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

pulling out my hair trying to make a decision on snow blowers.  latest challenge is ariens platinum 30 or john deere 1330?  Seems like they are pretty similar machines and the deere has electric chute options (convenience / repair issue).  i can save 150 bucks with deere, but thinking that is short money if ariens is better machine.  Any takers?

FYI, not all throwers have full length auger shafts. My Simplicity 560 (and the 760, 860 series anyway) has 6" of shaft coming out of each side of the auger. This thing has had hard use here in Minnesota every winter since it was new 20+ years ago. There wasn't any issues from lack of full shafts, other than it could only rustweld part of the shaft to the auger. I am happy for the short shafts actually since I had a heck of a time getting it apart to replace the worm gear. My drive is over 400' long and is full of rocks, and sticks falling from trees. I wouldn't be too worried about the lack of full shafts on the newer machines. It took me this long to bust it and I'm not delicate with the machine.

scopes01 wrote:
Thanks for that Mr. Scopes - it may explain it.  Don't need the diagrams because I returned the 1330 in favor of a Honda 928 (the 1330 had other issues around traction too).  May be interesting for all to see the diagrams here though if you could post them.

Hi Joe...Good move to exchange it for the Honda...How do you like the Hydrostatic transmission?...does it work well....I really liked the Honda...nicely finshed and well engineered. The only thing about them is that I found them expensive. Other than that...it is a very nice machine...I haven't figured out yet on how to post diagramm on this site...But I will try..Cheers..Scopes01

We're getting 6-10" of snow tonight, so I'll be using my 1330SE for the first time tomorrow morning.  I'm going to be pissed if it works like ass.

gman4 wrote:
Here's a link where Snowmann (Ariens engineer) posted some comments about John Deere blowers:

http://www.abbysguide.com/ope/discussions/49213-A-1.html

See the original poster and Snowmann's comments (#1 response).


Here's a link about the Hilliard Auto-Lok used by Ariens and John Deere:

http://productsearch.machinedesign.com/FeaturedProducts/Detail/Hilliard/Hilliard_AutoLok_Differential/108436/0

In case you missed it, see also response #10 on this thread, by scopes01, regarding the difference between the Ariens use of the Auto-Lok and the John Deere use of it.


The John Deere is quite nose-heavy whereas the Ariens seems more balanced by comparison.  The heavier nose will be easier by nature to go through a pile of snow without the front end lifting up, but how heavy a person wants the nose is a personal choice.  The JD's electric chute controls concern me as far as longevity is concerned.  I would prefer a traditional and proven mechanical system that you know will work year after year.  I think the JD's are well built, but so are the Ariens.  Briggs builds the JD's, but for how long?  And then what do you do if Briggs bails out and you need parts?  Ariens blowers have always been built only by Ariens.  At least parts and service would be pretty easy to come by.

oljeeptek wrote:
oljeeptek, welcome to our forum.  Your comments are interesting.  I've not seen a discussion of auger shaft lengths before this thread came along.  Maybe it's not that big of an issue.  At any rate, after I made my first post on this thread before I went to work (see #7 above), I had time to ponder the Ariens short-auger issue further, and made a list of observations and questions:

1)  I assume the auger is hollow after the shear bolt.

2)  Is it solid for an inch or so at the end and shaped like a full-length shaft end so it can act as such in the bushing on the side of the housing, or just capped at the end with a part attached that is shaped like a full-length shaft end? 

3)  My son's Ariens ST824 (1993 model) has a full-length shaft with one shear bolt per side of the auger (each side is a single section), each located in the middle of the shaft, as compared to today's Deluxe and Platinum models where the bolts are about an inch on either side of the gearcase.  Interestingly, my Toro 1028LXE's shear bolts are located exactly 2.5 inches from the outer end of the shaft where it goes into the housing-side bushing.  Three different blowers, three different locations to apply power and absorb stress.  What does it matter how long the auger shaft is, then?   The only comment I can think of would be that a bolt in the middle of each side of the auger would evenly spread out applied power and any stresses the auger encounters in operation.

