Dick, Maybe you and my friend in Saskatchewan could get together and talk shop?

 

That is FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNY Dennis...

 

HEY! I like it! Now, with the amount of snow we currently have, between using that and my blower, I'd have enough to blow after a few laps around the loop, with the little Plowcycle. Hmmm... the Plowcycle and the Butt Trolley. Whatta team!

Gotta love a bored man's little inventions and ways to kill time.

Now.. I feel another project coming on. I wonder if I could make something similar out of wood and what's left of my 21 speed bike? Does a 21 speed Plowcycle seem of interest? OK... gotta research a set of chains for a tire that size. ROFL ... well... don't have to be that size... my mind's working already!!!

Hmmm ... two wheel drive bike? Three wheel bike for adults, turned around with a little plow on the back,turned front? Hmmm... where's this guy live? My lack of a welder impedes my creativity.

My luck, I'd build it and we'd get 14 feet of snow!...Hey that's it... add-on wings for my blower, to direct more snow to the blower. ..... adjustable angles.....

We have a plow here called the BOSS. It's a multi-angle plow from forward V to backward V and all the angles. Now, if I could incorporate a manual plow for my blower......hmmmm... dang... thanks Dennis!!!!

 

I like it ! we dont get a lot of snow here but a garden tiller attachment would be nice. it kills my back. I will vouch for you that I saw it here first!
Patent it !
Jeff

 

FANTASTIC job, Dick!!!!!!!!!!

One question / comment - - --
Where the butt trolley mounts to the snowblower. . . instead of the "L" plates and bolts, have you considered a trailer ball and hitch?

On my lawn tractor, the 'Hole' that is used to attach a trailer became elongated after several years of use. I found a 'universal' trailer hitch at WallyWorld and bolted it to the tractor and the mating 'trailer piece' (coupler) and bolted that to the trailer.

It seems that using a hitch and ball, you would have better manueverability.
(Only consideration would be 'balance', I suppose.)


Just a thought. . . . . .

Again, your butt trolley is a GREAT idea!!!!!!!


Keith

 

Looks good,But Im sorry Fordlover55 you forgot one important item.You see,if you were to mount a video game on the handlebars then every kid in the neighborhood would want to drive it,thus,leaving you in the house drinking hot chocolate!

 

Hey, I'd given a lot of thought to the hitch assy and that's why in the finished product I used two triangle brackets to strengthen the whole assembly. Also, between the "L" parts of the hitch, where the bolt goes through, Between them I have a bearing to assist with turning ease and also allowing the flex needed to raise and lower the handlebars for turning. I also bought a third wheel ( caster) that I plan on mounting on the blower, on the angle just below the hitch. It will help catch the weight of the blower, when lifting the front end, plus it should help with turning, especially when I have the handlebars way out to one side or the other.

Today, I added flashing red lights on the back of the seat, for if blowing in bad weather or after dark, reflectors on the sides of the engine and a rear view mirror to keep an eye out behind me. My neighbor thinks I'm nuts. I also got rid of the ugly vinyl bag I'd made and bought a 4 dollar trash bag and installed it. It has more room to carry tools, shear pins, a thermos of ....whatever.. and I'm looking at putting a front light on it someplace.... battery operated, of course. Hey.. I'm unemployed and don't know when or if I'll ever return to my current job. I'm bored. I'm having FUN with this thing.

Tomorrow, if I have time, I'm taking the rear wheels off, lightly sanding them, primering and painting them WHITE, to match the rest of the thing. Those yeller wheels will drive this fashion conscious person nuts ... and has already received rude remarks from my brother!! ROFL!

Since I was in a military company that used "sharks teeth" as a design on the front of our gun ships, I'm looking at painting the mouth of the blower with shark teeth. The .50 cal comes later!!

Dennis' post above has got my imagination going for a snow plow, now. I MAY, design one to bolt on the front of the blower, for when there's not enough to blow, but still needs moved in order to prevent ice buildup.

More pictures to come, I guess. ROFL. I promise to be done with the winter parts & pieces by spring... then I license it for the street, change some gearing and use it to go get my mail, downtown! To heck with a fancy little scooter or something... right?

 

Go for it, Dick!

Don't forget the hot coffee in the thermos!!!!!!!

 

Just move the rear wheels just slightly forward of the seat post. Thelever will push the other end up, which pushes the blower down. To lift the blower for travel, just push down on the handles, which is inutitive because that's how it works normally anyway. If you wanted to get fancy, you could have an adjustable rear axle position to alter the cantilever for different people's weights.

 

Mine is perfectly balanced for my body size. If I were to make another model for someone else, I've already made design changes in my head, to account for larger/taller people. One of them is by using a 4x4 as the main structure material and ordering a fancy adjustable seat on-line. That'd increase the cost, but I figure people are going to want comfort and ease of balancing it. With the seat nearly over the wheels, adjusting the seat back or forward, would balance it with no problem. (At least in theory.) There are several other options I've already looked at, for long legged dudes or dudettes. But I seriously ain't going to get into a major production of these. If my back were better and I could work all day, I'd actually be able to put out one a day, if I had all the materials on hand. This one took forever due to only being able to work short periods.

