Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

My concern is throwing slushy, wet Maryland snow.  I have a Yard-Man (MTD) 7HP 24" snow thrower which can barely move my MD slush, so I'd like to replace it with the thread of a snowy winter.  I'm looking at a (leftover?) Troy-Bilt 10530 vs. the JD 1130.  The most significant mechanical difference that I note between the two is that the Troy-Bilt has a 16" impeller and the JD has a 12".  Both have similar HP/torque.  Can I expect the Troy-Bilt to have better throwing ability, or is there more to impeller design than just size?

mdhomeowner wrote:

Go for the JD 1130. A much better snowblower. You will never regret it.

I vote for 1130 also. I just bought the same blower last month. We have had 2 snowfalls so far that was very wet snow and it handled it no problem. If you do research on here you will find out that the1130 is a rebagded simplcity which are great snowblowers . 

I'll take a cut at giving some input but it’s not very specific or reliable.

Ability to throw is a result of an integrated design and not one component. For example a short cute with the same back angle as a tall cute would throw essentially the same distance. The rake shape and speed is meant to match the collection ability of the impeller which takes into account the shape and type of impeller outlet port which is matched to the cute design, width, back angle or shape, length and hood. Each manufacturer designs with the tradeoffs in mind of collection ability, throughput and distance.

Many people claim a tall chute is for distance but I think the newer chutes have a milder back angle and mostly responsible for distance.

I have not found a lot of difference between 3 and 4 blades on an 12 inch impellers. The blades are shaped for the system and a three blade having one type of blade versus the other having 4 with a different shape. Both should be optimized for their total design.

Early units I think were designed with one car driveways where distance was not so much of a factor. Driveways were not so big then. Over time with 2 and 3 car driveways which were longer distance became more of an issue.

The early snowblowers seemed to be able to muscle in on snow and throughput more of a consideration than distance. The newer blowers seem more oriented to distance than throughput or digging into piles. The old guy plodded along belching out slow with their 100 RMP augers and 1000 RMP impeller speed. They threw into mostly wide U shaped chutes that angled away from the snowblower more than newer models. They splattered snow mostly high but quite a bit of the wide flow goes low. When it comes to slush they are not the best and with a strong engine pump out compressed cylinders of slush.

The newer machines have much higher rake speeds, 130 RMP and impellers running at 1300 RPM. They toss in a greater arc and the flow more consolidated. They seem to do better in slush than the old machines.

I can't prove it but would think the older rakes with the wide blades would collect better than the newer rakes which are not as wide and serrated ends. A factor here is how close the rakes go to the housing back. It’s the same for the impeller end and how close it goes to the impeller barrel area. [One consideration for slush is clarances impeller kit but that’s out of the range of consideration. It fills a design tradeoff the makers generally are not willing to do.

Just how much a manufacturer oriented their design to light, heavy or very heavy wet snow is not know by most people, certainly not me. The two snowblowers you mentioned are big guys and I would imagine their design was max’ed for the impeller configuration. Both have big motors and wide intakes. Given similar ages I would think I would think they threw about the same even with the big difference of impeller diameter.

I had a big Murray 1233 here and tested it against an Ariens 1124. The Ariens out tossed it by a mile. They had similar impeller size but the Ariens had overall better design and I think oriented to distance. Given a long run just considering clearing the snow and not distance the Murray was the Ariens equal given that it was collecting a third more snow so throughput about the same. It was interesting that the big 33 inch bucket has a tiny impeller barrel opening into the chute. Putting that opening on the Ariens machine would probably cause it to clog. The best heavy wet thrower I've used was a 12 inch 3 blade Yamaha that ran at a higher than average impeller speed.

So my guess is size mostly does not matter. More of a factor is strong motor with good compression, good integrated design and I believe high impeller and rake speed.

I would think down there in MD a big single stage would be good. They do pretty well in lesser inch snows but you seem to need some width if you are using 30 inch machines. A wide Ariens running at 1300 should be decent in heavy and wet snow. For a second hand machine I'd factor in rake and impeller speed and not so much on rake or impeller blade shape. I've tried to pay attention to blade shape and diameter in different units but overall I have not gotten very far as I think considering them alone does not answer much. It’s the whole design that matters.

The guy who probably knows about these things is Snowman. I'll bet he has lots of test data for component size and shape that I'd love to hear about

Wow, thanks for the information!  I am trying to clear a 3-car driveway, so throwing distance  is most important to me.  My Yard-Man can't throw to the edge of the driveway from the center even in the lightest snow.  Worse is slush, which as you described, pretty much just fills up the chute and falls out. 

Good info Trouts2,  have also been wondering about rake sizes, the newer designs & how they affect the throughput of the machine.

Cheers

I looked at Troy-Bilt snowblowers last season at Lowe's and decided against it for several reasons, the main reason being that Troy-Bilt is equipped the the Chinese-made LCT engines. I suggest you go with the John Deere and its Briggs & Stratton engine.

I've had major improvements in thwoing distance by making sure the impeller belt is properly tensioned and/or replace when it got to decrepit. Before getting a new machine make sure your problem isn't something simple on the current machine.

Thank you all for your feedback.  But can you believe that I cannot find a John Deere in the state of Maryland?!  That was even BEFORE this last storm was forecast.  Spent a half hour on the phone with the predominant area Deere dealer before I could convince him to investigate.  He finally confirmed it, much to his surprise, but couldn't get one.  Nor could any other dealer I've contacted in the state.  So, I will be receiving my Troy-Bilt later this week.  Fortunately, this "Blizzard of '09" was a nice light snow which my current Yard Man handled, though I cleaned my driveway three times through the storm.  Once it arrives later this week, those of you in the mid-Atlantic can be assured that it won't snow again the rest of this winter.