I have a Yarbo Snowblower which I love but I know very little about the plow attachment. I have a few basic questions I hope you can help me with.
When using the plow, do you do anything within the user interface to tell Yarbo it has a plow attached?
With the plow in place and possibly informing the UI that you are using a plow, does Yarbo simply follow the same clearing pattern as it would with the snowblower or is there a special “I’m using a plow” pattern?
Do you get a lot of overflow snow being pushed out to the side of the blade meaning you’d have to do multiple paths to get a decent clearing of the driveway?
I envision the plow simply plowing the snow to the same perimeter as the snowblower would go do. Does this not narrow the mapped outline of the area such that the next time the snowblower is used that it has trouble getting stuck and spinning into the snowbank with the perimeter pass what with the plowed snow having reduced the map outline?
What would you describe as the ideal scenario for using the plow? I don’t suspect it can handle every condition. What conditions would you use it for and not use it for?
I only got to use it with snow once so limited experience. The best use case is heavy wet snow since the auger struggles with it. You do set the plow mode. It is a toggle switch under settings when you have the snow blower attached. You can actually toggle it on even without the physical plow attached and I saw a user just do that when dealing with wet snow and not having the plow blade. I think it followed the same pattern but not certain. I have video that I still need to edit but will try to get to that soon. If I do recall, the perimeter does need some work after it is done and I thought a path or sidewalk around the perimeter should be a good idea to run after the plowing is done. There is overflow so a second pass would be ideal but it uses a lot less battery so it likely can handle in one charge depending on the size of the area.
Hi Scott, thanks for reaching out! I’m happy to help with your questions.
If your plow blade is attached, you’ll see “Yarbo Plow Blade” listed below the name of your Yarbo on the main page, just like how you see “Yarbo Snow Blower.” To enable the plow, go to the Yarbo settings, scroll down, and click the “Plow Mode” button to activate Plow Blade Mode. In this interface, you can also set the snow plowing direction and adjust the area settings for the snow plowing.
Regarding the overflow snow, you can adjust the overlap setting higher to ensure a more complete clearing.
Besides, you’re correct that the plow will clear the snow to the same perimeter as the snowblower, which could result in snowbanks within the original map outline. This might cause the snowblower to get stuck when used next. To address this, our recent update includes a feature called “Exterior Area Shrink.” This allows you to adjust the boundary of the entire area inward by a specific value (ranging from 0 to 16 inches), helping avoid that issue.
As for the ideal conditions for using the plow, it’s especially effective for dealing with wet, heavy snow.
Thanks again for your questions, and I hope this helps!
I used the snow blade for the 1st time today. Below are a couple of things I noticed:
When using the plow, make sure you have the snow tracks on Yarbo. I forgot I changed to the lawn tires and it has caused many self-inflicted problems today.
When Yarbo gets stuck, It raises the blade, frees itself and puts the blade back down. Many times smashing a pile of snow which causes Yarbo to get stuck again and repeating the process again and again.
When using a map drawn for the snowblower with plow mode activated, the preview shows Yarbo taking the shortest distance back and forth but running the plan, the course was the long way just like the snowblower, causing the snow to pile up in front of the blade until Yarbo loses traction and sends it back into the loop referred to in point 2.
Yarbo is still awesome, even though I screw up and make things harder.
The learning curve is steeper than I thought it would be, but I Love a challenge!
Most all of my problems are self inflicted and will clear up as i learn more.
Thanks for sharing your experience with the plow blade, and we’re really happy to see that you’re overall satisfied with it!
Regarding the plow mode route, you can set the plow direction with plow mode on to find the most efficient path for snow plowing through the preview route. However, we noticed you mentioned that the preview route is different from what actually runs. Could you provide us with a screenshot of the preview route and the actual route when it’s running? This will help us check if there’s anything that might be causing the issue.
We’re also sorry about the stuck issue. The process you’re seeing where Yarbo raises the blade and frees itself is the rover’s escape algorithm in action. We understand this is something that needs continuous improvement, and we’re working hard to improve it going forward!
Thanks again for your feedback, and we appreciate your patience as you continue to get the hang of using Yarbo. Keep up the great work!