I do like the idea of an adjustable axle though, but that would create a bit more effort in the design of materials. Gotta remember, I was working on a teeny budget and trying to do this as cheaply and efficiently as possible. There are a ton of ways to account for balance issues, believe me, I've thought about them. If I had the shop and equipment necesary, I'd build one out of steel and aluminum and make everything adjustable. But that puppy might get spendy by then...who knows.... the initial design is always really expensive during R&D, coming up with the final product.

I have more pictures coming soon, with my latest minor changes and mods. And then we can let this thread die a peaceful death and move on to my next invention... attaching a snow plow to the front of the blower, or wings to scrape a wider path, when snow isn't overly deep...which is what we have this year. Barely any snow. We were supposed to get 5-9inches earlier this week, but the weather didn't believe the reporter.

 

OK... I know this is an old dead thread, but as I worked along, I did end up building a plow and mounting in on the snow blower, to make the whole unit complete.

It worked excellent! BUT... for the size of the area I am working, it was just too slow and a lot of work turning it around, etc. BUt for smaller jobs..man...I couldn't ask for more. I'll probably sell the plow assembly next fall...as several lawn/snowplowing companies drove by and did double takes while I was out plowing. One even turned around and came back, slowly gawking. He'll probably build one by next year.

So,anyway, I talked with the board members and they allowed me to buy a plow for our lawn tractor. Now that I'm going to love.....next winter.

Anyway..for those who were following my silly little invention... here's the finished product.

 

Those sulkies can be fun, but there is a danger element....
I was talking with a friend a few years back about his Gravely tractor, and he told me the story of how he got it.
An old man down the road from him bought this thing new back in the late 60's. He got tons of attachments, including the brush hog deck, the rotary plow (think boat prop in the dirt), tiller, and regular lawn mower, along with the sulky to ride on. The old guy used it for a few years, then was getting the garden together using the rotary plow, when it pitched a football-sized rock up and hit him, breaking his collarbone. After a few months of recovery, he went back to using the machine. A few years go by, and he is using the brush hog, which picks up a piece of barbed wire in a patch of blackberries, which wasn't a problem until the deck flipped over on it's pivot and the barbed wire whipped him, cutting him across the chest, face, and tearing off part of his ear. A few more months, and he is back to using it again. The old guy finally sold it when he was using the brush hog again while riding on the sulky. Seems he was crossing a little ditch at an angle, and as the machine started up the other side, it tried to turn, and go uphill at the same time. One of the handlbars made contact with the seat, with only one of the guy's ********* to cushion it. That was when he decided to sell it.

 

Sweeet, Dick. Tim Taylor would be proud.


Pete

 

Wow..well let me say that I've been quite fortunate as I don't climb hills ( although I did think about souping it up and making a killer hill climber racer or a monster snowblower that crushes cars). I did develop my original trolly because of my back and leg pain & not being able to be on my feet for long periods. And, seeing as I seem to HAVE to have things to do year around, I needed to make something to allow me to take care of the monstrous amounts of snow we were supposed to finally get....but didn't. Instead we kept getting an inch or two ( not enough to effectively blow). Thus, a severe buildup of ice as each teeny dropping would melt just enough to make another inch or more of ice. So...the plow came to mind and it worked perfectly as designed. Plow two or three passes into one larger pile, then raise the blade and blow it 30 feet across the parking lot and then start over again.

Sharp turns or driving it off a sidewalk, to turn around, was the most nefarious activity I did, so handlebars to the family jewels was not an issue...thank goodness. Plus, with sharp turns, I still had to get off my butt and walk it around, as it about kilt me to attempt sitting in the seat at a 90° angle to the blower, creating more stress upon my already worn out back bones and beef jerkified discs.

All in all, I had a blast making it, as I designed it all in my teeny lil head, with the help of a few chicken scratch-like drawings. I've taken the plow off, again making the snow blower itself, a perfect unit for swooping down through the depths of deep snow, in comfort....short of having my brother's Bronco here and using his plow to further degrade out nearly worn out drive.

OH...yeah.... my most heartfelt sympathies go to your friend who had such bad luck using his factory made killing machine. If I happen to roll mine, crush the family jewels, pinch any other apparatus attached to my body, toss snow into the wind and back into my face...etc, I can only sue myself. And fortunately, if it picks up a rock big enough to damage the neighbors car...or head... it'll break the shear bolts before tossing it. Dang! Gotta be a drawback to everything. ROFL.

 

manly grunt, grunt, grunt! ( Isn't that what he did?) Wife calls me Mr Gizmo man because of all my toys.

I still want to get another lawn tractor, take the cutting deck off and just make me a yard racer. But they're selling little four wheelers now, for less than two grand, that might appear in my yard soon. I can forsee myself now... racing across the parking lot, hitting the ramp, flying over the roses, bouncing over the neighbors fence and crushing their pet St.Bernard, getting sued, losing everything I own and... and...


OK... cancel the yard racer and back to the drawing board.