Thoughts on converting lawn tractor snow blower to PT422

[aczlan]

2) adding pulleys to the system makes the design more complex and therefore more prone to failure and more difficult to build. (Additionally, a pulley system will increase the distance between the tractor and the snowblower, which will be more cumbersome to maneuver.)

Go vertical with the pulleys (ie: mount the motor above the driven pulley) and you wont add any appreciable length.
Also, be sure to use good belts. Any time I have chosen not to use a Kevlar wrapped belt in a snowblower, I have regretted it.

Aaron Z

 

[KMA]

Go vertical with the pulleys (ie: mount the motor above the driven pulley) and you wont add any appreciable length.
Also, be sure to use good belts. Any time I have chosen not to use a Kevlar wrapped belt in a snowblower, I have regretted it.

Aaron Z

Hi Aaron,

I agree there may be a way to mount the drive pulley above without adding length, but I can actually decrease the current length a good deal if I go direct drive. Another forum member did a similar conversion and mentioned the his overall length was less than ideal. If I go with pulleys, the approach you described is definitely the right one in my opinion.

Thanks!

 

[duane]

KMA, wanted to respond based my experience when I converted my snowblower. Your snowblower looks exact as mine. Here are my notes.
-Gresen Hydr motor: 0.58 = 3400 rpm (same as the finish mower)
-Gresen motor on PT PTO circuit: 9.88 Hp cont, 12.4 HP int.
-Pt snowblower with hydraulic motor turns at 1650 rpm. This equates to 5,024 fpm tip velocity of the single stage auger. This was the same as my toro-wheel horse set-up. My Toro-wheel horse threw the snow 50'
-Added a couple of pix, I went direct drive. I could have shortened it up by another 8" by mounting the quick attach right behind the motor, but did not want to ruin the re-converting back to the WH if needed (glad in the end)

Ultimately it was not enough power in deep, wet snow. I re-converted back to my 18 hp toro wheel horse (I was spoiled by the blowing capability of the WH, but wanted the traction of the PT). The bush hog 3.0 cu in motor would have plenty of torque, but not enough RPM. I don't believe it would throw the snow well and it would clog up the chute.

I wish you good luck. I don't get to the forum as much as I like, but will try to answer any questions you may have.

 

[KMA]

Thanks duane! Great input!

I referenced your thread and experiences a great deal in deciding whether to give this a try... The fact that I have a plow on my ATV (which I do the driveway with normally and works pretty well) and that I bought the snowblower for $80, I thought I'd give it a go. If nothing else, I'll just use it for the deeper light stuff, which is actually quite a hassle when using the ATV. My PT sits idle over the winter so I might as well try to use it for something, especially since it starts a bit better in the cold with the new FI engine. I'll also try out some of KentT's tips on getting the most out of a single stage blower.

Thanks again for your help!

 

[MossRoad]

Looking at duane's pictures, if you wanted to go belt drive you could certainly put the motor above the shaft anywhere along the length I would think, and not increase the length at all.

 

[coolconnection]

If you had enough area on top of the blower frame just get a cheap 7 to 14 hp gas motor from Harbor Freight and make it direct drive just use a long throttle cable to control speed. Probably cheaper to do as well.

 

[J_J]

I agree with coolconnection, as the HP you are developing with a 8 GPM hyd motor , at 3000psi, using the 85% efficiency rate, you only put about 13.6 HP into the snow blower, at a low torque.

 

[KMA]

Looking at duane's pictures, if you wanted to go belt drive you could certainly put the motor above the shaft anywhere along the length I would think, and not increase the length at all.

I agree, but I plan to decrease the length seen in duane's pics by 6-8" or so. I'm guessing that duane wanted to keep the stock geometry in case he wanted to use it again on his Wheel Horse tractor. I don't have another tractor and only paid $80, so I plan to permanently shorten up the connection arms, otherwise the total length when mounted on the PT is pretty long.

If you had enough area on top of the blower frame just get a cheap 7 to 14 hp gas motor from Harbor Freight and make it direct drive just use a long throttle cable to control speed. Probably cheaper to do as well.

The HF motors are about $300 or so, and I already have the hydraulic motor ($0). Plus I don't think you could easily do direct drive with a gas motor on this snowblower. It would get pretty complicated trying to mount it and get the drive connections correct, then manage the added weight and complexity... plus I'd rather not have another engine to deal with. I think if I was considering something like this I would just look for a larger, used walkbehind snowblower.

I agree with coolconnection, as the HP you are developing with a 8 GPM hyd motor , at 3000psi, using the 85% efficiency rate, you only put about 13.6 HP into the snow blower, at a low torque.

Yeah, it looks like torque will be the issue with the hyd motor approach. Since I'm unsure of how well it will work, I'm trying to spend not much over $100 (inc. the snowblower). That way I won't be too disappointed. As I alluded to in an earlier post, the deep lighter snow is actually a bit of trouble for my ATV/plow. The snow falls away over top and on both sides of the blade, even though it is angled. I end up having to make multiple passes to clean it all up. If the PT snowblower works okay only in these situations, it will be time/money well spent.

Thanks again for your feedback, it really helps!

 

[MossRoad]

I agree, but I plan to decrease the length seen in duane's pics by 6-8" or so. I'm guessing that duane wanted to keep the stock geometry in case he wanted to use it again on his Wheel Horse tractor. I don't have another tractor and only paid $80, so I plan to permanently shorten up the connection arms, otherwise the total length when mounted on the PT is pretty long.

I thought that's what I said. But maybe it didn't come across that way when I typed it! :laughing: So I'll try it again...

If you mount the motor above the shaft and drive the shaft with a belt you could decrease the length of the mounts to the tractor shown in Duane's photos significantly.

 

[KMA]

I thought that's what I said. But maybe it didn't come across that way when I typed it! :laughing: So I'll try it again...

If you mount the motor above the shaft and drive the shaft with a belt you could decrease the length of the mounts to the tractor shown in Duane's photos significantly.

I see what you are saying, but it would actually have to be above and back towards the tractor a bit. After getting some feedback I came away feeling I shouldn't go much smaller than the 6" pulley that's on the snowblower's shaft currently. To get the 1:1 ratio using the finish mower motor, I'd need a 6" drive pulley and things would start to get crowded quick. It could be done, but much more complicated than directly coupled and I couldn't shorten it as much (or maybe not at all). You mentioned moving it anywhere along the length, which again is possible but adds complexity and cost. I don't have a pic of my own, but I found these on the web which is the same model.

To be honest, I'm not certain how well it will work using the hyd motor so I'm not inclined to put to many resources into the project. I think I'll stick with the KISS principle (and keeping it cheap too).