4)  The issue of the auger shaft rusting solid with the hollow auger shaft becomes a non-issue, since there are only a couple of inches of shaft to lubricate.

5)  Does the gearcase support arm hanging from the housing get in the way of snow movement to the impeller?

6)  Maybe the idea of the gearcase being supported from above is a good idea whatever the length of the auger shaft is because it takes away weight from the auger bushings on the sides of the housing.

7)  Conversely, maybe point #6 is wrong.  Maybe it's better to have a solid, full-length steel shaft supporting the gearcase instead of the support arm above.  That's what the Pro models have, after all.  Hmm.

7)  Ariens is saving money on steel used for the shaft as compared to the amount of steel used for the support arm.

Well, these are just things I thought of.  As a result, I think I'm not really concerned about the auger shaft length issue too much.  Maybe somebody else has another opinion?

scopes01 wrote:
I really like the hydrostatic tranny - wouldnt want to be without it now that I have experienced one.  The electric spout controls are a big advantage too, but I do wonder about longevity but no problems so far.  And they are expensive; if they could lop 500 bux off the price they would really compete. 

Well, I'm not sure whether my first snowblowing experience was all that I hoped it would be, but it's now my benchmark.  I thought the 1330SE did OK.  I would estimate we got somewhere around 8-10" of very wet, heavy snow last night, and perhaps a bit more in spots.  I'm not really sure what I should have expected, but I've been told that type of snow presents real problems for some snowblowers.  I'm sure some of the drifts in my driveway were well over 12". 

I didn't really experience any of the previously mentioned issues with "Easy Steer".  It didn't seem to pull to one side or the other, even when taking a partial cut.  It also didn't seem to work, or make steering easier, when going in reverse, and I'm really not sure whether it's designed to work in reverse.  It was very easy to turn going forward, but I have no experience with other drive systems to which I can compare, so it seemed normal to me.

I did experience a few issues with traction in areas where the snow was deep.  I can definitely see the machine making zero progress through a hard packed snow.  The 1330SE seems to be very front heavy, which I think might be part of the problem.  It doesn't take much effort to lift the rear of the machine off the ground.  I'm not really sure what options are available, such as wheel weights and chains, but I would like to try something to address that issue.

It throws snow much better, or farther, when going through deep snow as opposed to areas where there isn't a lot of snow.  Cleaning up areas where it had spilled out the sides, it would only throw that stuff a few feet.  Maybe that's normal, and that stuff was pretty slushy.  It wasn't throwing snow up into the trees like some of the Honda videos I've seen.  I think it would be cool to throw snow over your neighbor's house.

The lights on my machine are always on.  I think a switch would have been nice.  I'm not sure whether that's by design, or whether it wasn't assembled correctly.

The handwarmers are pretty neat, and I liked the electric chute controls.  I thought they worked very well.

Green, yellow & black go very well with white.

Isn't this the last year that John Deere branded snowblowers will be available?  Aren't they essentially a Simplicity Pro machine?  Shouldn't parts, perhaps not all parts, be interchangeable?  Didn't Briggs & Stratton buy Simplicity?

It sounds like you were expecting a bit better performance than what was delivered. If you're not happy with it, you may want to consider taking it back for a refund and going with a different manufacturer. Buyers remorse really sucks and it's your hard earned $$$ so you may as well be happy with your decision. You've only had it for a couple of days at this point.

Don't worry about the Honda snoblower videos as they are over-rated and most likely staged by Honda fanatics to look really good.  I am sure with time and some pratice, your blower will perform well and meet your  expectation.  My old blower (although it was a free one) was so bad that a SS can outperform without any issue.  When you have a wet snow to deal with, spray some generous amount of silicone spray around your chute and auger and perhaps the snow will move out much better.  Happy blowing.