We had a warm-then-cold spell where the snow that came down first turned to slush: heavy, wet, and hard for the snowthrower to fling. I set the Yarbo to dutifully push the slush off to the sides with the auger off using Plow Mode, as I have before.
… except, this time, the temperature spiked downward during the work plan. The piles of slush that were pushed to the perimeter froze into ice. The Yarbo kept bashing around against the ice piles, trying to clear them, which bent the lower rung of the guard more and more…
This explains the “Auger Overcurrent” error when it tried to clean off the wireless dock before recharging: the guard had bent sufficiently to get drawn into the auger! I hope the shear pins are still intact!
Toss the guard unless you want that added safety. If so, consider removing the 2 lower bars. The best advice I also saw was to flip it upside down so the bars are further up. But, overall, just best to eliminate them.
As for tossing the guard I would say that is a bad idea. It does cause issues at time but it only takes a couple of seconds to remove when necessary. When things get slushy and then freeze in areas where they use salt/sand then fenderburgs build up on you car and tend to drop on your driveway. Then they freeze. Not sure you really want to put one of these bricks of frozen sand and rock into the auger. If you do I suggest you have a good supply of sheer pins on hand. And if you want to speed up the removal and installation just use 4 of the wing bolts for the plow. Makes it very simple. I put mine off and on regularly.
Those wing nuts have their own set of issues but yes if you want to keep them and remove them as needed, those would be the quickest solution. But they also make it easier to snag on something.
IMO that stuff should go through the blower, they have on my other 2 stages. If it’s a big chunk it should get pushed to the middle, and get pushed along by the gearbox, while the augers chew it up. It should either come out as tiny pieces or end up in the snow bank along the perimeter
Must be warmer in your area than here. I have broken pins on industrial blowers in the past. At -20 they might as well be rocks. Guess it all depends on the conditions in each area.
When blowing snow there really isn’t much for the wing bolts to get caught on so I haven’t had any issues so far. I think I’m going to retap the holes to a larger size and get new wing bolts in the summer.
I tried running with the guard when I first got it last winter. All it did was push the snow around. I didn’t want to take the guard off but I really didn’t have a choice. Also, none of the other snow blowers I’ve ever had came with a guard and I’ve never had an issue.
Yep pretty sure it depends where you are. Most of our snow this year has come during deep freezes so very light and fluffy. Guard has been no issue at all with that.
I might have to do something similar. The bending of the lower guard pulled the lower corners of the snowthrower frame inward. Made mounting the plow blade and getting the holes lined up properly a real pain (but solved with a little rubber mallet persuasion).
