Abby’s Guide > Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) > Discussions > Do Ariens snowblowers have Hydrostatic drives like Honda snowblowers ?

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zippo2008

Joined: Sep 3, 2008
Points: 6

Do Ariens snowblowers have Hydrostatic drives like Honda snowblowers ?
Original Message Sep 4, 2008 12:10 pm

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.

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borat

Joined: Nov 10, 2007
Points: 2692

Re: Do Ariens snowblowers have Hydrostatic drives like Honda snowblowers ?
Reply #6 Nov 11, 2008 10:27 pm

Snowmann wrote:

Uh, no. Husqvarna is not owned by MTD, nor is Poulan.

Not saying that Husqvarna is owned by MTD. I don't know if Husqvarna has a manufacturing plant in North America but I'll stick my neck out and say I doubt it. I'll also stick my neck out and say that it's very unlikely they are building their snow throwers in Sweden and shipping them to North America. What I'm saying is that Husqvarna is likely built by AYP or MTD or Murray or possibly another North American manufacturer. I know my Husqvara lawn tractor wasn't made in Sweden either. It was made in the U.S.A. by one of the above manufacturers.

ajallen

Location: Colorado
Joined: Nov 28, 2007
Points: 79

Re: Do Ariens snowblowers have Hydrostatic drives like Honda snowblowers ?
Reply #7 Nov 12, 2008 1:08 am

borat wrote:

Borat and any one else that doesn't know. Husqvarna is the world's largest producer of lawn mowers, chain saws and portable gas-powered garden equipment such as trimmers and blowers and one of the largest in garden tractors. The Group is also a world leader in diamond tools and cutting equipment for the construction and stone industries. And yes your Husqvarna lawn tractor was made in a Husqvarna owned USA plant. Husqvarna was part of the Electrolux Group in 2006 Electrolux divested itself of all of the outdoor power equipment group and Husqvarna Outdoor Products (HOP) was born. AYP doesn't even exist any more it was absorbed by HOP. Husqvarna owns in no particular order Jonserd, Flymo, Poulan, Weedeater, Dixon, Partner, Komatso Zenoah (Red Max), Blue Bird, Yazoo/Kees, Jenn Feng (McCulloch), Jikai (China, Diamond Products), Klippo (Sweden, Pro Lawnmowers), Gardena (Germany, lawn & garden products), Diarnant Boart and probably some that I don't know. As of 2006 Husqvarna had 14 major plants 7 in Europe, 5 in the USA, 1 in Brazil and 1 In China. With some new acquisitions there are probably more now.

borat

Joined: Nov 10, 2007
Points: 2692

Re: Do Ariens snowblowers have Hydrostatic drives like Honda snowblowers ?
Reply #8 Nov 12, 2008 9:29 am

Thanks for that AJ.

Does Husqvarna build Craftsman snow throwers in their plant and just give them a different paint job? Or does Husky & Craftsman use a generic manufacturer such as Murray or MTD to build their machines? I'd find it a little unusual to have Craftsman machines coming off of a Husqvarna assembly line. Not impossible though. Might be a bit of a marketing dilemma to explain why a Husky is better than a Craftsman however.

ajallen

Location: Colorado
Joined: Nov 28, 2007
Points: 79

Re: Do Ariens snowblowers have Hydrostatic drives like Honda snowblowers ?
Reply #9 Nov 12, 2008 12:21 pm

borat wrote:

Thanks for that AJ.

Yes Husqvarna builds Craftsman snow throwers in their plant and gives them a different paint job. Murray is owned by Briggs & Stratton and is but a shell of the former company. All of the Murray product is now built in Snapper/Simplicity plants also owned by Briggs & Stratton. Some of the Sears product is built by Murray and some MTD and the rest Husqvarna. If the model number starts with 917 or 944 it is Husqvarna, 536 is Murray and 247 is MTD so no one company builds all of the Sears product. Briggs has recently dropped the Murray name and has changed it to Briggs & Stratton Yard Power Products Group which includes Murray, Snapper, Simplicity, Generac Portable Products LLC (not to be confused with Generac Power Systems the former owner of Generac Portable Products LLC) and some others that I just can't think of right now.

borat

Joined: Nov 10, 2007
Points: 2692

Re: Do Ariens snowblowers have Hydrostatic drives like Honda snowblowers ?
Reply #10 Nov 12, 2008 3:07 pm

ajallen wrote:

