Cub Cadet 2X 528 SWE Snow Thrower

[JGaulard]

This is a collection of posts I’ve written about my Cub Cadet 2X 528 SWE Snow blower while living in Maine. These posts were scattered throughout this website, so I decided to make life easier and consolidate them to one thread. They aren’t in any particular order.

 

[JGaulard]

This is not something I wanted to buy. I’ve been avoiding it for, pretty much, a full year. Obviously, I knew the snow would eventually return and that I’d be forced to drive off to Tractor Supply or Home Depot to shell out a wad a cash, but I figured that if I waited long enough, somehow the grand I would drop would be easier to swallow. Well…not really. Spending money like that is never fun.

If you remember back about eight months, I mentioned that I needed three things before this winter rolled around. I said I needed new windows for the log cabin room, a wood stove, and a snow blower. Well, earlier this summer, I purchased and installed both the windows and the wood stove. I never did get around to purchasing that snow blower.

Funny thing – yesterday, while Laura and I were checking out our grocery items in the Skowhegan Hannaford, I asked the bagger if there were more people in the store than usual. She replied that there were, because of the holiday and because of the storm. Wait – what? What storm? That’s when a few more folks chimed in Maine style. “Oh yeah, there’s a storm rolling up the coast (you stupid, stupid boy).” They knew. I didn’t know. Apparently over a foot of snow is getting ready to fall upon us. I really should get on top of these things.

I really didn’t think too much of it. I figure that Laura and I would shovel out of the first few snow falls and then I’d bite the bullet and spend some change. Then, as I was sitting at my computer yesterday around 4:30 in the afternoon, I remembered what last winter looked like.

I think you get the idea. Basically, I thought that if we screwed up the shoveling and didn’t do a good job, we’d be messed up until May. It would snow then slightly melt and then freeze and then we’d be sitting on a ice cube that not even a plow could move. That’s when I called Tractor Supply to see what snow throwers they had in stock. Luckily, they had the one I wanted. It’s larger than my last one, but that’s good because if I remember back correctly, that one was slightly too small for New England. While it did a good job, there was some bogging down in the deeper snow. That made for some slow going. Also, this new snow blower not only adds some CCs in the engine (277cc), it also adds four inches to the front scoop area. I used to have 24 and now I have 28. I think this one should take care of things.

Take a look at the pictures of my new Cub Cadet 528 SWE snow blower. I haven’t used it yet, but when I do, I think I’ll make a video of some snow removal and post it here. That should be fun.

 

[JGaulard]

Throwing Some Heavy Wet Snow With My Cub Cadet 2X 528 Snow Blower​

It’s been snowing since yesterday morning at about 9am. It’s supposed to stop some time tonight. Originally, it was forecast to stop this afternoon, but someone changed their mind. It’s all good. It’s not like it’s coming down hard or anything anymore. Last night, well, that’s a different story. It was coming down hard then.

We got 16 inches of snow about five days ago. Yesterday and today, we got about a foot more. This really has been some March. I actually thought winter was over a few weeks ago. We had that warm weather tease and I was telling people that I didn’t think it was going to snow anymore. Boy was I wrong. It did snow and now the ski mountains are back at full throttle and the snowmobilers are having the times of their lives. That’s got to be fun, especially since this snow is so deep.

We were practicing some video editing this afternoon and I came up with the idea of having some video taken of me clearing the driveway with the snowblower. I wrote a post about this blower a while back, but in case you haven’t read that one, what we have is a Cub Cadet 2X 528 SWE. It’s a decent snowblower, but if I had to do it again, I’d get something larger. The only problem with that is every step you go up, the cost goes up as well. By hundreds of dollars. When you purchase these things in the fall, you don’t think it’s ever really going to snow. The first big snowfall you get though, you wish you bought the bigger model.



Clearing the driveway with this machine is usually not much of an issue. It seems to move through even the deep snow pretty well. The problem I had today though was that with this particular type of snow, I found that the blower pushed it more than threw it. It was sort of like a plow because the snow was so sticky. I had to keep stopping to let it get through the chute. After a few passes though, I got used to it and we both finished up with no major problems.



I don’t know what it is about the snow. Every single time it’s ever snowed, during my entire life, it’s been exciting to me. They haven’t even plowed the roads yet, so we might go for a ride in the truck when I’m done with this post. Or, that might wait until tomorrow because it’ll be brighter outside. Either way, it’s a good time driving around to see what everything looks like.



Anyway, here’s the video I just put together. I feel like such a herb during these things, but at this point in my life, I don’t care. It’s all in good fun and now you get to see what I look like when I clear the driveway off. Such excitement! By the way, if you’re reading this post via email, you’ll need to click the link below to visit the video on Youtube to see it. Videos don’t come through the email. It’s also bigger over there, so you might just want to click through anyway.

 

[JGaulard]

Cub Cadet Snow Blower Not Throwing Snow​

I had a potentially very bad and annoying morning. I say “potentially” because I fixed a small issue that was causing me to want to throw my beautiful new snowblower off a cliff. Either that or run it over with a truck or drag it around the town by a rope. Boy was I annoyed and I don’t really ever get like that. Well, I do get annoyed, but not to the level of annoyance I was getting to this morning.

