OT - Snowblower on a packed gravel drive

[samson]

Will this destroy the snowblower over time?

Thanks,

S.

[Jim Willemin]

samson wrote in news:MPG.21cb101fe0e9bcef9898e7@news- server.wi.rr.com:

I'd raise the scraper blade a bit, leave maybe half an inch of snow on the drive, which you could then easily shovel if you need to get down to clean gravel. If you start to pick up stones in the snowblower you'll wind up chucking those rocks in the discharge stream at reasonable velocity, with the potential for damage or injury to anything in that general direction. And yeah, I'd expect damage to the machine if you scrape up lots of gravel. Also, watch out for ruts and bumps and stuff like that - you could be going along fine, then blooey, just because the drive is not perfectly flat. Good luck.

[George]

No doubt it will, but depending on where you live, you may not care to leave an extra inch of snow on the drive every time you clear it. Builds up to several wheel-grabbing inches of slush with the thaw.

Takes me 15 years on an impeller, half dozen on the shoes, but I think it's worth it. 300" per year can close a driveway if you don't use a blower.

[Nova]

How is it on shear pins and windows?

[George]

Gravel doesn't shear pins, but twigs and rocks, not to mention those big hard salt/sand lumps that hang under our rust-belt vehicles until they drop to ambush the snowblower can. I have an unopened package of five that I bought three years ago after breaking the spare I'd received with the blower for ten years. Piece of firewood took that one. Waiting on the next one, but it's not going to happen until it's multiple degrees below and multiple inches deep, you can bet.

What fool would angle the chute toward a window?

[Mike Marlow]

That's right around our average also. I don't blow it though - I prefer the warmth and comfort of my truck. I just push it wayyyyy back in the beginning of the winter.

[Mike Marlow]

Not if you build up an inch or so of hard pack early on. Then set it as low as it will go so you don't keep building up a pack. You'll regret several inches when the thaw starts.

[Mike Marlow]

Ya hadda go and ask that question, didn't ya?

[Bonehenge (B A R R Y)]

DAMHIKT - Cold vinyl siding...

[George]

Try just pushing a drive width less a foot and a half either side and running the blower out and back. That's what I'm doing, but my drive's only

200' long. Hated trying to second-guess the snowfall based on woolly bears and freezing out a big strip of lawn. .

[Andrew Erickson]

My experience was that driveway gravel is carefully sized to be precisely 1 mm larger than the clearance between the auger and the casing of a snowblower. Just barely big enough to get firmly wedged between them, precisely where it's hardest to whack them out with a hammer or whatever's handy. Must be they use different gravel down your way.

Replacing shear pins is a pain, but it beats the alternative by a long shot (e.g. replacing gearboxes).

[EXT]

That is the way I do it. First snow fall gets left on the driveway to be packed down by traffic. All the rest get snowblown. Of course sometimes the first one is too deep to leave, then I blow carefully to reduce the amount of gravel picked up. The edge of the driveway is the worst as the larger stones migrate to the edge and the grass is a little lower than the driveway so it is easy to scoop up some gravel. I have nothing down-range that I can hit, so the odd stone gets thrown on either my lawn or my neighbors. He is in Florida for the winter, and doesn't know about it.

[Jon]

It will ruin the snow blower, that is why I picked up a "lot" of old military flame burners. It is the same as what roofers use. I just stroll behind my riding lawn mower and flame the stones, three maybe 4 passes and done. I rigged up my flamer with biodiesel! You should hear the snow flakes screaming as I melt those damn critters away from my gravel driveway. Snap, Crackle and Pop were also hiding in there!

Jon

[J T]

Thu, Dec 13, 2007, 9:47am (EST-1) [e-mail] (samson) doth query: Will this destroy the snowblower over time?

Of course. On the other hand, just running it long enough, period, will eventually destroy it. If you're worried aboutit, use a shovel. If it was me, I'd adjust it enough so it wouldn't pick up an gravel. Or move. I chose door number 2.

JOAT I do things I don't know how to do, so that I might learn how to do them.

- Picasso

[Lew Hodgett]

My guess is you already know the answer.

BTW, walked away from the snow blower almost 20 years ago.

Lew

[Gerald Ross]

Sorry I can't help. I never saw one.

[Puckdropper]

[e-mail] (J T) wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Another alternative is for powder type snows. You can just use a leaf blower to clear your driveway. I've done it a couple times with good success.

Puckdropper

[bridgerfafc]

snow? what's that? and why would you want to blow on it?

Bridger, in Tucson, where we are getting chilly nights down into the

40s.

[J T]

Thu, Dec 13, 2007, 7:41pm (EST-3) [e-mail] doth sayeth: Bridger, in Tucson, where we are getting chilly nights down into the 40s.

74 here today, in central NC, and supposed to get down to 54 tonight. We have trees and grass too.

JOAT I do things I don't know how to do, so that I might learn how to do them.

- Picasso

[Mortimer Schnerd, RN]

You have grass? I had grass. Now I have dirt.