My Qa42A is plugging up in subzero weather

[Bushman]

I have a QA42A that I have mounted on my 1450 and am not pleased with how its been working. I have read that by ensuring the auger housing and chute are painted and smooth is a good remedy for plugging. My QA42A is in need of repainting and the chute is rough iniside. The one thing I see is the exhaust is blowing onto the blower itself and it seems the snow is packing up because of it.

Over the years I have had quite a few differnent snow blowers and throwers on the front of garden tractors and this QA42A is my least favorite so far as is. I was looking at a Haban H42 recently and noticed some type of heat shield mounted on it. Is such a thing used on the QA42A blowers as well?

In the meantime I am going to put the torpedo heater on my QA and try to work on the paint to begin with. This blower is not the 1st one I have run that was in need of a paint job. Wet snow always sucks with a single stage but my temperatures have been below 20 and in the negatives recently but this QA42a plugs up within minutes.

[macman81]

the few ive used have varied greatly in performance. i have a theory that the 1450's have too small of pulley on the pto to spin the thrower fast enough. i have one that also just doesnt work that good. my 782 has a larger pto pulley and wider belt and throws like crazy. i wonder if a smaller pulley on the snow thrower would make it work better?

[Matt G.]

I've never had a problem blowing snow with a 1450. It works great. It is very important the engine is turning 3600 RPM, or performance will be affected.

[mmzullo]

Make sure you have a speed up pulley on the thrower. Also there is a sweat spot so to say that you have to kinda force the snow into the drum. If you are moving too slow it does force the snow into the drum. Also snow type makes a difference too wet you can do everything and it will still clog.
What you need to do is sand down the chute and paint it with slip plate. Or you can try veg spay oil like pam.

[Bushman]

The QA42A on my 1450 came off from a 123. I also have a QA36 blower that I bought for parts and I am going to look at the pulleys today. I am running this tractor wide open throttle and it does toss OK while the chutes open.

[mmzullo]

If I remember the stock pulley is 4.5 on the gear box. I went down to a 3.75. Made a big difference. Some went down to 3.5 but make sure your side bearings are in real good shape.

[Charlie-141 FE]

I spray WD40 in the Shute before snow blowing, it helps to prevent it from plugging up but still does occasionally with heavy wet snow

[ol'George]

Keep the thrower/auger full of snow, and the govenor wide open @ the full 3600 and it will blow snow very well, as far as the chute, the paint on mine has long gone, it is just polished bare metal and works well.
Now in wet snow, it lacks a little, but again full rpm's help greatly,

[Bushman]

I did measure my pulleys and they were 4.5"ers. I adjusted my old dry belt again today and it was at the limits of the adjustment. I got my QA42A from my AT&T fleet mechanic, it was out behind his house in a quiet little gathering of old neat things, not quite a junkyard. It had sat there for years and I was suprised to find the belt. Funny thing is that I was at a local small engine guys pad who had a huge scap pile going and amongst all the stuff was a QA36 and hanging off the chute was its drive belt. I have rummaged through a lot of junk yards and small engine shop stockyards and have rarely seen the drive belt still on anything. I might have to get a new drive belt, from what I am hearing my blower is not that bad off but, something is keeping it down.

[ol'George]

If you decide to go to a smaller driven pulley, do not use a cheap aluminum or stamped steel pulley, they will fly apart and hurt someone/something, go to a cast or solid steel pulley, much better, ya a little more costly but no worries, and the belt has to be tight!! or it will slip and you will smell it.