DIY BCS snow blower weights

Industrial Toys · Jan 23, 2019

And a REAL beast if it went over the edge. But it threw snow to the next village. And with that single CAST Kohler, the neighbor always thought helicopters were about.

freedomlives · Jan 25, 2019

Wow-- that looks bigger than my Goldoni Special with its rather big 2 stage blower, which I've finally set up to use this winter. How much did that set up weigh?

Industrial Toys · Jan 25, 2019

Not sure, but too heavy to be practical. They made those tractors bigger and bigger for commercial use, with a five foot mower, (Mine Came From the government of Ontario Transit) but they became too large for all the other attachments.

anastasie · Jan 28, 2019

Industrial Toys said:
View attachment 588476

I had these plates laser cut for some crazy weight on the back of my Gravely which was un-useable. Me 200LBS had to hang on the handlebars to raise the front! I think I got even a few more plates before the weight was enough, then welded them into a block and painted it.

Some of the inner plates had a cut out to accomodate the sulky hitch.

Hello! I am looking for a similar solution for my Grillo G110.
I received as a gift from a friend one 50kg plate from a big John Deere Tractor and i was thinking to mount it instead of the Grillo plates (which came with the tractor).
But my question is: will the Grillo front bar handle such weight? The weights for the wheels sold by Grillo are a maximum of 18 KG on each wheel, so 36 KG added.
Recently i had an urgent job with the tractor and i had to carry some water/cement/power generator with my trailer (1948 Stock trailer) up a small hill (max 30 degrees angle), and the wheels did not have enough traction... they were digging in the dirt; so i friend had to stay on top of the fuel tank with all his weight...
I wouldn't like to ruin my new tractor...
What do you think? Should i mount the weight there? or cut it and put in on the wheels? If so, i should have the weight balanced, right?

Thank you very much & God bless!

Anastasie

PS: this is how the G110 looks with the standard plates:

and this is the 50kg weight gift

ottawarob · Jan 28, 2019

anastasie said:
Hello! I am looking for a similar solution for my Grillo G110.
I received as a gift from a friend one 50kg plate from a big John Deere Tractor and i was thinking to mount it instead of the Grillo plates (which came with the tractor).
But my question is: will the Grillo front bar handle such weight? The weights for the wheels sold by Grillo are a maximum of 18 KG on each wheel, so 36 KG added.
Recently i had an urgent job with the tractor and i had to carry some water/cement/power generator with my trailer (1948 Stock trailer) up a small hill (max 30 degrees angle), and the wheels did not have enough traction... they were digging in the dirt; so i friend had to stay on top of the fuel tank with all his weight...
I wouldn't like to ruin my new tractor...
What do you think? Should i mount the weight there? or cut it and put in on the wheels? If so, i should have the weight balanced, right?

Thank you very much & God bless!

Anastasie

PS: this is how the G110 looks with the standard plates:

and this is the 50kg weight gift

View attachment 589097

50 kg sounds a bit heavy to me for a bumper weight. I'd consider getting wheel weights first and / or getting someone with a plasma torch or O/A torch to reduce the size of your JD weight.

saxnbees · Jan 28, 2019

Overall if I had to do it again... I don't know, I might buy a dedicated snow blower instead of using the BCS, or save my pennies for a tractor with a blower. The air filter clogs up with ice, carb freezes up, weight distribution is funny, the whole unit is long. It sure hacks through snow when conditions are right, but a winter specific unit sure would be less grief.

While I won't likely do it, I'd love to try running my BCS with the air filter off for snow blowing. There's always some point where the motor gets stuck in the snow, and then I start losing power shortly thereafter, I'm guessing because the filter has frozen up.

I have a Grillo G110 and had the same/similar problem with light powder. It took a while to figure out what was happening, but I finally decided that the snow was blowing back on the muffler and carb along with the carb linkages. After blowing for a bit, I was unable to get the engine to run above idle because the linkages iced up. I guess the warmth from the muffler was melting the snow on linkages and then it was refreezing so that the governor was not working. I don't believe I had any problem with the air filter.

I came up with an inexpensive and easy fix using flashing I had laying around and used a small bungie to hold it in place. Since then, I have never experienced the problem.

ottawarob · Jan 28, 2019

saxnbees said:
I have a Grillo G110 and had the same/similar problem with light powder. It took a while to figure out what was happening, but I finally decided that the snow was blowing back on the muffler and carb along with the carb linkages. After blowing for a bit, I was unable to get the engine to run above idle because the linkages iced up. I guess the warmth from the muffler was melting the snow on linkages and then it was refreezing so that the governor was not working. I don't believe I had any problem with the air filter.

I came up with an inexpensive and easy fix using flashing I had laying around and used a small bungie to hold it in place. Since then, I have never experienced the problem.

View attachment 589119

Interesting! So you put flashing over the muffler that extends over the linkages? Makes sense. I've seen similar things. I can never pin point when it happens with mine, but with the last session, I had to do a tight turn through deep snow, dragging the motor through powder. Of course I was way out at the end of a path I was blowing, really happy I could make it back to home base without it dying on me.

saxnbees · Jan 28, 2019

Yes, that is exactly what I did. I also think the flashing holds some heat in the area and melts anything that happens to get past the flashing. It does not take much to stop the governor linkage from performing its job. Once that freezes up, the engine can no longer request more gas from the carb so it can't run faster than idle and it takes a lot more power than idle to turn the snow blower.

ottawarob · Jan 28, 2019

saxnbees said:
Yes, that is exactly what I did. I also think the flashing holds some heat in the area and melts anything that happens to get past the flashing. It does not take much to stop the governor linkage from performing its job. Once that freezes up, the engine can no longer request more gas from the carb so it can't run faster than idle and it takes a lot more power than idle to turn the snow blower.

I was totally convinced that my problem was with the air filter, but this sounds super plausible! I'll be keeping an eye on the governor the next time this happens to me.