Friday, February 16, 2007

Bercomac Snow Blower

A review and installation walk-through of my Berco 40" Compact model snow thrower.

Lately (maybe because the whole country practically is having a blizzard this week), I've been getting a lot of search engine hits to the Me, CherkyB looking for information on Berco (Bercomac) Snow Blowers. I understand this, as before I got mine, I spent a huge amount of time on the web looking for the same info, and there wasn't a whole lot of it. Most of these hit the My Beloved post, where I ramble on about whatever for quite a long time before posting some pictures of the assembly. No one has yet hit the action shots in Beloved, probably because there is no text that a search engine would find interesting in that post.

So, humanitarian that I am, I put together this grand, unified guide to the Berco snow thrower. I hope that some folks find it helpful. I wish I had found something like this before I bought mine.

First some details of my setup. I have a 2006 Husqvarna YTH20F42T with the 20HP Kohler Courage engine. Depending on where you look on the tractor and paperwork, it is sometimes also referred to as an LOYTH20F42T. As best as I can tell, the "LO" means that it is specially packed for Lowe's, and this means it comes with a manual that says, "Contact Lowe's for all your parts and service needs," all over it, but other than that the tractor is unchanged. The standard Berco subframe kit for the '06 YTH20F42T worked fine.

I purchased my blower setup from Mac Equipment in Loveland, CO, which is the nearest Bercomac dealer according to the manufacturer's website. This was a special-order, and it took 12 days to arrive (10 business days). Being special-order, I paid list price for everything. I'm not sure if a place that does more mail-order/internet business like Jim's Repair would have a better price. I decided to buy locally. Oddly, the local place not only charged me sales tax but also charged me for shipping (to the tune of $195 - tough to get a good deal on a special order), so I'm betting Jim's would have been somewhat cheaper.

Here's what I got:
  • 40" Compact Snowblower [QBM700255-2] ($1349)
  • Subframe [BM700413-2] ($190)
  • Compact Drive Mechanism [BM700414-1] ($169)
  • Chute Deflector Kit [BM700239-0] ($65)
  • Rear Counter Weights (comes with mounting hardware) [BM700246-5] ($275)
  • 28x8-8 Tire Chains [BM102896] ($88)
I debated a while between the Compact model and the Northeast model, but settled on the Compact. The differences between the two models appear to be just two. First, the Compact is 40" wide and the Northeast is either 44" or 48", depending on which you buy. Second, the auger on the Compact is driven by a chain from the side, whereas the auger is driven by a gearbox from the center on the Northeast model. If there are more differences, I could not discern them from the specifications on the web. The Northeast model is a few hundred dollars more expensive than the Compact, and I couldn't see any need for it over the Compact for the relatively infrequent blizzards we have here in the front range. If you live somewhere with regular, heavy snowfall (in the Northeast, perhaps), it may be worth it for you.

Now on to the assembly. Right up front let me tell you that this seems intimidating at first given the sheer number of parts and the complexity of the diagrams, but after completing it, I can look back and say it was very straight-forward. It's literally just installing bolts.

The first step was to assemble the subframe. This is a couple of thick hunks of metal that sister to the frame rails to add additional strength. Very cool. It's also the only part of the blower assembly that is "permanently" attached (it's only bolted on, so you can remove it if you really want to spend an hour or so doing it). Everything else pops right off with little levers or cotter pins so that the changeover to mowing in the spring is pretty easy.

The directions were pretty good, but the diagrams were too small to really read, so I spent a bunch of time figuring out exactly what I was supposed to do. Here's my take on it:

There are a LOT of parts that come with the subframe assembly. This is because this assembly is designed to fit every tractor made by Husqvarna's parent company (Husqvarna, Poulan, and Yard Man?) plus a couple others. You are going to have parts left over. A frighteningly lot of parts. Mostly, it'll be bolts. The subframe assembly directions boil down to putting a bolt through every hole in the subframe rail that lines up with a hole in your tractor frame rail. The diagram maps the holes in the subframe to a particular kind of bolt, and there are many holes so close to one another that it is very hard to follow the map. In general, pick the bolt that fits. You have two diameters, two lengths, and if the hole is square, you use a self-tapping machine screw instead of a bolt.

