The gbest advice is to stand to one side and use any thing, but your fingers to clean the chute. I prefer the machine be shut down during this. And you can buy chains for the ariens blowers, but they are not included. That is true on my machine anyway, for they claim with the tires that come with the machine, chains are not necessary. By the way, I am more than willing to share this northern cotton with my southern neighbors. smile,
RJ ----- Original Message ----- From: Bob Kennedy To: blindhandyman@yahoogroups.com Sent: Friday, December 14, 2007 18:36 Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] Snowblower That is a good brand. Do they still include chains on the tires? I'm sure everyone already knows but a little safety lesson in the event you have never thought of it before. NEVER! put your fingers inside the shoot when the engine is running. There is a fan at the bottom of the tunnel that won't see your finger tips as any trouble to bight off. If the shoot becomes clogged with snow, use a broom handle or something similar made of wood to break up the clog. I've done this while the engine was running before but it's not a good idea. If the engine is running the fan can still turn even if the auger in front is not. That depends on the belt or chain adjustment. I've known a good number of people to try unplugging their blower and they don't have some ends to their fingers. You expect that from a table saw but every year it happens. Glad the snow is up there... ----- Original Message ----- From: RJ To: Handyman Sent: Friday, December 14, 2007 10:04 AM Subject: [BlindHandyMan] Snowblower Yesterday the snowblower was delivered. The thing weighted in at 270 pounds and the truck it came in was a 48 foot trailer. Which cause a slight problem, because it couldn't make it up our 650 foot drive during our little ice storm. Solve this problem by asking a neighbor if he would mind bringing over his four wheeler pickup. Now I was thinking how in the world are we going to get the thing off the pickup, I knew I couldn't lift 185 pounds. By the time I walked up the drive, the neighbor had the thing out of the back of the truck and into the garage, which was no surprise, seeing his brother picked up my 20 horse tractor out of a ditch my wife landed in last summer. Now the fun began by ripping off the carton the snowblower came in. First we had to attach the handle and than put the chute together. Every thing was going well until my wife and I were trying to line up a couple of holes to put a pin in. Now this is where things got interesting, I couldn't see the holes and my wife couldn't line the holes up. You guessed it, she went into the house and I was to bull headed to do the same. After feeling around and removing the rod a couple times, I finely got the holes lined up. Just a few more things to do and the blower would be up and running, but I couldn't talk my wife into reading the instructions and couldn't figure out how to connect the cables to the chute. Had to give in and call my son to finish the job. It just took him a few seconds to connect the cables, and make a few adjustments to the clutch and my wife was on her way to blow the snow and ice. This thing is a Ariens 11 horse blower and after hearing my wife go from the house to the barn with the blower in just a short while I knew I did some thing right in purchasing the professional blower, for there was no hebetation going through 8 inches of snow and ice. RJ [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
