The night before last we got about 4 inches (10 cm) of fresh snow. Yesterday morning after I got my painting and blogging done, I went out to clear the driveway. Clearing the drive has gotten a lot easier since I got my new snowblower. I went out to the workshop to start it up. I opened the garage door, pushed it outside, then pulled the crank. It started right up.
I put it into gear, pushed down on the forward lever and it started to advance into the drive. I then pushed down on the auger lever that throws the snow, and nothing happened except the motor started to labor. I tried it again several and got the same result. I started to smell something like burnt rubber. This wasn’t a good sign and I started to get worried.
My snowblower is a new machine and I have only used it about 5 times. It didn’t take long for my worry to turn into a mild depression. When my old snowblower quit working a last year, I took it to a local repair shop and it is still sitting there; they can’t get the needed parts. My new snowblower was beginning to seem like deja vu “all over again.”
It seemed like something serious was going on inside the snowblower. The auger drive shaft seemed to be locked or frozen in place. That was something I wasn’t really prepared to mess with at that moment. My driveway cleaning took priority, so I walked down to the carport and grabbed my snow shovel and began clearing it by hand.
Hand-shoveling my drive and turn-around spot is a big job. I added up the length and width and came up with a total of 3,180 sq. ft (300 sq. m). Luckily it was a light fluffy snow, so at least it wasn’t the really horrible job it would have been if the snow was wet and heavy. I got the driveway all done then went in for lunch, and more worry about my snow blower.
Over lunch I began to think about my old snowblower and how moisture used to get into places and then froze. When that happened I used to just run the motor for a while and the heat from the motor would eventually thaw out the frozen places. I thought I would give that a try on my new snowblower, so after lunch (and a nap) I started the snowblower again, and just let it sit and run while I hand shoveled our turn around spot and the sidewalks.
Once I got everything all shoveled I went back up to my running snowblower and with fingers crossed, pressed the lever to start the auger turning, and to my great relief, saw snow shooting from the chute. I was so relieved.
Even though I had just spent hours shoveling the drive, I was happy that the snowblower was working again. Before I use the snowblower next time, I will turn on an electric heater close to the snowblower in my unheated shop, so that it doesn’t freeze up again.
Take a look at my paintings: davidmarchant2.ca
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