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

I am looking at purchasing my first snow blower.  My local shop carries Toro's and Ariens.  I live in northern NJ (morris county) and we had a lot of wet heavy/icy snow last year, so the wife has finally given in to the purchase. 

Our driveway is about 125' long and most of it is a about a single car lane, but it opens up to about 3 wide at the bottom.  Also my neighbor's drive way is adjacent to it and its about two cars lanes wide in front of their house and one car wide between the two houses.  So I'd have to throw the snow straight ahead when I am in the section between the two houses.

I'm currenty thinking of purchasing the Arien's 920013 (Compact 22).  Do you think a 6 HP engine will cut it, or should I be looking at a 7 HP?

I had an Ariens snowblower, probably their largest 2 stage model for many years it worked well, but eventually lost its ability to drive into heavy wet snow.  I donated it to a relative who put a new engine on it, and its still working for someone out there.   The 15 Years i had the MTD -Craftsman with tracks it was fine so long as the friction wheel mechanism was recently serviced. Last few years i ended up having to help push it whenever it encountered heavy wet slush and snow.  I decided to spring for the Honda because 1- i was sick of the cold weather repair and adjustment needed to make it work, and 2- i'm not pushing anything anymore, life's too shrt and the hospital bill would be a lot more than the Honda snowblower. Light powder is never the problem, it's the wet southern New England snow that's the problem.  If the snow belt line is north, we get rain but when its close by, as it often is, we get this heavy wet snow that snowblowers struggle to throw.  If your friction wheel 2 stage does the job, great.  but for me it required a lot of extra maintenance.  That is why i bought the pricey HONDA HS 928 TAS machine.  It wasn't because I wanted to pay 3 times the price, but I have been there and tried the friction wheel machines and it just didn't Do The Job.  Say what you want, but I Know the Honda will get it done.

New_Yorker wrote:

New_Yorker: First let me state that I'm not trying to get you wound up, but there are more friction wheel drive units out there than not and most don't have the issues you describe. Labeling ALL friction wheel drive snowblowers as inferior or not up to the task of clearing snow is misleading and inaccurate. You had your MTD-Craftsman for 15 years - how did it perform for the majority of those years? You say it required " a lot of extra maintenance" but was that maintenance performed by someone who knew what they were doing? Maybe you got a lemon - it does happen from time to time? You state that your Ariens worked great for many years until it "lost its ability to drive into heavy wet snow" and then a relative replaced the engine. Not quite sure if this was engine or drive system related but it did last for "many years".  

Friction wheel drive has been around for a long time and is a tried and proven propulsion method that is used on almost every snowblower out there except perhaps for the Honda's and Yamaha's. If this system was so problem plagued, it would have been replaced with some other method long ago because people would stop buying snowblowers equipped with friction wheel drive propulsion. In reading your posts, I believe you mentioned that you have not used your new Honda in the snow yet?

I've been using Honda snowblowers for over 10 years and can tell you first hand that they are very nice, well built machines, but there is nothing magical about them. If you overwork the engine or transmission, you will have problems with your new Honda. It may be your technique that requires some thought as it sounds like your pushing the equipment beyond its engineered design limits. Forcing any snowblower into heavy, wet snow (IMO) is not the best way to work the equipment. Taking a smaller bite and slowing down to allow the equipment (namely the augers/impeller) to process the snow would be a better method. Technique and regular, routine maintenance are usually all that is required to keep any equipment operating as it was designed.

   In 15 years it might be possible to have to replace the friction disk three times.   It would depend on a few things.  

You mentioned getting lots of salt on your EOD pile. 

Clear after work and the snow had sat all day compressing and melting. 

Your area gets lots of sun. 

Maybe the road you’re on gets lots of sun making the EOD pile pretty bad. 

Possibly you’re overdriving the machine.  

The MTD was a track.  Was that because you have a steep area? 

 

With all of those working together and having an MTD with a very slim friction disk it could wear in five.  Given your average snow load per year something has to be unusual for you to have experienced the problems you have had.   

FrankMA:

Very well put. 

Rest assured that those of us who know anything at all about snow throwers or mechanics in general, will take New Yorkers posts with more than a grain of salt.   Credibility is hard to sustain when the information provided is dead wrong.   There are a lot of experienced and knowledgeable participants in this forum.  I'm certain that the combined advice of those who know of what they speak, will guide those looking for advice in the right direction.   

 

I justify the prices of my high end OPE purchases by amortizing the cost over the anticipated service life. If you spread it out long enough it barely costs you anything on a yearly basis :). The way I look at it, you're only here for so long and the work needs to be done so you might as well have OPE that you enjoy using. One other thing, always understate the true cost of the equipment to your wife - it'll make your life sooo much easier....

