"It works better than a snowplow and faster than any commercial snowblower on the market. It's the handiest thing you ever saw," says Harold Stoudt, Hamburg, Penn., who used junk parts to build a 5-ft. wide "double auger" snowblower that throws snow 25 ft. out to each side.

The one-of-a-kind snowblower is front-mounted on Stoudt's 1952 Allis-Chalmers model G 20 hp tractor which is equipped with a front-mount hydraulic tool lift. The 3-ft. high blade is equipped with a pair of 2-ft. long, 12-in. dia. augers salvaged from an old manure spreader. The augers are powered by a 12 hp Tecumseh gas engine mounted on a frame under the front end of the tractor. Stoudt fires up the rope-start engine, then uses remote throttle and clutch controls on the tractor to operate the augers. A divider shield that extends 8 in. forward from the augers breaks the snow while the bottom edge of the curved blade lifts it up into the augers.

"It works beautiful because it combines the benefits of a snowplow and a snowblower," says Stoudt. "I had been using a V-plow on my 450-ft. long driveway, but it took too much time and left windrows that caused further drifting. It worked fine in shallow snow, but had trouble in deep snow. The augers on my snowblower throw snow far enough out to avoid windrows. I don't use it in shallow snow because snow would just be bulldozed out to the sides. It works better than commercial snowblowers which constrict snow into a central fan, forcing you to drive slow. My snowblower doesn't have a central fan or tube so I can go at speeds up to 2 1/2 mph.

"After I make my first pass I use only half the plow's width until the driveway is completely cleared. The center divider keeps snow from rolling back into the area that's already been cleared. The only disadvantage is that I can't change the direction snow is thrown because there's no snowblower chute. The model G tractor is perfectly suited to my snowblower because of the hydraulically-operated tool lift and because the engine and radiator are behind the seat."

Stoudt says he started out with a single auger mounted in front of a 2 1/2-ft. wide blade mounted on a garden tractor. After he bought a bigger tractor he widened the blade and added the second auger. "If I could do it over I'd use a separate hydraulic motor to operate each auger so I wouldn't have to maintain an extra engine and so it would be more compact," says Stoudt. "I'd install the augers at a 15 degree angle toward the rear to keep snow off me. It could also be built with a longer, wider, single auger that would throw snow to one side."

Angle iron framework on both sides of the blade supports bearings that attach to the auger shafts. Stoudt welded auger flighting onto 4-in. dia. thin wall electric conduit which he welded to a pair of 3/4-in. dia. shafts. He cut a 4-in. dia. disc from steel plate and welded it inside both ends of the conduit. An engine-driven double V-belt powers countershafts that drive the augers, with engine rpm's reduced from 3,200 to 800. Stoudt added weights to balance the augers.