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

I inherited a Montgomery Wards 21" 3 horsepower snow thrower.  The manual is dated Dec 7, 1985.  I believe it was made by MTD.

Snow throwing is new to me and so far I have learned the value of fresh and well mixed gasoline.  Also, I put a new shave plate on it and that helped it quite a bit.  My question at this point is' "is it supposed to be self-propelled?"   When I pull up on the handle the 'blades' contact the surface and propel it along very nicely but the snow clogs much quicker.  When I do not allow the 'blades' to actually touch the surface and propel the unit, it throws much much better, but is very hard to push that way.  I'm sure I probably need new rubber for the blades.  The rubber is about 1 and half inch  on the wearing surface.  Any other tips you can give me would be greatly appreciated, thanks,

rdsatkaycee wrote:
Single-stage machines can be finicky, whether or not they can self-propel depends on snow and surface conditions. They do well with dry snow on smooth surfaces when the blades can contact the pavement but don't work so good on gravel or heavy snow , and definitely don't like ice. The trick is to keep the pavement or concrete clear at all times so use the machine even when there's very little accumulation and use salt when it's cold to keep ice at bay.

Gelid wrote:

Using salt in cold temperatures is counter productive.  The colder it gets the more salt is required to do the job.  One is best advised to limit the use of salt and if necessary, use when the weather is warmer to minimize the amount of salt needed to be effective:  In very cold conditions, salt is virtually useless.  Below is an excerpt from the U.S. Department of Roads:

The surface temperature of a snow- or ice-covered road determines de- icing chemical amounts and melting rates. As temperatures go down, the amount of de-icer needed to melt a given quantity of ice increases significantly. The graph [below] shows that salt can melt five times as much ice at 30o F as at 20o F. The effectiveness of de-icing is sensitive to small differences in pavement temperatures.

 The longer a de-icing chemical has to react, the greater the amount of melting (see graph). At temperatures above 20o F both salt and calcium chloride can melt ice in a reasonable time. At lower temperatures salt takes much longer.

The graph on the left shows that salt melts more ice per pound at higher temperatures. The graph at right shows the comparative time for different compounds to melt 1/8" of glare ice.

Thanks to all for the helpful replies

borat wrote:
By cold I mean cold enough for ice to form, not necessarily polar conditions. If you use salt when it's moderately cold your pavement will remain clear and dry when it gets really frigid.