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

Has anyone connected an analog dial tachometer to their snowblower?  I'm asking since the little electronic tach have terrible lag and with small display which makes it difficult to read, wouldn't an large dial tachometer allow you to see it better and to get a feel at what your max torque or HP is occuring? 

It's not really a lag, what happens in a digital readout is it needs a consistent signal to display. During acceleration the signal changes too fast to display with most inexpensive tachs. The more expensive tachs. require fewer "samples" to display a reading. Analog tachs. actually show real time sampling readings on the meter as they happen, but the true accuracy may not be there.

I would prefer the tachometer to be little bit off actual RPM but responds fast enough to the changes in engine speed.   Displaying 3612 RPM isn't exactly useful if the reading is 2.5 seconds old.  It's like having a radar detector that can pinpoint the exact location of a squad car, but takes 30 seconds.

For use on a snow blower i do not find the lag to be a big deal.I know i have my max rpm set at 3600.If i run in 12 inches of snow for a few feet i am going to know my sag rpm.Than from there its easy to know what would be the most rpm you can manage under that load.If anything the tach will give you a good idea what condition a engine is in.A lot of the older 4 strokes if i remember correctly made there max torque at around 2800 rpm.