Well tomorrows the test. I live in Michigan right on the lake and were getting that storm tonight and tomorrow. So I expect to wake up to at least 9 to 11" of fresh powder. Ya Hoo...
I repowered my Ariens 1032 with a 11Hp Honda clone (Greyhound). With the intentions to install a larger blower drive pulley.
Last summer I rebuilt the impeller by adding weld to the end of the blades to decrease the clearance. Lined the blower and impeller housing with stainless steel. Replaced the auger bushings and impeller shaft bearing. The only thing I didn't get a chance to do. Was to replace the auger shaft bushing setup with flange bearings. I ran across a pair of 3 bolt flange bearings at an auction. The bearings were
the right size bore. And the flange looks like it may have the same bolt pattern as the current bushing flange. Probably won't mess with that change over till spring.
I have been using the blower with the stock double groove pulley (2 1/2" drive unit 2 3/4" blower drive) to see how the impeller blade mods. worked out. Then yesterday I went ahead and installed the larger blower drive pulley. It's a 3 1/4" pulley which is 1/2" larger than the stock pulley. (by the way I'm now using to separate pulleys not a dual groove) That should boost the rpm up to 1300 from 1100.
And increase the tip velocity speed of the impeller blades from 4026 to 4762.
When I started it yesterday and engaged the blower there was for sure a different sound to the blower. Reminded me a little of the sound of the Honda 928 I had for a while. Sounds like a blower fan. But with a six bladed 14" impeller it has a deeper sound rather than a whine.
There is a real noticeable difference in the speed of the augers. Which is good because I have noticed an issue with the blowers ability to clear itself when taking a full 32" wide, bucket height bite of snow. The slowest speed of the Ariens is still a little to fast for the blower to process the snow. So you have to pause your forward speed sometimes for just a second or two to let the blower clear.
So, since I can't slow down the speed of the machine. Speeding up the blower should I hope take care of that issue.
Tomorrow we will find out. I'm glad it's going to be a light snow. Only bad thing is that the wind is going to be blowing 25 to 30 with gusts up to 40. So snow is going to be blowing everywhere. Especially with the throwing distance I may now get.
I do some city sidewalks for a merchant so I'm hoping I can throw all the way across the street. (Not allowed to throw into the streets). But with the wind blowing like that
I may just open the chute straight up and let it blow. They'll never know where it can from : )
I'm going to try and shoot some video. Put by camera in a freezer bag and on a clamp mount right next to the left handle bar. We'll see, Maybe well see. With that much wind and snow might not see anything but white.
Forgot, I also added these. We'll see how they work as well
This message was modified Feb 1, 2011 by jrtrebor
