We Built The ULTIMATE SNOW BLOWER | First Drive

Good job on getting the snowblower attached and functional. Looks like you'll need to add a bunch of ballast weight in the truck bed to offset the weight of the snowblower on the front end of the truck. That should help with turning. One tip to snowblowing on gravel is to make sure the ground is good and frozen otherwise you will be peeling up your gravel and launching it through the snowblower.

Awesome welds there Riley, really enjoyed the video. we like to make similar content!

You may have some icing issues with the radiator. There is a mesh fabric for snowmobiles that may shed the snow and keep it from icing if it becomes an issue.

That’s actually really smart to have used the power steering pump as a repurposed hydraulic pump for the floating ram and solenoids. I’m an engineer by day and I have to give credit where credit is due - that’s ingenious!

Just a suggestion, The way a snow plow blade works (which is what you have with a blower) is the hydraulic ram lifts an arm with a chain attached for floating ability, eliminating that float manifold. Also, put skid plates on the sides of the blower to prevent picking up a lot of gravel, which will also break the impeller's roller chain. Skids will slide over bumps instead of trying to shear them off breaking something. Go slow there is no spring mount. Team Ambition is doing Great, wish I was your neighbor.

Consider a flow control valve (slowdown) for the “down” function of the blower so you can fine tune how slow/fast it drops (if you haven’t already).

You made the massive amount of work attaching this to the truck look really easy. That is impressive.

This is awesome to see this plan come together and work so well. If I might make a suggestion. Before next winter, put about 1 or 2 tons of gravel in the back. That will help offset some of the extra weight on the front axle and give you better traction on the rear. If you want to take it a step further, get yourself a sander unit to put in the bed. Then you can also sand the road after you blow the snow off of it. Usually in the spring ITD has a surplus equipment auction, down here in CDA.

That has got to be one of the most “ambitious” off grid builds I have ever seen! Forget the off grid, who cares, that thing is a beast and I can’t believe you engineered the whole thing, Riley you’re a genius!

So awesome!! Engineer, electrical, mechanical, and fabricator all rolled into Riley. So enjoyable to see the smiles on your faces each week!

The snow blower is mind blowing! Well done! And look at all that storage now So neat seeing everything coming together

Riley this is absolutely brilliant! Beautiful welds too! What i think is amazing is that both of you are equally talented. You guys are a beautiful team together.

There needs to be an awards ceremony for UAclips content creators. This would definitely take the "Most Inventive project done from an off grid channel" award.

You should consider either buying or fabricating a sander for the dump body for the winter. Another fun project for you to do and us to watch and learn. You two are amazing and congratulations on your pregnancy 🎉

This is my favorite episode for this blower. The controls and mounting are the fun part! Plus Courtney is changing her demeanor! She is getting more of a mommy vibe already.

I marvel at your engineering and building ability. This was truly so wonderful to watch. It'll be a lot of fun to see this in heavy snow. One question I'm wondering about is how you adjust the throttle on the Sunfire engine while you are driving?

Wait why are you so calm?
This made me miss how CC's used to say a thing just once, they talked calmly, measured and deliberately.
Everybody else just goes AUUW AUWW OFOFFFFF AAAUWUW UHUH AAAH.
Lots of screaming and hollering, while you're as calm as can be! You even edited down the volume when you got excited for it working! 😊
Subbed!

The way you guys make your ideas come to life is amazing. The amount of steps that you can look ahead to make sure you cover it all just blows my mind. Great job!

THAT will be so much fun after a heavy powder snowfall!! possibly add a skid plate with small steel wheels on the back of the snowblower frame so if you are backing up over a hump / unlevel section the sharp angles wont dig in ? In any case you are an awesome Enginner coming up with these things and then DOING them yourselves!

Riley! You are a machine! I was watching this and It just struck me how amazing this is. You took an idea and hit it out of the park. I have been watching this channel for a while now and I am constantly amazed at the content that you and Courtney create! Thank you for making my morning!

I’m totally amazed in your ability to create and put this together. I also noticed that you do an absolutely amazing welding job.

