VA Snow

[HubbardRA 19]

Finally got a snow here in Fredericksburg. Went to bed last night with only 1 inch. Woke up this morning to find about 8 inches of very heavy wet snow. I tried out the blower, Didn't do too good. Snow was so wet it just wanted to pack into snowballs. Blower wouldn't throw it far, and chute kept clogging up. Did get the driveway cleared, before burning up the main drive belt. Found a few problems that need to be fixed. Not bad for it's first shakedown run. You can see in the pictures that the snow was coming out more like a big rod of snow, rather that being thrown into the air. When I used the shovel on the walk. It was so heavy, that a shovel full was all that I would want to lift. Very heavy wet snow as you can see from the trees in the background.

You can see from the first picture the driveway is covered. In this next pictued I am just finishing up the clearing of the driveway. At the end of that last pass the belt started slipping to the point it wouldn't blow any more snow. So I parked it till I could get a new belt and fix a couple other minor problems.

[MDB 134]

Lookin good Rod, Not too bad for the maiden voyage:D BTW you can keep the snow in VA.:D

[johnmonkey 4]

Rod, hows the snow blower working??John

[HubbardRA 19]

John, If this had been a light dry snow, the blower would have worked great. Even with this heavy wet stuff, I like it better than a plow. No big piles when you are finished. Guess it isn't too bad for a Sears Suburban blower on an AC716H. My belt drive setup still needs a little work.

[dcw06 0]

Looks like you got most of the snow cleaned up before your belt quit on you.Thats a good thing.

[PatrickE 0]

Man that snow looks heavy! Nice pics. That why we need several tractors all set-up, blades and blowers!

[HubbardRA 19]

Got another tractor and a blade, if I had needed it. Warmed up enough that driveway was melted off by late afternoon.

[MPH 12]

Almost looks like your blower isn't spinning fast enough Rod, maybe it was the slipping belt. When you set up the drive set up did you figure for the same rpm the blower run on the sears?

[HubbardRA 19]

Marty, it should have been spinning faster than it was on the Sears. The pulley on the engine is about 1/2 inch larger than the triple pulley that was on my Sears Suburban. Maybe they used a larger pulley for the blower. I got this blower off Dan(rokon), and actually did not see it set up on a Suburban. I need a new belt because the one on it is pretty much chewed up. It didn't break, but just started slipping so bad that it wouldn't blow any snow at all. I am also thinking about putting a larger pulley on the engine also. The engine did not appear to be turning anywhere near 3600 rpm. Got a few things to work on. Hard to get a blower right without having snow to test it on. First big snow in 2 years, since I hooked up the blower. Guess it worked fine, since it kept the snow away that long. LOL Wife didn't get any pictures when it was really throwing a good stream of snow out of the chute, so the pictures are not representative of how it was working when I was actually cleaning the driveway. She was standing in the front door and wouldn't come outside while I was working in the area behind the cars. She shot about 7 pictures and every one of them was when I was going thru an area that had already been plowed, except the last couple when the belt was on its last legs. Think I need to hire a better photographer. LOL Here is what it looked like two years ago when I first mounted the blower:

[Roy 0]

Gang, Watch and listen to the video that Eli did of Kent snowblowing. Kent's engine sounds like it is idling. Listen and tell me how many revs you think he is turning. Thanks,

[HubbardRA 19]

Roy, from the sound of his engine, I am guessing 2800-3000. When you hear them on tape they sound slow. I had a friend who ran a Pro Stock puller. His engine turned 7500 rpm when pulling, yet on tape it sounded like a lawnmower. I know my engine is turning too slow for the blower. The throttle cable has slipped in its attachment up under the dash. I have to remove the gas tank to fix it. Gonna do that, then use the vibratach to set max rpm to 3600. This will go along with the snowblower belt and pulley changes. I hope to be ready for the next snow.