Snowblower help

[ve9aa]

Jay

I don't speak for the OP (or Dusty) but the spring to make the dogs/couplers engage is pretty strong. The very first time I engaged it, in the late fall 2+ yrs ago, it startled me.

I don't completely understand the physics of the issue either. I, too, was trying to wrap my head around how (once engaged) they would even slip at all? I was under the impression the U-joints in the driveshaft did the "angling" bit when the blower is raised (or angled down for back dragging). The driveshaft also has a long spline on it, I presume to compensate for angular movement (I presume the OP's isn't gummed up, rusted or somehow "frozen". (doubtful)

In the spring I am going to inspect mine......but it runs pretty smooth and not loud.(no clanky noises like the OP) and I probably have 30 hrs on my BX2830 blower (not a typo)
Actually, it's slightly louder at 1500rpm unloaded than it is at 3000rpm unloaded or loaded. (seems like anyways)

The OP did mention something about a keyway retaining bolt being loose,(I probably have that terminology not quite correct) but there's still a larger bolt holding the coupling on I think.

I guess I am just as puzzled as some of you !

 

[Snowman7]

I took a measurement with blower engaged fully up and in the float position. I would say there is about 1/16 difference.

 

[Snowman7]

Oops, wrong pics

 

[Snowman7]

Here we go, fully up, fully down. Ran smooth as silk yesterday but it sure is a Different experience when you have all this crap in Your brain, lol. Don’t do this, don’t do that. I have come to the conclusion I really need to make my world more level. my blower probably goes up and down at least 6” just being in float. I limited my lifting as Dusty recommended to only a couple inches when backing up. Kubota needs to figure this out or there will be a lot more green tractors in the snow removal world. The only thing I replaced on my 59” JD blower mounted on my 98 770 were chute cables about every three years. That was probably my fault
from not cleaning the snow off when I was finished. These things cost WAY too much money to be this fragile. If this is my fault from being a dummy I sure hope I can figure out and correct.

I do think it is absolutely awesome as far as performance, we just need to make it reliable. I have no intention to push snow after blowing the stuff for 37 years.

 

[ve9aa]

I must be dumb (I'm sure I am). Doesn't/shouldn't the blower and K-connect raise as one unit?
Check out this video....skip ahead to about the 5:20 mark when he raises it.
I was always under the (mistaken?) impression, differences were made up while angling with the
driveshaft (seen earlier in the video)
k-connect system BX

 

[Snowman7]

wow, picture are worth MORE than 1000 words !

1st, have to wonder why the faces of the 3 tangs( or 'teeth' of the coupling is picture #1 are shiny. My 'reading' of the instructions is that you line up the couplings, then pull the 'engage' bar forward to engage the coupling sections. This is done once per install,unless you remove the snowblower section.

2nd,there's a LOT of 'slop' between the 'teeth'.Looks like they machined away far too much material when they were made.

3rd. In the 'installed' photo, there's maybe only 1/3rd of the teeth 'face' that actually mate ! That alone will cause a LOT of wear (anyone seen 'chewed up Bendix gears ?? )

4th. it'd be interesting to see pictures of the 'joinery' when blower is 'fully down' AND 'fully up'. My understanding is they should be the same. The blower side coupling is fixed, The tractor side coupling is also fixed,on front side of the bearing plate, rear has the small shaft with Ujoint.

If the 'joinery' changes between down and up, there is a serious design/build flaw with the system. I consider this 'connection' to be a 'dog clutch'. It's engaged ONCE,then power is applied when needed. A normal 1" Lovejoy coupling would easily do the job.

I don’t know what a lovejoy coupling is but a simple shear pin thru the pair you put in when you install and remove in the spring would be awesome.

 

[Snowman7]

I must be dumb (I'm sure I am). Doesn't/shouldn't the blower and K-connect raise as one unit?
Check out this video....skip ahead to about the 5:20 mark when he raises it.
I was always under the (mistaken?) impression, differences were made up while angling with the
driveshaft (seen earlier in the video)
k-connect system BX

The K connect is solidly mounted to tractor

 

[GreensvilleJay]

You can't 'pin' the coupling together since the coupling halves will never be 100% in alignment in both X and Y axises(sp),due to design and manufacturing errors. That's why 'Lovejoy' couplers as GREAT. They allow for a SMALL misalignment yet will transmit full power.

When the blower section gets raised, you need a longer 'driveshaft'. EVERY car and truck have them. When the rear axle moves up (due to pot hole...) the drive shaft 'magically' gets longer. The Ujoint is used to transmit power through an angle. Most have very limited range. Anyone installing a lift kit knows they're supposed to rotate the axle housing to compensate for this.

