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

Greetings to all. This is my first post. As stated many times by many others,great site! Anyway, down to business. Just picked the new orange machine. I was choosing between the 11528LE & 926DLE.  It came down to durability and the 926 won. Both look like very good machines. The journey is as fun as the destination. Today I'll be out in the garage to clean and wax the unit, and to check all the adjustments to make sure all is operating properly. Looking forward to further discussion with the group. One question on the differential. When I tried to lock the dif. last nite it did not seem to engage/disengage very quickly. Almost like it had to think for a moment. I realise this may be a cable adjustment, or perhaps normal, but I would like to hear from other owners how smoothly this should operate.Thanks for a great group.

I don't think there are very many owners who have touched one of the new machines with the remote control - why don't you experiment?

Probably the wheels have to be rotating and perhaps slipping a little to engage the lock. I'll bet it works just fine on snow.

John Davies

I have an 1128le and sometimes it takes swinging the machine back and forth to lock the diff and unlock it after pulling the lever.

I have a 926DLE also and noticed the same behavior with the differential lock.  It seems you have to wiggle the machine a little to get it to lock.  The same applies to unlocking it.   I'm not worried about it because once it locks it stays locked and has a solid feel to it. 

I'm guessing its a pin system so the units wheels have to turn enough to bring the hole back to where the pin can be fed back in its hole.  When "playing" with the triggers at the dealer I found it to be a spring action system, when you pull the trigger it pulls the pin out, when you release the trigger the pin gets sprung back into its hole.  Now it if seems to take longer than just a half turn/revolution of the wheels something sounds like its not lined up or lubbed right.  Then again my whole "guess" about how it works could be wrong too.

I'm about to make my "buy" decision this week and have settled on two choices to decide upon.  Either

the Toro 828LXE or the Ariens 926DLE.   Have to say I'm leaning towads the Ariens 926DLE based on the

appearance of being a bit more solid(more steel).  Also think I prefer the Ariens "differential" approach to

maneuvering with trigger lock of wheels to Toro's two-trigger approach to unlock of wheels.  IHoepfully the

Ariens mechanism works ok, doesn't sound like there's been allot of actual customder field use of this to

have a good assessmnert.  The feature that has me mildly considering the Toro is the no-clog design the

dealer pointed out, althought it makes use of plastic which I'm sceptical of.  I'm assuming the Ariens large

impeller(14" vs 12") will help to overcome clogging issues.  I would very much appreciate your comments

and recommendations.

If you can afford the DLE you will never regret it. That Toro seems to be an extremely popular first snowblower, as is the Ariens 926LE. They're $929 locally.

RedCoupe: The 14" impeller on the Ariens did impress me.

Thanks for the advice and endorsements of the DLE.  Question, how much should I expect to pay for a 926DLE.  The price at my dealer's is $1499 for the 926DLE and he's willing to give e $200 for my current Toro724.  Does this sound reasonable?   By the way his price for the TORO 928LXE is $1299.      

I paid $1499 in St. Paul, MN. I live in Toro country.  I found only one 926DLE machine in the area. Have fun on the journey.

Thanks iLikeOrange, I appreciate the info.  That's funny, yes, you must be quite the outcast considering Toro country.  Nontheless you followed your judgemental instincts and and not a brochure in making your choice.  That's what matters....excellent.   My minds made up, I'm going with the 926DLE over the Toro 928LXE.  I'll call the dealer today. thanks again for the input.         

Good for you Bob!  Enjoy your machine.

I was torn between the Toro, the Ariens 1128le and the 9hp Honda .  I would have looked at Toro but the dealer seemed full of s@*t . All he wanted to do was trash Ariens and Honda instead of trying to brag up his Toro's. 

I just got rid of a 11.5 Craftsman that wasn't even 2 yrs old. It had all the bells and whistles that you could want but it was poorly built.

I settled on the Ariens. It's heavy steel construction, diff lock, hand warmers, ohv engine, and 3 yr warranty sold me.  Not only that but the dealer was very honest . He told me all the machines I was looking at were excellent , and he showed me the Ariens models that competed with them.  He focused on selling his machine instead of crapping on everyone elses.

Good luck with your Ariens Bob.

Ok, so here's an update.  I made my purchase today, ended up with the(11526DLE) 11HP Ariens DLE. My dealer delivers it to my home on Wednesday and picks up my Toro724 trade-in.  The 11hp choice came about because my dealer had no remaning 926DLE's in stock, although he expected to get one later this week.  He did have the 11hp version hoewever.   So, seeing as I negotiated an accepatable trade-in amount on my Toro724, I opt'ed to not wait for his delievery and bought the 11Hp model.  So this Wednesday he deleivers the New and pick's up the Old.

I like this dealer very much, seems truthful and fair.  He never pushed anything on me, in fact if anything he questioned whetehr I really needed this much machine.  As he said, I may not need the extra HP, but It won't hurt either.  I went to this dealer two weeks ago to upgrade(trade-in) my Echo backpack leafblower.  I had intended to buy a top end RedMax since thats what i see my gardeners using.  Turns out three other guys were in his shop same time as I, all of us wanting a new RedMax leafblower. He said he had whatever we wanted but strongly urgeed we consider the new Stihl 600.   He callled it "the beast".   Long story short, all our of us bought the Stihl600.  I'm thrilled with this thing.  I also have a LittleWonder 8Hp walkbehind blower that I usuallly use to complement the work with the Echo.  I never bothered to roll out the littleWonder, the Sthil had such amazing power it was almost a pleasure!  Anyway, this dealer won my confidence, so i bought the Ariens from them. 

I assume I'll like the 11hpDLE. 

Happy Thankgiving folks....

     

Hey RedCoupe, fine purchase you made there. When I was shopping for the 9hp unit I was almost wishing they were out of them and had 11's. That's the only was I would have gotten the other half to agree to the larger unit. Almost. I'm sure you will be pleased with your new DLE. I've been blowin' snow for some 35 years and no longer have to muscle the unit at the EOD. A real pleasure to turn. Sounds like you have a good dealer .Snows acomin'!

Thanks again for the guidance and endorsements.  Tomorrow it arrives at home...let the snows begin!!!!

By the way, does anyone have technical knowledge of the difference between the 9.25hp and 11.5hp tecumsuh motors used on the Ariens?  I see the dispplacements are the same so I'm curious how they achoieve the additional 2.25hp?