By Robert Gamble
It all started out with a snow blower. More specifically it all started out with a snow blower and a gravel driveway. If anybody has tried to use a snow blower on a gravel driveway they will know exactly what I’m talking about.
You try pushing the snow blower and it actually digs into the driveway more aggressively as you push it along. Most snow blower designs are designed to get down to the pavement and clean up really well. So when you push on the snow blower itself it will actually push down to the pavement harder.
This is actually a weakness or a flaw in the design when it comes to using a snowblower on a gravel driveway. The last thing you want to do is start digging in and shooting gravel all over the place especially into your car, into your yard, into your siding….
After about 10 minutes of trying to aggressively snow blow 10 inches of snow I realized I was fighting the driveway more than I was fighting the snow itself. I had to meter how much down-force I was putting into the snow blower and was finding I was getting exhausted really quickly and my back was killing me.
I went into diagnostic and design mode instantly. Within 15 minutes I had a workable solution in my mind. The issue is that you want to stop the down-force from actually happening. If there is any down-force you want it to be spread out so that the head of the snow blower where the impellers are, does not dig into the gravel.
Now some of the snow blower designs have skid pads on them so that they raise up the impeller head from off of the surface of the pavement. However they’re useless when doing gravel driveways, because the skid pads are too narrow and do not spread the load out, but make it more concentrated. The force being concentrated causes the pad to dig down through the gravel, or in other cases the yard. Another issue too is if you ever hit a yard with one of these snow blowers that you buy at Ace Hardware for example you will eat up chunks of your lawn if you’re not careful.
The solution was to spread out as I said the load. There are various ways you can do that. I was thinking in my mind maybe some wheels for example, some wheels off roller-blades. However wheels on roller blades would give you more a point contact and they may work okay but they wouldn’t have enough contact patch to prevent the face of the impeller area from digging in. So you’d end up having ruts all over the place, and you would still be fighting the snow blower.
So I decided that I was going to make a ski system that would spread the load out, like a sled, or snowmobile. I immediately went into the garage and looked for some wood thinking maybe some pieces of plywood might do the job. However, after thinking about the problem more, I realized that 1/4 inch piece of plywood really doesn’t have much strength. Additionally it would raise up the whole head area by 1/4 inch, which would leave a substantial amount of snow on the drive way.
I decided to look around for some stout steel plate and I found some 12 gauge steel that I had scrounged up from some past lives. I cut it to length, put some holes in it, bent the end of it so it had a ski tip to it. I figured, one might work, but two would be more stable.
Patent Pending Skis for keeping the impeller from diving into the gravel driveway. The two skis are held in place securely to the frame behind the impeller system.
I quickly installed the two skis holding them to the wheel axle. I also made sure that the skis were clearing the impellers so we wouldn’t have a major disaster there. After it was all said and done the majority of the time was 15 to 20 minutes installing this new system using some bolts and plates to mount this securely.
In the end the packaging was just as I thought it should be. The front of the snowblower was supported and when it is pushed on the skis take the load and don’t dig down into the gravel or even the yard.
I promptly took the snow-blower and went out and tested it. It worked fantastic. The skis take the pressure of the snow blower and kees the impeller up and away from the gravel. It distributes the load so that when you push down it’s not fighting you, it’s sliding instead of digging.
This whole project is patent-able and that is why it is patent pending.
These are examples of what can happen at Prototype Industries, where we take seriously your idea and we develop prototypes and test them right away. We have numerous products we’ve done that with and if you are interested in working with us we can help you design simple prototypes and test them.
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