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Reminds me of driving in my first snowstorm. I was heading to the gas station in my pickup with no weight in the bed, thought I’d impress my friend in the passenger seat. Gave it a little gas, thought I’d drift around in bend in the road but lost control. Slid across the oncoming lane (thank goodness nobody was coming!) hit the telephone pole with the passenger door. We didn’t get hurt, we were probably only going 15-20 mph. So I drove back home and went in the house. First thing my dad says is we have no power in the house. Then he said, and this is the part I’ll never forget “ First snowstorm of the year and our power is out. I’ll bet some A hole hit a pole and knocked out the power!” I then had to sheepishly admit it was me!

Where I used to live all we needed was snow forecast for a few days out and someone would be kind enough to take out the pole across the street, and our power with it.

Not to beat a dead horse, but you can add all the weight you want, if the tire isn't able to grip the surface well enough it won't do a lick of good. 500 lb man can't run any better on a sheet of ice than a 100 lb man can.

Might be difficult to drill if they just spin If grinding the slot doesn't work maybe grind an X into the heads and chisel / break them off. Probably more control and less heat than just grinding the entire heads all the way off .

With the correct bit, drilling the heads off would be the better option. Then use a small pipe wrench with good sharp jaws to remove the remaining studs. Kudos to you Jim for saving it from the landfill.

A worthy project! It's usually pretty easy to remove the heads from hex-socket-head screws by drilling, since the socket helps start the bit on-center. If they're hardened screws, you'll want to use cobalt-steel bits, sized about equal to the thread size. Hold the edge of the head with a vise-grip if it wants to spin. If you happen to drill one a touch off center, a light tap with a hammer and chisel (or prying with a screwdriver in the drilled hole) should pop it off. I suppose you could grind the heads off, but if there's any plastic attached, the heat from grinding could cause some melting. If your drill bits are sharp, there shouldn't be much heat.

OK. I'm in mentor mode now with the robotics team. Gotta ask how well you think that worked out? The next question is what did you learn?

Yesterday I was in town and saw they began to demolish the old Baptist Church, daycare and gym buildings. There is a large commercial playscape at the daycare that about 25 years old, but is in pretty good condition since it had a shade structure over it. The is a excellent Nonprofit called the ARK. https://arkofhighlandlakes.org that service our greater Highland Lakes area. One of their many programs is a large duplex housing community which has program to mentor and train families to transition them from the street and poverty. The director had previously said they would like to have a playscape for this property. So it hit me and I got the wheels turning to try and recycle this playcape. The demo contractor project manage was agreeable, with a few conditions that we could agree to and a fairly fast removal time line. Thankfully this is a large property and it will take them 3-4 weeks to get enough dumpsters for all the building material. The ARK directors asked if i would take on this removal project and temporary storage. I was able to contact the playscape manufacture and got and original layout drawing and a few removal recommendation. They said they can provide new parts for a few of the domed windows and parts some vandals had dammaged. This morning I took some tools and tested removing bolts from the main frame which went well. Unfornatualy the short Allen bolts with the flat round domed flush nuts on the panels just spun when I tried to remove them. If anyone has a suggest how to get these out, there is roughly a 100 of them. My one idea is to get a battery powered grinder and tried to cut a screwdriver slot in the domed head or grind the head off without damaging the pannel. There are about 20 post or legs with concrete footings. I dug down at a few of them and found there is about 1 ft. of gravel fill above the concrete footing. The demo contractor offered to provide a machine (skid steer or excavator) to pull them out when we had everything else removed. I have two thoughts on post removal which hopefully can be done without bending up the post or other legs One is to dig down to the top of the post to get to the concrete so a choker sling can be attached to pull up right at the top of the concrete. The other is get a jack hammer and hit the footings around the post to see if the concrete can be broken up some. (which would be a lot of work) The ARK will help me get a couple of volunteers for the disassemble/removal. My first order of busines is making some sketches with a numbering routine to mark all the parts for reassemble. I thinking of using a paint pen for marking, and appreciate any suggestions for marking that will last a while. I don't know if we will get the shade structure as someone else (a demo boss?) was looking at it. So this will keep me busy for awhile. then installation will be an even bigger future project.

My bad, I misread and thought the allen wrench was stripping the head of a screw in a tapped hole. Maybe use a small angle grinder with a thin cutoff wheel to cut off opposite sides of the domed nuts creating flats for an adjustable wrench.

I was approaching it more on the time side of things since there's over 100 of them. Same for the poles in the ground. Could they just be cut off and then sleeved with a bigger piece and welded on? I don't see why they can't be dug out and pulled from the ground with a skid steer but now you have to deal with the big concrete bulb attached to it too. Weight, transportation, setting that thing back in the ground, etc. New larger poles could be set in the ground at the new site then the originals set into those and attched.

One could also grind in very brief stages, partially grinding each screw head in succession, which would create a cooling pause in between each stage to avoid overheating and melting any plastic. However, I think drilling is the best option. I believe it would be the fastest method and least likely to overheat the screws. Judging from the photo, it looks (to me) like the screws have a head profile similar to THIS ONE, in which case I think a vise grip could secure them IF they happen to spin while drilling.

Be aware that it is an Amish business and he might not answer a phone call right away and you might need to leave a message. He did have someone fielding calls maybe that still is the case. I took a tire/wheel along to test fit before buying, you will find Mr. Esh is easy to deal with.

Sounds like you have a stock B-80 like my 1977 B-80/8 speed

i sent a pm to WHX, hopefully i can get some chains from them

As has been stated….”it’s traction that you need!” If you’re on grass you’ll need to get the scraper bar up by lowering the skids. Mine is set at around 2” above the skids. If you’re get some chains on that machine I think you will find it does very well.

I’ll be damned…..I was checking out that website and realized it was a local phone number for me. Turns out that they are literally a 5min drive from my house. Guess I’ll have to swing down have a look in person

hi horseman with no horse, as stated in the many replies to your original post, you need chains, period. since the money tree is not blossoming for you perhaps you could find someone in your area that might have a set of chains. then maybe you can barter for them. just a thought.

i have little shoes that came with the blower in place of the cast wheels, im glad to see all the useful responses, you guys are always so helpful. chains it is. i thought i had a decent amount of weight but i still might try to add more.

You get the chains we'll school on the many ways to properly install them. Jim S has already got you started.

Oh no no no no no. Your responses are VERY welcome! Great to see...

Well what good are ya ... No curds for either of ya then ...

My dad had a nice one. Nice Bob can you do me one in Ted Nugent zebra?? Promise I won't blow it up...

The one thing that I don't like about snow blowers is that it is usually cold out when you need to use them.

You are missing the steel wheel that goes on the blower is there one missing on the other side also. That is going to make it harder to shove the blower ahead if it is down.

Gotta get all you us ole timers on Karl's emergency call list. Never know when you might climb up in your tree stand and forget to come home.

You don't need ags ... a set of chains on turfs will make a world of difference and weight ... never hurts but all the weight in the world will not help on sheet ice. Definitely sounds like you don't have it set up right.

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Unfortunately no...