Zig-zagging 5,400 feet up to Paradise on the RSS 1000 Stewart & Stephens, a 27,000 lb snowblower, can be a hair-raising experience, unless you are in the safe hands of a veteran, the experienced and knowledgeable operator Jim Hooper.
Hooper joined the Rainier Federal Park Service in 1984 as a mechanic, and in 1999 he hung up those boots and moved one building down to start a new phase in his life as an equipment operator. According to Hooper the hydrostatically driven RSS1000 arrived at the park in 1996 and he has either worked on the machine as a mechanic or operated it on the mountain ever since.
The average snow fall for Mt. Rainier is around 600” a year but in the few days I was up there a whopping 82” had fallen. Sitting in the cab you’ll see the snow cutters on the front cutting piece dead ahead. They measure around 8’ tall, and during the height of the snow fall the depth was higher than the snow cutters. The RSS 1000 is rated to blow 3000 tons of snow per hour with a throw rate between 30ft and 125ft. “But that was in its prime.” Jim points out. The Discharge Chute or Blower Head rotates 130 degrees: 45 degrees to the left and 85 degrees to the right.
When the RSS range was first introduced to North America they came fitted with a Volvo TD131G but when Bill Myslik established Rolba North America he was given permission to Americanize the machine. So, out went the Volvo engine and in came the Detroit 60 (Diesel 6V92TA, DDEC III). According to Jim, “The only thing that has gone wrong with this machine has been ribbon wear and the shear pins doing their job.” If you are cutting through “Cascade Cement (high water density snow) it’s not surprising that you’re going to have to rebuild the ribbons three or four times over a 6000 hrs period. The shear pins are purposely located on the drum, two on the left and two on the right. If the ribbons hit any kind of debris other than snow the shock load hits the shear pins halting the machine before hitting the gear box. But, when the pins do their job it’s a half hour job out of the cab for the operator to replace them. No thanks.
The single engine front-discharge unit incorporates ALSS (automatic load sensor system). When the blower is in automatic the computer knows that its peak rpm is 2100 and peak torque is 1500rpm. The system is designed to know what speed the operator is going so when the rpm’s drop the computer slows the machine’s forward progress, and when the rpm’s drop below 1,600, it will pretty much stop the blower. When that happens the chute chokes up with snow and ice and you have to get out there and dig the chute out by hand. Only a timid novice allows that to happen. Any normal thinking person would assume that the wellinsulated cab and the heating unit would come in handy up the mountain in blizzard, freezing conditions. Not so. The heat in the cab gets so bad you can have heat off and the windows down and you’re still dripping with sweat. “Remember, you’re sitting on a ton of hydraulics,” Hooper laughed.
One of the very first Rolba snowblowers to enter North America was put to work on
the North Slope in Alaska. I had opportunity of speaking to Bill Myslik the of Denver, Colorado, who is credited with introducing and developing the RSS range of snowblowers in North America about 25 years ago. Myslik spent three years working up on “the slope” as a heavy equipment mechanic for an oil company. At the time he operated the R3000 cab over snowblower which pushed around 5,000 tph. He loved the machines so much he approached Rolba in Switzerland to act as a dealer, and in 1985 he set up Rolba N.A.: “You know, in the 80’s Rolba snowblowers really were the Cadillac of snowblowers. They were the snowguys,” he recalled nostalgically.
In 1988 Myslik was awarded the license to manufacture and Americanize the RSS range, and in that same year he sold to Stewart Stevenson and was employed as the Snow Removal Product Manager. However, that relationship came to an end in 2000 when Stewart Stevenson moved their operations from Denver to Texas of all places. Two and a half years later Stewart Stevenson discontinued the line.
Myslik is well respected in the industry which is not surprising considering his attitude: “I would listen to my customers. If they said change this or change that, I knew that incorporating their ideas would only make our snowblowers stand out more in the industry.”
Myslik has seen big changes over the years: “I see the market for loader attachment snowblowers increasing. The reality is, budget wise, there’s a big move to loaders and attachments. They’re multi functional that way.” However, Myslik quickly pointed out that in order to move 3,000 to 4,000 tons per hour you’re going to have to be looking at 4 to 5 yard loaders, so you can quickly see your package cost increase significantly.
If the line has been discontinued, what about parts for all the snowblowers sold in the past? Well, after leaving Stewart & Stevens, Myslik formed Myslik Inc based in Denver, Colorado, in 2004 to supply parts for the RSS range, a big relief to RSS customers.
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