not great. Even in dry snow it only throws maybe 25'. My Honda walk behind absolutely destroys it in distance and accuracy. I bet it throws close to 50' in the right snow conditions.

 

[tony binkowski]

dont worry as the cold sets in and the snow gets drier u will be happy, little tweaking to the blower might help but its all about conditions!! my b3000 with landpride 64inch rear blower stuggles in the wet crap too!! lets not forget pto hp is everything! let me know as the snow changes how it is going, thx tony

 

[ericher69]

I dont see much wrong there with a heavy wet snow. Wet being key. Just count yourself lucky its not packed tight as sardines! Im guessing, that its a RAD industries unit. Likely very close in design to my Kubota that is a RAD unit. What you have happening there is basically what happens with mine in very wet snow. Advise is to run it a full engine RPMs. Also make sure the upper deflector is all the way up. You can also tighten up the fan to housing clearance to reduce any bypassing with rubber or UHMW plastic. But in all honesty the RAD units arent great throwers. Adequate but not great. Even in dry snow it only throws maybe 25'. My Honda walk behind absolutely destroys it in distance and accuracy. I bet it throws close to 50' in the right snow conditions.

Scoob;

Don't know what you are talking about; RAD units are well; RAD

Here is a wet snowman sticky almost freeze the chute instantly snow at 2 deg C

http://youtu.be/w01FJ5ltLqs

And 12" of powder with minus 15 degree weather

http://youtu.be/Lf0whm0B_3Q

Notice the difference in efficiency and throwing distance!

To the OP; something is amiss for sure with your setup... Although I have never run a 540 rear blower

 

[Scooby074]

Scoob;

Don't know what you are talking about; RAD units are well; RAD

Here is a wet snowman sticky almost freeze the chute instantly snow at 2 deg C

2008 Kubota b2920 and front 63" quick hitch blower wet snow - YouTube

And 12" of powder with minus 15 degree weather

2008 Kubota b2920 with "new" 63" front quick hitch blower - YouTube

Notice the difference in efficiency and throwing distance!

To the OP; something is amiss for sure with your setup... Although I have never run a 540 rear blower

Watched your vids.

Your blower performance is pretty close to what I experience. Im assuming that the OP's snow is considerably wetter than what was in your video or he's really loading up the blower. Id upload a vid of me blowing some of our current wet snow, but my card reader decided to crap out for some reason.. So that'll have to wait.

Why I call the RAD units merely adequate is because I own both a Honda 928 and the RAD on the BX. The 928 is a considerably better blower in almost all aspects in my experience. The only thing that the RAD has is the extra width, which speeds up blowing time. For distance, accuracy and tightness of discharge (less snowdust in the face) the Honda has it, hands down.

 

[ericher69]

Im assuming that the OP's snow is considerably wetter than what was in your video or he's really loading up the blower.

For distance, accuracy and tightness of discharge (less snowdust in the face) the Honda has it, hands down.

First video was almost slush but still solid saturated with water; not much but I wouldn't want more of this stuff.

Don't have that problem with the cab. I hear you Honda's are top notch.

How's the 252 treating you?

 

[Scooby074]

First video was almost slush but still solid saturated with water; not much but I wouldn't want more of this stuff.

Don't have that problem with the cab. I hear you Honda's are top notch.

How's the 252 treating you?

Wish I had a cab!

252 is a workhorse. Still preforming top notch. As the saying goes, there is no replacement for displacement. I just built a vertical storage mount for the BX MMM a few weeks ago and Im going to be building a new Skid Steer Quick Attach for the BX with it in the new year.Ill post a thread on the project at that time. Couldnt be much happier with the welder's performance.

Hows yours working?

 

[ericher69]

Wish I had a cab! 252 is a workhorse. Still preforming top notch. As the saying goes, there is no replacement for displacement. I just built a vertical storage mount for the BX MMM a few weeks ago and Im going to be building a new Skid Steer Quick Attach for the BX with it in the new year.Ill post a thread on the project at that time. Couldnt be much happier with the welder's performance. Hows yours working?

Yeah really like mine also!