DGOJeff

Do you have any close-up pictures of the Toro auger design? I'm not sure I could retrofit it to my blower, it seems like this auger is pretty custom. The chain drive on my auger is on the right hand side, there is no gear box in the middle like most blowers. Thanks to all for the ideas.

Well, I don't actually use the blower to plow the driveway. That's what the ford 1700 tractor with blade and front end loader are for. The blower is to clean in front of the garage doors so the plow can get close enough and to clear the deck. So, I don't foresee hitting any chunks of ice like that. With my old craftsman, I went through plenty of shear pins since I had a gravel (rock) driveway. That was replaced with lots of concrete when the garage was built.

OK. It's not technically "ice" that I'm trying to chew through with the snowblower, it is more a frozen granular compacted snow. The serrated auger should grind it up into very small bits that will get thrown, as opposed to the smooth auger that just seems to make a nice pattern in the snow but goes nowhere. Currently, if I break those pieces off with a shovel into smaller chunks the blower moves through them fine. So, I don't think the gearbox will be an issue.

I have the snow blower attachment for the DR Field and Brush mower. It wasn't working too well until I did a tune up: changed oil and filter, went with 5w30 for the winter, new plugs, cleaned the carb and adjusted it slightly richer. At least now it does not stall under load. I know it's only single stage, but where it seems to be lacking is chewing up the packed snow from the driveway apron and on my deck where it piles up after sliding off the roof. I am thinking there are two options to modify the auger: 1) cut into the auger and bend pieces alternating slightly left and right or 2) weld on small pieces of similar steel to the sides of the smooth auger. What do people think? Any design ideas? Other mods that I would like to do is to setup a joystick with electric actuators to move the chute left and right, as well as, up and down. Anyone have plans to do that? Thanks. Jeff