I have for a couple of years had a front snowblower for my bx2360. In the past my driveway was paved and even with the little spacers set to their highest setting it would scrape the pavement bare when I used it. Now I have a gravel driveway, and it slopes up quite a bit about 15 feet from the road (the most important area to blow because traction is tough on the slope). Of course when the blower is used I can't have it in float because it shoots a ridiculous amount of stones if I do and I have to constantly adjust the height to keep it a bit off the ground. This is a pain, especially on the sloping area and it makes the blower not work as well. I am sure if I just had a base of ice it would be OK but is there any way I can modify the blower so that it will glide on those spacers and keep the front edge raised up enough that it won't just dig in all the time?
BX2360 front snowblower - how to keep it from digging in?
- Thread starter newdeal
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Pepsiboy
Silver Member
newdeal,
Are there some kind of shoes or skid plates on the bottom or sides of the blower ?? If so, are they adjustable or in a fixed position ?? If adjustable, put a piece of 1X4 wood under each side of the cutting edge, and adjust the shoes or skid plates DOWN to touch the floor, and tighten them. (Of course, this should be done on a paved or cement surface.) If necessary, adjust up or down to get the clearance you need for your driveway. I have mine set at about 3/4 inch off the ground. :2cents: :welcome: Good luck, and enjoy the toy ---er--- TOOL. Yeah, that's it, TOOL ! ! ! :cool2:
Dave
Are there some kind of shoes or skid plates on the bottom or sides of the blower ?? If so, are they adjustable or in a fixed position ?? If adjustable, put a piece of 1X4 wood under each side of the cutting edge, and adjust the shoes or skid plates DOWN to touch the floor, and tighten them. (Of course, this should be done on a paved or cement surface.) If necessary, adjust up or down to get the clearance you need for your driveway. I have mine set at about 3/4 inch off the ground. :2cents: :welcome: Good luck, and enjoy the toy ---er--- TOOL. Yeah, that's it, TOOL ! ! ! :cool2:
Dave
s219
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Sounds like angle is more of an issue than skid shoe height?? Can you post a picture of the blower resting on the skid shoes so we can see the angle of it?
Kanook
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Get a similar problem before freeze up...until the ground freezes up the skid shoes often just dig in and not support the blower...particularly on loose gravel and crushed stone surfaces...Been thinking of possibly adapting some anti scalp rollers from a mower deck to carry the blower until the surface freezes..Rear 3pth blowers have the advantage of the adjustable top link but any front mount I've encountered don't allow for the approach angle to be adjusted...Not sayin' they don't exist but the 3 I have had on 3 different botas didn't.
uglyboywith11fingers
Gold Member
If your skid shoes are set down to the max and are just digging into the unfrozen gravel, maybe you need to have a wider piece of steel welded to them to keep them from digging in. I use a 3pt B2781 on my BX24, the skid shoes are about 1.5 inches wide and work just fine on my gravel drive when set at about 3/4 inch. My B2781 is probably heavier than a BX front mount blower too.
Pete
Pete
sandyc
Veteran Member
At the risk of sounding like a wise guy......I use a plow until the ground freezes and the I put the blower on. I still manage to shot gravel into the woods.
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HEC
Veteran Member
All of us with gravel drives face the same situation until things freeze up . Like already mentioned I too use a plow, mine has a piece of 1 1/2 inch pipe with a slot in it, and is put over the cutting edge, this does help a great deal . We had one 15 inch storm and I had to use the blower with the cutting edge as high off the ground as I could get and still had issues with throwing gravel in a couple areas .
dsmiley
Gold Member
I had this same problem and sheared 6 bolts the first winter. The OEM skids are just inadequate, too small, so I wanted to make them bigger. I had some ultra high molecular weight polyethelene (UHMW) which works like wood (you can cut it, shape it, even drill and tap it) and I fit it to the skid bottoms with (4) 1/4-20 bolts each. I made the skids long enough to actually go under the cutting edge. These are 5/8" thick I believe, but I think 1/2" would work too. I started with them 1" thick and then made them thinner. Anyway, they work great and I might shear 1 bolt a year now and pick up very few rocks from my 3 gravel driveways blowing in the float position.
Skids mounted.
Skids mounted.
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Thanks guys, yes the shoes are already adjusted all the way down to try to keep the blower up as much as possible but it just doesn't do any good. Like I said though it would scalp pavement with them adjusted all the way down too! Clearly they are inadequate. I think I will have to do some McGuivering to make them a bit longer so that it gets held up better by them
wild bill
Member
Thanks dsmiley, I picked up a 12x12x3/4 sheet of UHMW from ebay and added it to the OEM shoes. I tried it this morning and I am very happy with the results!
jayhawk238
Silver Member
Hi dsmiley.
Do you remember where you bought the switch for your chute deflector or what it's called. I just have a toggle switch mounted near the steering wheel but your setup is sooooo much better!
Do you remember where you bought the switch for your chute deflector or what it's called. I just have a toggle switch mounted near the steering wheel but your setup is sooooo much better!
dsmiley
Gold Member
You won't be sorry.
JWR
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I use a rear PTO driven snow blower on a Kubota B2150. I fought the gravel issue for years until I realized what a HUGE difference the angle of attack makes. I adjusted my top link on the 3pt hitch to make sure the snowblower edge is pointed slightly upward. That is easily adjusted on a flat concrete floor. Doing that made all the difference in the world ! Now I can simply lower the blower completely into a float mode and go right ahead with no worries about gravel being picked up. Rarely of course a piece or two does get into it but now it is so rare no one would even think of the issue. Surely you can adjust your front-mount blower to cause the cutting edge to point slightly upward and fix your problem. The skids and other ideas the guys have suggested are good ones, but I think it is more fundamental to get that edge pointing upward. By the way, it doesn't take much -- a very slight up-angle makes a big difference.
JWR
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Wow ! Hard to imagine that they made a snowblower with no way to adjust the angle of the blower relative to the road surface. Having had 3, obviously you know. If there is absolutely no adjustment provided, then the thing has to be mounted to some surface and I would think that could be shimmed to change the angle (??)
dsmiley
Gold Member
No shimming is possible. The blower is mounted to and supported by a subframe only. The tongue into a pocket mounting arrangement precludes shimming. But if the skids are large enough to support the blower on soft ground then it isn't a problem anyway. The problem is that RAD Technologies, the manufacturer, didn't supply a large enough skid, but IMHO this is the only problem with these blowers and is easily rectified.
sandyc
Veteran Member
I plow my gravel drive til it freezes. From there on out or until the next thaw I use my blower. It takes but a minute to switch between those implements. Heck I'll even drop the subframe and put the loader on if I have to dig out the street end or the mail box. Another thing to try is to not float the blower. From time to time you might have to adjust the level if you drive is uneven. I might shear a bolt every year or two by doing the plow/blower thing.
dsmiley
Gold Member
These days I use the loader bucket until the ground freezes. I had a machine shop cut a 3/8" slot the length of a 1 1/4" pipe to put over the cutting edge and welded small pieces of angle iron to the ends to attach it to the bucket sides. This does such a good job that I didn't even mount the blower last year. It doesn't dig in and does a better clean up job.
