# Got Lucky Today



## barney (Nov 21, 2017)

Out doing the EOD and decided I better shovel it instead of blowing it as I'm on a dirt/gravel road and the plow will often shove up rocks/boulders as it plows. Sure enough I shoveled a grapefruit size boulder out of the EOD pile. 

Can anyone advise about how big a rock does it actually take to do real damage?

Are you generally okay with rocks smaller than a golf ball? Being new to blowers I have no idea, so thank you in advance for any education.

*Kind of sucks being on a dirt/gravel back road.


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## jrom (Jan 10, 2014)

I hear ya about living on a gravel back road. I still think the positives outweigh the negatives (at least here).

I'd say that your shear pins should do their job of just about anything that may make its way into your auger or impeller. Good idea to make sure the shafts are loose and lubed up and that you use proper shear pins/bolts.

About twenty years ago a good size rock made it past the augers, into the impeller, made one heck of a dent in the impeller housing on its way out the chute. Sure seemed like a good size rock.



barney said:


> Out doing the EOD and decided I better shovel it instead of blowing it as I'm on a dirt/gravel road and the plow will often shove up rocks/boulders as it plows. Sure enough I shoveled a grapefruit size boulder out of the EOD pile.
> 
> Can anyone advise about how big a rock does it actually take to do real damage?
> 
> ...


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## AriensPro1128 (Nov 9, 2014)

I live on a private, gravel road. Under the gravel is what they call 3 to 6. The rocks are 3 inches to 6 inches in size. I have picked up and thrown several of them over the years and yes, they do put a nice dent in the impeller housing.


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## dhazelton (Dec 8, 2014)

I had a gravel driveway which was really crusher run when I bought my Honda 724. I threw so many stones that I went back to using my Farmall Cub with a plow (didn't dent anything but really scoured the paint off the inside of the chute). When I could afford to pave it I went back to the blower.


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## 10953 (Sep 4, 2017)

picked up a big paver one time into the 624 powershift, no big damage just a dent ,


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## HCBPH (Mar 8, 2011)

If the rock makes it through the auger through the impeller without jamming, then almost anything is possible. Having said that, I once sold a blower to a lady and her son used it on gravel. He ended up jamming a piece of gravel about the size of a marble between the auger rake and the housing, jamming the machine. Flip side of that was the time I took a very large chunk of ice totally through a machine successfully. I know it went through because I watched it arc and come very close to a parked car.


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## Kiss4aFrog (Nov 3, 2013)

I'd be more concerned with smaller rocks that can get jammed between the impeller and housing. That's why I drive over the first and maybe second snowfall. That way I have the gravel in the driveway packed down a bit before running the blower over it. A big rock shooting out the machine is nothing to take lightly but if it goes through I think you're better off then when you suck in smaller stones that can jam the impeller and having to get in there and replacing the pins that will snap or possibly damage the impellers bearing or bearing housing.
From the answers I'm guessing each case is a little different and so is the solution.


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## barney (Nov 21, 2017)

Kiss4aFrog said:


> I'd be more concerned with smaller rocks that can get jammed between the impeller and housing. That's why I drive over the first and maybe second snowfall. That way I have the gravel in the driveway packed down a bit before running the blower over it. A big rock shooting out the machine is nothing to take lightly but if it goes through I think you're better off then when you suck in smaller stones that can jam the impeller and having to get in there and replacing the pins that will snap or possibly damage the impellers bearing or bearing housing.
> From the answers I'm guessing each case is a little different and so is the solution.


Sounds like I'm living on borrowed time then as I'm picking and shooting five or ten smaller stones every time out. :sad2:


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## barney (Nov 21, 2017)

So, do you guys who live on dirt/gravel roads and rock laden EOD shovel? Or is it dam the torpedoes, full speed ahead.


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## jrom (Jan 10, 2014)

I've only used a shovel a few times to break up ice or super hard pack. 

We get enough snow here that it was only early and late in the season that I would get the gravel snow, and then it was "fire away" and literally watch out for people and vehicles in the path of that stream.

About 8-9 years ago, the county decided to pave 1/5 of my road and the pavement ends at my property line. I can go left on asphalt, or right on gravel (for 4 miles before you hit a highway), so fortunately I can avoid the gravel snow bomb now, but for almost twenty years I had to deal with it.




barney said:


> So, do you guys who live on dirt/gravel roads and rock laden EOD shovel? Or is it dam the torpedoes, full speed ahead.


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## cranman (Jan 23, 2016)

You know Barney..there was a time when "getting lucky" had a whole nother meaning......


