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

I have a long steep driveway, about 60 feet, one car, with a flat bay about 50 X 50 at the base. I have nvere owned a snow blower, but I am getting alittle older and the back isnt waht it used to be. I have looked at the Ariens  11526DLE Snow Blower, which I think is an 11.5 HP. I was wondering if anyone has any experience on this with a steep hill. If not does anyone have any recomendations on one that will run up a steep hill

Sounds like I've opened up the can of worms again.

Carburation was mentioned as a possible suspect but someone else looked up the part numbers and they said they were identical.right down to the jets. This lead to speculation on it being an adjustment difference.

I mentioned some of this to a local ( Ontario Canada, Eh ) dealer and he said he had heard there was a class action lawsuit in the US that was about the mislabelling of engine HP ratings, I don't remember which firms were mentioned but it was several. I haven't heard anything else about it but it could be interesting. Of course they could always claim that the sticker just guarantees the minmum HP from the engine and that if the engine happens to exceed the spec then so much the better.

The bottom line is I suspect shennanigans but there's still a lot of rumour going around.

Couple of points...1. Correct, there was/is a class action lawsuit in the U.S., a local dealer said it involved Toro and possibly some others.  He said the manufactures were considering refraining from using HP as a measurement and simply state cc's.   2. The facts I mentioned in previous post about 11Hp and 9Hp torque ratings and carburator being the differenece were from a direct conversation I had today with Tecmseh's technical manager.  There was nothing vague in his comments, he directly answered these questions.  If I knew how to imbedd the charts in this forum posting I would have done it.  I will gladly send as an email attachment to anyone that asks.  My email d is milite@hotmail.com.

For the 13 hp motor, I imagine the cc's would be bigger. If carbs makes the difference, does that mean a card on a 16 hp on a 13 make the 13 hp into a 16 hp? Technical question.

I believe the 13Hp motor is a bored 318.cc(11hp) to 357cc's.  Bore difference is 79.375 versus 79.400 with same stroke.  Some valve differences as well. 

The 13hp Tecumseh may look similar, but it is a completely different engine. Crankcase, crankshaft, head, piston, etc. It is also counterbalanced, whereas the others are not.

PK

Snowman, with the counterbalance, does that mean the motor would run with less vibration? What are the benifits of a counterbalance. The reason I ask is I am thinking of removing my 10 hp Tecumseh for a 13 hp unit for my blower.

The counterbalancer really works well. If I remember correctly, its 60-75% less vibration than the 318cc models.

PK

If the 10hp you are replacing is the L-head (358cc), you may experieince greater than 75%  vibration reduction. That particular engine vibrates the most.

RedCoupe wrote:
Which would be a sound idea, HP ratings have a lot less relevancy than most people think. Who pays attention to the HP rating of their car or motorcycle? Only a small minority, but a fair percentage of people know what the cubage of their engine is, at least in liters (nowadays) for cars.

Back to Muzak396's question. I agree with the other poster that a tracked model is best suited to your driveway, depending on snow conditions you could get away with a Honda HS724 (it is stronger than its specs lead to believe) or you may require the beefier HS928 which is a commercial grade machine. Very powerful, throws snow very high and far, always impresses neighborhood kids and often their parents as well lol (snow geyser rising above the neighborhood advertises you're clearing), but is somewhat heavy until you learn how to turn properly, then you can do it with one hand. Ariens also makes tracked units but they are new so little is known of them. They cost the same as Hondas.