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

If you were looking to buy, or could by some chute liner material for your blower.  What would you consider to be a reasonable price to pay for a 7" by 35" liner.
Or what would you be willing to pay.   Shipping would be included in the price?  As well as stainless steel or aluminum rivets to install the liner.
I'm considering marketing some and would appreciate your input and opinions.

I made my own out of a Krazy Karpet.  It's one of those pieces of plastic kids use to slide down hills on the snow.  Cost probably less than $10.00.  I've had mine in since buying the snow blower new in 2007.  Seems to be holding up quite well.  It's pumped a lot of EOD snow/slush/sand/gravel/stones through it and is only showing a bit of scuffing and a couple tiny dents.  Snow does not stick to it and I also suspect that it doesn't hurt throwing distance. 

The way I made the liner was to cut a piece slightly larger than what it would take to fill the chute.  I forced it inside the chute with a piece of 2x4 and held it in place with a big clamp.  Then I traced the outline of the chute along the exposed pieces protruding from the chute and cut it with a pair of hefty scissors.  After cutting the piece, I took it out and clamped it over the 2x4 in order to apply heat (butane torch) to the corners to permanently mold the shape of the chute to the liner.  That way, it would slip in and not want to force itself out.  I didn't have to drill any holes in the chute.  There were two small holes at the bottom that I utilized and at the top, I used the one bolt that controls the deflector.   I've seen these Krazy Karpets in three colours, black, red and blue.  They didn't have any red or blue in stock when I bought mine.

Here's a pic of the chute liner.  I also attached a piece of stainless steel to the underside of the deflector to keep it from being sand blasted. 

borat -
Your liner looks nice.  When I installed a liner in my large Ariens it was a little tricky.  The Ariens chutes have a few curved / round, to flat transition places in the back of the chute.
Used heat as you did.  My liner ended as kind of an hour glass shape.  Has been in there for over two years now has a lot of abrasion marks but still works fine.
It nice not having to repaint the chute after every season.  Since this pic was taken, I have also put a piece of liner on the deflector.
I also noticed how your chute tappers inward from the bottom to the top. 

Nice job..... as usual.

Mine doesn't exactly curve with the contour of the chute.   There's a few inches right at the apex that has maybe a 1/4" space between the liner and back of chute.  My preference was for full coverage rather than matching the curve. 

Doesn't seem to have any negative effect on tossing distance.  Personally, I think it may have improved it ever so slightly.   Particularly when throwing wet snow.

I've been trying to find a flexible carpet sled, to use as a liner. I can't find any in local stores (they all carry different kinds of sleds). And the listing on Amazon is for blue ones. Black would seem to "blend" a bit better with my orange chute (lots of random things are black. But blue would look odd). Amazon sells that sled for about $7 or so. But I would like to add a liner to help keep things from sticking, and to avoid beating on the paint. I can see a potential challenge in getting it to smoothly match the profile of the chute, however. For the various annoyances of my old MTD, I'll confess I never had to worry about this stuff, with its plastic chute

I have used .020" thick Lexan sheets with good success.  The are quite flexible and strong, also easy to form when heated.  

jrtrebor wrote:

I would say for SS with plastic chute, I don't think there would be much of a market.  At least one the Toros' that I have, they have been holding up fine with the scuffing, plus, there's no performance increase since the chute is already slippery plastic.  If it does get too bad a shape, I would sand and buff the inside of it, rather than putting in a liner and drilling holes for the rivets.  When I can't sand and buff anymore, I'd probably just get another used one off Ebay or something.  With that said, if I was to buy one of your ideas to put a 2 stage metal chute, I would probably buy it for around $10-$15, depending on quality and thickness of the liner, rivets or fasteners, and whether it is specifically contoured for popular models.   Anyways, if the liner can be attached without drilling or metal fasteners, that would be a lot more attractive.  I prefer not to introduce new holes that is a breeding ground for corrosion, especially on metal chutes.  Stainless steel do rust.  If it's custom fit, snap in design, I would pay for it, maybe $30.

Don't want to burst your bubble, but I would think that your market would be pretty small, even smaller than the market for the Clarence kits. I wouldn't put one on any blower with a plastic chute since it is already quite slippery.
 I would be more than willing to help by supplying you a "crazy carpet" to make a liner. I could buy then ship it at cost. The only issue I see is they are seasonal items available from about Sept. to Jan. and shipping cost could be 3 or 4 times the cost of the item due to the size, unless it can be cut down a little. Could also be shipped rolled up in a tube.

Cheers

   Where's the sales pitch?   Donald Trump would "your fired" you if you brought a product to him with the marketing splash.

    The US is a big country and lots lots of snowblower owners.  How many would you have to sell a year to be happy?  I would think Clarance does pretty well if he's keeping it small.  If you got a tenth of his business you'd probably need to expand out of your garage.

    How would you get the word out to create the need? 

   Maybe the sales pitch could be targeted to people with rusted and rough chutes.   There's lots of people unhappy with with their older blowers.  There are not so many who would just upgrade their ok chute, so a different angle than a mod for a average machine.   It's a fix for a crummy machine.

   I think not so many would want to add a slipper insert but there may be many who would want to fix their louzy chute i.e not a protector, a fixer.

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trouts2 wrote:

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FrankMA wrote:
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