I have new pavement. I suppose I will leave it since Id rather have a little bit of snow left behind rather than to abuse and stress the drive shaft.
Also, is there any harm in keeping the snowblower on when you lift it up to back up to reposition for the next row? I do not know if it is only supposed to be on when its actually on the ground?
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It better to turn off the Power Take Off and then restart the Power Take Off at near idle speed as you will be backing up slowly at a much slower engine speed and you need to concentrate on controlling the tractor then reengaging the Power Take Off before making the second pass.
You also need to tilt the spout control downward to reduce the snow spray that you are creating with it as well.
You do not have to have it fully upright as the snow spray can and will become so great that you will have difficulty
seeing everything and if the wind changes you may be blinded while driving forward and that is not something
you want to have happen.
You can safely leave the spout control at the horizontal position while working if there is very little wind blowing as you
are not trying to stack the blown snow above the tractor height. if there is a high wind blowing you simply lower the
spout to either side below the horizontal position and just continue to clear the snow.
The more time you spend in the seat with the snow blower the more familiar you will become with how to operate it and avoid
any issues with operating the tractor as your use of the spout control will become second nature to keep the snow spray volume
at a bare minimum.
Once you have the chute and spout control set you do not have to worry about looking back constantly either as it will be very
distracting while you are clearing snow and you will have less time to react if you start sliding.
When you have wet heavy snow at times in the winter and in the early spring you will need to slow down raise the spout above horizontal and just
crawl along to cast the snow to either side to get rid of it. Heavy wet snow is an energy hog for a 2 stage snow blower of any type due to the gear reduction and open auger design of a 2 stage snow blower.