A couple things I wish had been written differently in the directions. First, the subframe assembly instructions say, "You do not need to remove the mower to complete this assembly." What they should have said was, "Do not remove the mower until you complete this assembly." See, there are a couple steps that say things like, "Use the lowest position that does not interfere with the drive belt or mower deck," except I had already removed the mower since I knew I was going to have to in order to complete the blower install, and nothing ever told me not to. In particular, there is a cross-member that joins the left and right frame rails and becomes a mounting point for the drive mechanism that has many, many optional positions. Luckily, they list the recommended positions for a few different kinds of tractors, and mine was on the list, so I didn't have to put the mower back on.

Then, there is the matter of shims. The kit comes with a few shims to use in case your tractor's frame rail is not completely flat. My right one was flat, but the left one was not. These shims are, unfortunately, not described until you get to the end of the subframe rail installation instructions and it kind of mentions an "Oh, by the way, if an hour back you mounted the subframe rail and noted it wasn't completely flat against the frame rail, you should have used these shims." Argh! I had to partially remove the left rail to add in the shim.

The same kind of thing happened with the heat shield. There is a heat shield right up front under the nose of the tractor, and I had to remove it to get my hands in there to bolt on the subframe rails. When I was done with the installation of the subframe rails, I went to put it back and found it no longer fit back in because of interference from the hinged blower mount that was now right under it. I found that if I loosened up a bunch of the subframe bolts, I could just squeeze it back in , but then I couldn't get to the nuts to hold them when I re-tightened the bolts. I screwed around with this for literally a half-hour before I kinda-sorta got it in place and decided to give up. Then, a couple steps later, the directions note that you might not be able to reinstall your heat shield, but not to worry, a new heat shield that will fit is supplied to replace the old one in this case.

Where was that two pages ago! Here's a photo of the replacement heat shield. This was taken after I had completed the install of everything, so there's a little more stuff than would be there after just the subframe install, but you can see how it might be tough to wedge the original heat shield in there with all that stuff underneath it. In particular, the original heat shield required you to tilt the front down to clip the back in, and then bring up the front to screw it on. The tilt-down is darn near impossible here. (For all these photos, you can click on them to get the "full-size" image.)


Here is the right frame rail - the very first thing you install if following the directions. This side also has the lifting mechanism, of which that big arched piece of black metal is part. It transfers the motion from the lever arm to the front lift bracket. If you look closely, you will see that some of the bolts have the head end out, and some have the nut end out. The directions say to always put the nut on the inside, but I just couldn't fit in there to do that properly on some of the bolts. Nothing rubs or scrapes, so I assume this will be just fine.



Here's a picture of the left subframe rail, which I did second, and thus was easier to do. It's that shiny black thing in the front, as opposed to the dusty black frame rail behind it.


This closeup of the left frame rail illustrates a couple of the points I made earlier. First, you can see I have one bolt put in with the nut on the outside. Second, you can see the shim I needed on this side. It's the shiny piece of metal sandwiched between the black subframe rail and the black frame rail and running directly underneath the yellow oil drain cap. There's a metal plate welded to the bottom half of the left frame rail that does not exist on the right, thus the shim is needed here.

Underneath, you have to remove the mowing deck and then attach this blower power takeoff. This is held in with a couple big posts and two cotter pins, so it drops right out in the spring when it is time to put the mower back on.


Here's a shot of the drive assembly with the belt running forward to the blower assembly. That curved bar running up the right side of the photo is the lifting lever. You may note how there are a lot of cotter pins in view - those are all you have to remove to take everything off in the spring.


One note I might add is that I have an electric power takeoff. The power drive assembly just pops right in if you have an electric PTO. If you have a manual one (like you were a sucker and bought the exact same tractor from Sears as a Craftsman product, only with a manual PTO instead of an electric one, and you paid a couple hundred dollars more for it to boot), there were a number of additional steps involved that dealt with assuring proper alignment and adjustment of the clutch cable.

