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

I go into unheated garage, push the throttle forward, turn key, va va va , second attempt, va vroooomm, starts, we are off and running!

I just spent 2.5 hours with this beast, cleared 3 driveways, and the curve to the main road, so about 500ft, by 25ft wide.

Used almost a whole tank of gas. The pictures are from my phone! so excuse the quality!!

First off, at 373lbs, this thing is a tank, and it drives through snowdrifts like butter. No riding up, and very little slip. The biggest problem was I could feed it too fast, and actually slow the engine down. a quick adjustment oh the Hydro Drive, and I found a nice pace.

Having used a wheel drive for the last 14 years, I can say that the track drive is a bit of a challenge, and will take some getting used too. I was able to turn it 180 to make next cut, but definately not as easy as a wheel drive, not terrible, but definately more of a challenge. I found that leaning the auger back to take the weight of the front made it a lot easier to turn.

Were the tracks did work well, was pushing through the drifts, no riding up, once I set a nice pace, just held on with one hand, and let it eat and throw through, much easier than my previous snow blower. I really like the Hydro Drive, makes it real easy to find the speed that you want, anywhere from a crawl, to a brisk walk.

Throwing snow for this Yamaha works very well, I could easily throw to the other side of the road, I would estimate I was getting around 40 feet at times.

The electric direction change for the chute works very well, moves it quickly, without struggle, even after 3 hours, and buildup of snow and ice. The deflection on the Yamaha is manual, cable, 2 stage, and built into the same control for direction.

Unfortunately, when I did my neighbors driveway, he had an area were the rocks were loose, and I did catch a few of them

So there are a couple of dings in the impeller, and a few scratches in the plastic guard, so it looks like there is no returns now

I am very happy with the performance of this Snow Blower. It made short work of the packed snow, easy to start, easy controls. My only concern from using it for 3 hours, was the turning, which got better with time.

Overall though, I am way less worn/tired as I have been in the past with my previous unit. With out a doubt, I know I would still be out there, lifting up on handle bars, backing up, pushing in, etc.

When you say it bogs down in heavy snow does it ever feel like it's going to shut down or stop throwing snow? I throw rocks and gravel with mine all the time. I try NOT to do that but at the EOD up by the mailbox no way to avoid it. So gravel is nothing but 2" rocks worry me a bit. Still it sounds like your Yamaha is true blue all the way through.

I had a Honda 928TAS and the tracks on that were significantly harder to turn than my Toro. But for your needs the tracks will help a lot with the heavy drifts.

Hope you can get some videos and post them. <hint hint>

Good review!

When you say it bogs down in heavy snow does it ever feel like it's going to shut down or stop throwing snow? I throw rocks and gravel with mine all the time. I try NOT to do that but at the EOD up by the mailbox no way to avoid it. So gravel is nothing but 2" rocks worry me a bit. Still it sounds like your Yamaha is true blue all the way through.

I had a Honda 928TAS and the tracks on that were significantly harder to turn than my Toro. But for your needs the tracks will help a lot with the heavy drifts.

Hope you can get some videos and post them. <hint hint>

Hey Steve!

When I hit heavy pack, I could hear it work harder, and Rev up, then as the drift got higher, I could hear the rpm start to drop, did not seem like it would shutdown or stop,However, I didn't give it a chance. I don't like to work them that hard, esp when breaking in, so I backed off on the track speed, and it was good.

I was able to keep it to a slow walk, except when taking full width and height, then I had to slow almost to a crawl. When I was taking a half cut, it worked very well, could keep it going at a regular pace.

The rocks are unavoidable out here, just tough to get those first few scratches and dings in a new toy!! 

As for a video, will try, that will involve my wife, and that won't happen till it warms up. She will not stand out there in -20 to film me, that I know

Well it is supposed to work harder when it hits the tough stuff. But it's good that yoiu didn't push it too hard and you can always slow it down even more. My Toro is usually used in 1st for heavy stuff and always in first anytime I'm near the natural rock wall (BIG & small rocks) or the small fence in the ground (ate a few of those this past storm ) The EOD and mailbox have a lot of gravel so going slowly just makes sense. But afterwards on the long stretches especially going down the driveway rather than going up I can clear the remaining blown stuff in 6th gear! I did almost the entire driveway today in 6th gear as it was like 2 inches. Then the wind picked up and now we have another 2 inches out there.

