# Retrofit Remote deflector?



## Mal (Oct 8, 2013)

Hi,

First post. I've been lurking for a while before I bought a 2011 Ariens Compact 24 Locally for $400.00. It was a barely used machine, in perfect condition, so I figured what the heck. I'm in North NJ, up in the mountains so we have had some brutal winters in the past.

I've run blowers before, like when I end up doing my father in laws a few times a year and 20 years ago when I worked big storms doing snow removal for a contractor. This however is my first blower.

I have a plow for my truck but I've had a few years where I ran out space to dump snow so I figured if I could blow some of it in the first place, the piles wouldn't end up as big.

Anyway, in the process of pimping out my snow blower, I've added armorskids as part of where I clean is hard packed QP(Quarry Process) so I wanted to glide above it. I consider fabricating skis but I'll try this first. The next thing I did was bought the heated grips. While cold hands aren't really a big deal, warm hands are better. 

So the only things sorta left are chains and I'm going to wait to see how the tires do this winter and a remote deflector for the chute. 

I know it's not really necessary, but I like to tinker with stuff. The latest Compact 24's have a remote deflector. Mine is very early, Serial number around 3400(don't recall exactly at the moment).

Anyone ever done a retrofit for a remote deflector? I was thinking of a choke cable and fabricating a bracket, copying what Ariens has on the models that come with it.

Thanks, 

-Mal


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## Shryp (Jan 1, 2011)

I have never done it myself, but I have seen other people do it. Some get a new style chute already set up for it from ebay and some use power seat motors and linear actuators.


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## td5771 (Feb 21, 2011)

Electric would be cool but even a manual one activated with a lever would be nice.

On the tire chains I had someone who insisted on having them put on even though he had snow hog or x trac or some snow tire and the chains were a waste of money as all they did was sit down in the lugs and barely stuck out past the lugs on the tires.

I love my tires with snow chains but they are old style turf tires.


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## Mal (Oct 8, 2013)

td5771 said:


> Electric would be cool but even a manual one activated with a lever would be nice.


Exactly what I was thinking. It's just something nice to do and at the moment, my interest is high. Strike while the iron is hot and all that.



td5771 said:


> On the tire chains I had someone who insisted on having them put on even though he had snow hog or x trac or some snow tire and the chains were a waste of money as all they did was sit down in the lugs and barely stuck out past the lugs on the tires.
> 
> I love my tires with snow chains but they are old style turf tires.


The treads on my tires are pretty deep...my concern was that chains would be below the treads, exactly as you described. I did see a set of chains for Snow hog tires at Tirechain.com but they are 75 bucks. If I knew it would make a difference that's one thing, but if it's just a "maybe", eh, I'll wait.


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## Mal (Oct 8, 2013)

Shryp said:


> I have never done it myself, but I have seen other people do it. Some get a new style chute already set up for it from ebay and some use power seat motors and linear actuators.


Hmm...the entire chute assembly? I'll look at that, as it may be easier. I'd like to keep it under $100, so that may be out of the question for that price. I don't think I'd put any motors on it as that would make it a failure point. 

My thoughts were initially to just fabricate out something out of aluminum angle. It'd be nice to have a close up picture of the mechanism. Maybe I should visit the Home Depot and take some pics.


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## Blue Hill (Mar 31, 2013)

Welcome to the forum Mal. I looked on YouTube to see if there were any vids on there showing similar projects. There were a TON of people pimping out their blowers with home made electric chute deflectors, lots of them using linear actuators, but I couldn't find any that we're doing just a simple cable and spring arrangement.
Good luck with your project. There's probably somebody on this forum who has done it.


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## Shryp (Jan 1, 2011)

Here you go Mal. This guy did just what you are looking to do.

924050 remote deflector retrofit

And here is a guy who has one of the best Ariens I have ever seen with all his add ons.

http://www.youtube.com/user/jrpesky/videos


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## deadwood (Oct 17, 2012)

One think people don't think about with electric is that is is pretty slow to turn. I think manual is still the way to go in this regard.


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## Mal (Oct 8, 2013)

deadwood said:


> One think people don't think about with electric is that is is pretty slow to turn. I think manual is still the way to go in this regard.


I don't mine the manual chute...I was just looking at the remote deflector.

I see that there are kits out there, there doesn't appear to be one for my model. I can buy the parts and things and fabricate something...0r I can just fabricate something from scratch. 

The one thing I'm running up against, is how much travel I need the cable to have. It looks like 3 inches is enough, but I'm not entirely sure. Most cable mechanism that you can buy off the shelf don't go over 3 inches. Then there's some kind of lever or something. I'm still mulling it over.


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## Blue Hill (Mar 31, 2013)

Depending on how close you mount the cable to your pivot point, 3 inches should likely be enough. I think your biggest challenge is going to be figuring out a lever system to operate the cable that works good and looks great too. You should be able to steal some ideas from the factory jobs. Did I say steal? Um, how about shamelessly borrow. =-)


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## nt40lanman (Dec 31, 2012)

I wonder if that newer chute throws further? Because that welding would be right at home on my machine.


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