Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

Hi, everyone. I'm new to the forum and hoping that you can improve my learning curve when it comes to snowblowing. My husband is out of town for a very long period of time, and he purchased a snowblower for me to use in his absence. I used it tonight for the first time, but I had a heck of a time negotiating turns (it's quite heavy). The snowblower does not have any features that make turning easier (e.g. right wheel lock), but it does have reverse gears.

Does anyone have any tips or tricks to make turning easier?

The basic snowblowers have a pin lock system that allows you to set one of the wheels freewheeling. You do not just take the pin out or the wheel will fall off.

On my blower the left hand wheel ( from the operator position) is the one the can be set to free wheel. Since both wheels have a pin lock you have to look for the one that has two holes in the axle. If both wheels are locked then the second hole will be on the axle sticking out from the hole in the rim. If the wheel is locked then the inner edge of the hole will be about 1/2" away from the side of the traction housing ( where the axle comes out of the machine) and the pin goes through the wheel hub and the axle. If is freewheeling then the goes through the hole closest to the end of the axle and not through the hole n the axle.

Once you have identified the wheel you need to lift the blower up and prop it up so that the wheel is off the ground. Pull the pin out, slide the wheel to the alternate position and put the pin in the other hole. The other way to do it is to lift the blower into the "Service Position" which makes it look like you're trying to go to China. You would have to empty out the gas tank and its a fairly heavy lift so you don't normally do it that way.

If it's a heavy machine and turning it requires more effort you're willing or able to put up with the simplest solutions is to avoid turning as much as possible. Unless your driveway is 1/4 mile long you can just make one pass, then back up the full length of the driveway, make another pass, so on so forth. Takes longer but is easier on the muscles. Also once you've cleared enough snow to be able to make a normal turn -as opposed to turning on a dime- you can put the laws of physics at work and use what I call the "buried heel trick" to quickly turn the machine without much of an effort. This is done by walking behind the blower (the faster the better) then just stop walking and let go of one of the handles (the one with the auger clutch) while holding tight to the other, and trust me centrifugal force will take care of the rest. This works even with my heavy tracked machine and requires surprisingly little effort. The only downside is that you can only turn in one direction, which direction that is depends on which handle the drive clutch is (on mine it's on the left side) because you need to keep that clutch engaged otherwise the machine will stop, so plan ahead. All this sounds much trickier than it actually is.

If I can do it I start at the centre of the driveway and always turn to counterclockwise.That means that I'm always throwing to the right, don't have to change the chute direction and the turns get wider with each swath. All the blowers I've seen throw snow better to the right than the left. with both wheels locked I find leaning to the outside of the turn while the wheels move the machine seems to be enough to make the turn in most cases. If it gets to be a problem I pull out the pin. I do plan to get an Ariens DLE whenever my current machine finally wears out.