Snowblower Is something wrong with my snowblower?

[Av8r3400]

Maybe rivet some rubber or plastic squeegees on the impeller blades?

 

[MadReferee]

Looking at your pics that were posted while I was doing mine, I would think that your paddles are about the same size as mine, 6" but your fan diameter looks much smaller. That being the case, I wonder if the gearing for the fan is causing it to spin too slow. A slow spinning fan cannot generate enough oomph to move heavy wet snow up that chute, thus the clogging. The fan does not spin at PTO speed but is geared much slower. Just a thought.

 

[SnowSeb]

To answer a few of the other questions, yes it is a 540 rpm blower. I did use pam on a dry surface. I do understand that wet snow can be a problem, but last storm started out with normal fluffy snow, then turn into wet snow around 10pm, then wet rain/drizzle by about 11- 11:30pm. By about 1 am it would not go through chute. (i have about 35 driveways to do) Unplugged it, tried again, plugged again. Stopped blowing until about 5:30 am, again no go. At that time i saw about 4 other tractors/blower that could blow the snow, only out the chute and to side a foot or 2 but still no plug. I asked a guy who does close to 100 drives and he said it plugged twice during the whole storm. His blower had shorter, round chute, with the bottom more opened up, not that tall round part, so the snow did not plug, but spilled over to the side.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Sorry to say it, but based on everything you wrote, I'd say there is a fundamental problem with the design of your chute, the transition and or the fan blade design or size. If I was you, I'd be looking to trade it in on a different brand.

The fan blade size and gearing determines tip speed. A larger fan will have higher velocity at the tips than a smaller fan will have. That may also be a factor? What size fan do you have? 16" and 20" are fairly common sizes. If you have a 20" fan then I guess it all goes back to the transition point at the base of the chute. The transition tube may be too small.

 

[SnowSeb]

anybody ever try lining the inside of chute with Crazy Carpet, that stuff is very slippery, would last longer than sprays and are very cheap to buy. Maybe fasten them inside with stainless rivets. Any thoughts about that spacing between paddles and round part it spins in, what is normal spacing.

 

[MadReferee]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Any thoughts about that spacing between paddles and round part it spins in, what is normal spacing. )</font>

The Puma spacing from paddle tip to the round shroud is about 1/8" on the inside (closest to tractor) to almost 1/4" on the outside. It's very efficient in picking up gravel and stones and throwing them up and out.

 

[SnowSeb]

See pics for more measurements. All in inches.
Fan is 21 1/4, hole 21 3/4, depth 7 inches....

 

[SnowSeb]

feeds into chute square 7x5 with a rounded side...

 

[MadReferee]

With those measurements that blower should be able to throw any type of snow when running at whatever engine rpm generates 540 rpm PTO speed.

However as I mentioned earlier, the gearbox could be setup so that the fan and auger spin way too slowly. I would investigate that first by calling JRW and see what they have for specs.

 

[SnowSeb]

then square chute is 9 1/2 wide at bottom to 7 inch wide at the very top. Sorry i said before it did not squeeze in. but wet snow never makes it up that far anyways. How do those measuments compare to other blower designs.

Well, i'm supposed to be helping the little lady with chores around house.... so gotta go!, you guys know how that is /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif, i'll check in later.