Here's a look down at the drive mechanism of the blower itself, looking down in front of the nose of the tractor (the thing on the right side of the photo). I've removed the cover plate, which is held in place by one nut with a big knob on it so it doesn't require a wrench. You see the drive belt come in from the top right, go over an idler pulley, under the auger drive pulley, then it does a 90 degree bend to go over the impeller drive pulley, then back through two idlers. That black post running up from the auger drive pulley goes to the side of the auger cage where it drives the chain. I assume that would not be there in a Northeast model, as they drive the auger from the center.


A couple other things to note in the above photo. There are two springs visible. The top one is the drive belt tensioning spring. It is engaged by flipping the lever whose handle is vertical just to the left of it. The cover plate locks that handle in place. The lower spring is a new feature, and it is a lift assist spring. It helps reduce the effort required to lift the blower off the ground using the lift arm. The effort is quite low, though I have not honestly tried it without the spring to see how much a difference it makes.

Here's the side view of the hookup, this time with the cover plate installed. That little red tab is the latch that keeps the blower attached to the mount. There's one on the other side, too.


Now we're all hooked up except for the rear counterweights and the tire chains. This is about 5 hours into the install. It doesn't seem like it should have taken that long, but it did. The parts packages contained all the parts for many different tractor models, so you always had boatloads more parts than you used for each step. This caused me to have to go back and recheck the directions every 30 seconds, cuz I really don't like finishing something and having about 50% of the parts still sitting there, unused. If I were to do it again on the same tractor, I could probably get to this point in 2 hours instead of five.


Here's a picture of the remote chute deflector kit. It consists of a 5-position handle that mounts to the side of the post on which the chute rotation crank mounts, a cable (very much like a bicycle brake cable), and a cable mount for the chute. This is without a doubt an excellent value in an upgrade. $65 is nothing compared to the total cost of this thing, and I can't imagine living without the ability to set the chute height from the driver's seat. Without this kit, you get two hand-nuts that you have to go loosen, adjust the height, and re-tighten out there at the business end of the chute. I also didn't think it would be worth it to spend the few hundred bucks for the electric chute kit (which gives you electric height and rotation). After using the manual version a bit, I still think the electric kit is not worth it.

OK, on to the rear counterweight kit. This was one of the hardest steps, as it turns out, as my tractor did not have all the holes needed in the rear frame to mount this. So I had to drill a couple of them, which meant I had to take off the rear wheels to get the drill in. Then, the stupid weight lockdown bar was a little teeny bit too short, and we screwed around with this for like a half-hour before deciding to just drill out the cotter pin holes a little bigger so that they'd clear the mounting brackets. That took all of 30 seconds and solved the problem. Wish we'd thought of that first.

In theory, the nice thing about these rear counterweights is that having them hang off the back like that gives you an effective 25% more weight than if you used wheel weights.




My only concern here is that, while I can easily remove the weights by removing one cotter pin, the mounting bracket is not as easily removed. I'm wondering if it will interfere with the control lever for my broadcast fertilizer spreader. I'll update this when I try it out. [Update: the mounting bracket did not interfere with the lever on the spreader. The weights and weight bar would have if I had not removed them, though. Removal is one cotter pin - no big deal.]

[Years later update: It turns out that I when I drilled the holes for the mounting bolts, I didn't quite get the two brackets at the same angle. This small misalignment has made it more difficult than it should be to slide the locking bar through the weights each fall, but it;s nothing a little grease and a 10lbs sledge hammer can't handle.

Also, I finally broke down and bought a bagging kit this year. These brackets do prevent you from being able to install the bagger. I have found that I can just remove the lower bolt from each bracket (which is the easier bolt to get to), and then swing the bracket arms down 90 degrees so that they are at the sides of the tractor frame, and they clear the bagger just fine.]

