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

Guys,

I may get to go check out some SS's. One is a Yardman 21" 5hp 2-stroke. The other is a Toro CCR2000e 2-stroke.

I am leaning towards the Yardman, based on boratification possibilities. I'm guessing/hoping it has a 5hp Tecumseh, maybe the HSK850. The Toro would have a 4.5hp Suzuki engine, from what I understand. I don't care about electric start. Any reason to avoid the Yardman? I realize it's probably not as solid/durable a machine as the Toro. But if it could be ramped up more in the power department, I could live with that. Thanks for any feedback.

You could do a quick & dirty check of your belt tension, aa335, without having to remove any covers. Stick something into the paddles to jam them up and prevent them from turning (a stick, wrench, whatever). Now hold down the control bail. With the ignition switch set to Off, try to pull the starter cord. Once the paddles jam up, you should not be able to pull the cord any further. If the engine will continue to turn, then clearly your belt is slipping and should be adjusted/replaced. If the engine does *not* turn, and the belt holds, that's great. Though it's still not conclusive evidence that the belt is adjusted correctly. Just that you're not getting gross slippage.

I am certain that the belt is not slipping. I've used the snowblower on heavy wet snow at the end of drive and the power is getting delivered to the paddles.  I'm pretty tuned on making proper tension, too little introduces belt slip and wear, too much causes more friction and belt stretch.  Although the flat serpentine belt may be less sensitive to higher friction than the v-belt.

Anyways, the soft bail lever is not a big issue that bother me.  I was just making a tongue in cheek remark since we talked about mono filament cables as an performance enhancement.    Thanks for all who chimed in and offering tips.  I was hoping easy solutions like Seafoam or Veilside stickers make everything better.

The Toro SS bail is fine and works as designed, but it definitely has a different feel than a Honda SS.  Kinda like driving a Toyota and a BMW.  Feedback isolation versus road feel.   At the end of the day, the destination is the same, but the experience is vastly different.  I know, it's just a snowblower. 

Tough crowd aa335....

I knew what you were up to. 

I knew you would, Borat.  You have fine sense of subtlely but jump with a fervor of a spring lion, when needed. 

How's that twine cable working out?  Does it work better with parafin wax , PAM spray, silicone grease, or peanut butter?   I heard the domestic twines aged with crisp Canadian winter air offers great feedback but they tend to break too easily. 

"How's that twine cable working out?  Does it work better with parafin wax , PAM spray, silicone grease, or peanut butter?   I heard the domestic twines aged with crisp Canadian winter air offers great feedback but they tend to break too easily. "

Bulky and notchy come to mind.  A total rip-off. 

Got a line on a guitar string from one of Ozzy Osborne's guitars on ebay.  Might be able to experiment a bit with secondary harmonics to reduce engine vibration and improve over all performance.  Hope nobody outbids me.

borat wrote:
I've heard people using guitar strings on cheese slicers, but this is the first application on a snowblower. 

You know me......

Envelope?  What envelope? 

The nice thing about having no conventional training is that you don't have conventions to restrict you.  Anything goes...

So we finally got some snow yesterday. Not a whole lot, about 4", but it was wet, heavy snow (mixed with rain during the day). Very packable, great for snowballs.

I started out with the Yardman, with HSK850, mildly boratified to 4500 RPM. It did quite well, I have to say. It was throwing reasonably far, I'd say, at least given the conditions, etc. It has quite a bit of power.

I did observe that when I'd 'overfill" the paddles (ground speed too high, not letting it process the snow), it would spray snow forwards along the ground. As that spread out, it would mess up the area I'd just cleared. The machine does have a non-stock paddle assembly apparently from a Toro, which is 1" narrow, and therefore not quite centered under the chute. That may have contributed, I don't know. I did have to stop once and shut it down to clear a glob of snow out of the paddles, as it was acting like it was clogged. Sometimes when finishing a particularly heavy pass, I'd seem to get a whiff of something hot. I don't think the belt is slipping. There was no smoke, no squealing, and I had tried to adjust the belt snugly. I presume the engine was just working hard. A few times I swore it was going to stall (in piles of the wet stuff), but I'd let off, and it would get back up to speed. I did find myself having to push more than I expected, when going up my driveway's incline (just raising the handles wasn't enough). With the snow being so wet and packable, it seemed somewhat difficult to push through.

I did try the Ariens with the HSK600 at 4600 RPM. That was having a lot more trouble, given the type of snow. I could probably have taken narrow passes, but I put it away. I'd just wanted to compare the 2 engines. The HSK850 was very noticeably more powerful

At the end, I was using the Yardman to try and clear areas where previously-blown snow had landed in the driveway. So I had the original 4", plus what did not reach the edge of the driveway on earlier passes. It started approaching a stalemate It was working hard, but wasn't making lots of progress. So I got out the ST824 2-stage. Boy, that's a different feel. From a 4500 RPM 2-stroke to a 3600 RPM 4-stroke. The 2-stage sounds like it's at idle, by comparison, and you don't get all the vibration in the handles. Used that to clear the rest of the extra-packed stuff, without incident. It would just pop the throttle open, bear down, and churn through. But it was putting a good load even on the 2-stage, in 2nd or 3rd gear, so it's not surprising that the SS was having trouble.

I'd call the evening a success. The Yardman performed well, and was reliable.

>>> I did try the Ariens with the HSK600 at 4600 RPM.

     I had the same problems here with 2 HSK600 machines running at varying speeds.  The load was just too much for them.  They either blugged up or slipped their belts.   The 4.5hp HSK850 did a little better but would only go a few feet before having problems.  

    Good that your modified paddle machine worked ok. 

Just curious, how could you tell the belts were slipping? Was it audible? Only asking because it's possible mine was slipping at times last night, and I just didn't know it. I tried to get the belt pretty tight, but it could still be slipping under heavier loads. Even when the engine was close to stalling, snow was still moving around, so the paddles certainly hadn't stopped turning, but it could have slipped periodically.

I was thinking that if you could put a smaller-diameter sheave on the engine, the extra revs on the HSK600's (or, frankly, the -850's) could be used to provide more torque to the paddles, at the expense of losing some of the extra throwing distance. More torque was really what was needed last night.