I recently upgraded from a 7 yr old 5.5 hp Ariens 522se Plastic housed Snowblower to quiet a beast. The unit looked to be in good shape very little rust and pretty clean. Any rust seemed to be around the discharge chute at the base on the main body.
I managed to start it myself last night, dont laugh, I am used to my old turn the key push the primer and pull out the choke and plug it in and start of pull the starter.
So This has every bell and whistle and is probably more than I need for a 2 by 2 driveway, 2 car wide by 2 car long. But I wanted something more powerful to clear the heavier snow at the end of the driveway where Mr. Plowman always courteously leaves me during heavier snows, my older blower needed belts and was taking way too long to clear the driveway.
Anyhow I did some research, and he said he hardly used the unit, again was pretty clean and still had the light and the manual. He had a full size Kubota with snowblower attachment in the garage and he said he generally used that and pretty much had started this to just run it seasonally and didnt use it the last 5 yrs or so. He also said he still had it serviced regularly.
Anyhow, When I started it up last night at my house I had the choke full and the engine speed on lowest speed (not gear shift), and it seemed to want to stall, but as I cranked it up seemed to run better. Is that common? or because I had not opened the choke and it was not running on full speed yet.
How long should I have it warm up from its parked position in my garage to be ready to blow snow?
Should I have this serviced seasonally or is every other year okay?
Its made to clear snow up to 22" deep so Should I use it to clear snow thats only a couple of inches deep or does it not matter? I am iching to use it although the season is getting short.