I took it for a spin where I attacked a couple of the snow drifts next to the driveway. It did pretty well, though I managed to break one of the tire chains. I felt some resistance while I was just driving (dry pavement, blower not engaged), so I gave it a big load of gas. Hee hee. Took a few minutes to put the chain back together. I think it had stretched and got caught up on something. The chains are supposed to stretch a whole bunches when they are new. What I can say is that this thing really throws the snow far. I had to aim it downward to keep it under 20'.

Now, this was pretty old snow (about a month), so the bottom couple inches was basically ice. The blower skids right up over that. It had no problem with the compacted and icy drifts, but it didn't get the very bottom layer. This is pretty standard with a blower. There is no real way to force it down like there would be on a snow blade. I guess the lesson here is to not let your snow turn to ice before getting the blower out.

I got some nice, fresh snow a couple weeks later (only about 2"), and it did a great job on that.





38 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the placeholder. Your guide reminds me of the time my friend Dan L., a.k.a. the Kenmore Kid, wrote a manifesto about how to win money through bonuses offered by Internet gambling sites. He wrote about every site and how many times you could bet, what one should bet on, and when to stop in order to keep the bonuses without going in the hole. I'm not sure what came of the manifesto or of Dan for that matter.

Anonymous said...

you must really be bored - didn't you write all this stuff before?

Anonymous said...

You forgot to mention that you were fixing the garage door while assembling...is it safe to say that it probably will take the next assembler less time?

CherkyB said...

My goal here is to try to actually do a serious, informative post on a topic that a lot of people are interested in, but for which there is very little detailed information available. I know people are interested in it, as my statcounter tells me I get almost daily hits to the subject (always in google, oddly. Does no one use any other search engine?). I also know it was an area of much worry on my part.

One of the reasons I wanted to get it locally was so that I could talk to someone who had seen one before and could give me an assessment of it. However, when I went down there to talk to the folks, it was quickly obvious that this product was something they didn't know anything about, and that I had learned more from the web than they knew.

But I never got a feel for how hard it would be to install from anything I found on the web. I also never could find out if the counterweight kit included mounting hardware (John Deere's, for instance, does not as most of their tractor models have the hardware built on). So, I'm trying to help other folks out.

And hey, snow blower advertisements pay like 50 cents per click. They're some of the biggest money-makers AdSense has. Maybe I'll make a couple bucks in the process.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for a very comprehensive and helpful technical manual on the Berco and tractor.

We're seriously considering a purchase of new garden tractor (Husky-Varna or Craftsman) and the Berco unit and cab and your article has made up our minds to so do before the next winter season arrives.

Your writings are why the internet exists.

Thanks for your efforts and fine work.

Al Czervic
The Catskill Mountains
New York
AL'S HOMEPAGE

Unknown said...

How far does it blow the snow? How high? Do you see any problems with this?

I'm trying to decide between getting a John Deere blower and the Bercomac...

CherkyB said...

I didn't actually measure how far it throws the snow. I'd guess somewhere in the 100' range. I imagine this is highly dependent upon the amount of power/torque your particular tractor has.

Jim's Repair addresses the Deere vs. Berco in their FAQ. Here's what Jim says:

"Q: I have a new John Deere X500, will your snowblower work better than John Deere's at throwing snow?

A: The John Deere 2 stage snowblower is a good machine but I can tell you that the new Berco 2 stage will out throw the John Deere by far. Our snowblower is wider and it is less costly to buy. Our machine also has a better resale value because it can go on more than just John Deere tractors."

Anonymous said...

Thanks Cherky,

I am a bit concerned, as I only have a JD LA110 (I didn't intend to use it for snowblowing... wish I thought of this when I bought it). Just hope it has enough to do a decent enough job. Wish I could get more info on anyone who's tried this...

eric

CherkyB said...

