There needs to be better strategies for corners for the snow blower… Yarbo often gets stuck(Track slippage) when handling sharp corners on the edge of an area…
Snow builds up quite high on the very edge of an area and the current turning strategy for sharp corners leaves yarbo struggling to make the turn as there has not been enough room cleared for it to make a turn.. the back end of the yarbo just keeps pushing on the snow on the edge of the area which it has not cleared and may be outside of the area boundary.
It needs to either make a gradual turn (not a sharp angle) and once there is enough room go in and clear the remaining snow in the corner.
in a sharp turn there just simply isn’t enough room for yarbo to make the turn.
I attached a diagram… a sharp 90 deg turn it take a long time to make if it even can. where a gradual turn it would be able to keep going and able to clear out the corner later once it has widened its path giving it room.
Thank you for your valuable suggestion! We appreciate the detailed feedback you’ve provided regarding the snow blower’s turning strategy. We understand the challenge you’ve described with sharp corners and the snow buildup along the edges.
We will certainly pass your suggestion along to the relevant team for further consideration. Your input helps us improve and refine our products.
Where I have troublesome Areas with the snowblower, I draw a Sidewalk and put that before the Area in the Work Plan.
Adding the Sidewalk where the Yarbo might have a tight turn or tends to get hung up in little snow piles gives the Yarbo a little bit of room to maneuver without getting bound up in snow as it processes the Area.
Watch that… I do not think your approach would work here… It simply does not have the room to make a sharp turn and it keeps trying to back into an area that has not been cleaned… Every single time It goes out I have to move it around manually to make room on the initial corners where the snow build up significantly.
There are a number of problems with how it is turning here… It is pushing a significant amount of snow up with the side of the snowblower which gives it even more resistance to completing the turn. It is trying to use space that has not been cleared to make the turn… This is only a problem on the perimeter as that snow is hard and builds up over the winter and gets worse over time…
@silvenz - Story time! LOL! My riding mower bagger picks up leaves in the fall, but I have to empty the buckets over and over again. Should I tell Sears to fix that? Or I can look at the 25 year old Craftsman as a multi-use tool and mow the leaves to crunch them, use the discharge chute to leafblow them into a long pile, crunch them again so they’re really small, THEN suck them up with the bagger which now takes a lot of leaves to fill the bags, and toss a big cart on the back of the rider so I can carry lots of buckets worth of leaves over to the dumping spot. This is awesome for a guy who gets 3"-4" of oak leaves all over his front lawn in the fall…and goes through this a few times during the season.
Having Yarbo do the perimeter first for the snowblower would be a handy thing, and I have told them about “snow canyons” (post on Facebook from late this winter). In fact, it’s one reason you now have the feature to shrink the Area you’re snowblowing down a couple of inches if you want to.
But I look at what’s in front of me and use that tool to the best of its and my ability to get the job done. I’m satisfied at the moment with how the Yarbo snowblower works except for the ability to handle slush and very heavy wet snow, which clogs the blowhole (this even gives the Ariens Compact 24 a headache, which is why I also have a Daddy Ariens). To achieve my goal with this tool from Yarbo, I have come up with a list of things that I keep in mind, which I posted to Facebook a few days ago to address someone with the issue of track slippage. Perhaps some folks will find this helpful as we all learn to use Yarbo’s set of offerings to their fullest.
Some thoughts for snowblower overall (some pertain to slippage):
Blow the snow early and often! Don’t wait - get Yarbo out there after just a coupla inches.
If the snow is slush and not deep, use Yarbo’s plow
If the snow is deep and slush or very heavy wet, go get your Ariens, especially if Yarbo’s blowhole is clogging up on you. Yarbo can sit this one out.
Remove the safety grid from the front if you haven’t – that thing causes problems ingesting snow and then slippage. Some people remove a few of the bars and flip it over, so you still have some safety but the lower part is wide open.
If heavy wet snow, remove the plastic guide at the opening of the chute. That plastic guide is best with powder.
Make sure both augers are spinning and you haven’t snapped a shear pin
Use a coating (like Adam’s Polishes) throughout the inside of the snowblower
Adjust the speed of the auger and the forward speed of the Yarbo to make sure it’s taking in an appropriate amount of snow. Sometimes you have to crank everything way up to avoid slippage.
Have a look at the height of the auger. Scooping less snow in the first pass may help. Or it may not be good. You’ll have to try.
If it tends to get stuck in the same spot a lot, map a straight Sidewalk near there and run it first in the Work Plan to pre-clean the area of snow. Yarbo works better if you help by pre-clearing some snow for it to maneuver.
Some people have attached workout weights to the rover’s handles to help with traction.
Some ideas to consider anyway. I’ve got two such pre-cleaning Sidewalks, and they work great. I have removed my safety grate. I’ll get the right speed going. Hopefully you’ll hit the right combination.
I have found that manually running Yarbo in wet snow works really well for me. I don’t get a lot of snow and the snow we do get is usually wet so I am still learning how to configure it to do the best job possible. I have a lot to learn still and also so does the Yarbo. But my driveway is small enough that manual mode is not daunting and automation can usually get the lions share done for me too. Maybe with some unclogging here and there. I need to ceramic coat mine still and I also think that will help a ton.
@bryan.wheeler Was super frustrating here with the triple hit of horrific slushfests. Yarbo was a nay-nay with that unusual trio of garbage storms for the most part. The snowblower needs to be notched up to be the equivalent to the Ariens Compact 24 at the very least - I’d be really happy with that. I’d still have to get Daddy Ariens out for two or so storms per year, and that’s OK. They also need to test beyond a refrigerator and dry powder. I’m not too far from the coast in New England, and you’re not going to see much worse on a regular basis as a general test location for powder-free backbreaking snow.
Still learning, though, still interested to see the result of folks trying impeller extensions. The snowblower will do the job if it’s dry enough snow done “early and often,” and you just have to roll with what nature gives ya!
Don’t wait - get Yarbo out there after just a coupla inches.