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## RedOctobyr (Mar 2, 2014)

I wonder, would an impeller kit help avoid the marble size gravel getting jammed between the impeller and housing? 

The rubber flaps might kind of act like windshield wipers, and maybe help sweep the rocks away before they jammed in there.


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## nwcove (Mar 2, 2015)

cranman said:


> You know Barney..there was a time when "getting lucky" had a whole nother meaning......


lol.....i read the title and thought this thread was gunna be on the edge ! :wink2:


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## RedOctobyr (Mar 2, 2014)

barney said:


> Sounds like I'm living on borrowed time then as I'm picking and shooting five or ten smaller stones every time out. :sad2:


I think the comments about lowering the skids, to raise the bucket for the first storms, etc, is probably very good advice. 

Beyond those, one thing you can do to help yourself (as was mentioned) is to make sure you're using the proper shear bolts for your machine. And each season, remove each bolt, and spin the auger on the shaft, to make sure they aren't rusted together. Add some grease to the augers grease fittings as well, if they have fittings. If the augers rust to the shaft, they kind of "bypass" the shear bolts, and hitting something solid is much more likely to break your gearbox. 

Nothing is a guarantee against gearbox damage, or against jamming something tightly between the impeller and the housing. But you can at least keep the protection systems working properly, to reduce the likelihood of expensive problems if you suck in something big.


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## orangputeh (Nov 24, 2016)

I'm surprised with some of the answers. I have zero tolerance towards rocks. There must be a way to raise the bucket or skids so you don't pick up any.

an inch or two of snow on the ground won't kill you. but the rocks could kill someone or something.


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## barney (Nov 21, 2017)

I do have the skids lowered as far as they will go. Most of my rock pick ups happen out by the EOD. The rocks hidden in my EOD are often baseball size so I'm doing that with a shovel. Just don't want to bash up the augur blades or worse. Thanks for relating your experiences guys.


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## thefixer (Nov 19, 2017)

When I put in my first set of impeller flaps, I wanted to see how durable they would be and how well they worked. Last winter we got feet of snow followed by a lot of rain. I was able to run my 828 and my 928 in nearly a full box depth of sloppy wet snow with a 3/4 inch drain rock base. I was unable to plug my blowers, it was throwing this chunky slurpee like mix almost 20 feet!! I never had any problem with the little rocks getting caught between the impeller and housing, I think the flaps really keep that from happening. I blew quite a bit of drain rock with little or no real degradation to the flaps. I believe this is the best mod you can do for any blower.


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## drmerdp (Feb 9, 2014)

RedOctobyr said:


> I wonder, would an impeller kit help avoid the marble size gravel getting jammed between the impeller and housing?
> 
> The rubber flaps might kind of act like windshield wipers, and maybe help sweep the rocks away before they jammed in there.


It helped with the the ton of pebbles that gets spread with the salt in my town.

Still scratches, but doesn’t gouge into the housing.


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## Nshusky (Jan 1, 2017)

barney said:


> I do have the skids lowered as far as they will go. Most of my rock pick ups happen out by the EOD. The rocks hidden in my EOD are often baseball size so I'm doing that with a shovel. Just don't want to bash up the augur blades or worse. Thanks for relating your experiences guys.


I don't think there is any way to avoid this happening in your case Barney from what you describe.
In my case the rocks that are in the EOD pile are not typically that big like in your case so I just blow through the pile.
I do lots of pre snow checks out at the end of the driveway before snowfall. 
I look for anything large that may get picked up by the plow and deposited at the EOD.
If I was in your "boots" I would definitely do a bit of poking into the EOD pile with a shovel for large rocks and big ice chunks and then have at it......but nice and slow forward with motor at full rev.

Otherwise, shovelling or plowing the EOD are the only alternatives to avoid this.

I only once had an issue with picking up a large rock and it broke the shear pins but also bent the auger shaft which surprised me.

Good Luck


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## jrom (Jan 10, 2014)

^^^
Good advice from Nshusky. I agree.


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## jrom (Jan 10, 2014)

orangputeh said:


> ...an inch or two of snow on the ground won't kill you. but the rocks could kill someone or something.


It's always good to remind any of us who have to clear gravel areas. I would hope that most of us who do it regularly and who've been doing it for years know where to point the business end of a blower chute.

In my case, my nearest neighbors house is 300' away.