I think you'll probably be fine with a Berco on the LA110. That's not too terribly different a tractor from what I have in terms of specs. I have 1/2 hp more, but we're both single-cylinder. The light frame on the LA110 won't be a problem because the Berco subframe kit really beefs it up. I don't think I'd put a 48" northeastern on there, but the 40" compact like I have should be fine, and likely a 44" northeastern would be good, too.

Unknown said...

CherkyB,
Thanks for the reply. I was thinking about going with the 40" compact model (which they even say is their best seller) and not anything larger.

One question though, what subframe kit are you talking about?

I see you purchased a, Subframe [BM700413-2] ($190), but I can't find this anywhere on their webpage.

http://www.bercomac.com/accessoiresDetails_ang.php?noAccessoire=2

I see it listed under installation, "Subframe (mounting brackets) can be used simultaneously with mower deck on most models (will not interfere with the mower deck)."... but it seems included with the blower.

Am I missing something?

Again, I just want to say thanks for your post and information you have provided. You have really helped me out! I think I'm ready to head out to the dealer and get ready for this winter!

Eric

CherkyB said...

It looks like Berco has completely redone their website, and it's not necessarily an improvement in all respects. They used to have a link where you could download a PDF file of all their part numbers, and I don't see that anymore.

So, three things I would note: First, every single tractor model they have listed has the same part number for the compact blower on the web page today (700255-3). Right there, that's a red flag for me that this is just the blower, as I guarantee you a subframe that bolts onto a Toro won't fit a John Deere or as Husqvarna. Second, they tout on all their pages that once you install the subframe once, you can switch from blower to plow to rotary broom. It wouldn't make sense that all of those accessories would also include the subframe, since you only need to buy it once, yet none of them list the subframe as an option. Finally, none of their "Specifications" details actually depict the subframe in the diagram or explicitly say it's included.

I'm guessing it's still not included. Your dealer will have the catalog, and from that will be able to determine if the subframe assembly is ordered separately or not.

I will note that I ran in to a similar issue last year when I got mine, where I knew I needed to buy a subframe kit, but I did NOT know that the drive assembly didn't come with the blower (I note you haven't asked about that yet - this year's web page makes the same passing mention of it that it does of the subframe). So when I got a quote for $1349 for the blower, it was just the blower. To actually use the blower required another $190 for the subframe and then another $169 for the drive mechanism. (The drive mechanism is the set of pulleys that connects your power-take-off to the belt of the blower, and again, this is very tractor-model specific as there is no "standard" power-take-off form factor.)

Now, my local dealer didn't know enough about it to really know all that stuff was needed at first. He ended up having to call the company to make very sure I had everything I needed, and suddenly the price was a lot higher. So, as a warning, if you aren't dealing with a dealer who sells a lot of these, you may want to sit down with him and the catalog and look for the subframe and drive mechanism, and make sure he double-checks with the factory before you special-order the thing.

CherkyB said...

I will note that Jim's Tractor is quoting Berco blower prices including the quick hitch kit. So maybe that's a change for this year. Or maybe I got ripped off.

I've never dealt with Jim's, though a co-worker of mine has done a re-power of his old John Deere through Jim's with very positive results. He can actually wheelie the tractor now, despite it being only 16 hp. Lotta torque those B&S Vanguard engines have.

Anonymous said...

Cherky,

Well, I put in the order for a Berco compact 40". They said that the drive mechanism and subframe were included. I went to my John Deere dealer, so when I asked about the weights I think they are selling the John Deere weights as they mentioned they sell 2 weights which are 50 pounds each onto a bracket which mounts on the back unlike Berco where I saw it supports 150 pounds (unlike what they were proposing which was only 100 pounds).

The one thing I'm not sure of is the manual chute deflector kit. I told them I wanted it (based on your recommendation) and they kept telling me I didn't want it. They said that usually all you will do is set the chute deflector at a particular height and this is the height it will stay at the whole winter, so why spend the money. It seemed to make sense and I'm not sure when I would need to manually adjust the height as I'm new to all of this. Can you shed any light on this?

I also asked how long it would be to ship it in (the chute deflector) and they said months.. I just find this hard to believe. I am lucky as it seems that they have 1 berco blower (40") left at one of their other dealers so they're shipping it over.

