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

Looking at the Honda website I see the Honda HS520 (US version) throws a outstanding 55 tons/hr. The Canadian version can only handle 32 tons/hr. Does Honda actually expect someone to believe that the US version has a higher output than the 928? Is this a joke or am I missing something?

Those vans loaded to the very top carry on average 21 tons of hog fuel.  Tonnage may vary by a percent or two but no more.  Volume wise, they are huge.  Tonnage wise, they don't carry that much weight.

From my experience working in heavy transportation, I have a pretty good idea what a ton of anything bulk looks like.  Be it coal, grain, potash, sulfur, gravel, rip rap, crushed rock, and even snow. You name it, I've seen it.   To move 55 tons of snow in an hour  with a consumer grade snow blower would be an incredible feat.   I'd say that if we move 30% of that in an hour, it would still be a hell of a lot of snow.

At best, I'd say the manufacturer's suggested throughput numbers are wildly optimistic.   Something akin to fuel mileage in automobiles but even worse.....  Your mileage/throughput may vary.

Van volume, 40  x  8 x  10 = 3200 sq ft

 

That’s the same as 8 1 foot slices of a driveway 40 feet long by 10 feet wide.

 

A single lane driveway 320 feet long 10 feet wide with 1 foot of snow would be the same volume as the van.  An 8hp with a 24 inch bucket would not have much problem clearing that snow.  That’s 5 passes of a 24 inch bucket the length of a football field.  It would be pretty easy to fill the van volume with light snow.

 

Light snow is estimated at 3lb per cubic foot.   3200 * 3 = 9600 lbs

9600 / 2000 = 4.8 tons. 

 

If an 824 clears at 55 tons per hour that would be about 11.5 sections of 320 foot driveway.  11.5 sections of driveway would be 3680 feet.  55 tons per hour would be about the same as clearing a 3680 foot driveway with one foot of snow, light snow, perfect condition snow.   A mile is 5280 feet so the driveway slightly short of ¾ of a mile.

 

A football field is 48000 sq feet.  With one foot of snow on it 48000 cubic feet.  With light snow on it that would be 144000 lbs or 72 tons.  It would take the 824 about an hour and a quarter to clear a football field with one foot of light snow, perfect snow.

 

Approximate speeds of an Ariens machine.

6 = 2.81 mph

5 = 2.62 mph

4 = 2.08 mph

3 = 1.83 mph

2 = 1.36 mph

1 = 0.87 mpm

Clearing 1 foot of light perfect snow in first would get one pass of the 3/4 mile driveway done in less than an hour.  Clearing perfect light snow 1 foot would have to be done in a higher speed with a 24 inch bucket.  That would be possible with perfect snow.

Your snowblower can probably perform to the marketing per hour spec's of tons per hour if you have marketing snow.

NOTE: A Honda 828 is rated at 35-37 tons per hour.   I've never been able to match the guys Honda 828 next door with any of the US 8hp's I've had here i.e. Snapper, Simplicity, Ariens, Toro, or MTD.  The marketing spec of the Honda seems about right for reality.

Checked the Yamaha spec's.  634 35 tons, 828 50 tons.  Might be a stretch but close.  The engines are running at higher and US rpm's and the same for augers and impellers which are on roller bearings along with roller bearings in the auger gearbox.  Both of these machine will easily be simmilarly powered US machines.

 

As I said previously, you mileage/throughput may vary.  And you can rest assured that it will vary downward.  I'd love to see someone clear an entire football field in 1.25 hours with an 824!



 

trouts2 wrote:

>>>It would take the 824 about an hour and a quarter to clear a football field with one foot of light snow, perfect snow.

 

   Yep 4.5 miles. 

 

   I’m not saying an 824 will actually do anything.  The above is what the marketing spec works out to at 55 tons per hour, that is if I have the calc’s right. 

   I’m not sure what an 824 say Ariens lists.  Toro’s 826 was rated at 57 so I took a guess an 824 might be about 55.  Possibly it’s a bit less.  As I listed, Honda’s 828 is 35-37 depending if track or wheeled which seems more realistic.  

 

>>>But I don't think any walk behind blower could clear a football field in an hour.

    Your's might.  Is your bucke 30?  I think a Honda 11/32 could buzz along pretty fast and might have a shot at it.

trouts2 wrote:
Possibly, but a fresh operator may have to be relayed every 20 minutes.  It gets pretty tiring to manhandle that beast for extended amount of time.

trouts2 wrote:
I know you were just using specs. as a starting point.  There are so many variables that quoting any type of tons per hour figures is almost useless info. as you know.
Cubic volume per hour would actually be a more useful figure.   But again how would a person quantify that. 

You made me stop and think.  My bucket is 32"  works out to 3.4 miles. clearing a football field.  That is a long walk at any speed.  I'd probably have to build a sulky
for my blower.

Still quite a long walk, a very slow one at that.  I'd probably farm it out to a plow service.

>>>Possibly, but a fresh operator may have to be relayed every 20 minutes.  It gets pretty tiring to manhandle that beast for extended amount of time.

 

   At least mine is cake to walk behind on a smooth surface.  Out on the road or sidewalk it’s fine.  The driveway is moguls and the thing is a bear to deal with, not so much fun, and a pain to use.

 

>>>Cubic volume.

 

    That would eliminate a calc step but cu ft/per or tons are both not so readily understandable. 

 

>>>I'd probably have to build a sulky for my blower.

  

    Keep in mind the first calc was for the 824 at 1.25 hours.  Just guessing from that the Honda would probably be in the 1.5 to 2 hour range.

 

   Given the time pickle for the 824 to cover a lot of ground to capture 55 tons in 1 hour some quantity in the calc would have to be modified to bring the 55 tons into the marketing claim. 

   One possibility is using bigger tires to get the ground speed which a marketing guy would not think much about but it’s unrealistic. 

 

    Bumping the density of snow is the most realistic.  Using a snow density of 6lb per cu/ft would speed things up considerably.  NOA says very wet snow is 21lbs per so 6lbs might be more reasonable.

   However unlikely the marketing number seems to be the bigger "deliar" is the Honda number vs Toro which is about half of the Toro claim. 

 

Re-calc at 18 inches of 6lb snow:

 

300 x 160 x 1.5 (18 inches) = 7200 cu/ft

7200 x 6lb = 432000 / 2000 =  216 ton

 

Given that the original estimate was 57 ton for a Toro 28 inch bucket a 24 would 7/8^th of that so reducing 57 tons for the 24 inch bucket would be about 50 ton.

 

50 tons of 18 inch 6lb snow on a football field would be about take up a quarter of a football field.

 

A football field is 160 feet wide so ¼ is 40 x 300.  For a 24 inch bucket that would be 20 300 foot passes or 6000 feet which is over a mile (5280) by 720 feet.  That would take 1.14 pmh to cover the 6000 feet in a hour. 

 

An Ariens machine would have to set gear one slightly higher or gear two lower.   It would be tough going for 18 inch snow but if sticking snow effects were reduced by being super cold it could have a shot at clearing that fast.  That’s a factor I did not think about before, the effects temp.  The marketing guys probably test on super cold days.