Berta Two Stage Snow Blower Auger gear box oil change

[erlingre]

Hi!

I have bought an used Berta Two-stage snowblower cheaply. It is a bit rusted and have not been used for multiple years, so I need to try to do some maintenance before the winter. So far I have added grease to the grease-nipple for the chute rotating mechanism and also brushed off rust and added thin oil to the sprocket of the chute, it turns pretty
easily now.

I have the user manual of the Berta Snowblower which mentions how to check oil level in the auger gearbox, but no bolt for draining oil is mentioned, neither oil change.
Do you have any tips how I easily can change gear oil? Maybe with a small manual pump and a thin hose through the hole where the oil level can be checked?

Best regards,
Erling

 

[WinterDeere]

No experience with the Berta, but I've owned a half dozen snowblowers from other brands, and they almost always have that single bolt hole for oil in the gearbox. Draining for change happens by tipping the machine up on its nose, which is also how you end up accessing the clutch and driveline lube on self-propelled units.

Gearbox fill is always up to bolt hole, when it drains back out you're full. I usually tip the machine back to fill, which makes filling from a nipple on a bottle easier and ensures the thing gets properly "burped" of any air. Then set it down flat and let excess drain back out, before re-installing the plug.

Gear oil can usually be 80W or 90W, not critical, unless specified otherwise. Some brands (eg. Ariens) spec their own special oil, and since they use such a small volume and changes are infrequent, I just buy their recommended product.

3-point blowers will usually have greaseable bearings at either end of the primary auger shaft, and sometimes more in the chain drive and idler bearings, as well as the driveshaft crosses. Self-propelled units usually lack greaseable auger bearings, but will have others hiding behind the toe shield, in the drive line system. Just don't over grease a self-propelled unit, without cleaning up well after yourself, as grease on the clutch plate is ruinous.

 

[Jens767]

Hi Erling

I have a BCS 740 tractor and a Berta 2-stage snowblower like you do, and I also have had similar thoughts as you concerning a possible oil change.

It sounds to me like you have done a number of good things to get your snowblower running again. If the chute doesn’t turn freely, you might consider taking it off, and grease the base where it sits on the main body - it’s no big deal.

You are absolutely right concerning the manual, which only mentions how to check and add gearbox oil, but not how to change it.

I have sadly come to the conclusion, that the lack of an oil drain plug is very common to most implements for 2-wheel tractors - not only the ones from Berta. I have a Berta flail mower which also have no oil drain plug, 2 mowers from Zanon which also have none, and finally a power sweeper from BCS, also without an oil drain plug.

Considering that we as costumers are expected to pay more than $2000 for a 28’’ Berta snowblower, and more than $2500 for a 34’’ Berta flail mower, adding an oil drain plug wouldn’t have added much to the price of the implement when produced, one would think.

The manual for the Berta flail mower actually states, that the transmission oil must be changed „within the first 10 hours of work, and later every 100 hours of work“. Whereas the manual for the snowblower does not mention an oil change at all, Berta offers a recommendation on how to change the oil on the flail mower: „Lift and tilt the machine vertically to one side“, and let the oil drain by removing the dipstick. This might sound easy on paper, but in the real world we are talking about a 92 kg (+200 lbs) implement, approaching the limits for what I can tilt at least. It would have been so easy if one had had an oil drain plug, wouldn’t it?

I haven’t tried it myself, but I would think that you could use the same approach with the snowblower. When standing in front of the snowblower looking at the auger, the oil plug is on the left hand side of auger gearbox. Tilting the snowblower to the left, would let the oil plug point downwards, and you should be able to drain the oil. Again, a drain plug would have been so convenient, wouldn’t it?


Best regards

Jens

 

[RjCorazza]

My old Luck Now blower doesn't have a drain bolt for the gear box either. I chained it up and lifted to drain the gear box once in the years that I've had it.
You can suction the oil, but it's going to be more difficult with cold oil, and you won't get it all. I use a large veterinary syringe and surgical tubing to suction the oil out of my mower gear boxes. Every 150 hours I do this after a day of mowing while the gear oil is hot, and it comes out easy enough.

 

[Shrew_Gardens]

Joel at Earthtools seems to recommend simply keeping implement gearboxes topped up, and that’s what I do whether my equipment is new or well used.

Unless the gears are already mangled or somebody intentionally contaminated the gearbox I doubt draining it is going to make much of a difference.

 

[joecoin]

I have 3 implements that have gear oil cavities. I have drained all three by hoisting off the ground , then tilting the unit to drain.

I have done this once for each unit, and I'm not doing it again. Ever.

 

[sixdogs]

I've had lots of snowblowers like that and the old oil needs to come out. The way I used to do it was to simply unbolt the gearbox and drain it for a day or so. Then refill up to the hole and call it good. I've since found a better way.

It's this Harbor Freight suction gun that comes with a small diameter hose. Leave the gearbox in place and just vacuum suction most of the old oil out. Then refill the gearbox, use for a while and suction it out again.

https://www.harborfreight.com/lubricant-suction-gun-59513.html

With two changes like that, you'll get most of the old stuff out and things will be more than good for much less effort than removing the gearbox. I have removed plenty of gearboxes and no more. That suction gun works like a champ.

