I have an old snow blower that I picked up cheap. I need a tiller. I need to tweak the engine and get it running but it's a 5hp motor.

So, because I'm retired, bored, and need a tiller I was thinking about pulling the bottom scoop off, modifying the blades by welding on small metal tines, then gearing it down so they turn slower but with more power.

Think it will work or am I just 'tarded?

Even a well designed tiller can beat you to death trying to use it.



Let us know how this design works out.

What ever you do get it on film.

Dibs on guns,tools,ammo,porno mags, whatever Ops not going to need after he cuts his hands off or some shit.

Sounds like the expense of the conversion could buy a used tiller on craigslist.

Don't listen to these guys.

It sounds perfectly safe.

Yeo.  I think I even heard of a guy doing it.

Before doing any work, I would figure out how much money it would cost to buy the new gearing, and any other materials like welding rod.  Then I would compare that to the price of a used tiller.  The one you build wouldn't be new, so it wouldn't be fair to compare new to used...   Then figure out how much your time is worth, and what the possibility of your project failing would be.  Only if it all pointed very strongly to the project being a success at a much cheaper price would I venture into the project.  

Projects are really neat, and lots of fun, but the old saying "Buy once, cry once" would apply.  It is completely possible that you would sink lots of time and money into a project that would eventually fail, then you would still have to buy a tiller .  After all the work on a failed project (one cry), then having to pay for the tiller in any event (second cry) it would be really disappointing to have lost all the time and money on the failed project.

Can I watch?

IF you could make it turn in reverse, put the bottom metal on top to cover the tines and then pull it, like a rear tine tiller, you may have something.  Plenty of used snowplows/ throwers out there after winter.

What you need to do is remove the skids, sharpen the bottom of the scooper, so when you drive along, it picks up the clumps of dirt and the action of them getting tossed in the impeller will make them break up and then thrown to the side perfect for planting.

And when it is time to harvest put half the snow blades and have the tiller tines and use it to harvest potatoes.

If you have any kids, you can have them walk along side and catch the potatoes in a basket.

Might want to check out an actual front tine tiller before you go much further.  There's this doo-dad on the back that acts as a brake, to keep you from being pulled along the ground as the tines turn...

Remove all safeties first - guards too, they just slow down innovative progress... you add them back after several successful test runs.



By the way, do you know what "insurable interest" means?  Make someone happy.

Oh, almost forgot - when it's time to contact Aimless Esq., remind him there were no huge multi-lingual stickers saying that snowblower model "could not be converted to a dirt tiller."



Also, peel off the stickers that say things like "you can be killed by modifying this machine" - then take a fuzzy picture of the machine - preferably with a price tag attached that looks like you just bought it.

Roto Hoe used to make Tillers that had a Snow Blower attachment. Sadly, they are no longer in business. You can find them for sale on ebay and craigslist though. Here is the tiller, I haven't been able to find the snow blower attached.






Not my video.




 

From my childhood...picture a snowblower without the rotary blades, chute, and hood over the blades.  That's what Granddad had along with various garden attachments such as a tiller, spring tooth, disc, and sickle mower.

Well, without ANY of the attachments the old 5 or 6 hp Briggs & Stratton on those two mini-tractor tires and frame would pull a little red wagon with me in it ALL OVER town in the summer time.  I was 10 to 11 years old.  Even had a classmate who's dad had a very similar unit.  

We tooled up and down the streets in our little, rural Iowa farming community, racing each other and being general nuisances but enjoying every second of it.

Every time I fire up my 9.5hp snowblower, now, at 61y.o., I think what fun it would be to rip the rotary plow off the front, get a Red Flyer wagon and drive around town.  They'd probably lock me up for being crazy.  But that's what I want to do.


eta:  Scout (poster above me) included a video of what I'm talking about...but I was already out of high school when that 1974 unit was new.  Granddad's 'power head' (good descriptor) was more likely 1940's or 50's vintage.  Picture that without the tiller and your red wagon tied or wired to the chassis somewhere underneath.  I know, I know...nobody cares but this is triggering some great memories here.  Bear with me.

I'd sell the snow blower & buy a tiller....and use the many free hours to drink beer & fish instead.....


(I figure my leasure time is worth more than Won Hung Lo's daily rate ....when he works at Longdong State factory #2 in Shanghai, China...)

OP don't listen to all these negative people......do it, and do it on film.

Gas engines on snow blowers are not built to stay cool in warm weather.  By the time you built the tiller and modified the engine you could buy a new tiller.

What could go wrong?

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Don't forget about air filtration....most snow blowers don't use air filters, whereas its slightly necessary tilling in the dirt...

I had no idea Red Green was a member here

I think Troy- built has a foot in the door with their"flex" unit. Look it up

I say go for it!  Just make sure the tyne rotation causes the tiller to pull away from you

What happens if when he's done tilling, all the top soil is piled up on the sides of the garden which used to be 6"-8" higher?

I'll hold his beer while I watch too.