I'll keep you updated. Thanks again.

Eric

Anonymous said...

Another note...

I was thinking about buying the heavy duty skid shoes as I have a gravel lane way, but my dealer convinced me not to bother. Seemed to think I shouldn't have a problem and that it would be a waste of money. I don't quite understand, as why else would they make them? Do you have any opinion on this at all?

Thanks again,

Eric

CherkyB said...

I think as far as the chute deflector goes, it'll depend on the configuration of your property. I find that I like to adjust the height differently as I go past the koi pond and get out into the street when turning around. But I could probably do a set it and forget it if I needed to. It's a trivial thing to add this kit later if you want it, so you could hold off buying it until you use the thing a few times.

Same for the skid shoes. The ones it comes with will almost definitely make it through a season, and if they get beat up too quickly, when they wear out you can get the heavy-duty ones.

I'm really starting to wonder if I got ripped off by having to pay extra for the subframe and drive mechanism. It's one of those things I'm not going to look in to because there's no way I'll end up happy afterwards. I'm happy for you that they are now included (though maybe they raised the price to cover it?).

Anonymous said...

Cherky...

I must say that your post is very informative...Thank you for the effort.

I'm looking myself at making one from a Berco 48" and making it fit to my atv (suzuki 4x4). Lot of work probably ahead, I'm now looking around for a 20-23 HP engine.

Michel

Unknown said...

Thanks for you Site, It really helped decide which blower to buy.
John Deeres or Berco. Thanks to you
I went with the 40"deluxe Berco.We
Are having record Snow Fall here in
Vermont this winter.It was good timing.I've read comments about the chute control.I bought it with the blower and made an extension for it. I use it a lot, I'm considering the Motor drive assembly. Has anyone used this and if so please comment. Thanks again
for being there.

RA IN VERMONT

Unknown said...

Thank you for the post, it is helping me as I try to install a used Berco 44" Northeast blower on my 07 Craftsman.

My one concern is that when I line up the Left subframe rail it appears that the pegs that stick out will interfere with the brake pedal. It looks close in your pictures but you don't mention a problem. Is it really close on yours?

CherkyB said...

On mine, the front peg is within about 1/2" of the brake pedal's lever when the brake is fully depressed. The lower one that curves up to hold the auger crank doesn't really come anywhere near the brake, though I did learn that if you scrape it along a fence rail at just the right height, it'll bend inwards and block the pedal.

Unknown said...

Interesting. Well, I mounted the '05 subframe on the '07 tractor and I have a couple rubs. The break just scrapes the auger crank holding arm but it still engages. The "gas" pedal contacts the lift arm but I think it's pretty much at fulll throttle. Do you have that problem on the right side of your tractor?

CherkyB said...

Nope. Nothing rubs anywhere.

Anonymous said...

How much is a little used Berco snow blower model 700210-1 with manual chute control worth?

Unknown said...

I can't thank you enough for this web page. I used your advice when I was looking for a blower and when I found a used one at a good price I used your excellent descriptions and images to adapt a 2005 berco blower to my 2008 Craftsman Professional tractor. And you are absolutely right about the electric clutch, it is so much easier to change attachments between seasons. Thanks again, this is what the Internet is for.

Anonymous said...

Installed a Berco blower on a JD 125. Everything went well with few parts left over. Just one case of "I wish they had mentioned that earlier".

For weights - I filled a 4 gal bucket with scrap metal and concrete, weighed 106 lbs. Then built a simple bracket out of 1 1/2" angle and 2" x 3/8" bar to support it. $20 later, saved about $130.

Anonymous said...

I have the Northeast 48 in blower and am having drive belt problems. The main 118" belt has lasted 34 hours (OEM), 57 hours(Hy-Power),17(Bando) hours. Have you had any better luck with any other brands?

I also purchased a 15 year old John Deere cab and rebuilt it to fit my Husqvarna GTH2548 tractor.

