jstertz
Well-known member
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2009
- Messages
- 808
- displayname
- joshua donald stertz
Lucas--Mike said that he had posted some info on it over there. You could do all kinds of stuff with this setup. I cant wait to have a couple more years of use on it to draw off. I'm a big believer in how well a modification works over the long haul. Does it work well for five months or five years? I want stuff that works year in and year out.
I purchased my 450 from a gentleman who got it with a 782 that he had bought. It has a lot of wear on it and the lower part of the auger housing has been replaced. It was also missing the belt cover, tensior pulley spring bracket, and a few other miscellaneous parts. Then I started to look over the manual and realized that I was missing several key components to use it with the manual lift which my 682 has. Also, when I purchased the Cubbie, it came with Haban 42 attached and I remembered how heavy that was to lift even with the assist spring turned way up.
So, I was brain storming with my uncle Rog, who can fabricate almost anything out of metal or wood, and we were discussing the problem. It isn't just the weight of lifting the blower but also the aspect of needing three arms (One for the lift, one for the wheel, and one for the SR lever)
My friend Seth, mentioned earlier in this thread, was listening to our conversation and jokingly said, "You need a winch to lift that beast!!!" and then walked off. That completely changed our thinking. Then Roger said that if we could find a spot to mount the winch under the tractor we could use an ATV winch to lift the 450 just like four wheeler's use a winch to lift a snow blade.
To make a long story shorter, we looked at a lot of possibilities but I wanted to make the thing as easy as possible to remove in the spring so as to use for other summer duties. Rog jokingly said, "We should mount it on the blower so that it could lift itself!" Thus, we came up with what you see here. They had a sale on camo 3000# ATV winches at our local Fleet Farm and I picked this one up for $150. Because the cable only moves about 6-10" back and forth, we wanted the speed to be as slow as possible. So, I reoved all of the wire rope from the spool except about 30". Then Roger fabricated the bracket that he welded to the short lift arm on the 450. I drilled and mounted the winch to the impeller housing. Then it was time for the wiring. Thankfully, the kit contained nearly everything that I needed so it was just a matter of routing it in a fashion that it would work for years to come.
One of the coolest things is this rocker switch. It allows you to keep one hand on the SR lever and still raise and lower the blower with your thumb
! Finally, I don't need three arms to move snow!!!
The slot for the speed control stop made a perfect place to run the cable that controls the winch. I still haven't taken any close ups of the wiring and or winch setups but I'll try to do that soon for those interested. All I can say is that it worked really well today. If it keeps working that well over the long haul, I for one, will be satisfied.
I purchased my 450 from a gentleman who got it with a 782 that he had bought. It has a lot of wear on it and the lower part of the auger housing has been replaced. It was also missing the belt cover, tensior pulley spring bracket, and a few other miscellaneous parts. Then I started to look over the manual and realized that I was missing several key components to use it with the manual lift which my 682 has. Also, when I purchased the Cubbie, it came with Haban 42 attached and I remembered how heavy that was to lift even with the assist spring turned way up.
So, I was brain storming with my uncle Rog, who can fabricate almost anything out of metal or wood, and we were discussing the problem. It isn't just the weight of lifting the blower but also the aspect of needing three arms (One for the lift, one for the wheel, and one for the SR lever)
To make a long story shorter, we looked at a lot of possibilities but I wanted to make the thing as easy as possible to remove in the spring so as to use for other summer duties. Rog jokingly said, "We should mount it on the blower so that it could lift itself!" Thus, we came up with what you see here. They had a sale on camo 3000# ATV winches at our local Fleet Farm and I picked this one up for $150. Because the cable only moves about 6-10" back and forth, we wanted the speed to be as slow as possible. So, I reoved all of the wire rope from the spool except about 30". Then Roger fabricated the bracket that he welded to the short lift arm on the 450. I drilled and mounted the winch to the impeller housing. Then it was time for the wiring. Thankfully, the kit contained nearly everything that I needed so it was just a matter of routing it in a fashion that it would work for years to come.
One of the coolest things is this rocker switch. It allows you to keep one hand on the SR lever and still raise and lower the blower with your thumb
The slot for the speed control stop made a perfect place to run the cable that controls the winch. I still haven't taken any close ups of the wiring and or winch setups but I'll try to do that soon for those interested. All I can say is that it worked really well today. If it keeps working that well over the long haul, I for one, will be satisfied.
