If you need to keep a snowblower from riding up, you’re doing something wrong. The good news is that it’s an easy fix.
This article will be relatively short, but it’s an important discussion. If your snowblower is riding up, not only is it aggravating, but it’s also time-consuming and inefficient.
You’ll spend more time backtracking to clear snow that should have been cleared already. This will increase the amount of effort required on your part.
Why Causes a Snowblower to Ride Up
“Riding up” is when the snowblower climbs the snow instead of blowing it. Gradually, you’ll get to the point where your machine is on top of the snow.
If you keep going, eventually the snowblower will get stuck as the tires spin through the snow and the snowblower gets “high pointed” on top of the snow.
At this point, there will be no traction, so the snowblower will just spin.
The number one cause of a snowblower riding up is too fast of a travel speed in deep snow.
It’s counterintuitive, but in deep snow, traveling at a slower speed is more efficient and faster.
It makes sense when you look at it in a theoretical fashion. The snowblower’s engine has a maximum amount of horsepower.
That power is converted to work, so the machine can do x amount of work in optimal settings. When you increase the workload (ie. increased depth of snow), the machine cannot discharge it as fast because there is more volume.
Because the snow isn’t being discharged fully, it will slowly accumulate beneath the cutting edge. This will cause the snowblower to slowly drift up.
Once it starts, the effect is compounded.
How to Keep Snowblower From Riding Up
So the simple solution is to travel at a slower speed, especially in deep or packed snow.
Not only will this reduce the propensity of your machine riding up, but it’ll also prolong its life.
If you think about it, the harder the engine has to work, the hotter it will get. If you’re pushing it beyond its capabilities, it will increase the workload and potentially cause it to overheat.
As we’ve talked about in other articles, all sorts of damage can occur to an engine once it has overheated.
Another Potential Cause
If you’re traveling at a moderate speed but you find that the snowblower is still riding up, then perhaps take a look at the cutting edge of the snowblower.
The cutting edge is the metal strip along the bottom of the snowblower impeller housing. This is a wearable component of the machine, and its effectiveness diminishes with wear.
The cutting edge is designed to scrape a clean surface to literally cut the snow from the surface that you’re clearing. If it’s dull, it cannot do its job as effectively.
So it makes sense that if the cutting edge isn’t working as well as it should it can no longer cut the snow as cleanly. This will also lead to the snowblower riding up.
The good news here is that a lot of cutting edges are double-sided. You can simply remove the bolts holding it in place and flip it over to the unused side.
This will effectively double the life of the cutting edge, but eventually, it will need to be replaced.
Recap
If you find that your snowblower keeps riding up, reduce the speed and make sure that your cutting edge is not dull.
Did I forget anything? Let me know in the comments below!
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