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goatman68


Location: Wisconsin
Joined: Nov 8, 2009
Points: 19

Picked up my new blower
Original Message   Dec 6, 2009 6:59 pm
Well I decided on a blower finally. Was going to go with a Murray professional, but decided on the Ariens ST1332LE. Quite a nice machine and as you can see in the photo, a nice upgrade to my old one, which will be my backup machine. LET IT SNOW....................................

This message was modified Dec 6, 2009 by goatman68


Simplicity 990430 24"  (vintage 1968)

Ariens ST1332LE 32"

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iLikeOrange


Joined: Nov 18, 2005
Points: 120

Re: Picked up my new blower
Reply #2   Dec 7, 2009 8:20 am
Haven't seen one of those Simplicity units for a long time. I remember that twist style chute controll. Early 70's or so?

goatman68


Location: Wisconsin
Joined: Nov 8, 2009
Points: 19

Re: Picked up my new blower
Reply #3   Dec 7, 2009 3:04 pm
GtWtNorth wrote:
Nice, here's wishing you some early snow to try it. All you need now is a header to make it sound as good as it looks. Interesting chute control set up on the old machine.

Is that a firebird or camaro you have there?

Cheers


Thanks for the wish for snow, looks like we are going to get 8-10" for Tues eve. The chute control works great on the old Simplicity. Good guess on the car, it is actually a 68 GTO that I am doing a frame off restoration on. I kind of like the handle controls on the old machine, it will take me alittle to get use to the new machines controls.......

Simplicity 990430 24"  (vintage 1968)

Ariens ST1332LE 32"

goatman68


Location: Wisconsin
Joined: Nov 8, 2009
Points: 19

Re: Picked up my new blower
Reply #4   Dec 7, 2009 3:29 pm
iLikeOrange wrote:
Haven't seen one of those Simplicity units for a long time. I remember that twist style chute controll. Early 70's or so?

Early 70's??,  way to new. It is a 1968 model 990430. I rebuilt the engine and replaced all bearings in 1988. It has been a great machine and trouble free. Where I live now my driveway is 600ft long with two big parking area's. I used my MTD lawn tractor with 40" two stage blower last year, but decided it is too hard on the tractor and a pain in the butt  to mount. So we will give the new Ariens a try............

Simplicity 990430 24"  (vintage 1968)

Ariens ST1332LE 32"

newjerseybt


You want it done right?...You better learn how to do it yourself!

Ariens 1128DLE
Ariens 8526LE
Honda HRC216
Bosch 3221L
Craftsman DYT4000
Stihl FS90R


Location: Honesdale, PA
Joined: Dec 19, 2004
Points: 171

Re: Picked up my new blower
Reply #5   Dec 7, 2009 9:11 pm
Wow 600 feet of driveway! I would be thinking Ram 2500 or equivalent with a plow.
But what the heck...if your into snowblowing. ;') Good luck with your new toy.

I have a 2003 1128DLE Ariens with the old style locking differential.
I was thinking of a new 28" Pro model with the ATC feature but will see how the economy
goes before making a move. I may have to replace my original 340CCA battery this year
since it is original but this machine has never let me down in a storm. It also pumps slush
real well since I installed a Clarence impeller kit.
goatman68


Location: Wisconsin
Joined: Nov 8, 2009
Points: 19

Re: Picked up my new blower
Reply #6   Dec 7, 2009 9:49 pm
newjerseybt wrote:
Wow 600 feet of driveway! I would be thinking Ram 2500 or equivalent with a plow.
But what the heck...if your into snowblowing. ;') Good luck with your new toy.


Well, I am not into snowblowing that much but, I live in the middle of nowhere so to get my driveway plowed it is a small fortune if we get alot of snowfalls. I do have a Chevy 4WD pickup for a spare vehicle but it has 219,000 miles and a plow would kill it...................... Some day I will get a ATV with a plow but, I like the fact that the blower leaves no huge snow banks.

