Tips for choosing a snow plow attachment

The snow plow attachment is an irreplaceable assistant in the fight against snowdrifts and is presented on the modern market of snow removal equipment in a wide range. It allows you to effectively solve the problem of cleaning large and small spaces and dispense with the purchase of a specialized snow plow tractor.

Snow plows are one of the most popular types of attachments designed for small agricultural and garden equipment: walk-behind tractors, motor-cultivators and trimmers. By design, the attachments are divided into two types.

• The first includes dumps made in the form of a wide shield. Outwardly, they resemble bulldozer and are installed on the front of the units. The advantages of this design are: the absence of complex mechanisms, low cost and ease of operation. The disadvantages include the difficulty when using with low-power units, which is due to the constantly growing snow mass in front of the blade, which is quite problematic to push with poor adhesion of the wheels to a slippery road.

• The next type of attachments is represented by mechanical screw and rotary models, which, in comparison with dumps, are much more widespread. The advantage of such samples is the complete mechanization of the process, in which the devices not only capture and crush the snow masses, but also throw them at a decent distance. The disadvantages include the high cost of nozzles and the risk of damage to the auger mechanism when stones or solid debris get into it.

Mounted snow plows are manufactured taking into account the technical parameters of the machines with which they will be aggregated. According to this criterion, they are conventionally divided into two groups. The first group is represented by models designed for walk-behind tractors and motor-cultivators. The second includes highly specialized samples installed on benzotrimmers.

Auger cleaners consist of a volumetric box with a missing front wall and an auger installed inside it. The auger is a metal shaft equipped with a screw-shaped narrow plate and attached to the side walls of the box by means of bearings. The screw mechanism is driven by the power take-off shaft of the walk-behind tractor, with which it is connected by a belt or chain drive.

The principle of operation of the auger snow thrower is quite simple and consists in the following:

• when the engine is started, the crankshaft transmits torque to the pulley;

• the pulley, in turn, begins to rotate the drive sprocket, which, with the help of a belt or chain, drives the driven sprocket of the auger, as a result, the auger shaft begins to rotate, capture the snow masses and move them to a wide bar located in the central part of the mechanism;

• with the help of a fence bar, snow is thrown into the snow discharge chute located above the device box (the upper part of the chute is equipped with a protective cover, with which you can regulate the snow discharge).

The next category of snow blowers is represented by rotary models with a two-stage snow removal system. Unlike auger samples, they are additionally equipped with a powerful rotor, which, while rotating, gives off part of its energy to the snow masses and pushes them out to a distance of 20 m from the sampling site. The helical belts of powerful rotor attachments are often equipped with sharp teeth. This allows them to grind the ice crust and snow crust, thereby increasing the cleaning efficiency.

In order to use the tool as snow removal equipment, the cutting knife is changed to an impeller and this structure is placed in a metal casing. In the upper part of the casing, there is a discharge chute - a deflector equipped with a movable valve that allows you to change the direction of discharge of snow masses. Such a device works on the principle of a shovel, with the only difference that it does not have to be lifted: when moving on the ground, the blade mechanism will grab the snow and throw it to the side through a shortened deflector.

Such nozzles are not equipped with an auger, which greatly simplifies their design. In terms of the efficiency of snow removal, the trimmer attachment is significantly inferior to powerful rotary and auger samples, however, it copes well with clearing paths in the country or in the courtyard of a private house. The disadvantage is the fact that the petrol trimmer cannot be used as a tractor and does not have large and wide wheels, like a walk-behind tractor, which is why you have to make certain efforts and push it forward on your own.

The modern market offers a huge number of snow plows, the most popular of which are discussed below.

• Snow removal rotor hitch "Celina SP 60" of Russian production is aggregated with tselina, Neva, Luch, Oka, Plowman and Kaskad walk-behind tractors. The model is designed for cleaning yards, paths and squares from fresh snow up to 20 cm deep.The bucket grasp width is 60 cm, height - 25 cm.The snow crumb throwing distance - 10 m, unit weight - 20 kg, dimensions - 67x53.7x87.5 see. The cost of the model is 14,380 rubles.

• Snowplow "Celina SP 56" compatible with all the above types of Russian blocks and is able to remove snow crust and packed snow. The model is equipped with a toothed auger and is characterized by a slow rotation of the working shaft, driven by a worm-type reduction gear. This provides a more thorough crumbling of the snow and allows you to work with ice fragments. The snow deflector control lever is located on the steering wheel, which makes it possible, without stopping, to adjust the direction of the throw. The model is characterized by high performance and is capable of throwing snow chips at a distance of up to 15 meters. The bucket grasp width reaches 56 cm, height - 51 cm. The weight of the device is 48.3 kg, dimensions - 67x51x56 cm, price - 17 490 rubles.

• American snow trimmer attachment MTD ST 720 41AJST-C954 it is characterized by high productivity and is capable of removing up to 160 kg of snow per minute. The capture width is 30 cm, the height is 15 cm, the cost of the device is 5,450 rubles.

• Snow thrower for the "Master" motor-cultivator designed to work with snowdrifts up to 20 cm deep, has a working width of 60 cm and is capable of throwing snow at a distance of up to 5 m. The attachment is included in the basic set of the cultivator and costs 15,838 rubles.

For more information on snow plows, see the video below.