Snow Blower Frustration!

[Stache]

About shearing pins, I stumbled into something that maybe people with manuals already know. I hooked up my 3-pt blower in early November, shortly after I broke my wrist. It was February before there was any snow to blow, and when it came, I suited up and went at the snow-blowing. In about an hour, I had sheared 6 pins on the PTO shaft, and there was no slush, clogging, gravel or speed issues. On the sixth replacement, it happened to be the first time I had the blower in the air when replacing the pin, and as I was finishing up, I happened to lean on the side of the blower, and pushed it nearly a foot sideways. I had forgotten to tighten the tensioners on the arms of the 3-pt. after I hooked up the blower.
So, I tightened them up, and since I was out of snow, I went and cleared the driveways of four of my neighbors and didn't shear another bolt for a month (when I went too fast into a 4-foot bank).
So if everybody already knew side-play is a factor, I apologize for boring you. I never had considered it to be an issue before I made this error.

 

[leonz]

Hello my neighbor to the north,

I assume its as wet up yonder as it is here south of you on my mountain eh??

About your 3 point hitch snow blower, no worries, we all learn that the upsetting the
geometry can kill or cure a snow blower which is why it needs to stay linear and have
solid linkage at all times as any large movement that causes a stress force/stretch/bending moment
can cause a shear bolt to break even if it is not an old well designed dog eating snow blower.

Its to bad that these snow blower manufacturers do not make a single stage snow
thrower with a 13 inch snow blower rotor as they would outsell any 2 stage snow blower
due to the single stage snow throwers simplicity.

One only has to look at the single stage units made in Europe to see how well they are built and
how well they work.

The 12 horse 1968 IHC Cub Cadet I had growing up was a beautiful hydrostatic drive lawn tractor
with a snow thrower that cut through everything. I wish I still had it.