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

Hello,

A friend of mine has a Honda with a hydrostatic drive, and from what he explained to me, this enables you to change gears on your snowblower, without having to stop moving with the machine,
in order to change the gear, and then get that movement going again by pressing down on the gear lever ( on your right handle bar )

Does anyone know if the Ariens brand of snow blowers use this hydraulics system for gearing ?

I'm looking at the model: http://www.ariens.com/products_snow/s_deluxe_1130dle_features.aspx

also, if anyone know where to find an online manual for any of the Ariens brand snow blowers I'd really appreciate any info

Thanks for any info.

pvrp wrote:

A hydrostatic unit should outlast a friction disk drive system.  However, in cold weather, it might respond/wear differently than similar units used in warm weather application OPE.   Might be the reason why the engagement speeds are unpredictable as well.  Personally, I'll take a friction disk set up any day.  It's proved to be very effective and in my experience, very durable.  I've got over twenty years of snow thrower use in heavy northern Canadian winter conditions, running on a 110' x 20' drive way with 11:1 grade in the front and another 35 'x 25' flat section in the back.  I've never had any issues with the drive system on the two previous Craftsman machines I owned.   Other than the odd adjustment, never did a thing to them. 

pvrp:  What kind of machine are you operating that you had to change two friction disk drives on?   I could understand maybe once in twenty years of heavy use but twice?  Sounds like something must have been out of whack.   

Clay,

You are correct the parts site only shows for model "060". 

The schematics show up in the back of this "064" version.   I have the 063 version somewhere.

http://tinyurl.com/5ocbbs

This is my first blower and haven't had a chance to test it out yet.  Slow snow year so far on the west coast.

On another forum a fellow owner also complained about the melting cable.  After viewing pictures of his blower I noticed the cable routing is different on my blower than his.  In fact I would have to forcibly push cable into muffler to make contact.  Take a look at my pics and let me know if your cable routing is the same.

http://picasaweb.google.com/audreyappliance/2008Craftsman145TorqueRatingSnowThrower?authkey=FNjg8jo1FlM#


Clay wrote:

Borat, you mentioned pvrp but I thought you might have meant me since I mentioned replacing a friction disk.

I have a hunch the main wear and tear on the unit is two fold:

1. Engaging and disengaging; and
2. Low speed settings ( inner edge of contact point compared to outer edge moves more percentage wise).

Long swaths at a constant, high speed setting probably allows you to log the most miles before changes.
is
I do 10-20 short driveways, sometimes with a lot of start and stopping. There is a large amount of EOD work at low speed. It all adds up to friction wheels wearing out. That why I would prefer being able to put on a steel belted radial "tire"  instead of replacing the whole wheel.

nibbler wrote:
You do 10-20 driveways every snow fall?  I assume that you're in a snow removal business?   I do a fair amount of snow removal.  Obviously not on the scale that you do but I got well over ten years each out of my old Craftsman machines and the drive systems were still going strong on them when I replaced them.   

borat wrote:
I thought this as well.  The speed selection rod, which has a cotter pin right on the end
passes very close to the friction disk when changing speeds and I thought at first that
the cotter pin was chewing up the rubber.   There were big chunks of rubber taken out
of the disk.  Try as I might I was not able to get the two parts to come in contact manually.

The second disk suffered the same fate.  It may be caused by shifting on the fly,
something to be avoided I've since read.  I don't usually shift speeds while moving
(certainly never between forward and reverse) but I have dragged the speed down from
a higher speed on a couple of occasions, not often.  This year I'll be a bit more
careful and see if it makes a difference.

What usually happens it that everything is fine, no sign of wear, and then all of a sudden
traction goes to hell and when I look the disc has self-destructed.  Takes about 4 years.

Paul

snowmachine wrote:

Very nice pictorial essay.  Your cables are farther to the side than mine are.  My cables cross right over the top of the muffler.  I didn't have the small zip tie on those cable like you do either.  I did notice a couple of nice things that it looks like you did after you bought your machine.  One is the keeper wire on the engine start key.  I was wondering what I would do if I lost that thing.  I also noticed some white grease on the auger shaft.  Did it come greased or did you do some preventative maintenance on your new machine.  I also noticed some blue grease on one of the zerts in the photo. 

One of the hairpin hitchpin clips came out of the drive control connection and I thought that I broke a belt or a shear pin.  I was glad it was just a missing hairpin hitchpin.  I bought a package of 10 of them for $.99.  I have the service rep coming to the house tomorrow - Sat.  Your picture layout makes me think that I should document my machine as well.  I'll try to take some pictures before and after on the cable routing. 

Any ideas on what is the difference between the 917.881063 and the 917.881064?  For that matter what is the difference between the 60 and the 63.  I see that the 60 was advertised as having 8 speeds, 6 forward and 2 reverse and the 63 comes with variable speeds.  I wonder if the 64 changed the location of the cables slightly and they knew about this issue with the muffler.

Rick

   I do not think that Ariens offers a hydrostatic drive yet.    But hydrostatic  is available in the premium  Husqvarna   models , and also available in  2 Craftsman top of the line models, that are  are also built by Husqvarna  (ATP)   .. Hydro gear builds these transmissions.

   I do not think that Ariens offers a hydrostatic drive yet.    But hydrostatic  is available in the premium  Husqvarna   models , and also available in  2 Craftsman top of the line models, that are  are also built by Husqvarna  (ATP)   .. Hydro gear builds these transmissions.

royster wrote:

You do know this thread is 3 years old, right?

I have a Ariens 824le. No it does not have a Hydrostatic drive, however you can shift it in any gear except reverse with out stopping. No ariens snow blower has a hydroststic drive.