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

Hi,

I am looking for ideas on how to assemble, make-shift an auto rotate chute movement mechanism for our new 621-E. 

Background:

Toro 621-E is a great machine recently bought to replace an old two-stage Ariens that had given good service. The buyer beware caveat being that, because of an ongoing lower back injury and the nature of our property, the chute mechanism direction needs to be moved quite often. That constant motion of stopping, leaning forward to move the chute in a new direction has turned out not to be a good movement for the lower back. The Ariens had an auto chute movement control on the handle so I did not envision the problem that occurs with a manual chute movement of the new 621-E. Getting older and accumlating more aches and pains is a bee-atch. With the dollar spread being some $300+ dollars for a return of the now used 621E and attempts to sell myself (two snowfalls and $559 new) and difference in price of the Toro 621-QZE ($749 new) [wife needs electric for piece of mind], ...

Help sought:

 I am looking for help, ideas, suggestions, resources, etc. to self-assemble, install, jury-rig a mechanism that would control direction movement of the chute. 'Easier' control of the deflector is secondary.

Truly appreciate your feedback.

John

All Toro 621 share the same platform.  Have you considered buying Toro original Quick Chute parts to convert your 621 to a 621QZ?  I'm sure your Toro dealer can help you getting the parts you need.  It should be fairly straightforward to retrofit.   I don't know what the costs of parts will be.

It's just wild speculation, but I'd hazard a guess that buying the Quick Chute parts will be pretty expensive. If you could find a machine with a blown engine that would be ideal. But the odds are probably against you on finding one with a dead engine. Your local dealer might have some used parts they pulled off a machine?

Are there used machines with the Quick Chute near you? That could help soften the hit between selling yours used and buying a new Quick Chute.

Could you sort of compromise and maybe add something like an extended handle to the existing chute rotation/angle controls? Some way to modify them so you don't have to reach over as far?

How about a trade in for something with the controls you want?   It will probably be cheaper than buying parts from a Toro dealership. After all,  any dealer that charges $5.89 for a fifteen cent bolt will want an arm and a leg for the parts you'll need to convert your machine.

You can buy the parts directly from Toro website.  I did a sample ordering and all the parts total to about $150, plus shipping.   That's only for the Quick Chute conversion, not electric start.   You will have to do the retrofit yourself.

It's probably better to buy a gently used 621QZE or a 421QE, and sell your 621E through Craigslist.  

Thank you for all your replies and suggestions. All very good ideas to consider. I do appreciate it.

1.)  The ideas about buying a slightly used 621 QZE and selling my slightly used 621 E continues a focus on the $dollar spread, which I estimate will still be around $300 +/-.

2.)  The suggestion about buying the 621 QZE Quick Chute assembly and retro fit is attractive, but the body of the 621 QZE is physcially different and brings up the unknown issue of what is happening under that 'hood' that is different than the 621 E, plus the actual 621 QZE chute itself is different. I question the unknowns and looking to avoid that and require much more investigation I believe about the feasibility.

3.)  Red Oct's (great book and movie) suggestion about, "Could you sort of compromise and maybe add something like an extended handle to the existing chute rotation/angle controls? Some way to modify them so you don't have to reach over as far?" is most in line with my immediate quest of self-assembly, self-made, jury-rigging something along the "extended handle" concept and the lowest parts cost overall.

It's the 'extended (self-made) handle' that appears to me the most attractive.

Ideas you have or might suggest for exploration along this line of thought? I have everything in-house but a welder.

Thank you.

John

As an example, I have an Ariens SS322 (same body as the SS522). It already has a slightly-"extended" handle, albeit not much. But if you were to stretch the concept further, that might make things easier.

One concern would be that if you make the handle long enough to reach easily, it's going to carve a huge arc as you swing the chute around 180*. You'd have to compromise to make sure the machine could still clear next to something without the handle hitting the garage or whatever, as it hangs off to the side.

If you wanted to get fancy, you might be able to make the handle able to rotate the chute, and also pivot it up & down. If you picture two flat piece of stock (to simplify the discussion) bolted into the sides of the chute at the base, angled up, they could perhaps meet a 3rd piece which went to the up/down handle. You could conceivably make a single handle which you could swivel left/right, and also push up/down to tilt the chute up or down. Not much of an explanation, I know. I can try and make a picture if that would help.

This is what the handle looks like on mine. It only controls left/right, but they at least extended the handle slightly towards the operator. I believe I've seen a pic of a Honda (?) which took the concept a little further, and brought it closer to the user. There are also single stage machines with cranks to aim the chutes. The Ariens SS522 came with a crank, for instance, and it was an option on my SS322. If you only needed to aim the chute, perhaps you could find a different used single stage machine with a chute crank, even if it wasn't the Toro system. I realize that has its $$$ drawbacks, just kind of thinking out loud.

Here's a photo of my Honda HS621 with the handle that Red refered to in the previous post. This might help you to design something similar. It's fairly easy to reach from behind to swing it from one side to the other or to place it in the zero degree position.

Red / Frank,

Great ideas and images. Just like a funnel of ideas pushing down to an exit solution. Again, thanks for the images. Very helpful.

Red, to confirm your description of your idea of, "If you picture two flat piece of stock (to simplify the discussion) bolted into the sides of the chute at the base, angled up, they could perhaps meet a 3rd piece which went to the up/down handle. You could conceivably make a single handle which you could swivel left/right, and also push up/down to tilt the chute up or down." I do believe your suggestion was clear to understand.

Anybody else. This is great information.

Keep 'em comin'. It's winter here in Chicago so I've plenty of inside house or garage time to work on these ideas. Ace Hardware, Menard's and Home Depot are old friends for my handy homeowners projects.

John

Since you're in Chicago area, you may be interested in giving this option a consideration.

A used Toro 221QE on CL, in Chicago western suburbs.  Here's the link.  http://chicago.craigslist.org/nwc/grd/2805138952.html

The caveat is since we've been having a mild winter, snowblower sales are very very slow, so you may not be able sell your 621E until next winter.

I've made an extended arm for my old toro CCR1000.  Just used a piece of Flat steel bar stock.  1/8 thick one inch to an inch and a quarter wide.  Drilled two holes through it and the current handle on the chute.
Then bolted the steel unto the top of the handle.  I also put an upwards bend in the steel before attaching it.  There is the problem as mentioned with turning the chute 90 degrees and having the handle to long.
It will hit if your trying to go along side a car or house.  So the handle can't be made as long as it would be nice to have it.  But making and installing one is really pretty easy. 
I have also put an extension arm on the chute deflector of my Toro CCR2000 so you don't have to reach so far.  It already has a hand crank chute rotator