Does anyone have a two stage snowblower with manual lift?

[AHS 1,411]

Ive been too cheap to buy one with hydraulic lift. All though i have heard you can put a hydraulic lift on an 8 speed. It’s just got me thinking; is the 2 stage harder to lift than the 1 stage? Single stage uses just the front attach o matic, 2 stage uses both! (Hence; it would be easier). Anyway; I’m curious! So, what do you have?

[ebinmaine 62,936]

I'll be following this to see what folks say.

 

Some other options for an 8-speed tractor might be to use a winch of some sort in the front to do the lifting, install an electric lift as opposed to a hydraulic system lift, use a lift assist spring. Possibly combine the methods?

 

 

[ri702bill 7,259]

An electric actuator really saps the power out of the battery if used a lot in a short time - like plowing snow. The assist spring makes sense - adjust it to "help" take some of the load off - not too much, or the snowblower will "float". I have one on the 854 with the single stage - works fine. Remove both in the spring...

[F. Marra 17 77]

I have a manual lift with my two stage snowblower.  The blower is a 44" ber-vac that came with two lift springs that attach to the front tach.  I adjust the tension with small turnbuckles.  The mid tach is attched to the blower frame with an adjustable rod that can also reduce the lift height and weight. Between the tractor lift adjustment and the blower adjustments, I have no problem lifting the snow blower up and down during the course of a driveway cleaning. say around 10 passes and lifts. (FYI Im 39 and never been to a gym in my life).  However, I do have two small boys and once their feet can reach the pedals I expect them to take over snow removal duties.  At that point, I will be shopping for a dedicated wheelhorse with hydraulic or electric lift for snow removal duties. A cab would be nice too, but i dont want to spoil them, So hopefully they just understand a little snow being blown back and freezing your face builds character or i can introduce them to a shovel too.  Point being i dont think they will have the strength at that age to lift the blower without stopping and using two hands.

-Frank 

[SylvanLakeWH 24,078]

16 minutes ago, F. Marra 17 said:

So hopefully they just understand a little snow being blown back and freezing your face builds character or i can introduce them to a shovel too. 

 

That there is good Fathering...!

 

[ebinmaine 62,936]

YYYEEESSS 

[Handy Don 10,546]

2 hours ago, F. Marra 17 said:

once their feet can reach the pedals

Good simple criteria. Need to be able to operate safely for themselves and everyone around them.

My granddaughter (having now reached the pedals!) has started using her dad’s tractor under careful supervision with simpler tasks--pulling the leave sweeper and the garden cart. She’ll move up to mowing next year. I think my son has too much fun snowplowing to give that up!

[ebinmaine 62,936]

40 minutes ago, Handy Don said:

Good simple criteria. Need to be able to operate safely for themselves and everyone around them.

My granddaughter (having now reached the pedals!) has started using her dad’s tractor under careful supervision with simpler tasks--pulling the leave sweeper and the garden cart. She’ll move up to mowing next year. I think my son has too much fun snowplowing to give that up!

 

I understand that statement.

 

You could always suggest to the son that if he doesn't want to give up the snow plowing he could perhaps, get another tractor with another plow for the other person.

Nothing like a good strong sideways maneuver into creating a larger Herd.

 

😃

[SPINJIM 1,978]

Getting back to the original question, the two stage blower is WAY too heavy to continually lift manually.   I have a two-stage on a 417-8 with ELECTRIC LIFT, and it handles it because I have TWO LIFT ASSIST SPRINGS, one on the back of the lift rod and another in the front below the hood.   The 2-stage is a bear to get off and on, so I leave it on the 417 as a dedicated snow blower.   I'll be selling the whole unit in the spring because we're moving to a retirement community where the community handles all of the snow removal.  But if I sell it too soon, I know I'll be causing a blizzard in February.

  Jim

Edited January 25, 2023 by SPINJIM

[ebinmaine 62,936]

2 hours ago, SPINJIM said:

if I sell it too soon, I know I'll be causing a blizzard in February

Let's not be making any rash decisions here Jim.

Timing on this sale must be done with great precision and accuracy.

 

[wallfish 15,905]

The WH 2 stage blowers are heavy. The lift mechanism does transfer some mechanical leverage up towards the front to somewhat lighten the load and its completely different than how a SS lifts.

There's a couple things to consider. Like how often your situation will require it to be lifted is one. You don't need to raise it for every little movement. I leave it down most of time when reversing instead of constantly up and down. If you have a simple rectangular driveway, like most are, then you can reverse and do 44" swaths from one direction by leaving it down and reversing or just raising it when turning around or not even raising it. 

If there were no cars in my driveway it could probably be done by lifting it 3-4 times. With the cars it ends up being about 10-20 depending but I have hydraulic lift so it doesn't really matter.

Two, Adding springs, possibly some counter weight etc would probably get you there with a manual lift. Necessity is the mother of invention so if you do get one it can be made to lift easier.

[mrc 724]

AHS,

   years ago i had a toro/wh 2 stager on my kohler powered 416-8.   i had a lift assist spring. with the spring it was ok. i had no problem lifting it.  obviously, lifting a single stage is easier.  adding hydraulic lift to a manual tractor.... you would have to have a separate hydraulic pump running off your pto. soooo that would be a heck of a load on the pto.  the pto would be powering the pump and the blower!

 

F. Marra 17,

  i have a bervac  2 stager that i gave to my SIL.  it is 38 inches wide. with the factory wings it is about 45 inches wide.  i notice your blower has no wings and sticks out past the front tires quite a bit.  i was unaware bervac made a 44 inch blower for wh applications that was that wide.  personally, i like the bervac better than the toro/wh blower.

 

regards

mike

[WHGuy413 2,506]

I have both the wheel horse 2 stage and the ber-vac 2 stage and I can tell you from experience of having them both on my bronco 14 that the wheel horse 2 stage is significantly heavier then the ber-vac. I definitely would not want to put the wheel horse 2 stage on anything that didn’t have hydro lift. The ber-vac I might be tempted to do that with tho. 

[AHS 1,411]

Ok, are the Ber Vac serial numbers? Ber Vacs are rare up here! Just to keep a close eye out for one!

[F. Marra 17 77]

Mine is a W0246D.  It is actaully 46" not 4"" sorry for the mistake.  Its a 1989.  It definelty looks lighter than the toro.

Snowthrower 46in 1989 W0246 Ber-Vac 2-stage Corrected.pdf

[stegs 310]

On 1/26/2023 at 7:30 AM, F. Marra 17 said:

Mine is a W0246D.  It is actaully 46" not 4"" sorry for the mistake.  Its a 1989.  It definelty looks lighter than the toro.

Snowthrower 46in 1989 W0246 Ber-Vac 2-stage Corrected.pdf 1.67 MB · 5 downloads

 

 

There is one for sale locally im trying to pick up

 

Do they still make parts

 

I think its missing the springs, and chute rotation handle....so id need to find extra parts

 

[F. Marra 17 77]

I am not sure if they still do.  I added my own turnbuckles to the springs, and made a rotation handle out of galvanized conduit.  Otherwise the unit was intact from 89.