First-time snowblower operation

T

tiredguy

New member

Equipment
B3030 HSTC,B2781 51" front mounted snowblower,60" MMM
Jan 21, 2010
302
0
0
northern lower Michigan
RCW said:
Yeah - sounds like its NY State's turn next couple days.

Fortunately, looks like we're right on the east edge of it!! Folks in Tug Hill, and Buffalo areas looks like foot or two.

I'm okay with that!:)
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ROTFLMAO! ME TOO!
We're so far down in winter to date snowfall it's hard to even be concerned
about what we'll get for the est of the winter now. We need the Great Lakes
to freeze over to slow down the evaporation so the level stays up where we
need it to be. One thing is always certain with Michigan weather, stick around it will change in 5 minutes. With all the computer model satellite tracking dual Doppler radar add nausium BS all the weather predictors have now still the best of the best can only be 50% accurate within 24 hours. I can easily guess what's going to happen by looking outside and
knowing what the temperature is and barometric pressure. If the pressure
stays high no snow if it drops down we get snow. If it's to cold we don't get much snow.
 
J

jmatz

Member

Equipment
B2650 Cab, LA534 FEL, B2782 snowblower, Landpride GS1572 grader
Feb 14, 2015
35
0
6
69
Traverse City, Mi
Well... Colder weather and more packed snow made all the difference today. As several of you mentioned, that's what had to happen to allow the skids to do their job and not dig in to the gravel road.

We now have frozen ground and maybe a couple inches of packed snow on driveway and road, with a fresh dumping of lake effect snow that just keeps piling up. The 5" of loose powder on top of the hard pack was really easy to remove, and the whole 1000' only required three quick passes (12' wide road with a 5' snowblower). Fun to see that jet of snow go 20 or 30 feet into the woods!

It does make sense to add the pipe modification to the leading edge, but I hope I can wait until spring when I have a proper workshop to do the mod.
 
Grouse Feathers

Grouse Feathers

New member
Lifetime Member

Equipment
BX2370, FEL, Snowblower-BX5455, Homebuilt Forks, LP RB1560, LP GS1548
Feb 16, 2015
1,022
4
0
Lovells, Mi
jmatz said:
It does make sense to add the pipe modification to the leading edge, but I hope I can wait until spring when I have a proper workshop to do the mod.
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At least over here the snow is long gone before the ground thaws, but we have a lot less lake effect, maybe 1" when you get 10", and a lot colder temperatures. When they refer to the Ausable River valley icebox in the local weather that's us.
 
K

KeithG

Member

Equipment
2000 Kubota B2710, Woods BH75 backhoe, LandPride York Rake, B2783 Snow Blower
Jan 1, 2016
129
5
18
Rindge, NH
Regarding ice/crunchy snow - We got about 3 inches of sleet here in NH the other day and when you walked on it you did not even leave footprints. The ATV and plow blade simply went up on top of it. Trying to shovel it you had to dig into it and scrape and then lift it and it was HEAVY. So I decided to use the snow blower for the first time. I put the snow blower in float mode and even the snow blower went on top of it and did not move it. Had to take it out of float and use the entire weight of the tractor to bite into this stuff to finally get the snow blower to clear it. I learned that some snow has to be done SLOWLY otherwise to much weight is put into the second stage and SNAP goes the shear bolt. Unfortunately I did not have any extra bolts and had to guess at how strong the bolts were that I had and limped along clearing the rest of the driveway. Since then I have learned a lot about bolts used for shear protection (see my post 'Everything you need to know about SHEAR BOLTS').

Suffice it to say, whatever gets moved by the augers into the fan will be processed (i.e. chunks of ice, heavy snow, etc...). I have attached a picture of the snow blower through the heave sleet.

-Keith
SnowBlower.jpg
 
J

jmatz

Member

Equipment
B2650 Cab, LA534 FEL, B2782 snowblower, Landpride GS1572 grader
Feb 14, 2015
35
0
6
69
Traverse City, Mi
Thanks again to all for the various suggestions in this thread. I have finally experienced pretty much the full range of snow types up here, and feel way more comfortable with the setup now. You were all a big help. I think I now have to include a short video of the conditions last week - perfect fluffy snow, 18" of it over weekend and then an additional 8" the following Monday. Had to do the driveway and road a few times to keep up with the snowfall rate. Now I think I could have waited until the end of the day and just done it all at once, but it would have been quite a bit of snow to move.

You will all get a kick out of the rear wiper waving in the breeze. I forgot to put it back down on the window before taking off down the driveway...

EDIT: I adjusted the skids to the highest position (dropping blower edge and auger closer to surface), and the results are really good. Nothing left behind now. Also, I decided to do the basic maintenance that the manual suggests after a few hours of use. Mostly oiling the chain and tightening bolts. I discovered that two of the carriage bolts that secure the chain tension frame had fallen off and the chain tightening bolt head was broken off, resulting in a pretty slack chain. Might have even been slipping a bit, but no damage to teeth of drive gears. I'm new to this, so called the dealer and he sent someone out within a day to fix it. Could do it myself now that I've watched the process, but wanted to see an expert do it. Requires some really long needle nose pliers to reach in to the bolts too. Might have to pick those up at Harbor Freight.


https://vimeo.com/152622366
 
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S

sky.high

New member

Equipment
BX2380, FEL, Mower, Snowblower, Chipper/shredder
Sep 30, 2018
3
0
0
Calgary
Hi Ive a BX2816 front end blower and been wondering if its okay to push down on the blower with some of the tractor weight to ripe into hard packed snow, I've done it a couple of times but would like to be sure I'm not going damage anything, the operation manual doesn't say
 
J

jmatz

Member

Equipment
B2650 Cab, LA534 FEL, B2782 snowblower, Landpride GS1572 grader
Feb 14, 2015
35
0
6
69
Traverse City, Mi
sky.high said:
Hi Ive a BX2816 front end blower and been wondering if its okay to push down on the blower with some of the tractor weight to ripe into hard packed snow, I've done it a couple of times but would like to be sure I'm not going damage anything, the operation manual doesn't say
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I think that if it is to get through some stretches of crusty / hard snow it's a great technique, and doesn't do any harm to the blower components or the hydraulics (at least not for me, and I've had to use that down pressure a lot lately). But for any long stretches of driveway or road, it's pretty impractical and you loose a lot of maneuverability if you're using enough down-pressure to take too much weight off the front wheels.

I've also recently begun using the back side of the blower to pull snow away from areas where small mounds of snow are left when the augers doesn't get it all.
 
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