Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

First of all, I want to thank all of the contribitors to this site in helping me to choose a new 30" Ariens Platinum Series Snowblower.

But in doing research online, it took a lot of digging to figure out that so many of the snow blower engines are made in China by two companies that I never heard of before: LCT and Zongshen.

Apparently this changeover to Chinese engines had been happening before Wisconsin based Tecumseh went out of business last year.

Now the only US manufacturer of snow blower engines is Briggs and Stratton.

Briggs and Stratton Engines are used in all the larger Ariens, Toro and John Deere two stage snow blowers. 

And of course B&S engines are used in the Briggs subsidiary companies like Snapper, Simplicity and Murray.

But it seems all Craftsman engines are made by a Chinese Company, LCT.

MTD, which makes snow blowers under the Cub Cadet,  Troy-Built and Yard Machines labels, seems to have all of its engines built by the Chinese company Zongshen.

I worry that with little track record for these Chinese engines that the potential for problems is greater.  I am also concerned that getting parts will be more difficult as well. 

Do others share my concerns, or have any reason to believe these engines should prove reliable?

I had the same concerns as you.  It was for that reason that I was initially determined to buy the Ariens Deluxe 30 with the Subaru engine, but others on this forum convinced me that this engine was actually way overkill in terms of reliability for the machine, stating that the Chinese engines will probably outlast the rest of the machine anyway.  I don't know if they were referring only to the Chinese made Briggs engines though (205 & 249cc).  I hope that doesnt mean the the rest of the unit is cheaply made now and won't last 15-20 years like some of the machines of the past, although I realize many are using lighter gauge steel these days.  The 342cc Briggs on your unit is still made in the US, but even these engines have some cost reductions like aluminum bores, sleeve bearings, some cast instead of forged key parts.  They claim that these were unneccesary in engines designed for snow thrower use.  I was pretty dead-set on that Subaru engine but after hearing what others had to say I sacrificed it for a Chinese made Briggs 249cc engine on an Ariens Platinum 24 because I wanted the Auto Lok differential.  At least that Chinese made engine still has ball bearings on the crankshaft journals.  I guess time will tell on these engines but right now nobody seems to be making a huge fuss about them.

 

Thanks for the reply Slinger.  I learned a lot in your posts on looking to buy a new snowblower.

I realize Honda makes the best engine by far, and that Briggs and Stratton engines have their own potential for problems.  But I was hoping for some comment by someone familiar with engines design/maintenance on the snow blower engines produced by LCT and Zongshen, and whether parts availability will be a problem. 

I was amazed that one of the Chinese companies didn't buy the Tecumseh name the way Briggs bought the Murray name.

Just as footnote, nearly all photovoltatic solar panels come from China, Ryobi sold in HD is a Chinese company, Dust Buster is a Chinese company, Lenovo (formally IBM Personal Computers) is a Chinese company, etc. Are any automotive crankshafts made in the US anymore?

Hello first post here.... I have been lurking here researching single stage snow blowers.

It looks like LCT USA has aqcuired the Tecumseh name:

http://www.lctusa.com/page.cfm?sp=news&n=10

The Chinese companys did not buy Techumseh Power . Certified Parts Corp owns  Techumseh Power . They also bought LCT manufacturing. I'm hopeing the will start manufacturing  Techumseh engines again.

kellyinkc wrote:
What it sounds like is that CPC has acquired the "Snow King" name, the name of  the snow blower engine made by Tecumseh.  To a lot of consumers for the past couple of decades, "Snow King" might have been even better know than "Tecumseh" as the snow blower engine.  So the sad part is that just by acquiring a "brand name", LCT will seemlessly assume the mantle of Tecumseh for probably the majority of the buying public.  It sounds like a slick marketing maneuver.  I can't believe the unemployed Tecumseh workers in Michigan can be very happy about "Snow King" engines being built in China by LCT.  But of course they have no say in the matter.  

That is probably the 208cc on the Sno-Tek by Ariens line.

The engines manufactured for the SnowKing name may have some similarities to the former Tecumseh line, but the details will be a combination of marketing requests and manufacturing realities. The engine will be designed for the manufacturing process LCT uses, but these are OHV 2-valve one cylinder motors carburated running at 3600 rpm, not 4-valve DOHC 10-cylinder motors running at 18,000rpm in an F1 car.

More interesting will be the effect it has on Briggs and Stratton. Will the Tecumseh or Snow King names make the LCTs more attractive in the US and Canadian markets?