You guys are doing a great job editing these videos. Getting better all the time.

I'm totally impressed by this project. This is so cool! You're a DIY inspiration Casey.

You guys are the first video I watch every Sunday morning. Most of the time I don’t have a clue what you’re doing (I’m a senior citizen and totally un-mechanical) but it sure is fun to watch your genius at work!😊

My weekend is not complete without a video from you two!

You guys are such a great team!

Awesome! You may want a 3rd hydraulic cylinder for the spout deflector.

It not only works well, but it looks good, and like it was meant to be. Great job you two, thanks for sharing.

When creativity and engineering come together in Riley's head it makes great UAclips entertainment, keep up the great work 👍

Your building skills are off the chart. I love watching you two. You guys are like a well oiled machine. Also congrats on the great news you guys shared. Based on your building skills both of you are going to be great parents. Peace

I've been waiting for this lol. I've come to be HIGHLY impressed with y'all's manufacturing skills!

That was soooo fun to watch! Riley is an engineering and fabricator master! Loved every minute! 👍

The best part of your videos is your attitude. Very positive. Mature. Sensible. Keep making stuff! Excellent work!

Outstanding! Just make sure to keep the dogs inside when you are using it. Small and large kids too. The snow blowers we had in the Air Force took no prisoners.
Cheers
Terry

I just love watching your videos, you make life look so much fun. What a perfect couple doing exactly what they want to do.

Excellent work! Absolutely amazing what Riley can do. I'm wondering if a counter weight on rear of truck will offset the blower weight resulting in more rear tire traction?

You guys are great! This is the best video yet, the music really added a ton of depth! Great editing overall. I love your positivity and willingness to acknowledge your mistakes and keep moving forward. A great outlook these days. Good Luck getting the Army truck unstuck!

There's no doubt in my mind that this snow blower project of yours will work. Keep grinding guys!

Good job! I bet you've never wanted it to snow so bad like you do right now.

I have been checking every day for the update on the snow blower project. I was elated when I saw this video uploaded today. This is one of my favorite videos that you have produced. Keep up the great work and can't wait for the next one.

That snowblower is awesome! Nice to see all your hard work and ingenuity paid off! That should really be handy for those massive snow storms! Thanks for the video!

What an achievement. Very few would have even thought about building this snow blower, even fewer would have the ability to engineer such a project. You two are truly amazing. Thank you so much for sharing this with us. Congratulations on the coming next generation little engineer.

I would try to work in the ignition and starter controls for the blower motor into the switch panel so that you can just turn in the blower system and then momentary pros a start button to start her up from the cab. Would be much cleaner and better working than using the key solenoid. Looks great!

You guys are amazing. This is a genius idea. There's nothing that you can't do. I'm so impressed. Congratulations on the coming birth of your baby Courtney. I pray that all goes well. God bless you both, and stay safe. 🤩🤗

Awesome job! Riley is one handy fabricator! Can’t wait to see it on a fresh heavy snowfall.

Sweet build! If you have problems with a ram you might try a winch. Also you should weld chain hooks onto it and all of your attachments. I can't tell you how useful mine have been.

Looks great. I can't wait to see it working in 4 feet of snow.

Riley: I have to give you major Kudos, I have watched your engineer & fab projects in the past, but this snow blower is your best. From mounting an car engine to the snow blower, the mounting frame & hydraulics, your engineering, fabbing and welding skills are top notch!

That is sick! Great job guys! Can't wait to see it dig into some fresh deep snow, and do its job! 🌨

The crazy part for me is this is all off grid! All the cutting, welding with solar and batteries. Awesome.

Congrats on getting the snow blower working! That's a REALLY impressive feat of engineering and fabrication! Not sure I'd have been willing to stand so close to that massive snow blower during the initial test run. Maybe your next "tool" should be a longer zoom lens for Courtney's camera? 😆

Outstanding! I mean what else can I say and apart from anything else its good to see you both enjoying yourselves. My favorite team on You Tube!

You guys are so unbelieveably awesome! and... we have more snow coming!