My impression of this 'system' is that Kubota engineers THOUGHT they could design their own coupling and they've failed ,miserably. Instead of buying an 'off the shelf' product that WORKS, they've 'engineered' a very,very expensive part that doesn't work and the customer has to pay the price.
When my neighbour's fails I'll suggest the $100 cure instead of the $600 will-fail-again parts.

 

[ve9aa]

The K connect is solidly mounted to tractor

Right - I am aware. I have one.

I just thought once those 2 "dogs" or couplings are engaged (with the beefy spring mechanism), any slop or movement when raising the whole thing up was "taken up" in the driveshaft.

If you have wear, either yours is not quite right? (loose bearing, loose bolts, loose springs) etc.

or

I am completely 100% wrong and those couplings/dogs are designed to take all movement./slop and wear out in 20 hours,

BTW, I am not accusing or saying anything you are doing or saying is wrong - - Not at all....I am just trying to figure out how yours wore out (badly!) in 20 hours and that's the way it is supposed to be??

I think I am missing one piece of the puzzle or still don't understand how it all works.

In 2+ months when I take mine all apart, I'll report back on the wear. My BX2380/BX2830 blower will have 40 hours on it, at least 20 of which are "fairly hard hours"

 

[GreensvilleJay]

re: In 2+ months when I take mine all apart

really ? I know it's only 52 days until Spring, but you may want to keep it together for a little longer...
.maybe when the Robins come back ???

 

[ve9aa]

re: In 2+ months when I take mine all apart

really ? I know it's only 52 days until Spring, but you may want to keep it together for a little longer...
.maybe when the Robins come back ???

yeah, I didn't math that statement perfectly exact or especially well....I usually haul the blower off when I take the snow tires off the cars....it can vary from first week of April to the last week of April. (We've seen snow up to Mid May before though !!!)

 

[Snowman7]

Right - I am aware. I have one.

I just thought once those 2 "dogs" or couplings are engaged (with the beefy spring mechanism), any slop or movement when raising the whole thing up was "taken up" in the driveshaft.

If you have wear, either yours is not quite right? (loose bearing, loose bolts, loose springs) etc.

or

I am completely 100% wrong and those couplings/dogs are designed to take all movement./slop and wear out in 20 hours,

BTW, I am not accusing or saying anything you are doing or saying is wrong - - Not at all....I am just trying to figure out how yours wore out (badly!) in 20 hours and that's the way it is supposed to be??

I think I am missing one piece of the puzzle or still don't understand how it all works.

In 2+ months when I take mine all apart, I'll report back on the wear. My BX2380/BX2830 blower will have 40 hours on it, at least 20 of which are "fairly hard hours"

I know exactly what you are saying, why did this happen?

 

[GreensvilleJay]

i got lazy.... have a dedicated 'snow rider' and my tires have a snowflake on so they're 'snow tires'....
besides if it's 'questionable' driving, I don't go out.simple as that.
got 10" of the white here 2 days ago.miserable stuff 1/3 wet, top fluffy..is pretty though and we NEED the snow melt for the wells !!

 

[atitus]

So I've got this on my BX. This is my fifth year. I'm in MA so it's not as heavy used as if I was in Buffalo or something, ha! Probably used it on average a dozen times a season. I have areas with some inclines where u need to pick the blower up fairly high while I position it then lower back down. I don't have anywhere near the wear on mine that is shown in these pictures. I had no idea that picking it up would put any risk at all before reading this thread, so for these years I have always picked it up a couple inches every time I back up, swing around, etc. Other than a small amount of rust, the coupling seems undamaged.

I can also add that if I have to stop and clear the chute, I separate this coupling so that you can move the auger or impeller by hand to clean it out easily. I have probably exercised that many dozens of times and it behaves no different. Finally, when you close that coupler, depending on the position, the teeth may actually not be engaged but rather touching each other. As soon as you engage the PTO and it begins to rotate and snaps together. Would it be better for it to pre-align it so that it's engaged? Yeah I think so. I will probably start doing that just to be on the safe side from reading this. But I have no intention of changing when I lift it during operation or anything of the sort... It seems to be made for this and I don't have any problems. There are multiple u-joints inside the hitch, and these take the brunt of the effects of raising and lowering it. Maybe a heftier LX able to exert more force and cause wear? I dunno.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

re: Would it be better for it to pre-align it so that it's engaged? YES ! , that's how it SHOULD be done(might even be in the manual ?? ). Fully engage coupling, lock, THEN apply PTO power. Same proceedure with every straight cut manual tranny...clutch in, select gear,clutch out.....
The ujoint on the short shaft takes care of 'angular alignment', the splined shaft it attached to ,takes care of the 'varying length' issues.

