Snow blower thoughts
Posted: Tue Mar 14, 2017 7:01 pm
Some thoughts from recent snow storms.
- My driveway is too large for my snow blower. It doesn't throw snow far enough to make it to the edge at the big section in front of the garage. This causes me to have to go over it twice. The long narrow section out to the street is fine.
- It says 7.75 hp but I could see having like 11 or even 12 hp at a 26" swath. For a bigger machine like a 30" I think I'd want something really stout like 15 or 16 hp.
- I think I will try the rubber flap mod on the impeller for next season. It is supposed to dramatically improve the pumping efficiency of the impeller in slushy stuff.
Given my power observations, I wonder how well my 12.5 hp Simplicity tractor would do with the 36" single stage thrower. I'd love to find out and I am casually looking for them. Not that common to find. Plus I park it under the deck and just getting to the driveway after a big storm would require snow blowing a path first most likely.
- In searching for the thrower I came across many Simplicity walk behinds and a common one is a 24" model branded as a professional machine. 24" you say? Yeah, but it has 11 hp. Think sidewalks and stuff. 11 hp in a 24" machine sounds awesome if you are doing long, narrow areas.
- We were originally supposed to get 12-18" and that got cut, and cut again. We probably did get 6" but it turned to rain and just poured all afternoon. Stupidly, I thought it would be a great idea to go out before too much rain came down and try removing the snow that had fallen. I was out there fighting with slushy crap, getting absolutely SOAKED all the way through my heavy jacket. I did soak the chute and auger area with silicone spray before starting. The way I had to clear the driveway, I started at the outside and worked inside, which means the 5-20 feet the machine could throw slush eventually was just onto the driveway. So a large portion of the driveway had slush all over it when I was done. I burned through an entire tank before I was quite done. With the first round.
- I went out this evening after the rain stopped and went over it again to clean up the slush. And I was able to go on speed 4. It was also throwing it a good 20 feet. It made me do some interesting correlation. Each time I have struggled with a snow storm recently, I went out preemptively to take care of it before it froze or whatever people say they are doing. But twice now, going out the second time after waiting was always a much easier experience - the machine seems to work more efficiently with less clogging (or no clogging). Makes me really wonder - should I have just waited until the rain stopped before going out? In other cases, it would be the difference between going out that night, or waiting until the next morning. The data I have says I should just wait.
- The parking lot area in front of my garage is the real issue - any more narrow section is not a problem. But in the wide section, I need to be able to throw even slush like 50 feet. I don't know if any stock machines can even do that. Either that, or I need a machine with a shitload of power so when I do end up re-throwing snow that I threw only 10 feet, it has enough balls to pick it all up and move it over another 10 feet until I am done. Either way. I think the rubber mud flap impeller mod may be a big help.
- My machine is still running well as far as it was designed for. It runs best with the choke on one click and has since I got it. In light stuff I can run on no choke but if it starts bogging down, it will eventually stumble whereas with 1 click of choke, it seems to provide more power before stalling.
- My driveway is too large for my snow blower. It doesn't throw snow far enough to make it to the edge at the big section in front of the garage. This causes me to have to go over it twice. The long narrow section out to the street is fine.
- It says 7.75 hp but I could see having like 11 or even 12 hp at a 26" swath. For a bigger machine like a 30" I think I'd want something really stout like 15 or 16 hp.
- I think I will try the rubber flap mod on the impeller for next season. It is supposed to dramatically improve the pumping efficiency of the impeller in slushy stuff.
Given my power observations, I wonder how well my 12.5 hp Simplicity tractor would do with the 36" single stage thrower. I'd love to find out and I am casually looking for them. Not that common to find. Plus I park it under the deck and just getting to the driveway after a big storm would require snow blowing a path first most likely.
- In searching for the thrower I came across many Simplicity walk behinds and a common one is a 24" model branded as a professional machine. 24" you say? Yeah, but it has 11 hp. Think sidewalks and stuff. 11 hp in a 24" machine sounds awesome if you are doing long, narrow areas.
- We were originally supposed to get 12-18" and that got cut, and cut again. We probably did get 6" but it turned to rain and just poured all afternoon. Stupidly, I thought it would be a great idea to go out before too much rain came down and try removing the snow that had fallen. I was out there fighting with slushy crap, getting absolutely SOAKED all the way through my heavy jacket. I did soak the chute and auger area with silicone spray before starting. The way I had to clear the driveway, I started at the outside and worked inside, which means the 5-20 feet the machine could throw slush eventually was just onto the driveway. So a large portion of the driveway had slush all over it when I was done. I burned through an entire tank before I was quite done. With the first round.
- I went out this evening after the rain stopped and went over it again to clean up the slush. And I was able to go on speed 4. It was also throwing it a good 20 feet. It made me do some interesting correlation. Each time I have struggled with a snow storm recently, I went out preemptively to take care of it before it froze or whatever people say they are doing. But twice now, going out the second time after waiting was always a much easier experience - the machine seems to work more efficiently with less clogging (or no clogging). Makes me really wonder - should I have just waited until the rain stopped before going out? In other cases, it would be the difference between going out that night, or waiting until the next morning. The data I have says I should just wait.
- The parking lot area in front of my garage is the real issue - any more narrow section is not a problem. But in the wide section, I need to be able to throw even slush like 50 feet. I don't know if any stock machines can even do that. Either that, or I need a machine with a shitload of power so when I do end up re-throwing snow that I threw only 10 feet, it has enough balls to pick it all up and move it over another 10 feet until I am done. Either way. I think the rubber mud flap impeller mod may be a big help.
- My machine is still running well as far as it was designed for. It runs best with the choke on one click and has since I got it. In light stuff I can run on no choke but if it starts bogging down, it will eventually stumble whereas with 1 click of choke, it seems to provide more power before stalling.