Sheesh shear pins again

[Mutt and Jeff]

Do some manufactures or barand lines of snow blowers actually perform without seemingly excessive shear pin breakage?
By the time it has snowed well and a person get's at it, does using a snowblower or thrower mean that you have to act as some pansy with it? With shear trepidations that the pin will break and hell loose as you struggle to find, or source and replace.

personally, I use a shovel and the anger of the event to propel the action.

I googled shearpins and all I got was 1000 replies asking about alt pins or trying to make due with some reason or rhyme.

This is not an advertisement for TORO but just that fact that if by chance they use a well suited gearcase alleviating all this, then be advised.
little youtube toro thing

 

[SVcummins]

Looks like a good enough idea for a small blower

 

[showcrop]

I picked up a new Toro for my church three years ago. We have a dozen guys that take turns clearing the walkways with it. I have heard of only one shear pin being broken, and I haven't even given but barest minimum instruction on how to use it.

 

[Mike(NEOhio)]

I have a 20+ year old White that's nearly the exact duplicate of that Toro, MTD built like most of the others. I rarely break a shear bolt but I have blown out the worm gear housing. It happened to me twice. Each time a stone got wedged between the auger and housing. The thrust against the auger shaft was enough to keep the bolt from giving up so the worm shaft pushed the case apart. Maybe that system would have saved me some repairs.

 

[leva]

I save the frustration, just take your pin out and take it to a local hardware store for comparison and buy A few to have on hand when needed. Get the softest bolt they have.

 

[Bob - MI]

One of my favorite topics. I have more experience with shear pins than I ever thought I would.

We live in Western Michigan about 2 miles from Lake Michigan. This puts in the prime spot for lake effect snow and our annual accumulation can be 100" +. Our driveway is 1/4 mile long and with a clear path to the pole barn I am clearing about 1900' at a pass. Usually 5 or so passes so I am clearing close to 10,000' and seasonal time blowing can usually exceed 25 hours. Been doing this for 20 years now.

Had a 20hp Cub Cadet tractor with a 42" blower and I could count on 4 or 5 pins to shear per year. Not a huge deal because the MTD design used a larger diameter pin that has grooves on it so the auger could cut into it when it started to jam. Always had spares and could replace one in a couple of minutes.

Fast forward to today's John Deere X570 tractor with a 44" blower. OEM pins on this one are an absolute joke. 6mm fully threaded and they fail constantly without digging into a bank, no ice chunks, just plain snow. 1st season I went through more than a dozen and come spring I could find them on the driveway, in the yard, you name it. How I didn't get a flat on one of the cars must have been plain luck.

My solution was to find 6mm bolts with only a short thread on one end. Same hardness grade (important) as the fully threaded ones but the auger contact point is at a smooth section on the bolt. I can usually get a season out of them and not have to be stopping constantly for another pin. JD dealer advised that he thought I might be risking the auger drive but I figure if MTD can get away with a larger diameter than 6mm I feel that I'm still ok.

 

[WGM]

I have a 6 ft. Woods snowblower behind an Oliver 550. I only broke one shear pin, the day I got the snowblower, 18 years ago. Never broke one since. Just need to remember where under snow objects are.

 

[jeffcat]

Oh yes!!! Trying to put a brick through a snow blower is NOT a good thing. Also found out how much of a 25' airhose a Gravely Dog Eater 28"blower can eat. Something that people don't think of doing. Where your shear pin breaks and spins, grease the darn thing. It makes things more gooders and doesn't gaul the shaft all up.

 

[JGayman]

> Do some manufactures or barand lines of snow blowers actually perform without seemingly excessive shear pin breakage?

I have a long gravel driveway and large gravel parking area. For 20+ years I cleared snow with a 33-inch walk-behind MTD blower. The only time I ever broke a shear bolt was when one of my tire chains came off in deep snow and I didn't notice until the big CLUNK on the return trip.

For the past 7 years I have been using a 54-inch blower on the front of a JD 2720 tractor. So far I have not broken a single shear bolt.

When dealing with gravel it's all about keeping the skid shoe height properly adjusted. It also helps to survey your property in the fall before the first snow fall and clean up any debris or objects that may cause issues in the dead of winter.

 

[JGayman]

This doesn't make sense. If you look closely at each end of the auger shaft and at the illustrated parts manual, there are bolts on each end through the inner/outer auger shafts which couple them together. How are these not shear bolts?

 

[SVcummins]

They aren?t designed to shear its designed just to hold the augers on . Ya you could shear them but it?s not made to do that

 

[Texasmark1]

I learned something about the subject over the years: Use Grade 2 bolts, fit the diameter of the hole with the pin size, use a self locking nut, and don't run it up tight....leave it where you can move the bolt with your fingers, back and forth.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

Let me guess, you've got an older snowblower you've been using the heck out of for umpteen years, the shear pin holes are all wallowed out from wear and tear, and the shear pins won't hold anymore.

The problem isn't the shear pins; your blower is slap wore out. Need a new shaft and auger sections, or at least a new shaft and weld up the shear pin holes on the old auger sections.

It's what you get with these consumer grade snowblowers.