Snowblower mod

[Wilfrid]

Has anyone installed a snowblower modification kit for ihe impeller? It is a rubber padle that you bolt on each impeller tip 1/16" from the outer wall that I suppose to throw snow farther and won't plug up in wet snow.

 

[ve9aa]

Could you please be more vague?

Seriously---what kind of "mod kit" are you talking about?

 

[DustyRusty]

I have seen them in youtube videos, however, since the Kubota fans can cost as much as $400 I wouldn't even think about giving it a try. I believe that if they worked as well as the videos say they work, then the snowblower manufacturers would off kits to install them. Now, If I had a junk Kubota snowblower fan, I might give it a try.

 

[DustyRusty]

Could you please be more vague?

Seriously---what kind of "mod kit" are you talking about?

 

[ken erickson]

I cut and installed rubber conveyor belt to the tips of the impeller on my Kubota B2650 front mount blower. At the time my driveway had crushed red granite stone. The size was perfect to get wedged between the impeller and the impeller housing. Really tore the housing up. The rubber closed the gap and made a huge improvement as far as stone damage. Made no real difference in distance of snow thrown. It also made no difference in clogging.

 

[mikester]

Those impeller add-ons make it hard for your blower to process newspaper sausages!

These impellers spin pretty fast on tractors and need to be balanced. Bolting things on to your impeller randomly leads to imbalance and excess vibration. Excess vibration can cause gear box issues. Gear boxes are expensive to replace.

My preference would be to line the impeller housing with UHMW instead of modifying the impeller. Then again my 40 year old 3PH snowblower still works fine without these mods.

My experience is walk behind snowblowers tend to shake themselves apart and don't last as long as 3PH blowers.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

The usual 'death bell' for local walkbehinds is when a tire goes flat. Then I'm asked to fix it. After 5-10-20 years there ain't NO way (tried them all..) the tire/rim is going to come off..it's 'rust welded' to the axle. When told they need new tire/rim assy AND an axle ($$$), they just go buy a new one.
I've found snowblowers work best (well, for me ) at high blower speed, slow travel speed and only 2/3 to 3/4 widths of snow.
I also get RID of the road snow 'up plow' of my driveway BEFORE the Cityplow comes by.....

 

[NoJacketRequired]

All of my Kubota blowers feature fans which run reasonably tight to the fan housing. I don't think there's a lot of extra performance to be had by adding a rubber seal to the fan blades on these blowers.

I can't say the same for some of the older 3pth blowers I've owned in the past - many of them could have done with some heavy rubber to put the tips of the fan blades closer to the fan housing.