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I think that God just likes to tease us here in the Kansas City area! A little over a year ago I finished my monster snow blower. Then, I only got to use it once last year. Actually, I didn't really NEED to use it then, either, but I did,.......just because! This year has been even milder, so she sits,....waiting,....without even so much as a chip of paint missing from the auger nor the blower fan!

It's based on a 1956 John Deere 726 blower that I got from my late brother. Most of the welds were cracked or broken, and it rattled like crazy, but it sorta worked! In wet snow I had to keep it running wide open or it would keep clogging up the chute. It finally seized the original 7hp engine, most likely from all the full-throttle running.

In late summer 2013 I finally tore it down, bought a new 18hp engine and welded both sides of each seam, then ground them smooth. I added a few gussets here and there to be sure it could handle all the new horsepower. The original wheel-axle was very poorly supported, so I replaced all the bronze bushings with ball bearings and added a pair of out-rigger bearings near each wheel. Everything in the driveline was beefed up. The blower/auger drive received all new bronze bushings, new auger axle, and the 9" input pulley was replaced by a 6" pulley. The drive pulley on the engine was doubled in size from 2" to 4", so the blower speed has been tripled. Everything driving the wheels was left stock speed, though. At full throttle it will blow wet snow over the top of my 2-story house and on top of my neighbor's house! He doesn't seem to appreciate that! Go figure!

With all of the new power it just begged for some real bling, so I gave it a 6" diameter exhaust stack from a truck supply. Yes, it really is functional, but the steam from the exhaust just kinda leisurely floats out the top! It does give it a nice, deep rumble, though! Most of the local guys driving by when it's running stop and ask about it. I've had a couple of build requests, but they just get silent when I tell them what it would cost them! You can buy a new zero-turn mower for much less!

It has a pair of headlights for those real early morning clearing runs. After I clear our long driveway and all of our sidewalks I go clear four more driveways for neighbors, including the neighbor who doesn't like me burying his house! (jk!) I also use it to widen the path in our street that the city trucks clear. It's just a lot of fun to effortlessly guide this monster along! Can't wait for some three foot deep stuff someday!

Here is the link to the whole series of build pix in case anybody is interested in more details:

www.flickr.com/photos/7789950@N05/sets/72157636413924515/

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm, just wondering what that exhaust tip would look like on my KZ???

Gotta love that Tim the Tool Man Taylor approach. Nice job. But surely you've got a KZ engine kicking around you could have retrofit on to the beast. LOL. I hear they have a few towns out in New England that could use some help. You should trailer her up and go show those townies how it's done in Independence.

I use to love pulling out the John Deere 4040 with the 8 ft. wide triple auger blower with a 14" discharge shoot. I could throw snow 200 ft. at 780 rpm. The only thing prettier than that was watching the snow train go through town. Now that's a site to see!!

Great job very nicely done


here's another nice one probibily inspired by "Tim the toolman Taylor" too.

Het Bruce, can you call this guy up and tell him to change out the 2" drive pulley for a 4" and get that POS moving.

Big block Chevy and no mufflers on the headers, and no ear plugs??.

I guess he loves his Chevy products 'cause just burying the Ford.

Yeah, Kawboy, I noticed that, too! Good thing I'm a Chevy guy! I would probably be running it without any ear covers, too! I love the sound of a well built big block.

What amazes me is that he uses probably over 500hp to do what my 18hp machine does. I will say that I love his totally hydraulic controls, plus his track drive!

This V8 machine is the video that inspired me to go overboard on power, but I'll bet I have less invested in my whole blower project (except for labor!!) than he has just in his track drive! Thanks, Stocktoy for posting that!

Cindy took some footage of me blowing what little snow we did get last year, but as clueless women will do, she got right in the path of the blowing snow as well as pointing the camera right into the sun! Next time I will just set the camera up on a stand!

Maybe this short clip will illustrate what I mean. This is running at 1/2 throttle.

www.facebook.com/video.php?v=79021226434...30376&type=3&theater

Kawboy, you give me inspiration! Just imagine a sixer on there, with it's five speeds! Maybe reverse the 4" and 6" pulleys on the engine and blower input! It might just send the snow right back into the clouds! A retired engineer (trains) friend of mine sent me a video of the snow blower trains, and YES, that really is impressive. One of them was of a train that was clearing the tracks of snow deeper than the train was tall. All you could see was the plume of snow shooting out of more snow as he approached.

Seriously, one of the hopes for this much power was to be able to blow all of our snow, even from the sidewalks in front of the house, onto our lot next door in just one pass, like the V8 guy does. Yes, we own it, so they can't complain!

Here's the link to my favorite blower video!