My first snowblower mod! Craftsman 9 hp snowblower.

I've been working on this off & on for a few days now, and I got it finished tonight. And hopefully, I'll get to test it out tomorrow if we get the snow they say we're getting.

Got the idea from a tractor forum that my friend visits, and I scaled it down for my machine. Bought a power window motor for $20 from a member on H-T. The motor is connected to the shaft that moves the discharge chute left & right. The old hand crank was just a horrible design. It was so loose, that it drifted because of the engine's vibrations. I'd put it one place, and in 5 feet it was throwing snow on the house or where I'd just cleaned.

I've got a small 12v computer UPS battery mounted on the handles, and a switch that controls left & right. And just to make life easier, I put charging terminals on the top to simplify connecting the battery charger clamps.

Before I started:


Pic of the way the motor mounted:


Other side:


View from the back; wiring still needs to be siliconed, but it was about 20 in my garage and my feet were frozen. Red switch on the right side will be for a set of foglights mounted up front



Video of the action:

 

That's awesome. Good idea. I just bought a new Ariens snowblower that you just push the handle to the side and it swings the chute mechanically but your idea is even more lazy. I love it!

 

would have been cooler if it was a honda snowblower

it needs a fart can!

 

^^^ I couldn't touch a Honda snowblower. I paid like $600 for that one, and a Honda 9 hp was about $1500...

But this project worked great! We got about 8 inches of wet, heavy snow last night, and even with snow flying out the chute, that little motor didn't bog down a bit.

It's just so nice to have snow go where I want it to, instead of drifting everywhere.

 

must have been a acura snowblower..

 

i've never seen a snowblower so excuse my ignorance...

so the thing you made is to control electronically the direction that the snow gets sprayed? is that right?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Mr.E.G. &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i've never seen a snowblower so excuse my ignorance...

so the thing you made is to control electronically the direction that the snow gets sprayed? is that right?

</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yes, it controls the direction of the snow spray.

And, it's quite the idea as well, considering I've snapped a few of those rotating arms being impatient.

 

nice work.

 

It's working great, however, the only problem I'm having is I think that the battery is too small.

My car battery charger won't charge this low-milliamp battery, so I'm going to try a trickle charger. Harbor Freight has them for like five bucks, so it's worth a shot.

If that doesn't work, I'll have to get a bigger battery like one for a motorcycle.

 

thats cool!

 

can you stop that discharge chute at certin points? or does it just move left and right? pretty cool mod.

 

good idea

reminds me of that old movie-Johnny5

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by VRD^don &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">can you stop that discharge chute at certin points? or does it just move left and right? pretty cool mod. </TD></TR></TABLE>

It only moves when the switches are engaged. Used a couple of SPDT (on)-OFF-(on) momentary switches, then, after I had them installed & wired up, I remembered that they made DPDT momentary switches. Oh well.

 

Looks good.

Totally off topic but I see you are from upstate ny. Do you snowmobile? If so I will be at my place in old forge NY this weekend to go snowmobiling. Shoot me a pm if you want to meet up.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by underpressure02 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Looks good.

Totally off topic but I see you are from upstate ny. Do you snowmobile? If so I will be at my place in old forge NY this weekend to go snowmobiling. Shoot me a pm if you want to meet up. </TD></TR></TABLE>

I'm about an hour south of Old Forge. Never been on a snowmobile in my life. I'd probably fall my fat *** off and break a limb (or two).

 

Nice my niebour has a honda that has the auto tilt and **** . I think it was like 3 g's for the snow blower

 

I paid almost $700 for mine, and I've got a $20 motor into it, and a battery that I got from work.

It's still not a Honda, but it's cooler than everyone elses on my street. LOL