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

borat wrote:
Well, its been awhile since I have been here. Been busy.  Wow, what a difference the snow made to this forum. lots of post active now.

Well, first a update and then a reply to borat.  I ended up buying the Ariens 1130DLE. I would have loved the Honda, but the price didn't make sense. the Honda would have been about $1400 more than the ariens.  I did manage to play with a Honda 928 in real conditions.  It is a really nice machine and no question better then anything I have used to date. I haven't done a side by side comparison of the snow distances yet, but will before the season is out.  Neighbor has one on lend while somebody moves.  I will say at first glance the honda does appear to throw further, but I also notice the discharge chute goes up on more of a angle.  So it can toss it further up straight in the air, but as for distance down the street, I am not sure if there is a big difference. I will test this more tho as I said earlier.  The Honda discharge is more controlled. Its a fine stream rather then a rooster tail.

I have only used the ariens once and the snow depth didn't really do it any justice. To really compare I am looking forward to 30 cm or more. Fill the bucket full and let her rip.  Hard pack snow it tossed about 20 feet.  This snow was what was shoveled to the side of the driveway prior to the snowblower.  It was a heavy wet snow that was very much settled.  Type of snow you probably shouldn't even attempt with a blower. But hey, new toy, must try.. :)

Anyways, I will post more on this machine later as I get to play with it.  
Borat

I read good things about simplicity. I would have loved to been able to either see or possibly buy one. But there is no simplicity dealer in my province. (Newfoundland, Canada).  I agree with you on not getting caught up with the features, even tho some are sure nice to have.  The 1130dle does have a rock solid chasis, at least from what I saw on other machines. Not sure on the bearings, can somebody else answer that?  The machine is all steel, the chute rotation control is steel rod and gears and came well greased.  The elevation chute control is a little different, I would think others are similiar in that department. I cannot see how one could have a steel rod control for that unless it was manual.  The elevation is controled by a wire similar to what you would see on a pedel bike for gear shifting.  half decent gauge wire covered with plastic that pulls to release a spring or something along those lines.  The DLE does have automatic independent wheel control. It will apply torque on the opposite wheel depending on which way your turning.. So it has traction control for both wheels.  The auger gear case is heavy duty aluminum. Not quite good as the pro's cast iron, but pretty good none the less. The shear pins are big and nowhere close to some of the rinky dinky ones I saw on some of the hardware store models.

Granted the machine cost me $2100 tax it, lot more then your quoted simplicity price. But she is a 11hp and 30" cut.  Not ohv, but hey, it throws snow and damn I am glad I got her.

Cheers
Goofie Newfie.

I'm sorry I didn't see this post earlier.  I hope the Ariens that you purchased is not like mine.

I own an Ariens 5524 and I can tell you that it is horrible.  Ariens thought of every possible sneaky way of cheapening this blower to make it look good on paper but perform horribly.  It has 2 main faults that render it virtually useless:

1. The bolts that hold the impellers on.  These are a soft material bolt that are designed to break just before the breaking point of the gear case.  As you can see, these bolts are TINY on this unit, and they are also extremely soft.  This tells you a lot about the quality of the gear case.  These bolts break constantly, and you don't even have to hit a rock to break them.  Just hit an icy patch of snow and they break.  USELESS!

2. The "transmission", if you can call it that.  This cheap rubber spinning disc transmission gets very hot after about 10 minutes of use, and it begins to slip.  After 15 minutes it's time to park the thing for a couple of hours to let it cool down, since the tires won't drive anymore.  And yes, I have tried adjusting it many times, it doesn't help.

I have been told that Ariens produces this junk specifically for Home Depot, so maybe if you go to an actual dealer you'll be able to find a much better model.

I am not sure, but I believe somewhere in this post I did bring that up about the disc o matic system.  My father was pushing me toward the honda for that reason soley. The dry clutch system is by far superior then the disc o matic.  I ask some people tho about it and nobody really seemed to have problems with it. The disc o matic system is just a fancy word for the same tech they have been using for years in pretty much all snowblowers before clutchs came along.  They used to be prone to freezing up as well. 

