ahw2698

What would it entail for me to step up to a 3 inch pully? What I have now is a "two in one" style pulley. One piece of metal with two wheels of the same diameter (2 1/2 I think). I would assume I would keep the drive pulley to same diameter and jump the auger pulley up to 3"? Would I be able to do this with two individual pulleys, or would I have to get a double with the 3 inch / 2.5 inch combo? 

The other question I have would be with what size auger belt I would need with the bigger pulley. Is sizing for that going to be trial and error?

I got a chance to run my deere 826 today with the kit installed. There was a noticable difference. We had about 5 inches of dry, powdery snow today.

I noticed an improvement of about 25-30% in distance. This is in line with what I have read others are seeing. The real improvement is supposed to happen with the heavy, wet slushy stuff.

Anyway, it has turned the machine from being basically unusable to marginally acceptable. Definately not a good as a modern machine, but OK. My take on it is if you have an old machine that runs good but cannot toss well due to the huge impeller gap, it's worth the money. If you really want to pinch pennies, you could fabricate your own kit.

I just finished installing a Clarence Impeller Kit on my John Deere 826. We are supposed to get snow tomorrow and Weds. so I should have ample opportunity to test it out.

I ran it for a while tonight  just to "break in"  the rubber onto the housing and that went fine.

Trouts, I see you are from MA. I am from So. NH. We had 6 inches of fairly heavy snow today. I only got about a 6 to 8 foot toss out of my 826.

Today there was a very heavy and deep EOD. Got about a 4 foot toss there. The machine never bogged down, even in the heavy stuff, just does not throw snow far. My auger pully is 2 1/2 inches.

It would be interesting to know what  throw distance these things were rated for when new. 

The model number on mine is slightly different than yours. Mine is P826H.  It looks just like the one in your picture, though. Maybe mine is a year or so older or newer?

I have not  had any luck obtaining parts diagrams. But I can tell you that mine has a 3/4 inch shaft and a double pulley. I'm pretty sure the pulleys are 2 1/2 inches. Engine and pulleys are original.

When I first aquired the machine, it only tossed maybe 4 feet max. After a new belt, it tosses up to 8 feet. Still not far enough. The impeller seems to spin quite nicely. When running without snow at full throttle, I can feel a nice strong breeze coming from the chute.

So it looks like you have the correct factory shaft / pulley combination. Plus you have 3 more HP than original plus the engine is newer.