New England B.S. Thread

I was surprised that John Deere didn't include a few extras with my attachment. I ended up buying some. They're super thin bolts, much thinner than what my Ariens takes.

 

Simplicity didn't give me spares either. 7 years old I suppose it was time. The other one is rusty but I'm not opening a can of worms right now tinkering with it.

 

You guys are cute using shear pins. Come to the dark side and throw some bolts in there!

 

Hey now mine said bolt!

 

A common complaint on these Deere snowblowers is how easily they snap pins. There are also complaints that the gearboxes are weak.

I think they're related - people get annoyed and put heavier duty bolts in, then the stress goes to the gearbox and destroys it.

I don't think I'll go through many since I'm clearing a flat concrete driveway and some paths on the lawn - no rocks or anything to hit. So far it still has the originals in it.

 

yeah, I get it. I have an old snow blower that's built like a damn tank so I'm using steel bolts instead of shear pins. I did snap one last winter, surprisingly. I'm just giving you guys a hard time. If I had a nice, new snow blower, I'd be buying the correct shear pins for it also.

 

I have a Toro snowblower that doesn't use shear pins in the auger. Theory is the gears in auger gearbox are strong enough to take the hit and stall the engine. I was skeptical even though I saw test videos. After several unplanned tests of my own ( Sunday paper buried in a drift, frozen chunk from plow, etc ) I'm convinced. Knock out the jam with a broom handle, start back up, off I go.

 

@Sloth
Did some Looking around on the Ooni website. The oven prices are no where near as high as I'd expected. Definitely picking one up.

 

My parents had one of those big old 1970s Ariens machines. It was the type that would take a mower, tiller, etc. attachment if you removed the blower, but it was still a walk behind unit. The thing was ridiculously well built. Eventually it blew the engine - stalled on me one day and then had no compression whatsoever - pull the cord once gently and the engine would keep turning over for 10 seconds. I never really looked into it because they had a newer Simplicity that we used most of the time anyway.

 

I only busted a pin once.... got too close to the power cord going to the trailer from the house.....had to replace the cord lol

 

You can get replacements on Amazon. I order about 20 of them at a time since Murphy's law is that you will run out during the worst snow storm of the year(tomorrow). Of course I have a poorly made dirt driveway where they used way too big rocks that sometimes pop up in early or late winter when the ground is not solidly frozen.

 

Save your money and just buy a pile of class-2 bolts with nylock nuts in the right diameter/length at Home Depot. They'll snap just as easily when they have to and you'll pay pennies on the dollar compared to a dedicated sheer bolt.

 

Come on now, go big or go home. Grade 4 or 6 at least

 

There's a pub down here called Murphy's Law. So, now whenever someone says that I'm like "Oh beer?"

There's also a local restaurant chain about 5-8 locations called Chelo's. For about 6 months I spelled it Cello's, as you would. Now, whenever I hear a reference to the instrument I'm backwards and spell it Chelo.

If you send me the bolt info and your snowblower info and I can check when each will snap and if the bolt is enough otherwise....

VVV

....this can happen

You can probably do the same thing with google, but I'm willing to give it a whack!





Edit OH YEAH the reason I came on. Just got off my call with my FAA guy for our repair station. He was on site for that cape air that overran the runway back in September that jacked up our beach trip with @mabepossibly et. al. He was saying it was basically everything went "right" for everyone. Went into the trees and down a hill and the angle and positioning of the trees was ideal, ripped the wings off but not a dent on the fuselage. They got out the tail door and had to jump, some broken bones and burns but that's about it.

Report is still open so I won't get into a lot more details, but thought it was cool to get 5% of the inside scoop haha.

 

It's what I did with mine too... Fuck all these shitty chi-com shear pins that last 1/2 a snow event.

 

Too risky and too much of an expense for my driveway....As much as it is a PITA to have to replace them it is much easier than having to replace way more expensive parts.

 

I mean they are definitely a luxury, but it's pretty dope. I got the wood/ charcoal one and bought the propane burner attachment for kicks. But I haven't used the propane burner yet. After a few times you'll get the hang of using charcoal/ wood. Don't bother with HD or Lowes for the charcoal/ wood. Ace hardware has the correct lump charcoal and chunk hardwood you want.

I've used it 3 times this week, and I'm going to use it to make our Friday pizzas tonight. I did burgers earlier in the week, then fish sandwiches and scallops, and 2 nights ago did salmon.

 

My snowblower is also an early 90s snapper commercial unit, so I'm not too concerned with the gearbox strength. And if I had to get a new one it wouldn't be the end of the world.

 

Well, let's see if my neighbor's backwoods wisdom checks out - Ariens Deluxe 30 snowblower with a 5/16" grade 2 bolt replacing the shear bolt.

 

If he has all his fingers go ahead and listen but take everything 3 finger Bill says with a grain of salt