By M. Mondt
Over a period of 10 years, I had the opportunity to try and evaluate at least five different snowblowers. So, when I moved to Fargo, one of my first purchases was a new White Power Products (AKA MTD) snowblower. It had everything I wanted for controls… single stick chute control, heated grips, etc. I had not used a blower with a single stick chute control, but thought it would be much better than a crank.
The machine worked well for the first pass down the driveway, then the friction drive transmission started to slip. The problem turned out the bracket that held the chute control cables was bolted directly to the engine and was in line with the hot air coming off of the cylinder head. The bracket would get warm, snow would stick to it and melt. The water would run down the bracket and drip onto the transmission drive disk resulting in slip.
The single stick control was a nice idea, but apparently no one tested the snowblower under actual conditions! To prevent water from running down into the transmission, I sealed the top of the shroud around bracket and engine with silicone sealer. The water is diverted and the transmission works like it should.
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