 

[DustyRusty]

One thing that would be helpful is if the parts were properly hardened. I know that they have a black finish on them that would indicate that they are hardened, but to what extent, I have no idea. There is a local company that does heat treating hardening and I am going to take one of my couplings down to them and show them the type of wear and see if the part was hardened to a higher degree if that might eliminate the wear. There is no doubt in my mind that there is a manufacturing and design issue, however, we need to keep in mind that Kubota isn't the manufacturer of the snowblower or the coupling. They are manufactured in Canada for Kubota by the company that makes most of the snowblowers for most of the tractor manufacturers. They might not even be aware of this problem, and it appears that it is just coming to light now. There have to be some very high pressures on that coupling that are causing the grade 5 bolt that retains the coupling to the snowblower to shear and move about on the shaft. If it were not for the key and keyway, once the bolt breaks, the snowblower would stop functioning. If you change that bolt to a grade 8 bolt, it might not break, but who knows if that would be considered altering a safety device that is intended to fail under certain circumstances.

 

[DustyRusty]

So I've got this on my BX. This is my fifth year. I'm in MA so it's not as heavy used as if I was in Buffalo or something, ha! Probably used it on average a dozen times a season. I have areas with some inclines where u need to pick the blower up fairly high while I position it then lower back down. I don't have anywhere near the wear on mine that is shown in these pictures. I had no idea that picking it up would put any risk at all before reading this thread, so for these years I have always picked it up a couple inches every time I back up, swing around, etc. Other than a small amount of rust, the coupling seems undamaged.

I can also add that if I have to stop and clear the chute, I separate this coupling so that you can move the auger or impeller by hand to clean it out easily. I have probably exercised that many dozens of times and it behaves no different. Finally, when you close that coupler, depending on the position, the teeth may actually not be engaged but rather touching each other. As soon as you engage the PTO and it begins to rotate and snaps together. Would it be better for it to pre-align it so that it's engaged? Yeah I think so. I will probably start doing that just to be on the safe side from reading this. But I have no intention of changing when I lift it during operation or anything of the sort... It seems to be made for this and I don't have any problems. There are multiple u-joints inside the hitch, and these take the brunt of the effects of raising and lowering it. Maybe a heftier LX able to exert more force and cause wear? I dunno.

One question that hasn't been addressed is which snowblower are you using, vs. what others are using. My original snowblower a BX2816 didn't show the wear of the couplings but broke the grade 5 bolt on a couple of occasions. I have since upgraded from that snowblower to the commercial version, the BX2822, and I noticed the wear after blowing snow for the first time this season. It might have something to do with the fact that the larger and heavier snowblower are putting more strain on the couplings, and they are not up to the heavy-duty job that they are required to do. I will leave any further investigation of the failures to those that have a higher degree of mechanical engineering background. I am certain that when the person with the right analytical expertise delves into this issue they will find the cause and cure. Until that time, all we can do is keep replacing the parts that no longer have any serviceable life left in them.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

Using Snowman's post #57 pictures raises some questions....
The 'on the bench' picture shows the 'gap between the male and female parts of the coupling. When you look at the 'installed' picture there is a lot LESS overlap of the 'faces' of them. Power is transmitted though these faces. Less area = more stress on the parts,quicker failure. While hard to see,it looks like 1/4 to 1/3 less contact area. Ideally you want FULL surface contact,perhaps shimming the coupling would get this.

It'd be nice to know what HP rating the snowblower is, to then 'run the numbers' on the coupling. Also be interesting to know what gap there is between the center post of the male coupling into the female coupling.

I know once I replaced the NYLON shear pins on my BERCOMAC blower,I've moved tons and tons of heavy 'snow' without any breakdowns. Overall ,mechanically ,it's a better designed and built system.

This thread reminds me of the 'ripped box beam - scarifier' post. Similar, since failures appear to be due to poor engineering and /or materials and/or manufacturing. With the advent on computers and CNC , it's too easy to get a product onto the market without proper long term 'real World' testing.

 

[River19]

I'll take a look at mine when I take it off in the Spring. I raise mine all the way quite often with it running as I have lots of slope I am dealing with over the course of my 650' gravel drive in NH.

Why do I do this? Well, for one thing, nothing said to NOT do that.

If I have to replace the dogs after a few seasons (this is the 3rd on this rig) then so be it........life will continue.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

I think, buried in the BX2816 manual, it says to 'run in float position'. I'd like the write of the manual to ACTUALLY follow the steps he/she/it says to do......

If the couplings only last 5 seasons, it's $100+ EVERY year.... THAT is mighty dang expensive, on TOP of the original purchase price and really should NOT be needed if the unit was designed and built right.