Quick Question: 3 blades or 4 for an impeller?

[SensibleNick]

Hi fellas. Long time no see

I have a cheap (and terribly made) Snowblower for my 25Hp Foton tractor. The impeller and impeller housing appear to have been made by a blind guy using a piece of elastic as a measuring tool - a 1" pebble can sit in the impeller housing and not get hit... in some places... in others a ｽ" pebble will get picked up.

Anyway.. After a year or two of picking up stones and shearing it's fair load of shear pins, the impeller is rather tired. I have a choice. Rebuild the impeller with rubber tips, or build a new one (I have endless stainless steel and a waterjet cutter at my disposal) ... my only question is this:

I've heard in the past on this forum that a 4-blade impeller is better than a 3-blade.... WHY is this the case? And is it worth spending four times the time to make a new 4-blader than just re-furbishing the 3-blader?

All views welcome

All the best from a misty and dull Sweden!

 

[JerryK]

Each blade on the impeller is like a little shovel. Those little shovels are the things that throw the snow up the chute. The more shovels the better... Some have five ... Since you are building a new impeller you are limited in diameter and depth of the shovels.. all you can do is add one or two more. A four blade would probably be fairly easy to square up while you were welding, five a little harder to get laid out right, but doable... Worth a try...

As to whether it is worth it, depends on how good the rest of the unit is. Could be like putting lipstick on a pig. [ ] It would make it more efficient, but that's not a call someone can make for you. Some stainless is a little softer than steel, and that could be a problem too... Good luck, Jerry....