Next is a super supremely strong winch to winch out the stuck truck? That was such a cool video!!! But can the next one be longer than 1 minute?? This one flew by...Amazing! Looking forward to seeing it clear the snow from your new road...What an incredible achievement. Seriously, Riley needs a skin tight lycra suit with a cape and a mask. He's a super hero.

The snow blower is mind blowing! Well done! And look at all that storage now 😍
So neat seeing everything coming together

Awesome project! A couple of thoughts 1) protect the radiator, it looks vulnerable. 2) extra weight on the back of the truck. -- that will help with traction and balance. 3) provisions for when the hydraulics break -- attachment points for wheels to support the front of the blower. -- physical lock for the up position. -- redundant/parallel hydraulic lift system.

Another great job. Well done, can't wait to see it in action on new snow.

HUGE admiration for the skills involved in visualizing, designing, and building something like this!

You folks are fantastic planners, engineers and fabricators. Your smiles are a signal that your efforts have paid great dividends. Blessings to both of you.

The snowblower is awesome. PLEASE do one more thing to it. an EMERGENCY kill switch you can activate from the cab and outside. This would be a huge safety feature. You are a great fabricator.

Although mechanics and snow are never going to be an issue for me, I so admire Riley's ease with any hurdle. Fatherhood should be a breeze.🤣💖

Have you named this Frankenstein blower yet? Truly impressed with your tenacity and engineering skills. Congratulations. Wishing you both another blessed week, gentle seasonally appropriate weather and restful evenings. Peace

That machine is insane! I hope it works well and you can move some serious snow with it. Also, thanks for always saying oh my gosh. Very refreshing for this devout Christian.

As a Snowbloweroperator in austria: you should blow the snow to the right side (drinkerside) so that you can see what you are doing, and mount adjustable wheels on each side of the blower to adjust the height of the blade/the whole blower. the rest looks pretty good

I can assure how satisfying is to get functional things made by our own hands.
This could explain why your channel is growing fast all around the world. You know, even we who didn't do anything but watching you, can also get some serotonin shots, it means, you guys are addictive, all FIVE of you! 😁
Greetings from Poland

Great job! Two things I would add are temp and oil pressure gauges that you can see from the cab so you can monitor the blower motor.

Great build! I love this channel! You both are so genuine, fearless and your ability to fabricate anything is amazing. Your creations are never backyard either. Welding is impeccable. You could have built the entire blower if you wanted to. I'll be disappointed if you buy the sander to go in the back next winter 🙈lol. Have a great week!

This was an awesome project and I am so looking forward to you putting it to good use in the future. I look forward to future projects but I am not sure how you top that for ingenuity.

There was nothing "reckless" about this idea and build by Riley. So many examples of top level skills!

A really well done project...Completely self contained is a great feature.
Here's a couple of possibilities I've come up with (yeah right, just what you need - more projects) :
1) How about a removable counter weight for the back of the truck to improve traction and balance?
2) I know you'd have no problem fabricating a quick-attach plate/mount so that you could also use the blower with your tracked loader (or perhaps a tractor?)

Those kits from AuxBeam are so nice. I used the 8 switch kit on my Kubota and the 6 switch for my quad. It makes the wiring job so much quicker, simpler and cleaner. Well done with the fab work!

Fantastic job on this project. I think you can add OBD2 via Bluetooth to monitor the snowblower motor in the cab to ensure doesn’t over rev or over heat. Truck might be too loud to detect problems immediately. Love how you can think it and execute a large scale working prototype.

The front of that thing looks like something out of a horror movie!!!! Loved watching the two of you put together odd bits of this and that to make another functioning tool for your Idaho mountain home-site! I can envision folks hiring Riley and "The Beast Blower" to clear their roads for them! I can see Riley making some treads and bogie setup for the truck at some point for better snow performance.

wow !!! you amaze me, good job. it works. I've been waiting a whole week for this . Your build videos are so entertaining. thanks for all your effort and hard work.