Well I must say that hearing of Husky building Craftsman machines on their assembly lines is quite a surprise. So, when building Husky machines, they light up the Husqvarna sign on the side of their plant. When they switch to Craftsman, they light up the Sears sign? Who'd of thunk it?!! : ) Maybe they do it under the cover of darkness. At midnight, the plant begins to furiously churn out Craftsman machines. Or rather, furiously painting Husqvarnas to look like Craftsman machines. At three a.m., the Sears truck slinks into the loading bay to pick up a load of bogus Craftsman snow throwers to have them deposited on Sears floor for opening time. Unwittingly, customers will be treated to a product of better quality than they would normally get. Clever, very clever...

snowmachine

Location: Washington State
Joined: Nov 12, 2008
Points: 268

Re: Do Ariens snowblowers have Hydrostatic drives like Honda snowblowers ?
Reply #11 Nov 12, 2008 7:31 pm

borat wrote:

Howdy,
I am new here.

I picked up one of these 917.881063 models last month. It definitely appears to be closely related to a Husky when I cross reference parts on the unit from the Sears parts site. Some parts seem to be AYP related as well.

Major differences seems to be it has the 1450 Series B & S engine instead of the Tec and no Hydrostatic drive.

It seems to closely resemble a Husky 10527SB

I am new to snow blowers so I hope it holds up reasonably well without too many hassles in the years ahead.

Snowmachine

This message was modified Nov 12, 2008 by snowmachine

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nibbler

Joined: Mar 5, 2004
Points: 751

Hydrostatic drives
Reply #12 Nov 21, 2008 9:38 pm

The two advantages that I've heard for hydrostatic drives is that you can change speed without stopping and the speeds vary evenly from slowest to fastest. I've always found 6 forward speeds to be more than enough. Are there any other advantage to a hydrostatic transmission?

This message was modified Nov 21, 2008 by nibbler

pvrp

Joined: Nov 14, 2008
Points: 151

Re: Hydrostatic drives
Reply #13 Nov 23, 2008 1:20 pm

nibbler wrote:

The two advantages that I've heard for hydrostatic drives is that you can change speed without stopping and the speeds vary
evenly from slowest to fastest. I've always found 6 forward speeds to be more than enough. Are there any other advantage
to a hydrostatic transmission?

To me much more important is that hydrostatic doesn't wear out. I'm not crazy about friction disk drives,
I've replace mine a couple of times and it's a pain. They do work ok in practice, though, which kind of
surprises me. I'd expect them to slip all the time but they don't.

Paul

Clay

Location: Wis
Joined: Dec 3, 2008
Points: 111

Re: Do Ariens snowblowers have Hydrostatic drives like Honda snowblowers ?
Reply #14 Dec 3, 2008 1:51 am

snowmachine wrote:

I just bought this machine and it seems closer to the this Husqvarna: http://www.usa.husqvarna.com/node3099.aspx?nid=84620&pid=78456 Same variable drive without the handwarmers and the Tec engine. Since they are no longer in business I'm glad that it has a B&S engine.

Snowmachine, thanks for the parts site link. My model number is 917.881063 and when I did a search nothing shows up on the Sears web site. They used the model number 917.881060 which was slightly different and is one of the numbers in this series, but not my specific model number.

Note: I hate the variable speed drive. I find it very frustrating to control the speed on my unit. I've only used it once, but would prefer to KNOW if I am going to start moving this thing what speed it will take off. Maybe it is just me, but does anyone else have some frustration with the drive speed? I also don't like that the chute only rotates 180 degrees. My older machine rotated much farther and I came to use that extra flexibility.

Note: my chute rotation control cable already melted against the hot muffler. Make sure that yours doesn't contact the cable. On the Sears site above the cable is not sold alone but as a $70 part of assembly. That sucks if it wasn't under warranty. Once the plastic shell is melted through you loose some control over the chute.

I was thinking of taking my back and picking up the Ariens ST1130DLE: http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100646422&N=+501670+3042+90401

What do you guys think?

Rick

nibbler

Joined: Mar 5, 2004
Points: 751

Re: Hydrostatic drives
Reply #15 Dec 3, 2008 9:11 am

pvrp wrote:

Everything wears out eventually but you are right in that the hydrostatic drive should take longer to wear out. Of course I suspect refurbishing the worn out hydrostatic transmission just might be more expensive and trickier than replacing a friction disk. I've replaced one rubber edged disk and it was a bit of a challenge. It made me wonder if there was a way of just replacing the rubber "tire" instead of the entire wheel.

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