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

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.

Thanks for your responses, they are what I thought but I wasnt sure. 

Servicing is normally:

1. Changing the engine oil every X hours of usage ( keep a log) where X depends on the manufacturer of the engine. I have a B&S Intek Snow and its 25hrs for the initial break in period and every 50 hours or at the end of season ( which ever comes first but end of season as well) after that. Most people just do it at the end of the season as part of the long term storage procedure;
2. Replace the spark plug every 100 hours or at beginning of the season;
3. Check the valve clearance every year. I've been able to get away with doing the other stuff myself, I might look into how to DIM ( Do It Myself :-) now that I've re-read the manual;
4. Use a grease gun on all nipples ( normally just the auger rake axles);
5. Check belts;
   
6. Grease in the traction system;
7. Clean, paint and wax the metal;
8. Adjust cables;
   
9. Check the skids on either side of the auger housing for height as well as wear and tear.

At end of season:

1. Do the long term storage process of your choice, discussion centres around draining/filling the tank. Either way use a fuel stabilizer such as Stabil or Pri-G on at least your last tank of gas;
2. Oil or fog the engine and turn it over;
3. Change the oil unless it was change less than 5 hours ago ( personally I just run the sucker 5 hours longer);
4. Check all bolts and fittings
   

When the unit is running you basically set the throttle to "Fast" for normal operations. At that point the engine is controlled by the governor which try to maintain a constant RPM. One mistake I did at first was to go too slow. If you don't have enough of a load on the engine the governor lets it stay at fast idle, if you go faster  and there is enough of a load you will hear the engine roar and it will throw snow much further. My basic technique is to go as fast as possible without snowplowing.  Start fast and if you get snowplowing slow down a notch at a time until you aren't. You will get prety good at estimating after a while. Snowplowing is when the impeller can't get rid of the snow fast enough and you start to get a pile of snow building up at the front, if it gets too bad the front end will start to rise up and try to climb over.

About the only time I set the throttle to slow is when I'm stopped for a brief few moments, any longer and I stop the machine. You can't put the throttle to the "Stop" position without having the engine cutout because there is an ignition cutoff switch that gets engaged.