(ET) Another day, another foot of snow....

[Christopher Zach <cz alembic crystel com>]

We're getting slugged again here in MD, just went out with the tractor 
to do another foot of snow on the driveway. Some observations:

Blowing uphill in LL was not bad at all. No clogs, no spinning wheels, 
just went up and chewed through a foot of new snow. I really appreciate 
the snow-throwing capability over a plow as there is no way that 2 feet 
of old snow is going to budge. As it is the E20 can easily toss the snow 
over the tops.

At the top of the driveway I switched to L, drove into the street to 
turn around, then blew a full 42 inch path down the hill in L, speed 4.

Not such a great idea. I smelled a bit of burning something on the way 
down, the snowblower was running *hard* and throwing a constant thick 
and *heavy* soup of snow. Pack voltage was dropping to 30 volts, and the 
amps were probably insane (I didn't have the E-meter visible).

I think that is beyond the limit of what I should do with the blower. 
However I did not pop the breakers or the motor overload. Then again I 
have no idea if that still works. So I throttled down to speed 1 and 
finished the hill.

Once on level I went back to L and had no more overload problems. I 
continue to state that I wish I had the third string of BB600's online, 
however two strings seem to be enough for about 30 minutes of constant 
blowing. Not too bad. 3 strings should get an hour is my guess.

I think in the spring I'm going to check out and possibly overhaul some 
of the main power wires. I don't think I should re-wire them for bigger 
values (they kind of act as a current limiter oddly enough) however 
either my amp meter is way out of whack or I am pulling a *lot* of current.

Chris