59" blower for 3x20 series

[Rob-D]

grade 5 is pretty tough and will take a lot of torque to shear

if you're worried about that I'd try a standard bolt first

if its hydraulic the you could put a relief valve in parallel with the motor and set it low then crank it up with experience

that will let the blower stop and all you have to do is clear the jam and keep on blowing

Thanks!
I agree, that's why I questioned Deere running grade 5's for the front blades but they did shear on my 47 several times and the 47 impeller once.

I will run a grade two on the impeller here as I'd rather have it shear than blow the gear box.

On my walk behind blower they have reliefs cut into the bolts, Deere doesn't, I guess I could cut some reliefs with a .040 lathe parting tool?

But think about this, if people were blowing boxes Deere would have made some adjustment after all these years of making that blower, wouldn't they? I thought I remember somewhere on TBN someone was saying the impeller on their 59" blower was plastic, mine isn't.

I'm going out to check the bolt now.

Rob

 

[Rob-D]

Grade 5 my butt, it's a grade 5.2 on the impeller. I'm going to ask Deere about it.

Rob

 

[xkbal]

Here ae some pics.
You can see the front hitch comes right off. The two plates at each end of the blower are for the shear pins.
If you look at the photo where the 3ph attaches to the tractor you can see how they have it set up to come off easily.
The picture of the impeller shows a grade 5 bolt which I suspect should shear if the impeller jambs, let's hope so!

Rob

Rob,

The bolt through the shaft isn't a shear bolt, at least not on mine, and the parts manual shows this but I don't know how to attach a pdf of the manual to show you. The cast piece is keyed to the shaft and the bolt holds it in position. I tried leaving the key out and using the bolt as a shear pin but it would shear as soon as I got into any snow. Maybe I'll try again this year with a higher grade bolt.

Al

 

[Rob-D]

Rob,

The bolt through the shaft isn't a shear bolt, at least not on mine, and the parts manual shows this but I don't know how to attach a pdf of the manual to show you. The cast piece is keyed to the shaft and the bolt holds it in position. I tried leaving the key out and using the bolt as a shear pin but it would shear as soon as I got into any snow. Maybe I'll try again this year with a higher grade bolt.

Al

Al,
You're absolutely right, there's a key in that shaft. I didn't realize it until you just said it. When I put the shaft on the key slot must have been at the bottom because I didn't see it but I do remember a key in the parts box!

Thanks,
Rob

 

[etcallhome]

I leveled some ground composed of dirt, rocks, and gravel with my 59 blower last year. Shooting gravel like a machine gun. Never broke anything. The snowblower is an amazing tool for this purpose. I wonder if anyone else has done this?

I leave the front hitch and driveshaft mounted but it kills the front ground clearance and I'm very careful about operating the tractor in the woods because of it. I always clear the ground with the loader before driving over any unknown terrain.

I also store the snowblower on wheeled dollies. Makes it much easier to move the thing around and to install/remove it.

Last fall about the 3rd time I was using my 47" blower, ground not frozen, going about 1/2 on road and 1/2 in the yard . I noticed the snow seemed to be gray and then almost black . I thought what the heck.. lifted the blower and backed up. There is about a 15' long section of berm and some of front yard missing...
I use Grade 5 sheared 15 or 20 on times and the 47 impeller once or twice. I also put about 95 hrs on blower last winter, put about 105 on tractor..

 

[Rob-D]

Last fall about the 3rd time I was using my 47" blower, ground not frozen, going about 1/2 on road and 1/2 in the yard . I noticed the snow seemed to be gray and then almost black . I thought what the heck.. lifted the blower and backed up. There is about a 15' long section of berm and some of front yard missing...
I use Grade 5 sheared 15 or 20 on times and the 47 impeller once or twice. I also put about 95 hrs on blower last winter, put about 105 on tractor..

That sounds like a lot of shearing. Again, the standard shear bolt from Deere is a grade 5. You can go down to your local TSC and buy 1" grade 5, 1/4-20 bolts.(1/4 is the nominal diameter and the 20 is 20 threads per inch) Use 1-1/2", 1/4 -20 grade 5 bolts in the 59" blower. You can identify grade 5 bolts buy the markings on the bolt top. For grade 5 you will see 3 dashes equally spaced around the top. If you see a bolt with 3 dashes closely spaced this is a 5.2 grade bolt. No dashes is a grade 1 or 2 and is usually mild steel and 5 dashes equally spaced is a grade 8 bolt, 5 dashes closely spaced is 8.2 grade.

Rob