Simplicity 990430 24"  (vintage 1968)

Ariens ST1332LE 32"

goatman68


Location: Wisconsin
Joined: Nov 8, 2009
Points: 19

Re: Picked up my new blower
Reply #7   Dec 10, 2009 10:02 am
Well, we got 16" of heavy wet snow on Tuesday eve. The Ariens barely went through it, I was in low gear for alot of it and some drifts were 20" plus. It was a heck of a way to break in a new engine. I felt bad that it was lugging so much. It took me awhile to get use to the new controls compared to the ease of the old Simplicity. Looking back I am thinking that the automatic traction control might have been a better choice than the trigger control. I wish we would have got just a 6" first snowfall, but it is what it is. I was not impressed with the power the engine makes, unless there is a problem with this one. It doesn't seem to have alot of compression and I was thinking of checking the valve adjustment since I can hear what sounds like an exhaust valve leaking. Do these have a easy spin type camshaft??? Maybe that is what I am hearing. Overall I am happy with it and am confident it will perform well with a (normal) snowfall.............

Simplicity 990430 24"  (vintage 1968)

Ariens ST1332LE 32"

snowgo


Location: Wisconsin
Joined: Oct 7, 2009
Points: 27

Re: Picked up my new blower
Reply #8   Dec 10, 2009 10:35 am
Hi goatman ... Like you, I also live in Wisconsin (near Door County) and also broke in my new Ariens 30" Deluxe Platinum snow blower with this latest blizzard. Depending on who you talk to, we got between 9 and 14 inches of that heavy wet snow. It's really hard to tell because of the strong winds blowing it all over the place. I'm not sure how to gauge the performance of the snow blower because it was the first time out and also because it was such a beast of a storm. One thing for darn sure, it far far far out-threw my older 1971 Ariens that I had been using up to yesterday. Where I struggled the most was trying to get through the EOD stuff left by the city plows. There were many times when I came to a complete stop and had to keep backing up and ramming forward again until I finally got through. I felt a little better about the snow blower's performance after learning of a friend who does snow removal as a business. He was working on somebody's driveway, when both of the snow blowers he was using broke down and he was forced to stop altogether. So maybe these Ariens did better than it seems. ??? Just a hopeful guess. I was very pleased with the Automactic Traction Control. With all the turning I was doing, I can't imagine how confusing it might have been to have to remember to click the remote cable switch every time I wanted to turn. It was nice not having to think about it at all. And the tall chute on the Ariens was also very nice as it just reached over this row of hedges that I have to snow blow against. Nice! I noticed how heavy this new machine is to move around compared to my older one, but I suppose that's to be expected. Overall, I'm happy with the machine. But it was only one snowfall ... and a blizzard at that. I'll be anxious to see how it performs under more normal circumstances.
borat


Joined: Nov 10, 2007
Points: 2692

Re: Picked up my new blower
Reply #9   Dec 10, 2009 2:00 pm
Breaking in the engine under those conditions are probably better for it than breezing along with 6" of fluff. The load will increase back pressure which goes a long way to properly seat the rings. Had you already performed the initial oil change? If not, I'd strongly recommend you do so now. I don't know for sure but these snow engines might have a compression release mechanism. I know that when I use the pull start to fire up my B&S snow engine on my 9528 Simplicity, it spins over too easy. I thought the engine might be limp dick too but once it's running and up to speed, it makes very good power. Considerably more than the two previous 10 h.p. Tecumseh engines I owned. My engine is the 305cc aluminum bore Snow Tek. It's supposed to be producing 9.5 h.p. If it's only making 9.5, those 10 h.p. Tecumseh's were only making seven or eight. B&S are a little weird regarding the way they rate their engines. I did a part for part comparison of the 305cc engines rated between 9.5 to 11 h.p. Not one part was different. So, I've come to the conclusion that either they're all 9.5 or all 11 h.p. engines. Has to be one or the other. My ""seat of the pants" dyno tells me that they're probably closer to 11 than 9.5.
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