Funny

jrd said:

A friend of mine was shopping for a new snowblower. Due to the way his driveway and parking area are set up, he's been stuck moving the snow two or three times, and he wanted something that would just throw it way out of the way once. Went around to assorted dealers of power equipment, and kept hearing that due to current laws, they limit impeller speed, therefore no consumer gear is going to really do what he wants.

He reported the following exchange:

"So if I want something that's going to throw snow that far, I'm going to have to go find an old Gravely?"
"Yup, that's about right"

Click to expand...

Kind of sad but true.

I didn't realize that the reel and impeller speed was, by law, reduced down to something that is less than optimal. I happened to be watching some videos of snow blowers last night and there is a huge difference between the older blowers and the new ones. Some of the homebuilt blowers are the most impressive.

Take a look at the reel speed on this video. It might be a little excessive but it should blow that snow into the next county.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra-eb5zt-BA

So what does the law say? And is the law in place because it's some sort of safety concern, like danger of projectiles hitting houses or people? Honestly if you hit someone with your snow blower's discharge chute you're just NOT paying attention. It's a POWER TOOL! Use it properly!

Do these lawmakers know we call the vintage square chute blower, "THE DOG EATER!!??" :biglaugh:

My third-hand information is that the law is intended to keep you from picking up a rock and hitting a person or a house or something with it. So they opted to limit the tip speed of the impeller. Sigh.

I'm tempted to say that I wish they'd find something better to spend their time and my money on, but if they weren't being busybodies about stuff like this, they'd likely find something *really* counterproductive to do.

Richard-tx said:

My father always warned us not to be in the path of the blown snow. It wasn't because of rocks but because of the danger of asphyxiation. I don't know if his concerns were based in fact or perception.

Click to expand...

Depends on the snowblower. I wouldn't want to be in the discharge path of a Cooke rotary snowplow.

Richard-tx said:

Take a look at the reel speed on this video. It might be a little excessive but it should blow that snow into the next county.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra-eb5zt-BA

Click to expand...

It's only a single stage blower, so you've got to have *some* speed for it to move anything at all. And we are great ones to talk about excessive. I'm not sure if I'd be more scared to run that thing or a dog-eater...

Great to see it run on a hot summer day, real test is could it work in deep heavy snow? Have seen plenty of high rpm single stage "monster" blowers that failed when put into any deep amount of snow especially with some wetness to the snow. Only real sucessfull single stage blower i ever used was a BCS. Incredible!! Will go through anything.If i had to retire my Gravely walk behinds i would only go with a BCS. Would put a Rapid Series walk behind to shame . Probaly one of the best rototillers in the world also. As far as dog eaters, we called them "Death Blowers", i could take or leave them as their reel to impeller speed never seemed correct and were only truly efficent with a slow geared wheeled tractor or an LS. Last few years could not beg people to take them away even if free. Thats sad considering how cheap some Gravely people are. LOL!