Some time ago I wrote a blog about Making Mowers Last. It was fun to do, but that season is over now and new machines are coming out of garages all over the country. Mine came out of the garage just today for a shake down. That's right, it's snow blower time.
A friend of mine just bought one and is chomping at the bit to start using it. There hasn't been enough snow in a single storm to yet really use my snow blower this season. That's ok, I am not as excited to use it. I am glad to have gotten it out and got all the fluids refreshed and the mechanisms lubricated though. In the article Making Mowers Last, I outlined what needs to be done to make these machines last for many years. The snow blower is no different in that it needs the oil changed, filers replaced, fittings and mechanisms checked and tightened up when needed. If you do these things, you will have your snow blower for a very long time.
I am a little concerned about another subject related to snow blowers and that is safety. I was doing a little research earlier and heard one doctor express the number of more than 7,000 accidents (injuries) related to snow blowers annually.
I have not personally been involved in a snow blower accident, but have with lawn mowers. I responded to a call (in my police days) of a man injured by a lawn mower. We used to respond to medicals and would try to be of help before the ambulance and paramedics would arrive. When I arrived I found a poor fellow that had tried to clean out the grass shoot while the mower was running. You know what comes next. He got his hand too far up the shoot and got his fingers mixed up with the mower blade. He lost part of all his fingers on his right hand. When the medical crew asked me to go look about the yard for parts of fingers that might be re-attachable, I found nothing.
Snow blower augers are every bit as dangerous and destructive when they connect with flesh and bone. As I said before, I have not been involved personally with one of those kinds of accidents, but I did have an incident two seasons ago in my mother's driveway that ought to put the fear in you. It did me!
My Honda snow blower is a powerful one. It has an 8 horse engine and is track driven. I have not had trouble clearing some of the deepest and hardest packed snow. I have run into the occasional stick buried in the snow and the machine has had no trouble shredding it and spitting it out in slivers.
I bought it 16 years ago (see the article - Making Mowers Last) as part of my lawn care business. I had a couple contracts that wanted me to keep their walkways clear. Thought I would make some serious money during the winter. Turned out to be one of the driest on record and I didn't make a dime that season. When we closed the mowing business down, we decided to keep the machine and put it to good personal use.
My driveway is a nice flat rectangular slab of cement and is easy to clean off. My mother's driveway on the other hand is very long and uneven. We have in past years shoveled off the whole thing by hand, and when the snow is 4 inches deep or more, well you really have a job to do. It can take a full day to complete the job for one person. Guess what you feel like when that job is done?
One day I was at Mom's clearing off a good 6 inches of snow with the snow blower. All was going well when I heard a loud BANG and the snow blower just stopped. The engine instantly stopped. I knew I had hit something really hard as I had hit sticks and things like that in the past and the machine just ate them.
This time was different. After using a broom handle to clear out all the packed snow and ice in the auger, I found the auger had picked up a steel bar with a T handle on the end. The bar was 1/2 inch in diameter and the T handle at the end was made of channel iron. I loaded the snow blower into the truck and took it home. I was certain that major damage had been done to the machine and would cost a lot of money to fix or replace. I paid $2,300.00 for it when it was new and there was no way I could afford to replace it with a like machine.
As you can see, this was an impressive piece of distruction! I was sure the mechanism was severly damaged. A friend of mine, that had also been in the lawn care business, had his son mow his lawn at home with his commercial lawn mower. The little guy ran over a bicycle with the mower. His engine came to a complete stop just like mine did. When he couldn't get it to run, he took it to the dealership. They told him the engine was toast. The crank shaft had been bent by the force of the engine being stopped so abruptly.
Here you can see the bar coming up from under the auger and then (as you see in the previous photo) the bar wrapped around the output shaft one full revolution. Pretty impressive eh?!
The other bar sticking up is a crow bar to make sure the auger doesn't turn while I am working on it. You see, I love my hands and fingers!
Well I knew the engine was not damaged that badly, as I was able to restart it to load it into the truck. I just didn't try to engage the blower part of the machine. Of course, as you can see, the steel bar would not have allowed that.
I scratched my head and decided I would get a small air powered hand grinder and see if I could cut the bar out. Worked great, and in short order I was able to remove the steel bar from the snow blower.
Here is the snow blower with the bar removed and cut in two. No damage to the machine and I finished the season with it and used it last season with no problems.
When I started the machine back up to try it out, I found there was no damage to my snow blower. WAHOO!! At first I was greatly impressed with the strength and toughness of the machine. Then I was frightened by it's power. Could you imagine what would happen to a person's arm, hand, foot, or leg if it were caught in the auger? Let's try not to, but always remember that these great conveniences can be very dangerous when not used correctly or if we disregard the safety sections of the owners manual.
Here is a closer view of the bar after I cut it out. STAY SAFE and HAPPY WINTER!!!