Your post has made me nerves about it now, I sure hope I don't have that problem with the disc o matic system.  As for the sheer pins, I thought they looked quite good compared to others I saw. Toro, honda and ariens seemed to be the same without actualy measuring them.

I did not purchase through HD. I got it through local dealer and went for the deluxe model. They seemed to be the best out of every dealer I talked too. Support hopefully follows suit if needed. (fingers crossed it will not)

Cheers
Goofie Newfie

If you bought a good quality Ariens, you'll be alright.  Too bad about no Simplicity dealer.  Snapper is the same as Simplicity by the way.  Just a different paint job.  As far as the disk drive in snow blowers, I wouldn't sweat that.  I was debating on going with a machine with the hydrostatic drive.  After balancing cost and complexity vs. the proven disk drive system, I settled for disk drive.  I know I can fix a disk drive for peanuts.  My last machine worked very hard for twelve years and never had a problem with the disk drive other than occasionally snapping shear pins.    Enjoy your new machine and let us know how it does. 

Borat,

Good advice!!

                               Fred

I have both a 2003 and 2004 Ariens. The 2004 is the smaller Deluxe model. I never had a problem with the disco-matic drive on either machine getting hot. This design has been around for many decades and has proven itself. If there is slipping, I would refer to my setup manual to confirm that the drive is adjusted properly.

I did notice that most of the Ariens models have much beefier shear bolts than the model that I have.  In fact I have a very hard time finding the bolts for my model because it is one of the only ones that use the tiny bolts.  If only I would have noticed this earlier. Oh well.  If you got a good quality unit from a dealer you are probably fine, but I wanted to make sure that people are aware that there are substandard Ariens models out there.

add simplicity,dump craftsman,sears products suck.period.dont buy from a big box,you know who they are.spend a few bucks more,buy from a REPUTABLE dealer.he will service it for you if you dont know how to.just things i have learned,hope this helps you,happy snow throwing.

Don't purchase a Craftsman snowblower. Period!  I have owned one for 9 years (largest one they sold at the time).  The problem is this: their belts are NOT standard sizes (isn't that just plain stupid) which means that local repair shops generally do not carry them.  The second reason is that because they are not standard size you must purchase from Sears at a greatly inflated price.  Local repairs shops don't like to stock them because of this. So I've had shops place a belt on that is close in size but does not work for long.  You'll have to lug the machine back for further repairs --- after buying the belt yourself  from Sears. An all around frustrating experience.  Do yourself a favor -- don't buy from Sears. 

This is an example of a company that has it all backwards and as a result is in financial trouble. Rather than accommodating customers and making it easy to repair their products, instead they want you to repair Craftsman products only through their repair shops and only using their parts which are greatly inflated in price.  The result is such an unsatisfactory experience over time it leaves the customer heading for another product once the Crafstman dies or they get rid of it out of frustration. Doesn't sound like sustainable business practice to me. If their stock price and rumors of the company's troubles are true, many customers head for the hills after one experience with Sears.  It's a shame given the need to support American products.

Don't purchase a Craftsman snowblower. Period!  I have owned one for 9 years (largest one they sold at the time).  The problem is this: their belts are NOT standard sizes (isn't that just plain stupid) which means that local repair shops generally do not carry them.  The second reason is that because they are not standard size you must purchase from Sears at a greatly inflated price.  Local repairs shops don't like to stock them because of this. So I've had shops place a belt on that is close in size but does not work for long.  You'll have to lug the machine back for further repairs --- after buying the belt yourself  from Sears. An all around frustrating experience.  Do yourself a favor -- don't buy from Sears. 

This is an example of a company that has it all backwards and as a result is in financial trouble. Rather than accommodating customers and making it easy to repair their products, instead they want you to repair Craftsman products only through their repair shops and only using their parts which are greatly inflated in price.  The result is such an unsatisfactory experience over time it leaves the customer heading for another product once the Crafstman dies or they get rid of it out of frustration. Doesn't sound like sustainable business practice to me. If their stock price and rumors of the company's troubles are true, many customers head for the hills after one experience with Sears.  It's a shame given the need to support American products.