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blizzard
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 282 Central Maine
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2004-02-22          77556

Yawn..., Time to fire up the coffee and tractor. Looks like about 8" of white stuff, no freezing rain.

Good Luck to all snow movers.
bliz


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grinder
Join Date: Oct 2003
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2004-02-22          77557

Bliz
How has your blower held up?
....

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blizzard
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2004-02-22          77587

Blower is holding up well. I will probably make a few changes when mud season arrives though. The adjustable skid shoes are not shaped for my pit run drive, I'll replace them with Fisher 'mushroom' ones so they slide in the turns instead of fetching up and lifting rocks. Probably weld on another wear plate under the auger so the unit floats over the stones better.
I've gone through a handful of shear pins, mostly my fault trying to 'widen out a little'. Not all grade 2 bolts are the same. One batch could bog the engine if I went too fast, the ones I am eating now are as durable as spagetti, got to be real careful not to overload the auger.
Some 'standard' wear on the auger, fan and shroud. Those little stones are very abrasive. No problems at all with the gearbox or chain.
I clear a 1600' drive plus about 10,000 sq-ft combined parking and work areas so it does get a workout for a non-commercial unit.
Keep warm and dry.
bliz ....

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blizzard
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2004-02-22          77609

WigglyBridge,
Did you get to play in the snow with your new chains this weekend, or did you get rain. I sure feel sorry for all the folks south/west of New England, seeing they are deprived of Four (or more) seasons/year. :)
bliz ....

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Murf
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2004-02-23          77699

Bliz, you may be interested to know I'm working on a variation of the now infamous 'Murphy Pipe', this time for BLOWERS.

The concept is the same, a continous bearing surface that will tend to bury obstacles or ride over them rather than scooping them up. Prototype will be unvieled soon.

Best of luck. ....

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blizzard
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2004-02-25          77923

Murph,
I noticed that on my Puma 64" blower the cutting edge is set at a fairly aggresive angle. (Pic#17) Adjusting the skid shoes and shortening the top link does raise it but it still tends to dig in as the machine changes attitude. One modification I'm mulling over is to weld 1/2"X2" bar in front of the cutting edge, flush with the bottom of the reinforced side plates. I'll bevel the leading edge so it won't catch as readily. One mod I did make yesterday was to weld some beveled 'pucks' to the bottom of the factory skid shoes (no Pic yet). They were wearing quite a bit, plus hanging up in turns.
Please let us know what ideas you come up with. I'm thinking of a permanent solution as my drive is quite long and not glass smooth and I'd hate for something to come loose and get tangeled in the auger or blower.
Good Luck,
bliz ....

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grinder
Join Date: Oct 2003
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2004-02-27          78127

Bliz
How about a couple of small adjustable height wheels on
the outside of the blower near the shoes?
Big vibratory roller just before freeze up works good.
My neighbor has access to one and does his mile long camp
road in November.
just a thought. ....

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blizzard
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2004-02-27          78143

Grinder,
The roller would be ideal, if it wasn't too expensive. I'll check when I do summer maintenance. The drive was in pretty good shape before the December storms, but the wet, heavy snow followed by warm torrential rains took a toll. Pic#20 is a 'puck' I welded on the factory shoe. This seems to make blowing a lot 'smoother', not hanging up nearly so much on turns and gliding over most rocks rather than dislodging them. I thought about wheels, but was afraid that they too would hang up when turning. May give them a try after the next fix, replacing the factory 7/16" shoe bolts with 5/8" or 3/4" ones, doesn't help. The adjustment slots in the shoes are much wider than the bolt diameter, and no matter how tight the bolts are, the shoes tilt after some use, so the curved leading edge tends to catch instead of riding over the stones. Of course, some of the problems are of my own making... I just can't resist the urge to 'widen it out a tad' even though I know TROUBLE lies under that snow (;>
Have you noticed any wear on your skid shoes? I don't think they are very hard 'cause there was noticible wear on mine after only 5(?) or so miles.
Even with these little problems, the tractor/blower is just incrediably better than my pickup/plow. Not having to plow wide to leave room for more storms saves a lot of time and frustration. Not having snowbanks along the drive keeps drifting to a minimum. Not having to climb up the seat to get out the passenger's door after sliding off the drive, priceless....
Keep warm, and thanks for the ideas,
bliz ....

