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

I have the snow blower attachment for the DR Field and Brush mower. It wasn't working too well until I did a tune up: changed oil and filter, went with 5w30 for the winter, new plugs, cleaned the carb and adjusted it slightly richer. At least now it does not stall under load. I know it's only single stage, but where it seems to be lacking is chewing up the packed snow from the driveway apron and on my deck where it piles up after sliding off the roof. I am thinking there are two options to modify the auger: 1) cut into the auger and bend pieces alternating slightly left and right or 2) weld on small pieces of similar steel to the sides of the smooth auger. What do people think? Any design ideas? Other mods that I would like to do is to setup a joystick with electric actuators to move the chute left and right, as well as, up and down. Anyone have plans to do that? Thanks. Jeff

" 2) weld on small pieces of similar steel to the sides of the smooth auger" I haven't really given this any thought, but when I saw that line, the first thing that came to mind was using strips of really aggressive (big teeth) bandsaw blade. Notch to bend then tack on along the outer edge of the auger. Test run it, and if the balance and all your clearances are good weld it up permanent & paint it. Just be careful what you run it into.

It may be smooth because the gearbox case or gears can't handle Ice...   Be careful....

Friiy

Good point Friiy. I was also thinking of grinding small notches in the auger. However, now that serrated augers  are all the rage, I wonder if manufacturers have beefed up their gear boxes to cope with the possible extra shock load. Being the cynical fellow, I tend to think not. Has anyone else had a chance to look at the setups on the new machines?

DGOJeff, yes I have most of my bits to set up automated chute controls. An 8 way joystick & 2 rechargeable drills, all running off a 6 volt battery from a Power Wheels toy car.  Still toying with the best setup for the chute deflector though and I'm looking for a heavy duty stator to run the whole thing instead of the battery. Pictures once I get it going.

Cheers

OK. It's not technically "ice" that I'm trying to chew through with the snowblower, it is more a frozen granular compacted snow. The serrated auger should grind it up into very small bits that will get thrown, as opposed to the smooth auger that just seems to make a nice pattern in the snow but goes nowhere. Currently, if I break those pieces off with a shovel into smaller chunks the blower moves through them fine. So, I don't think the gearbox will be an issue.

I have an Ariens 921001 8Hp blower. I tried to "chew up" a boulder of coagulated Ice-slush the plow rolled into the driveway. It was 24" in diameter and couldnt be lifted.
Broke one shear pin, bent the other.
Be careful!
Tony

Well, I don't actually use the blower to plow the driveway. That's what the ford 1700 tractor with blade and front end loader are for. The blower is to clean in front of the garage doors so the plow can get close enough and to clear the deck. So, I don't foresee hitting any chunks of ice like that. With my old craftsman, I went through plenty of shear pins since I had a gravel (rock) driveway. That was replaced with lots of concrete when the garage was built.

DGOJeff wrote:
Well my Toro 1028 chews right into those berms created by the plows at least they did when they plowed this driveway. Chews right into it and spits it out with a vengeance! Maybe you could get a used Toro blade or a new one and modify it to fit your current machine?

Do you have any close-up pictures of the Toro auger design? I'm not sure I could retrofit it to my blower, it seems like this auger is pretty custom. The chain drive on my auger is on the right hand side, there is no gear box in the middle like most blowers. Thanks to all for the ideas.

How about taking a hand held grinder and cutting some teeth into the augers? Just don't go too deep.

Yamaha's new snowblowers have some serious ice eating capacity. Check out the teeth on this beast:

You should also consider the distinct possibilty that serrated augers are simply a fad, and serve no real useful purpose..

The snowblower was pretty much perfected by 1970..
since then, there has been no serious room for improvement to the basic design..
so, like any other product, you have to try to invent new ways to make your brand seem better, or more modern, than the competition, by adding little nick-knacks or gimmicks..
then, if people actually buy into your sales pitch, all your competitors must also add the same "improvement" and pretty soon all machines have the same completely unnecessary fad feature..

IMO, this is probably what serrated augers are..
snowblowers have been working perfectly fine without serrated augers for 40 years..

and yes, even with the serrated augers, most snowblowers probably cant handle much serious ice..they just arent designed for it..
so the serrated augers are probably, IMO, just for show..
a sales gimmick..

Scot

sscotsman wrote:

I would agree with this statement based on my experience.  Maybe someone with  a different perspective could shed some light on the practicality of serrated augers?

Is there any reason at all for them to be there other than marketing.  Maybe I just live in a part of North America where they are not useful.  Do they dig better into compacted snow mounds piled and frozen around the mailbox?

Serrated augers might have some use in gnawing at hard packed, wind blown snow drifts. I've experienced some drifted snow so hard that I had to bust it with a shovel just to get it to feed into the snow thrower. However, that's very uncommon and I doubt that the serrations would be all that advantageous. Been so long since I've had a snow thrower without them that I really can't recall.