Yeah, I could be buying Honda machines but if I did, I'd feel that I was capitulating to the gougers.   Particularly the local dealers who smile while they're sticking it to you.  If I were ever to replace the Simplicity, I'd probably order a Yamaha.   Not locally either!   Yamaha appear to make an awesome snow thrower even though the h.p. ratings appear a bit low for the performance they promise.   Something like this would do just fine:


http://www.yamaha-motor.ca/products/products.php?model=3537&section=td&group=G#contentTop

 

When MSP (Minneapolis-St. Paul) had a snow storm about a week ago, I thought my Honda HS724WA was adequate and did a nice job but I was a bit worried about it only having 6.5hp.  I was debating back and forth then finally gave my Honda dearler a call on Dec 7, 2010 and asked if I could upgrade to Honda HS928WAS.  The Honda dearler gave me a full credit and was very understanding.  I used the HS724WA once so it was in an excellent condition.  On that afternoon I got the 8.5hp HS928WAS.  When I purchased the 724WA a week ago, the dearler had eight HS928 in stock but they only had two left on 12/7/2010.  So there are a lot of people wanting high performance Honda snowblowers.  The machine is a bit louder than the HS724 so it went from a kitty sound to a lion's roar.  Last night and today, MSP got around 18" of snow thus far and it is still snowing.  The HS928WAS was very strong/robust and can blow very far even at the minimum throttle setting.  The 928 is much faster than the 724 so it was a worthwhile upgrade.  Do I still feel stupid about buying an expansive Honda snowblower?  Not anymore after today's performance.  It is a nice and powerful toy.  My family was not too impressed with me at first but after watching me clearing our driveway and neighbors in a heartbeat, they were truly impressed and glad we got one.  When you have a high performing snowblower, blowing snow can be FUN and enjoyable to watch.

FrankMA wrote:
Excellent Post FrankMA!! It's all in the way you work your machine into the EOD!!

woweh wrote:

So I have to admit that this was the first real snow the Pro 28 (28"  15.5 ft. lbs. [approx. 10 HP]) was up against.  It was 8" (1" slush under 7" of average/powder snow).  However, being a bit proud of my new investment, being neighborly and perhaps that it's early in the season, I was in a helping mood.  Around the block corner, there is a stretch where the sidewalk recesses about 5' under the height of an embankment.  This left a drift up to the top of the bucket and I nearly had to pull up the drift cutters!

The regular areas were usually done in 3rd gear (didn't ever try to go faster).  I went straight into the EOD plow-pack in 1st .  It DID tax the engine but not ever close to the point of truly bogging it down to a stall and the snow was being repositioned a nice distance.  No problem noticed.  Too bad it was blizzard conditions or I would have tilted the deflector up a ways to see just how far it could throw? 

Here's a possibly useful tip:  This machine is so evenly balanced it will "wheelie" as soon as it's dropped into gear.  So the technique I'm trying to remember is if I stop, before resuming the forward momentum, I need to pull it back 6" or so.  This way, after it "wheelies" upon engagement, it will return the scaper down to full contact and won't miss any snow.

OK, so here's my bit of caution:  As I mentioned earlier, there was an area I was clearing that had me VERY near the top of the bucket (woo hoo!!) for about a 10' stretch.  What bummed me out was that, as was warned to us about the friction disk, it can and will slip in extreme circumstances.  When I was in this deep snow, I was in 1st gear.  The engine was taxed but my forward speed had stopped.  I thought that it was because my wheels were spinning.  As I glanced down, I noticed my wheels were not spinning.  I seriously thought that the wheels would break free before the disk, but I guess these tires really work well, even without chains!  Hmmm...time for some technique.  And it was a breeze!

All I needed to do was to tilt the machine up a little bit (back to doing more "wheelies"), maybe an inch or three.  The machine then ate into the snow; I'd pull it back 6"-12" and go at it normally so I'd get a clean scrape and repeat the process.  It made quick work of a 20" drift!  Now as the machine is pretty wide, I am pretty happy just taking two passes on a sidewalk so I was going into this drift at full width.  I suppose I should try and see how it would go had I sliced off 1/2 to 3/4 of the width, instead?  I wonder if the Platinum or Deluxe machines would remedy this disk slippage as their weight is lighter and perhaps their drive wheels would give way, first?

What was weird about this was that one of my concerns before purchasing such an evenly (read...lightly) balanced machine was that I was afraid that the nose would climb when going into a deep mound.  So far I haven't seen this but I'm going to have to keep an eye on the wheels if I happen to get "stuck" in the deep stuff.

On a side note, my neighbor must have inherited an old (the "white" ones) Ariens this year.  I saw him doing fine with his but I can tell you I can outdistance him, handily.  Hoping that mine turns out to be working that well when it is as old as that old boy!  My 210R also did well on my back porch but I did work up a bit of a sweat pushing it (I'm liking the Auto Traction Control on that 300 pounder)! 

Time to change out my 5-hour oil tomorrow.