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.

If the Chonda clone is as strong as a genuine GX340, that's a lot of ponies.  On a machine with a 28" or less bucket, there's an excess of power on tap.  Running at 60% of 3600 rpm would be 2160 which would be near peak torque range.  If that rpm translates to 60% of 11 h.p. it works out to approx. 6.6 h.p.  and the torque would much more than an engine rated at 6 or 7 h.p. at 3600 rpm.   Lower engine speed, quieter operation, lots of torque, less fuel consumption, sounds like a good a good deal all the way around if one can resist the urge to launch the big arch and hurl for distance.  

Well, I currently have the 6.5-7HP Predator on it.  I have enough parts to put another blower together I think so I might either put the 11 back on it or switch them around.  The pulley is slightly larger already.

borat wrote:
Therein lies the problem.

That would be pretty cool. Have the larger engine spinning more slowly, with a larger engine pulley, so less noise, but still enough torque, and the same auger speed. Then, when you need to send the snow into the next county, go to full throttle. Makes me think of a diesel generator, humming along at 1800 RPM, vs a gas one thrashing away at 3600. I wonder at point you'd overwhelm and break the belt.

Interestingly, my MTD has 2 parallel pulleys for the augers, I think, then 1 for the drive system. I wonder if that could make it more tolerant of added power. It might simply blow the auger gearbox or something, though, as it's just an aluminum gearbox. Some way to change the impeller/auger ratio, to speed the impeller up, without having the augers whirling away, might be interesting. Would help get more distance, without adding more stress to the auger gearbox.