Drift cutters

[coupman35]

Am going to make some drift cutter for my rear 74 inch snowblower just wondering what size steel shude i use and how long will i need to go.

 

[BeezFun]

The drift cutters on my blower are about 18" above the deck. The taller you make them, the stronger the material you'll need. They need to be strong in both directions (forward/back and side to side), mine are stamped out of steel so they have strength sideways but still act like a knife to get through the snow. If I were making them from scratch, and I lived where you do, I'd probably use rectangular tubing that's about 1" wide by 2" deep with 1/8" wall. That would be easy to bolt on if you don't want to weld and has enough wall thickness to take a pretty good load. You can buy drift cutters for walk behind snow blowers, but I've not seen anything that would work on the size machine you have and the kind of snow you guys get up there.

 

[coupman35]

Can you post a pic of you drift cutters . Any one else have a set on there blow can you post a pic am looking for ideers .Thanks

 

[PILOON]

Mine are 48 inches tall!
(And I need them later in the season)

I simply used 5/16 X 3 inch flat stock and that works just fine for me.
Going on 5-6 years with no problems.

 

[BeezFun]

I have a larger machine but they look very similar to this:

 

[07wingnut]

Here is what worked for me. The square pieces keep the cutoff drifts from falling over the back of the blower. The square holes serve no purpose, just used what was on hand.

 

[MF RED in MT]

This is what I fabricated and installed years ago using material I already had, 1/8" aluminum diamond plate.

And I also add 1/8" thick UHMW to the inside of the discharge chute that eliminated the springtime frozen chute

blockages (when the blower was new the inside of the chute was pretty slick with new paint, but that wore off).

KC

 

[coupman35]

That pretty cool was thinking of something like that also .Am using a back snow blow but thing the snow will push on the plate i have 74 inch wide .Not sure if it will hold up .

 

[PILOON]

I also have lined my chute with HDPE and confirm it helps a lot.
Another mod is that I made my skids longer and wider (about 3 X 10") and that keeps my gravel in the driveway where it belongs.

 

[whatever1]

Not to hi jack the thread but... On two pictures I see a plate in the front open area on the chute.. Does that help to prevent clogging ? and if so how ?

Thank You

 

[07wingnut]

The plate on the open area of the chute seems to increase the distance that the snow can be blown. It may have something to do with confining the airstream to the chute rather than have some of it bleeding off at the bottom of the chute.

 

[MF RED in MT]

The plate on the front of the chute does like wingnut says, and also on mine it stops any snow buildup in between the chute and the riser plate.

KC

And I also fabricated larger skid shoes (4" x 10") with 3/4" x 4" UHMW on the bottom for my Blade and Snowblower.

Great improvement for a gravel driveway!

Sorry for the sidebar on your "Drift cutters" thread...

 

[coupman35]

That all good i like to see what other guy come up whit

 

[RaydaKub]

These are the cutters that Bercomac put out for my Pro 1000 56 inch blower. The material is maybe 2 mm thick. But they are very solid because of the 2 sided design. They extend maybe 15 inches above the body. The top is 1 inch wide by 2 inches deep.

 

[PILOON]

As you probably know wet snow likes to stick/freeze to cold metal.
That said, lining the chute with a plastic liner is a great improvement.
OK, PAM, oil etc will offset that problem but only for a short while.
The answer IMHO is a plastic liner.
Mine has been lined for a fair while and I found it to be a great performer, very happy.

My first attempts were to use HD black stick tape and that proved my concept.
Also rusted bare metal will catch snow unlike any slick surface.
It is not for simple manufacturing economics that walk behinds now all use plastic chutes.