A photo of new gravel I laid down last fall. There's a fair amount of gravel I'm dealing with:


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## Snowmaybe (Nov 11, 2017)

Second time I used my snowblower this year it came to dead stop from a rock that jammed between the impeller and housing perfectly. Broke the auger pulley bolt off in the shaft. The impeller was dented badly. I replaced everything. I also downgraded the impeller bolts. I cleared the driveway in the fall. I think freezing pushes up more rocks. They kind of float up over time.


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## barney (Nov 21, 2017)

Snowmaybe said:


> Second time I used my snowblower this year it came to dead stop from a rock that jammed between the impeller and housing perfectly. Broke the auger pulley bolt off in the shaft. The impeller was dented badly. I replaced everything. I also downgraded the impeller bolts. I cleared the driveway in the fall. I think freezing pushes up more rocks. They kind of float up over time.


What machine?


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## barney (Nov 21, 2017)

Nshusky said:


> I don't think there is any way to avoid this happening in your case Barney from what you describe.
> In my case the rocks that are in the EOD pile are not typically that big like in your case so I just blow through the pile.
> I do lots of pre snow checks out at the end of the driveway before snowfall.
> I look for anything large that may get picked up by the plow and deposited at the EOD.
> ...


Thanks. I def did check over the area before winter based on the good advice from the guys here. Luckily my driveway is only one car wide so the EOD pile is only 8 ft. long. 

There's no way to prevent the plow from digging up small boulders along the dirt road and depositing them. The road is rough and very uneven and really heaves up and down in winter freezes. The plow practically grades the road as he plows it.


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## HowOldIsYourChurch (Mar 12, 2014)

You might want to block the license plate number.


jrom said:


> It's always good to remind any of us who have to clear gravel areas. I would hope that most of us who do it regularly and who've been doing it for years know where to point the business end of a blower chute.
> 
> In my case, my nearest neighbors house is 300' away.
> 
> A photo of new gravel I laid down last fall. There's a fair amount of gravel I'm dealing with:


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## jrom (Jan 10, 2014)

Thanks for the advice, but all the letters and numbers are Photoshop changed. I used "1099" on my car because I'm self-employed.

My latest (real) plate for an older truck starts with "DUH", kind of fitting for me. :smile2:



HowOldIsYourChurch said:


> You might want to block the license plate number.


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## Snowmaybe (Nov 11, 2017)

1130 sb xls Husqvarna


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## Ariens hydro pro (Jan 24, 2014)

My 36" Ariens blower took a beating this past weekend. The commercial property across the street from me had a jerk plowing their driveway. For some unknown reason or just to be lazy or ignorant he would circle their property and end up in the road across from me, then to empty his plow he would just drive into the mouth of my driveway and back up. So he left two piles of rocks and tar chunks from the commercial guys driveway.

Around 11 pm I seen what he did and was a bit aggravated. I've been here 50 years and this is the first time this ever happened. 

Well, I watched for that jerk to come back, then decided just go clean my stuff and the neighbors driveway and our mutual sidewalks. When I went into that plow pile I went slow as it was over 2 feet tall but it was full of rock and asphalt chunks. The machine blew it all off my driveway but the front end of the blower was dancing as the rocks were being chewed up inside. 

Yesterday when the machine was dry I got on my knees to see if I hurt anything.

Wow did I scratch up the chute and the impeller area. It looks like it's 10 years old. The impeller is all dinged up and even a few light dents on it. That impeller is all steel and it's heavy gauge stuff. I ordered orange spray paint, I will repaint the insides of the chute. I think I will just use a spray can oil type product inside the impeller area to repel rust. Why paint it now? It's all gouged and very rough looking at the bottom of the impeller body.

So much for a fairly new machine. My spare has the same mileage but when you only blow snow the paint doesn't get scraped away.

I called the guy across the street to tell him what happened with his contractor. He told me he will have a few things to tell him when he picks up his check....


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## RIT333 (Feb 6, 2014)

No offense intended, what did you think was going to happen to your machine when you tried to chew up that mess ?

Rocks + Tar > Paint + metal

I would have had the plow driver remove his mess.


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## HCBPH (Mar 8, 2011)

I can tell you rocks and crap can do damage to auger housings. I bought a machine the other year that had several dents that went from behind the scraper all the way to the top of the auger housing. I was fixing it to resell so I got out the dolly and hammers (auto repair tools) and worked them out before stripping and repainting the auger housing. This was on an old Driftbuster and they have some very thick metal so it took a lot of oomph to push them through the auger arc.


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## Ariens hydro pro (Jan 24, 2014)

I waited for several hours watching for his return. He never came back. So I cleaned it up (and my neighbors area). Perhaps I should have been more patient.


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