Snow BX2750 Snow Blower – Skids – Shear Pins

[bitseeker]

I have a base rock driveway that is fairly smooth. We get storms that drop a foot or two of snow. The weather is such that most of the snow melts at our altitude (4000’) between major storms. This keeps the surface of the driveway exposed and fairly soft. I see comments here on TBN that you just have to wait till it freezes hard and the roadway firms up, but that seldom happens here.

The skids don’t work in float to keep the blower from picking up surface gravel from the driveway. Because of slope changes, I have to use hydraulics to adjust the height of the blower frequently. I would like to make it more automatic. I wonder if anyone on TBN has made up adjustable skids with more surface area, large caster wheels, or some other fix to handle gravel driveways in float mode. I also have paved areas, so I’d like to be able to quickly change the blower between high and low float. The existing skids work fine on pavement.

When an auger pin shears, I have to drive the broken piece of the shear pin left in the auger shaft. I have ground and painted registration marks on the auger and shaft ends, but it is still hard to align the auger and shaft to drive out the broken piece. Has anyone on TBN come up with a change to the shear pin configuration to make it like the blower pin, where the pin completely separates if it shears and you can see the holes to install the new pin? Besides being faster to change, you could use ordinary cheap bolts without the two machined grooves.

 

[dieseltoys]

I had the same delema with my BX/gravel drive/snowblower. The factory skids are pretty much useless for soft surfaces. My solution which has worked sucessfully for three seasons is a modification using two of the gauge wheels borrowed from my mower deck. I had a couple of sleeves machined up like the ones that the gauge wheels slip into on the mower and welded them to the backside of the existing skid shoes with a few pieces of 1/4" steel plate. I don't have a digital cam to post any pics but I can tell you that the center of the bushing sits 3.5 inches from the back of the skid bracket and the top of the bushing is 6 inches from where the radius of the bend in the skid starts on the back vertical surface. So now when my drive is soft I can set the wheels to keep the blower up an inch or so off the ground and once my drive freezes up and gets a good snow base I remove the wheels. One note, I find that the wheels perform better if I take the axles apart and give them a good coat of grease occasionally. (I too was one of those who experienced the melting mower gauge wheel syndrome some time ago, but this was when they were on the mower.) The use on the blower hasn't seemed to do them any harm. Too bad kubota didn't design these with bronze bushings and grease zerks like some others I've seen. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[bitseeker]

Thanks for the clear description.

I don't have a mower deck, so I have no gauge wheels to borrow. Approximately what diameter and width are the wheels? That will help me know what works.

I was planning on buying pneumatic caster wheels and making up a depth-adjusting mount for the rear of the auger housing. I plan to leave the wheels mounted all the time and just release them and let the blower drop down onto the factory skids for pavement.

It has just snowed about four inches in the last hour or so, so I guess I'll get some seat time soon

BS

 

[sandyc]

The shoes on the blower are next to worthless. Because of the poor design I have to plow until the ground freezes and then switch to the blower. It is no big deal to switch because of the quick attach but it still is a pain.
One thing to watch out for is when the ground is soft the snow/ice will bring gravel along when blown.
So far I haven't sheared a bolt yet!
By the way there is a thread that addresses the lube/mower wheel issue. The guy that is handling this issue is "moweraxle" and he might be able to build something like you are describing.

 

[pcmem]

Sandyc is right, find the thread on the antiscalp wheel mods. I believe moweraxle is selling a modified wheel and axle new for around $100. You may be able to get two for less to use on the snowblower.

The pneumatic wheel sounds like a better idea though. It would carry and disperse the blower weight better than the mower wheels. They usually have bearings installed and sometimes grease zirks.

Some food for thought,
Michael

 

[bitseeker]

The load distribution, especially considering the sometimes soft condition of the road, was a major reason I was thinking of pneumatic wheels. There is quite a bit of room behind the blower. Casters.com has 8", 10", and 12" pneumatic wheeled, sealed ball bearing casters for approximately $50 each with load capacities of up to 400 lb. I'm waiting for dimensions to see which of these is the largest that will fit and swivel in the space available. Welding up an adjustible mount to bolt onto the rear of the auger case should be relatively straight-forward.

I just realized that wheels will make it relatively easy to jockey the blower around when it's off the tractor.

 

[sandyc]

You could always weld to the skid plates by reversing them in the brackets. Could almost look like the mower wheel adjustment.
I was just out adjusting my blade and on that they have used round saucer type skids....I am not sure if those would keep you from digging into the soft ground.

 

[bitseeker]

I was planning to leave the existing skid plates in place. They work fine on flat pavement, and I can adjust them so the front blower cutting edge just clears the surface of pavement. The wheels would be adjusted for the gravel surface and raised for pavement.

A rotating saucer type of adjuster is an idea. I think that more surface area/lower surface pressure is the main thing that will improve over the stock skids. I think though that if saucers were oriented like ramps for forward motion, you would have to remember to raise the blower when you reversed to keep them from digging in.

 

[pcmem]

bitseeker,

I built a axle of sorts that sets on the two holes in the frame just behind the blower housing just for the purpose of rolling the blower around when it is off the tractor.

Much easier than using the FEL /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
Michael

 

[dieseltoys]

Bit, I was concidering a set of pnumatic casters too but I thought I'd try the small wheels first as my drive is firmly packed road gravel and I keep it graded out pretty smooth. They performed better than I expected in my case, however if your gravel areas are of a looser mixture that dosen't really pack down and stabilize then the pnumatic wheels will probably work better. I know when I was thinking mine out I was figuring I could mount a set just as you are thinking. I also figured the pivot could be mounted up as close as possible to the housing since the casters really don't need to swing 360 degrees as long as you don't try to back up with the blower on the ground. The trouble I could see with mounting the wheels with enough clearance to swing around is they were so far back that they might not have the desired effect, if the ground level changed the cutting edge might dig in before the wheels caught up with the terrain change. Ideally the further from the pivot point of the lift the more effective they will be, having said that mounting them out front would be the best from that perspective but now how well would that work. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif