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

Hello, new to this site. I'm starting on a garage project to convert my tracked atv into a snow blowing machine. I picked up a Bolens single stage 38" snow blower off of Craig's list. It has a horizontal shaft drive coming off of it which turns a gear/chain mechanism on the augers, I assume the Bolens lawn tractor had a front pto this connected to. I think the speed of that pto shaft he thought was 2000 rpms. My plan, weld up a frame, or beef up the one on the blower to mount a horizontal shaft small engine behind the blower and mount that onto the tracked atv. Then a boom of some sort to raise and lower with the winch. I may need to add some weight support wheels, not sure on that, and I may want to wing it out 6-8" on each side to get beyond the tracks. I can get a 13 hp engine from harbor freight, will that be enough? For connecting someone suggested a direct connection through a lovejoy connector, since the drive shaft on the blower is a 3/4" square tube and not a "key" I'll have to fabricate something. Pros-cons with this setup, one I can think of is when the engine is on, this thing is spinning, fast. No clutch or brake to it, but it's simple. Anyone have similar contraptions? How much hp did you find you need? For a single stage blower like that, does the original factory rpms from the bolens the best speed for it to perform the best, or does it work better, throw farther, if it's spinning faster? Or is it optimal for the bearings on the auger/chain, and spinning faster puts those in jeopardy. thanks for your comments

So question for everyone. If you were hooking up an engine to a tractor single stage snowblower attachment, 38", would you go with a 13hp or 22 hp?

   There are a number of UTube videos of smaller hp, like 12hp, rider mowers with attached blower doing fine.   That's with the engine load of driving the wheels and the blower.   A dedicated 13hp should be fine.  

    On RPM’s, the engine will be at 3600 so you’ll have to work out the pulley diameters to get the 2000 on the blower shaft.   Going with higher RPM will be more wear but an acceptable trade.  It would not be too much start with 2000 and see how it runs then swap out for a faster revving pulley.   I have no idea what a Bolen’s is like i.e. much heavier augers than most, collects well, tossing distance & etc.

 

   Not sure just how good the Predator is.   The prior HF line blue Lifan engines were pretty good.   There are lots of used Briggs I/C 12’s around for little money.   You could start with that in if the throughput and distance toss if ok keep it or if not get something bigger.

 

   It seems like a lot of work and expense versus picking up a second hand rider with a blower.   You seem like your capable of fixing it up to acceptable shape and save the work involved in making your own setup.   But people like projects and that may be your intent.   It does sound like an interesting and fun project.    

Hi, I have a 1969 Craftsman 131.96712 with a Tecumseh HH100 (10 hp)engine, hydrostatic tranny and my single stage blower works great and was designed for it!! Happy Thanksgiving !!!........

I will go with the 22 because i have observed it work better than the greater one. Thanks. What you have found so far?

I still haven't decided on the engine, I was looking at the harbor freight Predator engines, either the 13 or the 22 hp (which is twice as much). The 13hp is still in that pricing where I still feel comfortable absorbing if this doesn't work. I also know of a vertical shaft 17 hp engine off a MTD lawnmower that's available, but no starter or backup recoil, plus its been sitting outdoors for a few years. So I'd have some issues to deal with there. For safety reasons I also decided on using a centrifugal clutch instead of a direct drive so when it's idled down the augers are not spinning. I'm looking at a go-kart one rated for 40 hp. I've found very little information on the Bolens snow blower attachment so the speed of the pto shaft on the bolen's tractor is just a guess by the owner, but he wasn't sure. The clutch springs are configurable on the engagement rpms. The number of teeth on the clutch would also need to be selected when I get it. Thinking somewhere in the middle for number of teeth on the drive gear. May need to think more on that to see if I'd want a faster drive gear or a faster driven end. I've experimented around enough with a plow on the front to know that Yes, a lawn mower with blower is a solution, but not near as fun or cool as a tracked atv with a snowblower! I also plan on using this to clear out our trails through our sugarbush in the spring so access to our trees is easier.

sorry for the formatting on this one. Basically says I have several options in that clutch, engage speeds ranging from 850 to 2000 depending on the springs in it. And drive gear teeth from 12 to 18 teeth. Here's a description of the centrifugal clutch I'm thinking about getting. With then engine max rpm's at 3600, what's the best configuration? Would I want more or less teeth on the clutch drive gear? Would I want a higher or lower speed engagement of the clutch with that single stage snow blower? Centrifugal Clutch: For up to 40 HP four stroke engines 1" bore 1 1/2" deep, 1/4" keyway, 2 set screws 5 1/4" drum outside diameter, clutch overall thickness 2 15/16" Turned steel drum for perfect runout Heat dissipating holes in the drum for cooler running clutch Three shoe design provides excellent 360 degree contact for more torque Shoe linings have a high coefficient of friction & are resistant to wear, fading & troublesome vibration Must be mounted Outboard only (bolted on the end of the crank shaft) Optional springs available to change clutch engagement RPM Clutch comes with 2000 RPM engagement, purple clutch springs Clutch with 10 teeth sprocket for #40 or #41 chain Clutch with 12 teeth sprocket for #35 chain Clutch with 13 teeth sprocket for #35 chain Clutch with 14 teeth sprocket for #35 chain Clutch with 15 teeth sprocket for #35 chain Clutch with 16 teeth sprocket for #35 chain Clutch with 17 teeth sprocket for #35 chain Clutch with 18 teeth sprocket for #35 chain Replacement parts: (one clutch uses 3 springs) Yellow clutch springs, 850 to 1000 RPM engagement, 3-per set Brown clutch springs, 1250 RPM engagement, 3-per set Red clutch springs, 1450 RPM engagement, 3-per set White clutch springs, 1650 RPM engagement, 3-per set Blue clutch springs, 1800 RPM engagement, 3-per set Purple clutch springs, 2000 RPM engagement, 3-per set Green clutch springs, 2150 RPM engagement, 3-per set Plain clutch springs, 2400 RPM engagement, 3-per set Needle bearing Shaft (that needle bearing rides on) Flat washer Snap ring Clutch shoes, three piece set Clutch drum, sprocket & needle bearing assembly

The atv has tracks instead of tires. The blower unit is 38" and I'll add enough wing on each side of the blower unit to get past the tracks, about 7" on each side.

I was told the pto shaft of the bolens tractor was 2000 rpms, no confirmation on that though, that's the speed of the PTO shaft from the tractor that direct connects to the snowblower shaft. if you follow the linkage on the snowblower it goes into a gear box, another shaft makes a 90 degree turn to the edge of the blower and there's a sprocket on the end of that shaft. That drives a heavy chain to a sprocket on the auger shaft. I haven't found a whole lot of information yet on that snowblower attachment or the bolens tractor, and I'm not for certain what bolens tractor it came off of, or the time frame. The snowblower attachment is one tough built heavy duty piece of metal so it has age because they don't make stuff like that anymore. My reasoning for the clutch was more from a safety perspective than performance, so I can stop it by idling down, but if I'm going to put one on I want to put one on that performs well. I hear you on needing the torque behind the rpm's. I'm hoping 13 ponies does it because that's what I've got. I guess I'll start with a middle of the road configuration with gears and clutch engagement and make adjustments if needed. general design is a tube steel frame, the horizontal shaft engine will sit behind the blower. A centrifugal clutch/sprocket on the engine shaft will be pointing toward the blower, chain will drop down to another sprocket and shaft that will connect to the snowblower shaft via lovejoy coupler. The outer frame's weight will be supported by a couple caster wheels and a winch will pivot an inner frame to raise/lower the angle of the blower.

Just thought I'd give an update as I had some time to finally build this. First thing I changed my design, rather than the engine chain dropping down to a shaft and then a lovejoy coupler to connect to the snowblower pto shaft. Instead I just cut out a large enough slat out of the snow blower unit to drop the chain to a 36 tooth gear that I put directly on the snowblower shaft. This allowed me to shorten the unit as a whole and position the 12 tooth clutch directly above the gear on the snowblower shaft. For anyone wondering about the 13 hp engine from harbor freight, seems to have plenty of power but I've only been able to test it on about 6" of fluffy snow, we haven't had a wet heavy snow yet. The auger spins quite fast and the snow was throwing a good 30 feet at 3/4 throttle. This was a fun project and good excuse to get a plasma cutter. I'll continue to make modifications, one thing I know I'll need is the ability to turn the chute from my atv seat.