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

I just bought a Honda HS1132TAS, a tracked US model.  While I think the chute crank works fine, I want to see if I can retrofit the power chute that is on the Canadian HS928 TCD.  Does anyone have access to the parts diagram or numbers to the Canadian HS928 TCD?  Any Canadian OPE dealers willing to ship parts to the US?   Thanks in advance.

Like a kid waiting for Santa to bring Christmas presents, I can't wait for some serious snow fall to try out my new snowblower.

I went down to my local electronics surpluss store today, (its like radioshack but all grown up) trying to get an idea of what I would need for something like this.  I figure an electric motor geared down to 4-5 revs per minute would spin the chute quick enough.  For a switch what you need is an ON-OFF-ON, DPDT.  That will give you left, stop and right.  That's the simple part.  What I don't know is how I'm going to mount the motor to the chute.  I thought of the way Ariens has theirs underneath and teeth spin the chute, but I never liked the way it sat in the worst spot, always covered in water/snow.  If I keep the chute handle and just mount the motor somehow right to the handlebars, I could either use a gear to turn the rod or just go to the rod with some kind of a set screw setup.  My wish is an electromagnetic clutch that would disengage when not turning, and that way I could set up a kill switch to keep it from turning too far and breaking.

This guy used a cordless drill...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBL3GxBduyU

That's a great idea.  I suppose the drill has the entire package.  forward, reverse, slip clutch, and all on an onboard battery.  If I could I'd like to see if I could get it running on the on board power, but I don't know what voltage  the honda tas light is running at.

nhmatt wrote:

I think this is at 12V and 15W.

I don't know the current spike occurs driving the chute cranks with a cordless drill.  Not something that I woud want to tax the alternater.  The Canadian model 928TCD has an on-board battery that takes the current spikes from a motor.  It may be safer to try having a separate power source than tapping into the light source.

If and when I have the time to try this, but I'm thinking of keeping the manual crank and put a motor that can be clutched or declutched and revert to manual in case something does fail in the motor/battery combo.

I put a meter on it today and at idle got 12vac and at full throttle 16vac.  I thought it was going to be AC, just because there's no battery.    I don't know if a battery-powered drill counts as a universal motor or not.  Not a big deal, just a small rectifier somwhere would take care of it.  Honestly the light is kind of weak, but I've only seen it in the daylight and not trying it at night.  They also mount the light up front, and even though you can turn it which I like, it s in a spot where it can get covered by powdery snow.  I don't know what kind of rating I could get from it.  Are they stealing power from the coil? 

nhmatt wrote:

Yeah, stock lights are not all that powerful, but they are better than snowblowing in darkness.  I had thought about putting dual automotive fog lights in front above the bucket, like those snow plow lights, but I find didn't want to damage something running dual 30W fogs through the stock eletrical system.

Those stock lights are mounted down low so the light doesn't reflect back at you when there's snow in the air.  Similiar principle as fog lights.  However, because the light is so close to the chute, it does get covered up with snow powder.  Hmm..just got a thought about headlight wipers to take care of that problem.

Well it looks like there's a coil coming off special for the lamp (lamp coil) and its rated capacity is 12v/15w-not enough to run a drill.  I'm guessing I could dig up a broken 18v dewalt and just use a battery that's easy to pull off and charge whenever I need to change it.   I'd like to rig up a gear drive on the current chute, so I could just turn the handle in case the drill failed.  That's one of the worst things about the Ariens I have with the remote chute:  You can't turn it when it breaks (happened twice).

Maybe not a gear.  maybe a couple wheels with thin cables attached.  Then I could just wind/unwind them with the drill forward and back.  I can't find honda parts for the 1132tcd.

nhmatt wrote:

It is a good idea to make a power chute that has full manual override when the electric fails.  I'm thinking of putting a gear on the chute crank shaft.  The gear on the motor can totally disgengage from the crank shaft gear by sliding forward by one inch.  That way, you can still crank when the motor fails or the battery is depleted.

There isn't a 1132TCD, only 724TCD and 928TCD.  For some reason, Honda decided not  to make a TCD version for their largest model.  Not sure why they omitted this from their big dog model.

Its probably too close to the price/capacity of their flagship 36 hybrid.  I found one of those used on New Jersy, but the guy wanted new price AND for me to pay the recapture tax on the deduction he made when he bought it.  Sorry Charlie.

Theis isn't looking like a project I'll get done this Winter.  

nhmatt wrote:

How old was this 36 hybrid when he was selling it? If it was fairly new and not used much, I can see it fetching near new price, but paying for taxes, that's asking too much.

The 36 is too big, at that size, I would go with a tractor and a blower.