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

I have a Honda 13-hp GX390 engine I want to build a monster SnowBlower. What deck should I be looking for that can handle this engine??????

    Maybe you already have the Murray so some useless suggestions but anyway.....

    27 inches won't be taking in a lot for a 13hp especially a GX390.  A Honda 828 can clear at a very fast clip.  Larger buckets like 30 and 32 would give the engine something to toss.   Not sure if it's total play versus practical use.  You might want to bump the drive pulley for more RPM and there are better front ends for that with more weight and better bearings.  

An old Snapper heavy duty machine has a strong base, good bucket width and weight, a nice cast gearbox, and auger bucket rake axle flange holders fitted with zerks.   A Snapper commercial 10301 is a 10hp 30 inch with big wide tires and would be a great platform.   An old Ariens commercial 1032 with huge tires would be hold up the 13 and privide good grip.  I think those came with 12's on the same base.  Another possibility is an older Simplicity commercial grade which were very stout but the handlebars and linkage rods were very close to the engine.  To take the engine cowling off you have to unbolt the motor.  A big Honda may not fit. ??  

Murray is ok but the tractor section not the best, not wicked rugged and definetly not commercial grade.  You'll probably want to drive hard to collect enough to exersize that thing, wade into piles or force it into hard pack.  The Murray machine weight is not so high and the tires not so big.  BTW: I've got a few year old Ariens 1128 base in excellent condition with huge tires that's been sitting waiting for a motor for two years. 

Drawbacks with the nice older machines is not having auger lever locking with the drive lever, short chutes and slow ft/sec toss output.  You can install another chute, bump the pulley for more RPM and live with without auger lever locking.

You'll be going Lhead to OHV so much wider and the Murray I think will have a side chute crank running to the handlebars which will have to be moved.  You coud scrounge an Ariens 924xxx style chute crank and mount the Murray chute worm.  You could then be run the chute crank rod under the OHV head and other rods up the the dash with universals. 

Whatever you do it would be nice to get some progress reports on what you do and final reports on how it worked out.  That is one wicked big engine. 

The 11 and 13 are the same size, the 13 just has a larger bore so check out these threads:

http://www.abbysguide.com/ope/discussions/52513-0-1.html

http://www.abbysguide.com/ope/discussions/52361-0-1.html

What you want to move more snow, is an Auger and Impeller that is Humungous to match the engine.  Most conventional snowblowers won't have one the size you'll need to challenge those 13 Horses.  You might look at some Tractor mount 2 stage augers & impellers, and see if you can weld a drive system to it worthy of Paul Bunyan, and the HONDA engine.  They make some 60 inch wide that would really intimidate the obnoxious neighbors especially if you remove the Muffler, and start working around midnight. 

The 45" MTD blowers are big enough to challenge that engine. In fact they come stock with 420cc motors.

JimmyM wrote:
How large are the MTD Impellers in Diameter ?  How big is the MTD Auger in Diameter ?  How much larger is the 48" MTD's Friction Wheel drive than its 26" machines. 

Ok guys here is a picture I just placed the engine on the Body of course non of the mounting holes line-up. 1st I will have to drill 4 new holes and then play around with the pulleys. So far it looks like it will work

I am trying to figure out how to post a picture

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/Rolm/MonsterSnowblower001.jpg[/IMG]

Looks great.

Did you see the guy that repowered the Deere 1032 last year?  Not sure how similar your engine is to the one he used, but this series is worth a look.
http://www.youtube.com/user/31pockets#p/u/56/4YvyMSgQXXI

Bill_H wrote:

Great video series. Well worth watching.

After the inserted picture shows up the curser should be at the lower right of the picture.  If you hit enter the curser will go down a line and to the left margin.  The next inserted picture will go below the first.  Inserting in a row blows the thread out to the right.

It looks like your second picture did not show up.  The http you enter is has to be exactly correct.  Sometimes download software makes the name tag .jpg, jpeg, JPG or JPEG.  The Abbys server is case sensitive so possibly there's a mismatch.