Winter’s coming, and you don’t want to be outdone by your neighbor’s new snow blower. We think it’s pretty safe to say you’ll be the envy of gearheads throughout the neighborhood if you can build your own snow blower around a V8 engine. [Kai Grundt] is a metal fabricator by day and a horror movie prop yard implement builder by night. He pulled the engine out of his Chevy truck and then filled in parts around it to make this 412 HP snow blower.
The tank treads that it rides are each have their own dedicated hydraulic pump, making it easy to drive and steer this 800 pound whale. One of the first orders of business for the beast was to throw snow from two houses away, burying his buddy’s car. That’s the price you pay for laughing in a guy’s face when he describes his next project. It sounds like [Kai] was planning on selling kits so you could more easily replicate the build, but we couldn’t find any additional info on that. If you’ve got the details, please let us know by leaving a comment.
[Thanks Danman1453]
Heh, I need one of these!
The V8 in the cupholder is priceless ;-)
http://www.popsci.com/files/imagecache/article_image_large/articles/snowblowerpanel.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81y9XSQ9Ru0
wait until the machines become self aware and bury us in cold snow. that’s an awesome snow blower…
So does the radiator blow out on him? Like a small heater? If so that is even more genius. Impressive none the less.
according to the article, that was the exact intent. also, the coolant is routed through the handlebar to keep your mitts toasty.
That dosn’t blow, it ROCKS!
It has a bacon switch :)
Overkill – /ˈōvərˌkil/
definition: A V8 snowblower
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81y9XSQ9Ru0&feature=related
There is no such thing as overkill in the world of moving snow…
I was going to say overkill much. But on second thought I looked a some of the Snow blowers that do up to 83 tons of snow per hour and you know what. They are missing certain niceties. Such as heated handle and warm air blowing back at you and the ability to hurl snow 100feet. And the Totally bad ass look sells it. So if you got the skill build it. There are better things to do than clear your driveway.
your mother was a snowblower
Does appear that this beast has gone through some drive upgrades, and improvements. The tracks in the lead photo look like a disaster, but probably less a disaster then the tired drive as seen in another you tube video, the tracks that appear in the video embedded in the comments hear are the sort of street tracks that one expect to see on a crawler operating on pavement. A platform, and some bit of a cab would be nice, but it would take more room in the shop, I like how he was able to park it off to the side, but a beast like this deserves it’s own shed as it awaits it’s master to put it to work. I can only assume it has a deadman switch.
Small model airplane jet engines make great snow blowers and have a built in space heating feature.
Perhaps the insult from Short circuit,”Hay! LazerLips! Your mother was a snow-blower!” does not mean quite the same thing anymore.
Looks crazy yet wonderful…but why the big block? I might understand if they had built 2000HP beast or something…but why use a Big Block that makes less than 500HP/500FT-LB when you could easily make 800HP/750FT-LB (more in the cold) with a small block?
Perhaps it was convenient to use a big block — for all I know, he had one laying around already.
Perhaps the extra weight is an advantage in very deep snow. (I myself have a fairly light snow blower, and it can be difficult to keep it grounded.)
Perhaps in the course of planning the thing out, simply he thought to himself “Self, shall I use a large motor, or a larger one?” And, lo, bigger it was.
And, of course: 500HP, if that it what it is producing, is already complete and gross overkill for the relatively narrow swath of snow that he’s cutting…
wow.. anyone else think that first pic has to be WALL-E on steroids having an anger issue moment?
yes, First thing I thought..
All I could do was laugh.