I was asked on another thread to post pictures of the mods I did to my Agri-Fab 50" snowblower so here they are.
The primary modification was to add two slots (one additional per side) on the chute "gear" so it would go ~120 degrees from forward. Without the additional slot, it only goes ~90 degrees and that just isn't enough in some cases. I had to remove the metal stop plate that bolts on the right side of the chute "gear" and grind off some plastic that is moulded into the "gear" on the left side. They keep the chute from rotating past 90 degrees but aren't necessary since the turner runs into the edge of the "gear" and can't turn it farther with no slot to engage. I did this with my Dremel tool.
Right side. The metal stop plate was held on by the two rightmost bolts. I had to grind the washer that was right were I needed to add the slot.
Left side
The "stop" that was part of the plastic gear was just to the left of the slot I added. Both stops ran up against the vertical plate on the blower housing. If you look closely at the washer right where the camera flash inconveniently landed, you will see that I also had to grind off part of that washer as well. It stuck out into the slot and the "turner" would hang up. Can't say this is the best design.
I added the recommended "wheel weight kit" - 55 pound wheel weight bolted to the back of the tractor. The instructions say to mount it angled this way if the gas tank interferes. It doesn't but the holes in the bracket didn't line up with those in the tractor when I tried to mount it straight out. BUT, that turns out to be a good thing because it wouldn't have left enough space to hitch the dump cart to the tractor. I'm using it to haul firewood up to the house.
This product uses a stock electric winch (used on ATV I guess) to raise and lower the blower. Clearly not made in the USA given the instructions are REALLY poor translations in some places. I blew many 30A fuses raising the blower all the way up (4") because the stop limit switch wasn't contacted. The wire rope (49 feet!) got pretty mangled forcing itself between the wraps on the next level down. Note that the "support rods" you see in the picture below do not exist in the picture on the Sears site. Also not shown (and I've taken it off so I can't show you either) is a safety plate with a large slot for the cable covering the winch drum. At first I thought the swage that made the loop in the cable was jamming against that. Since it still blew the fuse after I took the safety plate off I figured it was the swage jamming between the cable on the winch and the "support rods". I ordered a 10' lift rope thinking that would let the shaft pivot the extra 1/2".
But NO, it failed in exactly the same way. I don't know if there is some adjustment that needs to be made but for now I Gorilla Taped a 1/2" spacer (spare part not needed on my tractor) to the inside of the plate that is SUPPOSED to hit the limit switch. Tested OK in the barn, will have to see if it is good for hours of blowing snow.
I will say that this blower is much better than the 46" one I had on my old 1995 Yardman. That one was mounted on rails that had to be bolted onto the frame in several places. Which means you had to lift and hold it in place to install it and you couldn't be off even 1/16". It also used two big "helper springs" that weren't all that easy to stretch to attach to the tractor. The pulley bracket that goes under the tractor was also held on by 4 bolts. Not the easiest thing to hold up with one hand while using your other two hands to install the bolts. This new machine has brackets you mount permanently to the tractor frame. Both the under tractor pulley bracket and the blower itself have slotted plates that you slide over pins on these brackets and 2 clevis pins for the other 2 attachment points. Super simple. The "work" is now getting down on the ground to connect the blower belt.
