I am having some major issues with my Yarbo constantly getting stuck. We had a major blizzard while I was away and I was depending on Yarbo to clean my driveway for my cat sitter.
It started out great. It did one full round of my work plan. But it had to go back to charge at the beginning of the second round. When it went back out it got stuck(track slippage) in just a normal area in my driveway. There was maybe 4 inches of additional snow. The snow was more wet as opposed to dry.
When I’m home I usually go out and slam it around and tug it around with my angst until it gets traction again. It seems like snow piles up underneath or something?? The track just keeps turning with no movement.
However, I wasn’t able to do that while away and it created a big issue for me. My neighbor tried to help me but I turned Yarbo off to save power while stuck and I was unable to turn it back on remotely.
Is there a way to solve this slipping/stuck issue with the snow blower? Could you provide me with links for how to attach weights to my Yarbo and what materials to use. I’ve heard this might be a solution and I’m looking for advice on the best way to solve this.
What kind of surface are you clearing and what is your auger height set to? Generally you want to clear to zero on hard surfaces like asphalt or you stand to encounter high center issues. For the weights, some people have had success with some gym ankle weights strapped to the handles. About 10 lbs per side. 14 lbs if you attach to the tow hitch.
unfortunately I have a gravel driveway, which Yarbo says it’s designed to be ok for. My auger height is at 1.02. Is the weighing down trick any help in this situation or am I just unlucky?
Yes, Yarbo should be able to handle gravel driveways, but a gravel driveway introduces some additional complexities that need to be accounted for.
You don’t want the auger to dig into the gravel and start sucking in the pebbles. That can cause Yarbo to shoot them out and potentially damage the recipient’s of the thrown rocks, but it also makes it rather likely that a rock will get stuck in the auger and cause a sheer pin to break. These issues aren’t unique to Yarbo though. Any 2 stage snowblower will have this complexity.
In order to account for the issue above, people with gravel driveways generally will build up a base of snow that compacts and covers up the gravel. Then their snowblower removes new snow that accumulates above the base if that makes sense.
so from a Yarbo perspective, you’ll kind of need to play with the auger height settings to allow that base to initially form, then lower the auger back down to remove newly accumulated snow. Yarbo doesn’t have a lot of ground clearance, so you can’t simply leave the auger at 1 inch or more. It’ll get stuck (as you have experienced).
Hope this makes sense. With a bit of a honed technique, Yarbo will work just fine for a gravel driveway. It’s just not quite as simple as with a concrete or asphalt drive.
Yes for gravel building the base is important and then when the base is sufficiently built up, you have the drop the auger height down. I’ve heard suggestions of driving your vehicle over the base and packing it in really good. Weight should help. The studs I hear also help.
thanks. I’ve had Yarbo since the fall, so I’ve used it for quite a few storms now. I have played around with the auger height and 1.02 seems to be a great height for missing gravel. .98 sometimes works but no lower!!! That should give me the inch of coverage you’re suggesting.
My main issue is that it keeps getting stuck and i dont totally understand what im doing wrong. Reading this forum it sounds like a common issue. I’ve read that weighing it down could eliminate that slipping/stuck issue. Would it work with my settings I’ve described? I don’t totally understand what you mean by you have to play around with it because i feel like 1” is a good auger height. Do I have to watch it and lift it every single time it wants to turn?
I get what you mean. But it’s hard to drive on it when I’m away ! and when it’s a blizzard! driving on it pretty much eliminates the reason I bought a blower… so I don’t have to go out every time it snows. I guess I still have to, to get the damn thing unstuck … but I’d like not to have to.
I’ll buy some weight and try putting them on the handles.
I don’t measure things in body parts, but what I’ve noticed is that if the module height is over 1.7 cm, you start getting a lot of slippage problems. If it’s less than 1.4 cm, it will collect a lot of gravel. So set it to 1.5 cm and you’ll get a fairly good compromise.
Maybe on the first run you can even set it to 1.7 cm, and once you have packed snow, lower it to 1–1.5 cm depending on how much snow has been packed.
However, for the Yarbo dev team: the current track slippage detection is not good enough. Many times Yarbo digs itself into snow or gravel before it notices the slippage. It really should use the accelerometer to detect slippage instantly, lift the module, drive about 15 cm back, lower the module to the original height + 0.5 cm, and try again. Then it should go back and continue driving with the original height.
Right now it tries to drive 1–2 meters even when it’s stuck, so it just keeps digging itself in and has no way to free itself.
To me, the problem is that if you set the auger too high, the un cleared snow will accumulate to the degree that it will impact the underside of the Yarbo, and you’ll start to lose traction as a result. Adding weight is a mixed bag. You’ll push the tracks down to gain traction, but you’re also pushing the chassis further down into the un cleared snow.
Once I have a good snow base established, I can comfortably drop the auger down pretty low. Not to zero, but less than ½ inch.
I suppose it would all depend on your terrain and how smooth it is versus potholes and bumps.
Yes this is the key. You have to get a hard pack established. Once you have a good base, you can go almost to zero because the snowblower rides on top of the hard pack. You leave a little bit to keep the hard pack maintained.
I’ve got gravel and I usually have to do the first run of a new snowfall at 1.5”-2”. Then each pass I reduce this by 0.25” until I reach about 0.5”. The first pass packs things down and creates icy treadmarks for good grip.
However, if temps dip down too low and the ice melts, there may be no setting to get good traction.
We have to have compact snow and ice on gravel because Yarbo’s ground clearance is not that high. That’s why I have proposed gravel tracks so Yarbo will be higher.