New old Snapper

[JHZR2]

On the first one I got, shown in op, I swapped the ninja blade for an Oregon hivac blade. Wow did that mower cut and vacuums nicely!

Occasionally without rhyme or reason, the chute will still clog.

And won’t clear unless the mower is run with the bag off. Then it will expel the clump.

The bag is clean, flows welll, etc.

Any ideas?

Any suggestions?

 

[JHZR2]

So, on the first snapper I have, I changed the blade from a ninja type to an Oregon hi-lift. Which gets good reviews.

It works great. But I still get clogs.

Occasionally.

What gives? It’s not a heavy clog… and if I remove the bag connection from the chute it will blow right out. Bag vents very well, and fills perfectly…. Any ideas?

 

[wag123]

So, on the first snapper I have, I changed the blade from a ninja type to an Oregon hi-lift. Which gets good reviews.

It works great. But I still get clogs.

Occasionally.

View attachment 181551

What gives? It’s not a heavy clog… and if I remove the bag connection from the chute it will blow right out. Bag vents very well, and fills perfectly…. Any ideas?

There isn't any way to fix this. Chute clogging is a characteristic of the Hi-Vac mowers, I used to get complaints from customers about this almost weekly. The only way to minimize the clogging is to mow more frequently so that the volume of clippings is reduced.

 

[JHZR2]

There isn't any way to fix this. Chute clogging is a characteristic of the Hi-Vac mowers, I used to get complaints from customers about this almost weekly. The only way to minimize the clogging is to mow more frequently so that the volume of clippings is reduced.

Thanks. It’s something I can live with especially for what I’ve paid for these mowers

They sure do suction well!

 

[jhellwig]

What little I bagged with mine I didn't have a problem.

The blade you have isn't a hi vac blade. The actual hivac blade will have holes in the wings to bolt on another wing that helps move a ton more air to the point it sucks a ton of power.

 

[MParr]

The chute clogging is normal on the hi-vacs. Get in some pine straw and it will really clog.
Can you get a side discharge chute or mulch plug for it?

 

[JHZR2]

What little I bagged with mine I didn't have a problem.

The blade you have isn't a hi vac blade. The actual hivac blade will have holes in the wings to bolt on another wing that helps move a ton more air to the point it sucks a ton of power.

There are a few blades, I agree that the highest vac blade has those wings. I didn’t need that. This is the Oregon version of the OE blade, and is supposedly thicker and “better”.

The chute clogging is normal on the hi-vacs. Get in some pine straw and it will really clog.
Can you get a side discharge chute or mulch plug for it?

Thanks. As long as it wasn’t something I was doing, or a sign that the engine was really hurting.

I have a mulch plug. I’d likely use it with the ninja blade, and the bag with the vac blade. Since the property gets a lot of leaves and it’s fall I’ll be using the vac blade…

 

[wag123]

What little I bagged with mine I didn't have a problem.

The blade you have isn't a hi vac blade. The actual hivac blade will have holes in the wings to bolt on another wing that helps move a ton more air to the point it sucks a ton of power.

No. The blade you are referring to with three holes in the wing for a bolt-on kicker was not the standard Hi-Vac blade on homeowner models, it only came standard on the 5hp Commercial model. It was available for sale over the counter for other models but Snapper warned that it should not be sold/installed on anything under the 4hp models because it took so much power from the engine that the cutting performance would be compromised. In my experience it was also not a good choice on the 4hp models.

 

[andyd]

Great thread JHZR2 and contributors. It is the challenge of using what is available. Fixing it or something like that drove me to spend untold hrs this summer reviving a 35yr old Toro 3spd with a Suzuki OHV engine. Last use, I fine tuned the mixture screw on the carb after the addition of an air filter from a Tecumseh HM100. Now that I no longer drive a 528e,I still need something to tinker on.