I can work my snow blower comfortably for hours and keep warm and dry.

I also removed the skids. This improves the tendency of the blower riding up on an old snow bank.

Anonymous said...

How or where do you order parts for berco
Johnny

jacktire said...

Hi! All ....

Tire chains improve traction on ice & snow.
if installed properly...

Anonymous said...

Everyone says these are the best unit on the market. I bought one and have had nothing but issues. I realize that a lemon could be produced, so do NOT buy one unless it is local. I bought one from Jim's Tractor in Hastings Minnesota(I live in Washington State)and he has not been any help!!
Buy local so you can return or get it repaired.

Pat said...

DUDE!

Thankx so much for the pics.
I'm upgrading my Blower...and that chute deflector kit is exactly what I've been looking for!!

Thankx much!

g and r said...

We got our first real snow today, and got the snowblower attached to our new Craftsman tractor no problem, and that was a relief but we fought for hours with the rear mount weights and still couldn't get them to match any holes. The instructions were so vague and no pictures and made it seem like we "HAD" to use all 10 bolts. Well, I just found your pictures and you are only using 2 per side. I guess we all get hung up on having extra pieces left over. Tomorrow we attack it again and now with your pictures, we have a head start. Thank you
from the Frustrated Canadians

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the post, great info. Will help me buying the right snowblower for my Tractor. Wish to install the 40 inches in the front and having a blade in the rear to do more precise cleaning around obstacles. Maybe this rear blade (wich I had never found as of now) would be heavy enough to prevent attaching rear weights.

Sam said...

Thanks for a GREAT walk through on the installation. I have a 48" electric lift on order, waiting for it to show up. Have read the manual on line, left a bit to be desired. My main concern was not being able to see how the belt system hooked up. Looked a though my front axle would be in the way. With your photos added to the commentary I now see how the drive belt system works. Had me worried, was not sure how it was going to work. Am replacing a 1970 Case Yard King with a single stage blower. It is on its last legs. Thanks again, I am no longer in a bit of a panic.

industrial blowers said...

Snow blowers are the most effective way to remove snow. They quickly and efficiently suck up snow and ice and blow it out in a way that you can point in a desired direction. Snow blower parts at major retail stores such as Sears, Ace Hardware, Lowe's, or Home Depot, depending on where you live.

Anonymous said...

Wondering, after all installed and running. How high will the blower lift off the ground. I imagine that it may depend on the tractor, but approx, anyway.

Anonymous said...

Bless your heart for posting this info..found it most helpful. Installed counterweights being extra careful to ensure everything lined up prior to drilling the holes. Worked great until we added the weights and then the rod no longer threaded through bracket plate-weights-opposite bracket plate. Found that one could lift whole suitcase of weights slightly and tip back away from mower seat and with other hand push the rod through. No grease, no sledge hammer.

Larry said...

Has anyone had a problem with their augers not turning on very cold mornings? Mine was frozen first thing in the morning, and then again after the tractor being turned off for about15 minutes. The dealer tells me the auger assembly has some liquid that can freeze, and the belt can't turn it until it warms up. Any similar experience or it mine an anomaly?

Anonymous said...

cherkyb...your blog has been a BIG help in understanding the install process. I was able to find a near-mint 40" compact locally for $250!! Thats in the process of being installed on my Husky24F42 as I write this. Your pic's will definately help sommth out some of the snags found in the install papers. Thanks again...BigRig

Larry in CB said...

I purchased a Berco 40" compact with electric lift (winch and all electrical accessories included). I bought it locally so as to guarantee good service-both during and after the sale. I can tell you that this thing is amazing. I would strongly recommend the chute deflector kit. I dont have one (yet), and it really is a pain. I have tried to make one, and it does work but I need the force of moving snow to raise it. I can lower it with a cable that I attached. Other than that, I would recommend this blower to anyone. Tractor is a 22HP Poulan Pro. Carries it easily, no trouble pushing it through even 2 feet pof snow. Heck...it even sounds cool!!