Belt on Front Mounted Snow Blower

[miro]

I have a 42 inch front mounted blower on a B 5100 4wd.
I bought it last year and last winter it did a great job. I really like the front blower because it lets me use varying forward speeds and my neck ain't as flexible as it once was.

This year, was good too , until the drive arrangement ATE and SHREDDED the Vee belt (bought new last year) .
The tractor has a front PTO with electric clutch. The belt goes down from the pulley on the PTO to 2 smaller pulleys ( one pulley has a tension spring on it) and then back up to the large drive pulley of the blower.

I suspect that the reason the belt wore out is the amount of side-to-side movement of the blower . The blower is attached to the rear mount point so the blower can sway quite a bit to left or right.
At the extreme ends of the "sway" (left or right) the alignment of the PTO pulley and the small tension pulleys is not good and the belt ( this year) would flip over and sometimes when I lifted the blower ( has hydraulic lift) the belt would come off the pulley on the electric clutch.

SO, my question:
How much side to side "sway" of the lower should there normally be ?
There needs to be some, but how much.
And how do you restrict that "sway" ? It cannot be a rigid since the blower has to be able to move up and down.

miro

 

[tinkerwitheverything]

my front mount blower doesn't move side to side at all.mind you mine is mounted to the front of my bx 2370-1 , I have a old 48" wide Ariens blower that I had made fit onto a MF GC 2300 using a quick hitch on the front, it's now used on my BX 2370-1. not sure what yours looks like. Pics of your's would sure help for us to give you any advice.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

I would say your pivot pins / bushings / or mounts are worn and need rebuilt.

Excessive side to side play is not supposed to be going on.

 

[miro]

The 3 rd thumbnail shows belt on my blower .
http://www.orangetractortalks.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23383

There are 2 springs on either side of the rails at the front of the rails but I could not figure out where they are supposed to attach. You can see one of the springs in the picture.
Maybe there is a missing part.
I suspect ( but don't know) those springs are supposed to limit the sway distances left and right.

I think I've got an answer here though - little or no side to side movement is what I should aim for.

The machine is at the country place - I'm in the city for the Xmas duration.

Next trip north will be in 3 - 4 weeks.

Miro

 

[tinkerwitheverything]

Just by looking at the third pic. it looks to me that as soon as you raise the blower the belt is going to lose it's tension. so any movement up and down as your blowing is going to make the belt lose it's tension. I'am not sure how much side to side movement you have but I'am positive that you need to keep tension on the belt all the time otherwise it's going to eat belts like crazy. Looks like your going to have to either make the snowblower frame etc: mount differently to the tractor so that the pivot point of your lift is directly underneath the clutch pulley, or try and make some sort of tensioner pulley that will keep tension on the belt at all times.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Ok, this is a case of pictures tell way more than words.
I was going off of a Stock blower setup for that tractor not an aftermarket/other manufactures fab up.

You're getting sway out of it because of how it's mounted, not much can be done with that unless you redesign the mounting or the lift design.

 

[torch]

More and better pictures are required. However, from what I can see in thumbnail 2 and your description, I envisage those two lower pulleys bending the belt sideways?

Hopefully the pulley axles are at 45° to the direction of belt travel to minimize the twist? V-belts don't like to twist, although some designs can handle it better than others. So part of the problem may be the new belt itself.

I would guesss the springs are part of a tensioning mechanism making those two lower pulleys into idler pulleys.

Finally, I'm not sure if it's the wheels causing the problem, or if perhaps the angle of the blower was designed in -- possibly to reduce the belt twist -- but that blower looks like it's not sitting level front to back. If so, then no wonder it dug in! but more importantly, running it with the wheels holding it constantly 2" higher than it was designed for might mean the idler pulleys are not sufficiently tensioned?

 

[torch]

V-belts don't like to twist, although some designs can handle it better than others. So part of the problem may be the new belt itself.

Maybe a round drive belt like this Durabelt or this Gates would be a better choice?

 

[miro]

Yes there is a quarter turn twist in the belt as it comes off the electric clutch pulley, around the idler pulley (which is spring loaded to supposedly keep the tension) , then another quarter turn to the snow blower drive pulley, and then finally another quart turn back down to another idler pulley ( not spring loaded) and then back up to the electric drive pulley.

I've ordered a shorter belt - maybe the first belt was too long and thus the tension was lost when the blower was raised.

But the side to side sway I think is the biggest problem which I will have to address - right now it can move 6 - 8 inches off centre either way. That's how the guy I bought it from, had it. I will post pictures once I've got that done.

I also like the round belt - never heard of them before.

Progress being made with thanks to all who are contributing.

I really like the B5100 - yes small - but it sure does the job - and I prefer to leave about 4 inches of snow on the ground to avoid gravel - my vehicle can handle 4 inches of snow but not 18 - 24 inches in some locations of the driveway -it used to be deeper before I put in the snow fences. I usually run in 2nd gear - low when I'm blowing out the snow

miro

 

[BWXT]

I would think a couple properly placed chains and turnbuckles would minimize the side-to-side action. Also, I am actually amazed that setup works at all! I'd think the belt would constantly be coming off. I was thinking about adapting a 2-stage blower to the front of my B5100 and this has given me hope! If you don't mind, what is the width of that blower, and well does it work?

 

[miro]

The blower is 42 in width, and when working on the LOW speed of the PTO throws the snow about 25 - 30 ft into the bush. That's why I got the machine in the first place.

I run at about 80% full throttle and try to never let it bog down so the impeller is spinning fast.
It worked well for the whole of last winter and the first part of this winter.
So I expect that with some thought about the side to side sway remedy I should be able to get it back to "normal".

I think the electric clutch on the front PTO is a genius idea.

On larger machines I've seen chain driven couplers from the rear PTO that drive a shaft underneath but the B5100 doesn't have enough clearance.
One of the issues is that most blowers are designed for rear mounting and if they are front mounted the direction of rotation has to be reversed. Hence in my case I have this belt arrangement.

miro

 

[torch]

I've ordered a shorter belt - maybe the first belt was too long and thus the tension was lost when the blower was raised.

If you stick with a v-belt, and therefore the 90° twists, I think you would be better off leveling the blower housing (it looks tipped forward in the picture) and lowering it to within an inch or two of the ground. In other words, strive for the longest distance between pulleys possible. That would at least reduce the rate of twist on the belt.

right now it can move 6 - 8 inches off centre either way.

Aside from any effect on the drive belt, that's gotta make it hard to control!

I also like the round belt - never heard of them before.

I think that would be the best solution. No matter what other tweaks you make, you are still twisting that belt 90° back and forth and v-belts just are not designed to handle that. Round belts are.

I prefer to leave about 4 inches of snow on the ground to avoid gravel - my vehicle can handle 4 inches of snow but not 18 - 24 inches

I also have a gravel drive. Personally, I set the blower skis for 1" clearance at the start of the season. That 1" tends to get packed down. Once the ground is frozen and I have a nice base, I set the skis for minimum clearance so the base doesn't get any thicker. I have found a thick base makes a big mess in the spring when it turns into half-frozen slush!

Of course, even before the snow flies, leveling out any ruts or potholes helps a lot too.

Recently, someone on this board said they use a piece of pipe over the blower's cutting edge instead of skis. Apparently the pipe is sufficient to keep the blower from picking up gravel while scraping right down to the ground. I might try that myself next year.