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Snowblower pulley mod


hotrodtractor

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Any of you Sovereign owners out there change the pulley on your blowers stock is 7" on my 42". I heard some guys going to a 5" I had a old 32" blower (got for free) and I measured the pulley and it was about 6" I got removed I man hammered it off(the hard part)and put in on my 42". If I recall this should give me faster blower speeds and less belt slip than I heard the 5" will give you. Where you satisfied with the improvements, did they come at any costs/cons? When talking with Al Eden he said he ran a 5" back in the day and through snow across the street, but that was not a sovereign with the long belt to the BGB. The true test will be this winter when I put the 2 stage Ariens head to head with the 42" single stager. Any predictions which will throw farther? (I think the single will win in wet/slush throwing as you just can't beat a single for blowing water :)I expect the 2 stage to out throw in all other conditions)
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Most will say the single is great. However I have a large 75X75 foot square that needs to be cleared in the winter. I hate blowing on top the snow that I still need to blow, blowing twice. Hence the need for distance throwing. My old cub 1862 and 45" 2 stager with rubber paddle mod did about 35ft. Hope to bet this
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Instead of changing the pulley size and dealing with adjusting everything for that and hoping the belts will still align properly, I put a smaller sprocket on the auger. Works terrific, but more RPM requires more power under load
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This question has been raised before. I think most of hte members who tried it had mixed results. If the snow was light and fluffy, the smaller pulley worked great. But in heavy wet snow the blower pulled the RPM's down so much the throwing distance was reduced. If I remember the numbers correctly members were going from a 7 inch pulley to a 5 inch pulley. Maybe you will have better luck with the 6 inch. I know I have wanted to try this, but I live in Maine and usually get heavy wet snow. So the ability to move that is more important than throwing distance. That said I sometimes need to blow already blown snow. Good luck and let us know how it works for you. Rick..........
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I speed up the blower with the chain sprocket also. I could throw snow intop the neighbors yard I had the Magnum 20 in my 7117 My buddy had a Ariens 2 stage on his Powermax 16 hp said he could throw snow over the garage roof
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Ron, what sproket size did you go with? I was going to go to the 5 inch pulley... 6 may be a more happy medium. My kt17 has run the 5 inch before and I did not know the difference at the time. I just thought the blower was in better shape... Is my math right, going to a 5" from a 7" would spin the blower almost 40% faster? If thats right I wonder how the bearings will hold up long term? I think I ran mine for 2 years and no issues... No idea how many years it ran previous to that...
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Is it possible to offer a part # or link of some sort so people wanting to to the sprocket mod can get the right part. I would offer the part # of the pulley if I had it but I sourced it from my yard. This seems to be a common method theme on here. Offer good advice but leave a guy guesing what is the right part or how to make it work... but guess that's half the fun
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I'm running a 6 1/2" diameter pulley and I'm satisfied with the distance the snow is thrown. This pulley increases the auger rotational speed about 8%. The speed increase is equal to the ratio change of the driven pulley, assuming the driver pulley is kept constant. Another factor is how far down toward the center of the pulley the belt rides. The further down the belt rides, the faster the speed increase. To find the true speed increase, measure the length of belt it takes for one full wrap of each pulley. The ratio of these two measurements is the speed increase. Burntime raises valid issues. Personally, I wouldn't want to increase the speed too much as the auger tip speed has a design target for good operation. Also potential problems from auger out-of-balance, misalignment, bearing wear, etc are magnified as speed increases. Another issue is the max speed of tractor engine, it's rare that I find a tractor with a max rpm of 3600 rpm, the design speed for the snowblower. Seems most have been slowed down at least some, maybe intentionally or as a result of incorrect setup after carb or throttle cable issues. My 7117 I recently checked had a top rpm of 3000. That would result in a 17% reduction in blower speed, definitely noticeable.
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I can sympathize that we don't always offer cookbook recipes for these mod's. However, in this case I don't recall either the shaft diameter for the pulley or the chain size (I think it's 40 chain). (It has been 7 or 8 years since I did this) That is information that a prospective improvisor can readily determine for themselves. If I had that info at hand, I could give you a McMaster-Carr part number. It should be assumed that projects like this will require some research, investigation, effort, and $$. For example, you will need some chain hardware/tools because you will also need to shorten the chain a link or two.
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I get that Carl, I was just hoping someone would "throw it in my lap" so to speak. I think I will pull it off and try the local farm and fleet, see if they have the parts...
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I will take a ride one of these days. Maybe tomorrow I will check the diameter of the shaft... I need to get over to see the tigers anyway:D
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