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

I was at Home Depot last week looking around.  Decided to walk through the lighting dept to see what kind of 12v outdoor lights they had.  Got lucky and found these lights on a shelf marked down to $9.99.
They are made of cast aluminum and come with a 50W Halogen bulb included. The hood can be swiveled around the housing.  The mounting base is pipe thread so you can use a lot of different fittings, (steel of plastic)
to come up with a way to mount it to your blower.  The head tilts. 

I first used it with the 50w bulb but found out that it was taking to much out of my battery.  So I bought a 30w bulb for $5.50 (at HD).  Used it last night for about an hour.  Battery now stays charged.
The 30w puts out plenty of light.  With a very good pattern. About 8 to 10' feet wide, and bright out to about 12 to 15' from the front of the blower before it starts to taper off.  I'll have to try and take a picture
of the beam shape and throw at night.

Grounded one of the wires and ran the other to a weather proof toggle switch from Radio Shack. (Can't get the links to work you'll have to cut and paste).  http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3042775

I didn't see this one while I was there but it might work as well and it's cheaper. 
http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xhv/R-202025758/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

Comes with a 20w Halogen bulb, which I'm sure would also put out enough light. 
As long as the bulb wattage is 30w of less you should be able to use them without a problem if you already have some type of factory light on your blower.  The 3mp lighting coils will handle it.

Very nice setup and much cheaper than the factory offerings. Have you had any trouble with voltage fluctuations? 

Is that a stainless steel weight bar bolted to the top of your bucket?  If so does it make a difference?

I see you updated the side mounted cleanout tool to a larger model.

Wow nothing escapes the members of this forum, and I thought I was bad noticing small details.

Steve
I didn't notice any changes in the light intensity due to voltage fluctuations. It really puts out a lot of light.  I was very surprised.
Paul7
It's just a large piece of steel painted with Silver Hammer Finish paint.  I haven't ever used the blower without the weight so, I don't really know. But because the new engine is heavier and sits a little further back than the original. I'm sure that the front end would be a bit light without it.
Shryp
That tool is for getting at that snow that likes to try and hide in corners from me.  Still have the clean out tool on the other side. But haven't had to use it once since I closed the gap between the impeller blades and the housing.
The holding brackets are short pieces of PVC pipe.  With slots cut in them so the handle can pop inside the pipe.  Depending on whether the ID of pipe matches the OD of the handle.  Sometimes you have to heat the pieces and spread, or compress them a little to get a nice snug fit.

jrtrebor wrote:
Did you use a Clarence kit?  If so was it hard to install.  I've been wanting to install one on my Ariens but I've been waiting until the warranty runs out...which is next month.

No I didn't use one of the kits.  Last summer when I rebuilt my blower housing. I extended the length of the impeller blades by adding weld. Then grinding back down the blades to the correct length. Was able to end
up with about a 1/16" between the blade tips and the housing. 
It's not as tight a fit as the impeller kit would have made it. But there was a very noticeable difference in the way the blower handles, and throws really wet slushy snow.  The chute does not clog anymore.  And I've thrown some stuff that was about the consistency of a slurpee.

Good re-purposing (I do the same thing as I'm wandering around any kind of store or the local recycling yard). Does the light vibrate very much?
Is that some kind of mini garage you keep your blower in? Finally those VVX marks scratched into the top of the gas tank look familiar, or did you put them there?

Cheers

GtWtNorth
No, it really doesn't vibrate much that I've noticed. I was concerned about that so I used 3/16" flat bar instead of the 1/8" i was going to use. It's pretty stiff.

I don't know that they are letters. I was looking on the web for a used HF greyhound also, & found a place that sells them. Their engines have the same mark. I was worried about the condition of the engine since they don't test them & don't give a guarantee, but the prices reflect that.
I hope yourt engine runs well, it looks real clean.

Cheers

GtWtNorth
I bought my engine on Ebay.  If I remember correctly it was from a large place down south somewhere.  Paid something like $134.00 for it plus like $60.00 shipping.
Was a little unsure about buying it but for the price I figured it was worth taking a chance.  Those markings are actually scratches in the paint. 
So far the engine runs just fine.  Started right up when I got it. No strange noises.  Other than I'm not used to hearing an OHV engine run.  It does have different sound than an L head.