My wife would go out in -20F -20C is like what it was when we did our current videos with the wind blowing like that and film me and she's from the Philippines she had only seen snow on TV before she came here. She's a real snow bunny now.

She gets out there in the snow and cold and has a blast. Her commentary is pretty good too.

I get almost 2 driveways done on a tank of gas which seems to be about a gallon or so and that is with breaks so we can set up a shot and sometimes a few do overs. How thirsty is the Yamaha on gas. I'd guess mine at full bore is just under 3 hours per tank.

Well it is supposed to work harder when it hits the tough stuff. But it's good that yoiu didn't push it too hard and you can always slow it down even more. My Toro is usually used in 1st for heavy stuff and always in first anytime I'm near the natural rock wall (BIG & small rocks) or the small fence in the ground (ate a few of those this past storm ) The EOD and mailbox have a lot of gravel so going slowly just makes sense. But afterwards on the long stretches especially going down the driveway rather than going up I can clear the remaining blown stuff in 6th gear! I did almost the entire driveway today in 6th gear as it was like 2 inches. Then the wind picked up and now we have another 2 inches out there.

My wife would go out in -20F -20C is like what it was when we did our current videos with the wind blowing like that and film me and she's from the Philippines she had only seen snow on TV before she came here. She's a real snow bunny now.

She gets out there in the snow and cold and has a blast. Her commentary is pretty good too.

I get almost 2 driveways done on a tank of gas which seems to be about a gallon or so and that is with breaks so we can set up a shot and sometimes a few do overs. How thirsty is the Yamaha on gas. I'd guess mine at full bore is just under 3 hours per tank.

Your wife likes the cold! Mine however, does not! She is more of a sun and beach girl

The tank was about 1/8 tank shy of full, I had it running for about 3 hours(full throttle about 2 hours), and there is about 1/8 tank left, so I am guessing it would be about 4 hours to a tank, which holds 6.7 liters, about 1.5 gallons.

Your wife likes the cold! Mine however, does not! She is more of a sun and beach girl

The tank was about 1/8 tank shy of full, I had it running for about 3 hours(full throttle about 2 hours), and there is about 1/8 tank left, so I am guessing it would be about 4 hours to a tank, which holds 6.7 liters, about 1.5 gallons.

Oh my wife loves the beach and warm weather. The Philippines never gets below 78F even at night unless you are in the mountains. Most days are 85F-95F Most nights are comfortable enough to go swimming outdoors at any time of night. She also liikes the snow, she's just that way. Many of her friends hate the snow and cold.

It sounds like you get pretty good fuel economy with it considering it's such a big & heavy machine. I'm always at full throttle, too much bother to stop and slow it down for a few seconds to move something.

I am not trying to go jugular here as you are enjoying the honeymoon phase but do you think your Yamaha YS928 is underpowered?  Your description sounds very similar to my HS724 experience when I encountered heavy load, which propelled me to HS928.

The Yamaha has a 9 hp motor, similar to the 9 hp in the Honda. So if you take a full cut of packed snow, at average speed, drifted stuff, not light and fluffy, do you not hear the engine start working, slow down in RPM???

I had another member mention his 928 Honda will bog down if he takes a full cut of heavy snow too quickly.

I found if I backed of on the forward speed, probably around 1 on my MTD, then the engine handled it just fine!

I will admit, last night, I was concerned, but then after clearing 3 driveways and 250 feet of road, I am okay with the Power.

I had an engine bogging issue on my HS724 but not on HS928.  I had a problem with EOD when we got 8 inches of snow for HS724 (engine did not die but it sounded a bit meek) but with HS928 when we got 18 inches snow I experienced no engine bogging issue at EOD.  I also smelled some engine oil when HS724 was bogging down but not on HS928.  Did you smell any oil burning?  I am assuming your oil level is good.  But I do miss the super quietness of HS724.