Snow blower RPM?

[heimannm]

I picked up a snow blower that was intended to be used with a small skid steer, I plan to use it on my Stuck mini dozer. The auger/impeller is roughly 18" in diameter, any idea that kind of RPM it should turn? It will be powered by an independent 16 HP engine but I am limited to a 16" pulley on the end of the shaft. Even if I run a 3" pulley on the engine the impeller would be spinning almost 500 RPM with the engine running 2,500 RPM.

It appears to have been made to be driven by an independent engine as the mount looks to be factory and that was a 12" pulley on there when I got it.

Where do I go from here?



I think my grandson will let me use it if I need to.



Mark

 

[Fish]

That would be a nice thing to have.
Any brand or i.d. tag on the snowblower?

 

[heimannm]

It was hard to determine what the trade name was, all that was clear that it was manufactured in South Dakota. I did get it rigged up to mount on the dozer blade.



I made a couple of brackets that bolt to the blade and will have a pin to engage the opening in the top to make sure it can't jump off. I also added some springs to the back/bottom of the mounts to provide a little cushion in case I bump into something while clearing snow. That bracket on the discharge spout will hold a hydraulic motor to rotate the top of the spout for directional control.



I did manage to get it all cleaned up and primed today, drilled the holes to mount the engine and added lugs for the cylinder that will tension the belt drive. Hopefully I will find some time this week to get it painted so I can finish assembling everything next weekend.

At 3,600 RPM on the driving engine the rotor will be spinning @ 675 RPM. We used to build some 54" diameter blowers (to blow silage up into 70 to 90' silos) that turned 540 RPM so I am guessing 675 will work. I just hope it doesn't strip the bark off the trees up front when I go by...

Mark

 

[exSW]

I'll look at one tomorrow. It's 540 pto. I'll see if I has anything written on it for the auger speed.

 

[heimannm]

Thanks!

 

[heimannm]

Project is coming along, I will try to pick up a belt tonight to give it a spin. I expect I will need to change it to a two belt drive to take advantage of the 16 HP blower engine.







Mark

 

[heimannm]

900 RPM was not enough.



Ordered a sheave and bushing off e-bay before I left, don't need a snow blower in Brasil this week...

Mark

 

[ANewSawyer]

Pardon my ignorance but what is a sheave?

I am impressed by you guys who can fab stuff like this. Cool to see it go from pieces of steel to working implement.

 

[heimannm]

Most people would call it a pulley but technically if it has more than one groove it is a sheave. Single groove, flat, or crowned would be a pulley.

I just got home (Thailand then Brasil) and there is snow on the way so I will get it put together with the new ratio and a 2 groove drive and see if I can fling the snow a bit further this time around.

Mark

 

[heimannm]

New drive is installed, I will be happy to wait to try it out.



Mark

 

[ANewSawyer]

So glad I live in a part of the states that doesn't need those very often. Been over 20 years since our last blizzard. Most snow you can sweep off with a broom or just wait for it to melt. 24-48 hours usually.

Good job making that work!

 

[Homemade]

Did you ever figure out the correct rpm for the blower? I know the single stage blowers need high rpm.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[heimannm]

Back to this story....after replacing the driven sheave with the 2 groove 12" one, my "doubled up" straight bore drive sheaves weren't really up to the task so I also installed a slightly large O.D drive sheave mounted with a tapered bushing.



Once I got the RPM up it was clear the rotor was out of balance so I took it to work and one of the guys in the shop put it in our electronic balancer and tuned it up for me.



Too cold for Mrs. Heimann to take an action shot today so I only have a still photo of the finished product with the modified spout (my first attempt was too acute), it certainly will throw snow now. I did not put a tach on the engine to determine the exact RPM but I believe the blower is turning somewhere around 1,100 RPM.



Mark

 

[Al Smith]

As an outsider looking on as I see it with a single stage blower the auger would really need some rpm's to toss snow any distance . Perhaps extra impeller blades between the others would help but then again it could throw the balance off again .