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harvey
Join Date: Sep 2000
Posts: 1550 Moravia, NY
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2004-02-28          78147

Blizzard I was looking at your #17. I rebuilt my shoes this past summer with 3" wide x 1/2" flat stock. Bent them up on the ends... that helps some on gravel but the biggest problem is the crown in the drives.

I could not tell from your photos about the lenght of your cutting edge. It looks very short. Me thinks if you got some 3/8 x 6 x width of blower and bolt it on with carriage bolts that would give you much more control of the cutter floating or cutting on gravel by adjusting the top link.

BTW this year my neighbors plow truck broke and I've been doing his mile long gravel plus the widows 1/4 mile fresh grusher run drive. I got lots of new rock scars but the cutter will float or cut with just a couple of turns on top link.

I am more pleased with this than trying to plow and stay out of the gravel.

....

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grinder
Join Date: Oct 2003
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2004-02-28          78150

Bliz
As far as the wheel idea, how about a swivel type like on the back of a bushhog? Mine haven't shown much wear, as it is new and I leave about a 1/4" of snow as opposed to trying
to scrape it down to blacktop.
Harvey's idea might work with a cutting edge from a snow blade, not sure if it will take the pounding on the flat without breaking. You said you tried the "Fisher" type shoe? I'm sure your
familiar with H.P. FAIRFIELD IN SKOWHEGAN. Some of those
guys might have a suggestion,they know snow removal. ....

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grinder
Join Date: Oct 2003
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2004-02-28          78152

Bliz
One more thought,what about looking at the big boys and see
what they are using?
Here are a few of the ones I found,Lorenz,Inland,Farmking,
Schulte,Allied,Lucknow,
They must be used on gravel roads. Might get some ideas
if you could pull up the specs. ....

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Art White
Join Date: Jan 2000
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2004-02-28          78214

Harvey thats a big modification to your shoes. They weren't big enough to hold on there own? ....

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grinder
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2004-02-29          78235

Blizzard,
Looking at the pics of your pucks, I think if you allowed
them to spin you would have better luck.
Copy the set up on a fisher plow, short piece of pipe for
the mount and a fisher shoe with washers for height adj.
You may have to move them away from the blower a bit but
that should not be to hard to do. What do you think?
....


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harvey
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2004-02-29          78237

Morning Art. Yes and No. During freeze up on the grindings the old ones, narrow shoes, would rut down in (of course they needed rebuilt anyway). On good snow pack now the 3" are a little much. But i've found that the angle and lenght of the cutting edge seems to have more impact on what is picked up and gouged.

During freeze up I have some up pressure so the whole weight of the blower is not on the shoes.

The biggest draw back with the wide shoes is trying to cut down the snow pack. The wider shoes will not allow the blower to drop into the pack.

I've looked at the cutter area and me thinks I can put a longer sharp cutter (installed like cutter on a Cat bucket) on it and control it with angle.

Now all that said: I am pretty damn IMPRESSED with this blower. And I have not had to replace 1 shear pin anywhere.

It may just get sand blasted this summer and new "proper" :-) green paint with yellow "P680" markings.

BTW the widow is still intrested. I'll take a day off (April or May) and drive her up to see you. ....

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blizzard
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2004-02-29          78239

Grinder,
Using a spare pair of Fisher shoes was my first choice, but I cut some beveled pieces out of 1/2" plate for this prototype. Maybe weld some brackets up and put the Fisher rotating ones on during mud season. At least one more shoe of any type would help I think. As I posted earlier, I'm also considering a 1/2" thick by 2 to 6" wide plate or section of pipe welded in front of the factory cutting edge flush with the bottom of the side plates. Of course this summer I'll re-grade and remove some of the rocks along the edges, which cause the most problems.
Hopefully not much more snow this season, so I'll have time to think it over and round up materials. But one good 20" March blizzard would be nice, give WigglyBridge a chance to test out his chains :)
Balmy weather today, so blower is off, weight box on, gotta move some trees....
bliz

....

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grinder
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2004-02-29          78256

Yeah that sun sure feels good , just throwing out some ideas.
You might check with the local state DOT garage and see if they are going to redo any roads around your area.
I know that sometimes the specs call for it to be rototilled
(asphalt) and hauled off,and some call for it to be reused.
Sometimes you can get a decent price on the reclaimed material. You might check with Farin Bros and Smith up your way. I think they are out of Brighten Plt. ....

