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

I would like to install a CLARENCE kit on two more snow blowers. One of them is a no-brainer since there's allot of clearance.I can easily get my finger between the impeller and housing (MTD). The other one, new to me is a snapper 1132 (2005 series). What would be the clearance to necessitate adding a kit.

I have posted this many times on both forums.  I purchased my Ariens 1128dle new.

The first season we got his with heavy wet snow that quickly turned to rain. My Ariens turned into a sausage maker.  Slush would fall out of the chute like a Sweet Italian sausage and then plug.

  I was discusted with my machine and ready to sell it. I put the Clarence impeller kit in and it became a new machine.

 It goes through the wettest of snow, slush, and even throws water like a cannon.  Without this kit I would have sold my machine.

  My Honda's throw like that right out of the factory and no need for the kit.

 I have also installed them on many other machines and have never had any problems.

Can anyone tell me how thick the rubber is in the Clarence kit? I am going to try to make a homemade version of the kit. I have some 1/8" thick rubber sheet that I'm planning to use. If that's too thin, I can use 2 layers. That, plus some metal brackets (the flat ones with holes in them at the hardware store), and some bolts, and I should be in business. Do people typically install these, including the drilling,  with the impeller still in the machine? I assume you remove the chute, of course. It seems like it might be easier to do it in place, rather than removing the augers and impeller from the machine. This is for an Ariens ST824. Thanks.

1/8 might be a little thin,  you don't want something too flexible.  Also if the gap is pretty wide you would want some pretty stiff.
Yes the mod should be done with the impeller in the machine and in most cases it is easier to remove the chute.

Mine was done with the impeller in and the chute off.  I don't know the exact size of the parts.

First thing I did was remove the gearbox assembly and grind down some of the weld on the inside of the top of the chute.  There was a little lip on top that stuck down.  Then I put it back together and found the sweet spot at 90 degrees from the chute where the drill would be straight down and the fan blade would be closest to the barrel.

That thing is built like a tank.  No sure what you've got for an engine but by the way that thing looks, it seems it could handle some serious power. 

Good job on the Clarence kit.  Do the rubber paddles contact the the impeller housing or did you leave a bit of clearance?  I'd be tempted to put them right snug against the housing.

They look like they will wear like the paddles on a single stage. I agree, that is one serious snow machine - Nice job shryp!

The pictures show the original HM-80, that threw a rod on like the third time I used it and was replaced by an 11HP GX340 clone.  That used too much gas so when I tore it down to repaint and replace the gearbox seals I put a 7HP 212CC Predator on it.  If it is underpowered I'll go back to the 11HP as that was unstoppable.

(This is only a 24" Ariens)

The first time I did it I put the rubber on kind of tight, but second one I did I just lightly butted them up.  I don't think it is necessary to make them super tight.  I am still waiting for snow to see how it performs now.  I never did take any pictures of it repainted.

Were you running the big engine at full rpm all the time? 

With that kind of power, you could probably cut back on the revs to about 2500 and still be in the best torque range.  You'll save fuel, and still toss snow respectably.  When you want to dazzle the locals, you can crank it up.

borat wrote:
Hmm, never thought of that.  Yea, I was running full blast unless I was idling it while doing something else.

you could probably throttle it back 25 to 30% and still get decent performance.  You could also put a larger auger/impeller pulley on the engine and have the same impeller speed at 3/4 throttle and still over 8hp available and have a monster blower at full throttle when needed.