Combine converted to snowblower

welcome to my video we're going to be turning an L2 Gleaner combine and aloftness nine foot snow blower into a self-propelled snowblower so I removed all the components from this combine that were related to the actual thrashing operation and I was able to actually recoup about 900 worth of parts for items that I sold from the combine so I took it apart carefully there I remove the tail and all the tin work essentially I stripped it down to what you would call like a power unit just strictly the engine and the drivetrain and the Gleaner combine has four main posts that go down to the frame under the engine assembly and I cut those and lowered the engine 36 inches there you can see I set it down that worked quite well so we cleaned up the frame and just reattached it at a lower point and I also lowered the cab 14 inches so it'd be easier to get in and out of my heated shop so six months later our one actually one season in the shop I managed to get the blower physically mounted and uh everything all put back together so the combine could actually move and drive under its own power but I haven't haven't gotten to any of the um Logistics of actually making the blower function so that'll come on the second season winner number two so here's a few photos second year which it has to be winner of 20 21 22. figured out the drive train and how I'm going to operate everything put some gauge wheels on it got the Hydraulics all working the view from the cab which is great here's a short video where I kind of do a walk around to let you look at that so I'll walk around and give you a little bit of an overview of what we have here we'll back up so this started out as a early to mid 80s L2 Gleaner combine which is made by the elements Ellis Chalmers company and I've turned it into a self-propelled snow blower what kind of I'll do a walk around and kind of explain a little bit so on the combine you notice here we have a drive belt so on the right hand side of this combine we have an electric clutch that operate the separator system and so I utilize that which does have a variable speed and a double B belt down to here two gearbox and this gearbox actually propels the fan only this was the gearbox that was in the snow blower and I removed it rotated it 90 degrees and it's a one-to-one ratio so when I engage the right hand side which used to be the separator for the combine and now engages the fan of the snowblower the snow blower is a loftness nine foot width blower it originally had skid plates on I decided to put gauge wheels I have adjustment here two rows of holes spaced one half inch different so I can change the depth by a half inch increments and wheels our spare tires off a GM and so are the hubs they're like a trailing the trailing axle off of a like a Impala full-size General Motors car picked up the snow blower used and so I did need a little bit of work but uh straightened out the augers took the fan out and built that up a little bit and stuff so on this side you can notice I lengthened back the bracket because initially originally the augers ran out of the output of the gearbox which was located down in the guts there so on the right hand of the Gleaner combine excuse me left hand left hand they have the electric clutch for the header and that's what I'm utilizing here to actually run the augers so this now is auger so left hand electric clutch runs augers right hand clutch runs fan only and here I utilized I was lucky enough on the right hand side to get a belt that was a correct length and it's for the time being in a way it's adequately tight enough that I'm confident it will not slip on the left side you notice I have a tight Spring Water tightener which I utilized off of the combine this was the original pivot area for the header and now it's the pivot area built out of square tubing and here I added a three-point quick touch hitch standard for a tractor and then the snowboard of course hooks into that foreign do a shot from the back here so I did everything that is Columbine related has been 100 removed from the unit and I dropped the engine down 36 inches and I dropped the cab down 14 inches simply because it just didn't need to be that high and it's easier to get in and out of the buildings itself so I also narrowed up because this is a pretty wide machine and you probably noticed that my tire width now is wider than the blower but I am getting into the process of picking up different tires I need to narrow up about you can probably see about eight to ten inches per side and I have to I've located some narrower rims and tires just at this point to have not gotten to yep point of the build yet so I did narrow up the rear axle substantially you can see where I splice it there so that the the rear tread is going to be narrower and when I did that it caused an interference with the tire and the uh hydraulic oil reservoir so I did lengthen this out a little bit right here to give sufficient clearance to the rear wheels come around on this side of the machine on the air cleaner assembly and the radiator I removed the rotating fan assembly which is designed to keep dirt and debris out of the radiator and I designed this unit which is um I think 18 gauge galvanized sheet metal drew it up and had a local company cut it out on their laser and I have adjustment here so I can restrict because I want this engine to run warm so it's normal operating temperature and I have no idea if it will do that under load so down here we have the hydraulic pump and this is all this entire assembly here just dropped down with the engine when I drop the engine down 36 inches okay up on top of the unit so I just came up the steps and I have a a narrow catwalk here and I can gain access this is my upgraded fuel cell I have a toolbox there that I utilized and as you can see there is nothing inside of here you can actually see down to the floor because everything has been removed bring you inside the cab area so in the cab this is your up and down header control which raises the blower up and down and then this is a hydrostatic drive unit so forwards gonna go incrementally faster and then you can pull it back you have reverse and I also picked up a four-way electrical switch for like off of a truck mounted snow blade and so that will do rotate spout rotates forward and also um deflector so all my controls for the operation of the blower I can run with one hand up down control speed and rotate and tilt spout and these are the two electrical switches this one's going to turn on the auger this one here turns on fan and this is a view from the cab uh looking down on the blower so should have good visibility when we're out moving snow since this is a hydrostatic drive it's quite simple I have a main drive belt coming off the output of this of the engine here and I don't know how well you can see this but it goes down to the hydrostat underneath this protective screen and the other drive belt goes across to what we would call the main shaft and that is shaft is live whenever the engine is running and that's where the electric clutch for the left and the right hand side of the machiner is located the shot up here of the engine bay so yeah pretty straightforward the engine just runs the hydrostatic and it runs the cross shaft and everything hooks onto that and there is a rich initially I was going to use the existing Hydraulics that were with the combine but we're looking at something that was getting close to 40 years old and so on the advice of a friend who is also a specialist in hydraulics he recommended purchasing a new valve assembly which I did so that is this unit right here so all of the this is a three three valve electric over hydraulic and so I put all new hoses and so everything goes through here and then goes to wherever it needs to go on a combine and there was a picture of the hydrostatic drive unit so we're sitting right in the guts which is what used to be the thrashing part of the machine foreign thank you [Applause] [Applause] foreign [Applause] [Applause] foreign foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] all right [Applause] [Applause] foreign thanks for watching uh in conclusion the project worked really well you notice in the video that I did get the narrower tires put on I love the heated cab it's like 70 80 degrees in there so it works really nice I like looking forward no more sore neck and cramped up shoulders from a rear mounted tractor snowblower I love the rotating spot and the deflector I've never had that before in a snow blower it's really nice to direct us know where you want to go the visibility is awesome so yeah the project worked out really good I'd like to thank my son-in-law Ivan for videotaping on Christmas Day and it sounds like we have another big storm coming up in a couple of days so I'll probably be able to try it out some more catch you later

Channel: hrodd2

Views: 250,933

Keywords: snowblower, combine conversion, self propelled snowblower, snow blower conversion

Id: HbbukEET_5w

Length: 22min 41sec (1361 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 02 2023