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wigglybridge
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2004-02-29          78289

Bliz, as I mentioned this morning over in the thread on Denno's 4110, I got out with the chains in 18" and did some snow moving. Pretty cool, even better if we had _really_ cleaned out the garden last fall...

On your problem with the bolts on the skid shoes: my blower has notches in the slot where the bolts go, so just one carriage bolt holds the shoe very securely. Downside is only 3 positions for the bolt, but as mentioned, the top link adjustment is just as important.

Nice photos, by the way! ....

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blizzard
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2004-03-01          78312

WigllyBridge,
As you might have guessed, I did get a digital camera. I was
taking so few pictures besides ones to post it wasn't cost effective to use film, and the PITA process of snap, process, scan, and post was tedious. I was in the woods Sunday hauling logs and piling slash. The moderate temperatures contributed to excellent traction and very pleasant working conditions.
bliz ....

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Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999
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2004-03-02          78483

Bliz, sorry I completely missed your question to me in the early part of this thread. I think the 'Murphy Pipe would probably help in your case.

The design of those blower bodies are meant to cleam snow right down to a HARD surface. Unfortunately gravel is another story. The sides actually doi a lot to bringing up gravel too. As the knife edge of the side pushes through the gravel a certain amount of it is raised up, like waves behind a boat. Although it is tough not to cause some disturbance until it's frozen solid, I would try to put a pipe all the way around the bottom, sides included.

I have seen a lot of blowers with angle iron welded along the sides to help keep them on the surface, but then in turning they skid a pull up even more material.

The big thing is to keep a thin layer of hard snow over the gravel to lock it down out of the way.

Best of luck. ....

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blizzard
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2004-03-16          80009

Good Morning Grinder,
Looks as if I will have to give the blower one more feeding of sand and stones, oh yeah , and a little snow. Maybe this storm will keep south like so many this season, I'll gladly drive through a couple of inches of snow/slush for a while rather than churn up the drive any more.
Have a good one!
bliz ....

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grinder
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2004-03-16          80012

I new it would snow, I just took the blower off to twitch
out some trees this past weekend.Anxious to get the stump grinder out I guess.
This is the time of year I appreciate blacktop and snowblowers as opposed to the lawn remodel.
Have a good one.
Grinder ....

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wigglybridge
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2004-03-16          80041

Grinder, you mean this is YOUR fault?

And I thought you were our pal!

Looks like I get to test out the chains on a big one, and the 'vintage' Skidoo snowmobile suit I got off eBay. ....

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grinder
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2004-03-16          80057

Wiggly
Yeah it's my fault, but I just put the Blower back on so it will probably go out to sea.
What is your opinion of mulch mostly Hemlock I think, that is mixed with waste wood? Demo lumber etc. ....

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blizzard
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2004-03-16          80071

Thank you, thank you Grinder.
My blower is still perched on its log stand.
Noticed National Weather Service cancelled weather advisory.
I'm going to watch TV and forget about the weather (;>

Waiting for Spring,
bliz ....

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lucerne
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2004-03-16          80072

No more snow please. I need to get digging and making some money, long winters in Maine. I see the sleds are still crossing the lake today. ....

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grinder
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2004-03-17          80107

I told you it would go out to sea!
But I think I will leave it on
for a bit longer.
....

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jjcmd3
Join Date: Jan 2008
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2008-10-12          157193

Murf,
Greetings, perhaps you could help me? I'm looking to use my BX23 FEL for snow removal (not too much snow in Maryland) and am concerned about the edge contacting the street. I've searched a number of times and seen references to the "Murphy Pipe" but can't seem to find the link or pictures. I see your pics show your blade setup, is this the Murphy pipe?
Thanks,John ....

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Murf
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2008-10-14          157239

Wow, a 4 year old thread!!?? :)

John, there aren't any pictures, none needed.

The now infamous Murphy Pipe is just a piece of steel pipe that has been slit to slip over the cutting edge of your FEL bucket. Other than the slit the only other thing you have to do is to drill a few holes, on a small machine 2 is enough, and either weld a nut on top of the hole, or thread the hole in the pipe itself. Then put a bolt through to apply pressure on the bucket lip to keep it in place. A second nut on the bolt will act as jamb-nut to lock it from loosening off from the vibration.

The whole point is just to give you a smooth rounded edge that won't mark paving or dig up gravel.

Best of luck. ....

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