Please allow me to explain. Yesterday was very cold. I think we were in the sub-zero range again. It snowed all day and because of this, I didn’t bother to clear the snow from much of anything. Today’s forecast told me that the warmth would return and we were looking at the low 30s. Snow blowing a driveway and shoveling a sidewalk is a much simpler task when it’s warmer versus when it’s colder. Trust me on this.

There is one dangerous aspect of waiting too long to clear away snow when the temperature rises though. When you do this, you run the risk of having the snow become very heavy and wet. If you add rain to the mix, like we experienced today, things can quickly turn into a nightmare.

If I were to give advice to someone right now about whether to clear snow during the moment or to wait until the next day, I’d probably say that the sooner it’s done, the better. Just do it and it’ll be out of the way. It’ll be fluffier and lighter too. That’s always good.

Anyway, I pulled the snowblower out this morning and started it up. So far, that’s been great. The thing runs like a champ. I backed it from its parking spot and engaged the blades. I then turned it and engaged the wheels. As I began to move forward, I noticed that the snow wasn’t really coming out of the chute very well. I also noticed that I was having a very difficult time moving forward. It seemed as though the snowblower was acting more like a plow than a snow “thrower.”

After about a half hour or pushing, shoving and wrestling the snowblower, I was able to make about three runs up and down the driveway. By this point, I was at the annoyance level I described earlier. I was thinking that I was on video somewhere and someone was playing a practical joke on me. All I needed was that funny Benny Hill music to go along with things.

The end of the driveway is always the toughest. That’s where the plows leave all the really heavy and packed snow that they remove from the roads. Today, trying to get the snowblower through that mess was nearly impossible. I pushed and struggled until I couldn’t anymore. That’s when I stopped, leaned on the handle of the snowblower and blamed everything on the weight and density of the snow. I couldn’t believe I had waited so long to do my chores. I was extremely disappointed in myself.

I decided to take a look inside the front of the snow blower. I’m not sure what this thing is called. It’s the big scoop part where the blades and the axle live.



As I started to look around, I noticed that there was some snow stuck in one of the auger blades. I pulled the snow out with my hand (the snowblower was off by this point). As I was doing this, I noticed that the blade spun freely. I have never inspected this area of the blower before and I noticed that the auger was constructed with four distinct blades. Three of these blades had gold pins that went through their centers and through the drive shaft. It was these gold pins that turned the blades as the shaft turned.



One of the center blades didn’t have this pin. This is the one that spun freely. A light bulb went off in my head and I deemed the pins as “shear pins.” Lawnmowers have similar pins near their blades that shear, or cut, when an object is struck. I must have struck a rock or something the last time I used the snow thrower and broke one of the pins. Either that, or the machine never even came with one of these things installed because the more I looked at the hole, the less wear I could see. Actually, there was no wear at all, where there should have been.

I ran into the garage where I had the owner’s manual and a few other odds and ends that came with the snow blower hanging in a bag from a nail. I noticed that Cub Cadet was kind enough to include two additional shear pins with my purchase. I pulled one from the bag, attached it to the auger and started the blower once again.



Boy did that make a difference. The reason I said that the machine may have not come with one pin is because with this new one installed, the blower was tearing ass through that snow like it was no body’s business. I was going through the deepest and heaviest snow we had with no problem at all. Actually, it was the best it ever ran.

It was quite the adventure, but it was also a learning experience. I learned the snow blowers are meant to move snow. If they don’t, something is wrong and things need to have a looking at. Don’t push it and don’t get mad at the world. Just fix it.

 

[JGaulard]

Blowing Snow with Cub Cadet 2X 528 SWE​

Like much of the east coast, we received a fair amount of snow last night. If I had to guess, I’d say anywhere between eight to ten inches fell. The forecast was calling for twelve to fourteen inches, but like usual, the forecast fell short. I guess that’s good for us.



I woke up this Thanksgiving morning in an excited mood because I really wanted to try out my new snow blower. Like I mentioned before, this one is a little larger than my last one so I was curious to feel the difference between them.

Cleaning up the driveway, making a path to the back shed and getting the snow off the roofs and the cars took the better half of the day. Even with the snow blower, it’s work. I’m happy to report though that while this snow blower isn’t a crazy ass beast, it’s pretty good. I could tell that it’s slightly bigger and better than my Ariens, but I’ll be honest when I tell you that nothing blew me away. That’s most likely because my last blower was good as well.

While I was outside, I managed to take a video of me pushing the blower around. Just for you, I made a full run up the driveway and then back. If you decide to watch the video, please don’t be offended by the gravel that I picked up while heading out towards the road. Right after I got back to the garage and stopped recording, I pulled out some tools and adjusted the height of the front scoop bucket (whatever that’s called) and now the front end rides about an inch and a half higher, so no more gravel gets picked up. By the way it looked when I bought it, I thought it was already pretty high. I guess not. Now it’s maxed out. Here, check out the video:

Also, while I was laboring over the snow removal, Laura was gracious enough to capture some of the fun. She took a whole slew of photos, but the ones I’ve posted below are the ones I liked best. I tried to pick the ones with the most drama – you know, snow flying all over the place. I mostly wanted to show the range.

Overall, I’d say that I’m happy with my purchase. I have a feeling that if I didn’t go out and buy this thing, I’d still be outside shoveling, and believe me, I’m over that.