Snowblower pushing snow & not blowing

[animals45]

Happy new years folks . I have a 3301HST with a Lorenz double augar blower on the back . A lot of times it seems that its pushing the snow instead of blowing . PTO speed is fine & driving speed is slow . I just was watching my wife using it & if she backs up theres a big pile on one sid with augar marks in it . All the shear bolts are fine . I know we have the blower set a bit high , we have @ mile of gravel road with a hill portion at @ 16 % . Any ideas ? I did some searching cause I knew this had had to have come up before butI got nothing , I probably didn't use the right wording in my search . When it does blow it works great .
thanks
animals45

 

[GreensvilleJay]

I've never dealt with a double auger blower but... even though shear pins are good... is there a pin between the auger drives ?? I'm trying to think HOW they get PTO power to blower AND both augers on both sides.
A model number would help me....though I suspect others who have a similar unit will chime in soon.
Ok, found a parts manual for a 734 series unit... both augers driven from a common chain from a sprocket on the back left side. With tractor OFF, can you turn either auger and see the blower spin ? If not, the 'driving' sprocket may have sheared it's key. may be enough drag to spin the augers without any snow but stop when there is snow ? A guess, since you say the 'shear bolts' are all OK.
If the gear key is OK,... hold an auger and the fan, if you turn the auger does the fan turn ? If not, fan key is sheared ?
The drawings are great at explaining HOW it's all supposed to be connected.


This is one of those 'have to be there, or own one' problems.

 

[MapleLeafFarmer]

long time snowblower here. Assuming your blower is not the hydro one Lozenz makes.

Pushing snow normally means one of the following:
- augers not turning (usually broke shear pin or chain)
- discharge fan not spinning (usually broke shear pin or chain)
- tractor ground speed to fast for blower to clear snow
- long shot is pto not hooked up (stolen)

quick check is to shut tractor off, grab one of the blades on upper auger and spin the auger..... you should see the pto shaft at the tractor spin. Repeat with lower auger. If spinning the auger blades does not translate to spinning pto shaft where it connects to the tractor you have a broken shear pin, broken chain, or pulley loosened from shaft.
Do the same test for spinning the fan. Spinning fan manually should translate to pto shaft spinning at tractor stub.

cheers

 

[Jsjac]

On the last snow we had it was wet. If I went slow with the tractor it would just push the snow along.when I would go a little faster it would blow the snow just fine.
That is the first time I have had this happen.

When the snow is dry it blows just fine.

 

[ve9aa]

Augers clocked properly?

Some of them need to be offset 180* so that when you are blowing snow, as they're gobbling snow they're not "stuffing the face" of the impeller faster than it can "swallow" snow and then spit it up the pipe.

That aside, you should be able to stand back and see if everything is at least spinning and no shear bolts are broken.

 

[animals45]

I checked the shear bolts when we shut it down last time , will check again tomorrow . We got a bunch of that special Sierra Cement most of the day . I'll wait till it crystalizes over night & then hit it . These blowers have a upper & lower horizontal impeller which pushes the snow into the big fan impeller on the second stage .
thanks
animals45

 

[bird dogger]

I have a lorenze double auger style blower like yours. Real wet snow tends to push and build up behind the blower as mentioned.

If it's due to shear bolts broken....on mine.....it's always the two 1/4" grade 2 bolts that bolt the lower auger to the chain driven sprocket. Inspect them carefully......the sheared bolts can still be in the parts....making it look like they are still good....but need to be removed and replaced.

 

[Dave_eng]

I checked the shear bolts when we shut it down last time , will check again tomorrow . We got a bunch of that special Sierra Cement most of the day . I'll wait till it crystalizes over night & then hit it . These blowers have a upper & lower horizontal impeller which pushes the snow into the big fan impeller on the second stage .
thanks
animals45 View attachment 93253

When the blower is pushing more than it is blowing it is telling you to slow down.
Is this a picture of YOUR blower or just a web picture.
McKee and others from the 1960's made a lot of double auger blowers for John Deere and Kubota as well a selling them under their own name as Snowlander 720.
The second auger did nothing for the performance. It actually made things worse. Feeding the fan faster than the fan could get rid of the snow. Those blowers came with a 3 blade fan which was another weakness.
Dave

 

[mikester]

Happy new years folks . I have a 3301HST with a Lorenz double augar blower on the back . A lot of times it seems that its pushing the snow instead of blowing . PTO speed is fine & driving speed is slow . I just was watching my wife using it & if she backs up theres a big pile on one sid with augar marks in it . All the shear bolts are fine . I know we have the blower set a bit high , we have @ mile of gravel road with a hill portion at @ 16 % . Any ideas ? I did some searching cause I knew this had had to have come up before butI got nothing , I probably didn't use the right wording in my search . When it does blow it works great .
thanks
animals45

How do you get your wife to clear snow? Does she mow the lawn as well?

 

[woodman55]

I have a 6' rear mount, and a 4' front mount, and they both push snow. Depending on conditions, sometimes it is a bit, sometimes it is a bit more. As long as it is blowing more than it is pushing I would not be too concerned. I find it is worse with lesser amounts, 1/3 depth of the blower, than when the blowers are in deeper snow. On a side note, I prefer the front mount 4' over the rear mount/rear facing 6', it takes longer, but is much nicer to use.

 

[Orange1forme]

I would agree with the other comments that if the unit is fully intact, then it is the condition of the snow.
I would also say the condition of the underlying layer could contribute to pushing. The ability of the snow to easily move on a layer of ice or slick ground instead of piling up has happened to me.

 

[animals45]

That is my blower . I'll check the clock on the 2 augars . That makes sense that they should be offset .
The unit was barley used when we bought it . The guy boight a house that came with the tractor & blower . I think the tractor was in the neighborhood of 24-25 HP . The guy told me the loader was faster then the blower & I could see that lookin at the tractor HP . There was very littie paint rubbed off due to wear .

 

[animals45]

How do you get your wife to clear snow? Does she mow the lawn as well?

No lawn , just 27 acres of pine trees . She would never run my Case 580's , so she'd making up for time on the Kubota .

 

[eiresurg]

Is there a slip clutch thats slipping?

 

[animals45]

nope , it's all pretty simple , 3 different sets of shear bolts . I did check & the upper & lower augar are clocked 90 degrees out . Like mentioned I think the speed was teh main factor , & I'm guilty of it too .
Ya start out nice & slow & as the ole back starts cramping up from lookin over your shoulder , ya move your feet & the speed starts climbing up . I've been thinking of a cruze control , but they don't work in reverse I've been told . SO I'm wonderin if there's some way I can modify one to work in reverse ? Any of you folks know ?
thanks
animal

 

[airbiscuit]

The only other thing I would suggest is running the RPMs at the high end of the PTO range. That makes both the auger feed and fan performance work better.

BTW, I sold my conventional 3pt snowblower and bought an inverted, and I couldn't be happier.

 

[nbryan]

I find occasionally that certain snow, temperature, and ground conditions can make the snow "block up" in front of my snowblower and refuse to feed, thus skating ahead of it when the snow mass breaks loose underneath, as you describe. I run my front mount blower at full operating rpm which is 2500rpm. Pretty much always, besides a low rpm warmup.

Usually happens in the fall with deep wet snow and the ground hasn't frozen yet, but can happen with drifts in deep cold that sit on loose "sugary" snow below.

What works for me is to raise the blower some, reverse a few feet, then hit the drift with the blower still raised and a bit of velocity to behead the monster using some momentum.

When the tractor wheels reach the remaining pile, reverse again then drop the blower all the way and hit it again. Rinse and repeat as necessary.

Only happens once or twice at most a year here.