My Snow Removal Equipment

When you live where we do and you get anywhere from 200 inches to 400 inches of snow yearly (from the 1st of July to June 30 or as I prefer from the Fourth of July to the next Fourth) you need a variety of snow removal equipment.

From left to right, a couple of shovels, a Yooper Scooper, and a Toro 7hp snowblower.

Next year keeping the driveway open will be all on me. The truck will take care of the majority of the snow removal, The scoop and/or the snowblower will take care of the paths and the shovels for cleaning off the steps and porches.

Snowblower

I have a washtub over the engine to protect it from snow and rain.

Awhile back I posted a cartoon about using a metal detector to find the snowblower. I didn't need a metal detector to find my snowblower this afternoon, but I might have if I had waited another day before going out to clear the snow.

The snow around the vehicles was deep enough that the snowblower couldn't swallow it all and some would come over the top of the opening for the auger on the snowblower. It was at least kneedeep at the lowest and thighdeep in places where it drifted into the paths I have around the place.

They have blizzard warning up for tonight. It should be done sometime tomorrow, and go back to normal.

Getting The Snowblower Ready For Winter

Originally these pieces didn't have bushings in them. The shaft they hold wore the holes out to the point where they were egg-shaped. New ones (at 40 bucks a pop) don't have bushings or bearing in them either, they are just cast steel with a hole thru the thick part for the shaft. I got a couple of bushings (probably for a starter) for a few dollars each and made the holes bigger and round again and pressed in the bushings. I'm thinking this will be an improvement on the design. If not, by the time the bushings wear out, the rest of the machine will be shot.

This is the shaft and bushing blocks installed. Last year I bought a new drive wheel (on the left) and had just turned the blocks around to wear in the opposite direction. 

This year I also bought new belts (the Toro dealer wanted $30 for one belt and I got both belts at an auto parts store for less than that.) for the machine. The machine is 15yrs old and this is the only thing I've had to do other than change oil and the sparkplug.

This is how it looks when it's all back together again. Still need to put the cover plate on that will hid all these moving parts. 

Made some adjustments to various linkages and now it works like it did many, many years ago. LET THE FUCKER SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!