You may want to add a counter balance weight to the rear deck of the truck to offset the weight of the snowblower and give you better traction and steering control of the truck. I would also suggest adding a way to adjust the top part of the shoot so that you can direct the snow where you want it to go rather than just nearly vertical.

The cruise control for constant RM under changing load is an awesome idea. Most PTO equipment is designed for 540 RPM input. You might check your gear and belt reduction calcs as it looked like you were REALLY spinning that blower. BUT I think it could take a bit more than 540 RPM input. But not like 2X or 3X as much. You could also attach a tach on the final drive so you can monitor it as you go.

There are engineers, there are mechanical engineers, there are technicians. Riley is ALL of them combined. 👍🏻👍🏻

This is an awesome achievement!! Congrats guys!

Can't wait to see it blow super deep fresh snow. Awesome stuff

Pretty awesome snow thrower! When you get the rpm dialed down it'll be good, those augers are spinning way too fast. Can't wait to see it in action in some deep stuff.

Great video ! I would look into possibly adding a governor via the cruise control . I used to work on Sicard snow blowers in a previous life and even though they were 1950's technology the governor made a world of difference when getting into the deep banks. So if you have twins will they be named after they're parents? Love the channel!

I love the fact that you have the brains to engineer a project and then grab the tools to drill, Tap, weld and completely put it all together. Love an engineer who gets his or her hands dirty. Cheers guys!!! 😀🍺🍻🥂😛

Try one of the old school cruise controls set ups. They read drive shaft speeds and have an electric motor that modulates the throttle. You might be able to set this up to read pto speed...set the cruise control and it will regulate the engine speed based on pto rpm.
Just a thought.
Well done guys... this thing is AWESOME!

I don't know what your job is or was but it had to do with engineering if not it is amazing what you came up with on the snowblower .I follow mostly farmers vlogs but since I found your channel I can't get enough completely amazed at your talents. How you both doesn't have a million subs I don't know unless they haven't found your channel. Can't wait to see what you come up with now. God bless to you both and continued success. And congratulations on your baby I know you will be great parents.

Awesome build. And you guys know every inch of it when it comes time to work on it. So resourceful.

What a crazy project but I love it! Of course, now that you have it working you know you won't get any more snow the rest of the winter! 🤣

I think one of the biggest concerns right now is how front heavy this is. I think some ballast in the back will definitely help traction. Even with any 'bugs' remaining to remove from the system... WOW

You may need a heat shield for the snowblower exhaust. It looks pretty close to the chute. Some tractor snowblowers that have the exhaust by the chute will heat the chute then the snow melts and re-freezes, locking the chute from turning.

Those welds look really good.

I've done that filter box fan combo before, very simple, and just spring for nice filters (3m filtrete), fantastic for many uses.

Another great accomplishment, you guys are AWESOME.
It is definitely an enjoyable time watching your videos, great job filming and editing, thanks a lot!

🇬🇧 That’s a fantastic bit of work, congratulations to you both, bet you won’t get any more snow now. You two deserve a pat on the back.

When it comes to making things, you guys are great!! I like your ambition. Super cool.

Wow! Very talented. Like how you figured out the Hydraulics, impressive. See a remote starter install soon. Can’t wait to see it cut thru some fresh new snow.

Riley, I have come to expect really professional design and fabrication skills from you. WOW!!

I am in awe of your video production work. You make it look effortless but I know better. Cool project (as always) thanks for sharing your life with us!

Riley, what a great fun project. Years of experience, creativity, and education is really paying off. Cal Poly and you guys rock!rocks

Very impressive, jolly well done Team.

Good job guys (and girl !). After getting all your controls inside and everything, the only other thing I think you might want to do is build a cooling fan for the engine that blows out through the radiator instead of sucking the air in. When you have real light powdery snow, the fan will suck it into the radiator and clog it up. I used to race a car on the ice and that's something that happens. You could try building a framework in front of the radiator and put window screen in it, and space it out away from the radiator a few inches to allow air to get in around it. Good luck with it. It'll be good to see how it does in 2 feet of fresh snow !!

That's going to be a beast! Loving your engineering and fabrication skills. Helps to have the right tools too....