Project snowpig! Electric Snowblower Cart!

[vmdano]

Lift kit install. Installation took about 4 hours. I heard the Jakes kit installation instructions were incomplete and while the front installation were pretty complete the rear was missing some info. The missing info is that the rear springs need to be completely removed so that the axle can be mounted underneath. This meant 3 jacks and a some awkward positions to install. Whew!
Front tires came from Princessauto- on sale for $69 each.

[vmdano]

Wiring time- I spent a lot of time at this stage. Once again I spent some coin at Princessauto on wire, switches, fuses, lights. Stereo came out of another project. I installed a 6 pole ATC fuse panel on the inside driver's rear fender. Dome light was a LED light strip. I positioned the switches as not to be blocked or hit by cups in cupholders. I also wired in separate fused cigarette lighters in the storage bins. I mounted water proof speakers up on the roof supports and a strobe light on the roof. I wanted something other than the annoying backup beeper. I bought a cheapo ebay DC-DC convertor and wired it to where the reverse beeper wires in. This provided just enough power to run a led light on the dash and a LED running light mounted high up on the roof for reverse. For headlights I initially bought some cool 10 watt bright (750 lumen)LED lights for headlight and reverse from deal extreme. These are really nice looking with all aluminum bodies but went dim within 2 trips on the road. Reason why: LED driver circuit was not secured at all on all 3 lights and failed immediately. I bought some regular 55 watt units instead.

[vmdano]

Got a cheapo enclosure and a some fender flares off ebay for my Birthday. The fender flares sorta fit and I had to cut holes in the enclosure for my lights on the roof. I also had to take a saw to the rear fender corners as the tires rubbed, especially with chains installed. I switched out the front tires with another set of atv tires I got off the local classified. Cab is near complete! The 150 watt heaters don't do much when moving at speed but when parked or moving slow it actually gets toasty! I mounted a 5th battery on the drivers side for all the accessories.

[vmdano]

Finally, the snowblower build! After quite some looking I found a Craftsman 42" lawn tractor snowblower attachment for $400. It was a few years old but never had been used. It was also missing a few parts that I had to order in from Sears. Sears parts stores are pretty amazing, you can look at full PDFs online, order parts directly and they are really reasonably priced! Only downside is that it does take a few weeks for them to arrive. The mounts were included so I cut those down and used 2" square tubing and used original spring mounts to make a bracket to mount onto the front axle. Unfortunately I found out that Jakes uses mounts that are a little different than original and the front hole wouldn't line up. However the rear 2 did and I used spacers to fill the gap. Hopefully the blower itself shouldn't take as much push as a plow so fingers crossed it holds! The mount does allow the blower to be removed and attached quickly with 2 pins.

[vmdano]

Snowblower motor mount! Well I had a motor from an electric boat motor conversion that was sitting around for the winter - A Mars ME 1003. I picked up a bunch of steel from a metal shop and using angle iron and plate steel I was able to mount the motor above the main pulley with a 29" B series belt. All support for these motors is on the front which made for some interesting angles. After reading around on a bunch of lawn tractor sites I was able to determine that the original pulley speed at the snowblower is around 1500 rpm. Knowing that that the Mars motor spins around 2800 rpm unloaded at 48v I was able to determine the pulley size to be around 3 inches for the motor. I went with a 3.25 pulley - This makes it a little faster than stock but hopefully not too fast. The auger has a 10:1 reduction. I ran a contactor along with a 600 magnetic blowout switch for safety. Switch by fwd/reverse switch turns unit on. I have ordered a normally closed tether switch so unit will shut down if driver gets out of vehicle. The Mars motors have a lot of torque so that auger should have a lot of bite! See my videos at the start of this thread for start-up and usage. It's interesting to hear the motor as it takes up snow in that it the pitch changes - sorta sounds like a wood chipper or a planer taking up load. The belt has slipped once already as I didn't have covers for the motor or belt but I have built and installed some. Also my voltage gauge doesn't drop much at all once the motor is spinning and I can see snow load as voltage sags slightly as snow loads the auger.

[vmdano]

Latest update:
We have some some coming tonight - 10-15cm (4-6") so I spent some time on the Snowpig securing the chute and I even managed to get the chute turning mechanism connected! It's a little tight and awkward but I should be able to turn it from the comfort of the cab. I also hooked up poles to aid in seeing where the blower is at. Still waiting for parts from Sears to complete the chute angle but I think I can muster through it. I also managed to install a subwoofer in the back hold. There is still some room left for extra bags of sand.

[monkey-1]

Really a neat setup. I like to see the 'homebrew ideas' that work so well.

[vmdano]

Well my little rig made the local paper!

http://thechronicleherald.ca/novasco...tive-to-blower

I've got 4 clearings done and the cart has been working great so far! Still haven't had any big storms yet - most so far was about 4" (10cm). Hopefully if we get a big dump the Snowpig will manage it. Of course now that I'm ready for it we probably won't get anything LOL.

[vmdano]

And again I can't thank everyone for the great info on this site! So much good info, I just made a donation to the site.

[monkey-1]

That is pretty cool.