 

[erlingre]

Hi Erling

I have a BCS 740 tractor and a Berta 2-stage snowblower like you do, and I also have had similar thoughts as you concerning a possible oil change.

It sounds to me like you have done a number of good things to get your snowblower running again. If the chute doesn’t turn freely, you might consider taking it off, and grease the base where it sits on the main body - it’s no big deal.

You are absolutely right concerning the manual, which only mentions how to check and add gearbox oil, but not how to change it.

I have sadly come to the conclusion, that the lack of an oil drain plug is very common to most implements for 2-wheel tractors - not only the ones from Berta. I have a Berta flail mower which also have no oil drain plug, 2 mowers from Zanon which also have none, and finally a power sweeper from BCS, also without an oil drain plug.

Considering that we as costumers are expected to pay more than $2000 for a 28’’ Berta snowblower, and more than $2500 for a 34’’ Berta flail mower, adding an oil drain plug wouldn’t have added much to the price of the implement when produced, one would think.

The manual for the Berta flail mower actually states, that the transmission oil must be changed „within the first 10 hours of work, and later every 100 hours of work“. Whereas the manual for the snowblower does not mention an oil change at all, Berta offers a recommendation on how to change the oil on the flail mower: „Lift and tilt the machine vertically to one side“, and let the oil drain by removing the dipstick. This might sound easy on paper, but in the real world we are talking about a 92 kg (+200 lbs) implement, approaching the limits for what I can tilt at least. It would have been so easy if one had had an oil drain plug, wouldn’t it?

I haven’t tried it myself, but I would think that you could use the same approach with the snowblower. When standing in front of the snowblower looking at the auger, the oil plug is on the left hand side of auger gearbox. Tilting the snowblower to the left, would let the oil plug point downwards, and you should be able to drain the oil. Again, a drain plug would have been so convenient, wouldn’t it?


Best regards

Jens

Hi Jens,
Thanks for your reply. I managed to drain the oil by removing the bolt where the gearbox oil level is checked and using a small pump and also tilting the snow blower. Refilled through the same small hole with a small syringe with the snow blower placed on the side so the oil level hole pointed upwards.
The process was time consuming, messy and exhausting. The serviceability could be better.

Best regards,
Erling

 

[Jens767]

Hi Erling

Based on my experience, I can fully agree with Shrew_Gardens and Joel in their recommendations and views. I check the oil level occasionally before using my implements, and if needed I top up, which have hardly ever been necessary. Looking at the oil when checking it - even on my most used and oldest implements - the oil looks as good as new without any contamination, and I therefore see no need to change it.

Reading some of the posts above, I am impressed to what length you and other members have gone to change the oil. It would have been a lot easier with an oil drain plug though, wouldn’t it?

When I consider that Honda have put 2 oil drain plugs on the GX 390 engine - one on either side, and 2 oil fill plugs - again one on either side, I find it rather meager that our implements come with no oil drain plugs at all. It would have made it so much easier to change the oil, and it would probably only have added a dollar or two to the cost of producing these implements.

Perhaps it’s just me, but having had a career in aviation, I have been trained to follow countless procedures and manufacturers recommendations to the dot. Seeing that there often is a discrepancy between what is recommended in our manuals, and what one is able to do in real life, therefore makes me feel a little uncomfortable. I know that making maintenance on a 2-wheel tractor and its implements isn’t rocket science, but why make it so hard to do it right, when it could be so easy?

Berta is not the only manufacturer though that recommend an oil change without providing an oil drain plug. The owners manual for my BCS power sweeper states, that „every 100 work hours, or once a year, change the oil“, but no oil drain plug is provided.

I have 2 mowers from Zanon, and here things aren’t much better I’m afraid. The manual for the drum mower recommend a change of the oil in the gearbox every 12 month, and for my lawn mower every 400 working hours. Neither of these mowers are fitted with an oil drain plug though.

I might be wrong, but I sometime have the feeling that these manuals aren’t written by engineers but by lawyers, and that their main purpose is to make sure that the costumer is always to blame, should something unfortunate happen to the implement and we would meet in court.

I can’t compare with other snow blowers, as I have no experience with other than the one from Berta, but I think you did the right thing buying it, and I look forward to hear what you think of it after having used it.

Here in my area, the last more than 10 winters have been unusually warm, and we have had very little snow. I have therefore sadly used my snow blower much less than I had hoped, but I have learnt a little though using it. In the beginning the funnel clogged a few times, and removing the snow is quite a job. I find, that running the engine at full open throttle helps a lot, and better prevent the snow from sticking. I also have the impression that the auger has a higher capacity than the impeller, driving in a low gear is therefore helpful.



Here I run the engine at rated speed (3600 rpm), and the Berta will blow the snow 7-8 m (23-26 ft) away.


Best regards

Jens

 

[sixdogs]

I used to--and still think that no drain plug is a bad idea for maintenance minded people. I can modify that opinion now since I have discovered the Harbor Freight suction gun (see post #7) with small diameter tubing. I two recent applications I have drawn out the equivalent of what was the fill capacity is.

Maybe I didn't get it all but it is close enough for OCD me and I can't believe I'm saying that. Normally, would have wanted every drop out. I still prefer that but a close section is getting almost all of the old fluid out.

On a snowblower gearbox, I think it's OK. Same for my front 4WD axle that had no drain plug. Other things too. It's ok.