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.

No hydrostatic transmissions.

Manuals are on the Ariens website.

Use model 921006 s/n# 000101 if you want to view the 1130DLE

I was in a local OPE dealer recently and picked up a 2008 single-page brochure for Husqvarna just for fun, and to see what's going on in the snow blower marketplace.  It was interesting to see that their "Professional" series blowers have the hydrostatic drive.  Other than Honda, I believe Husqvarna is the only manufacturer using this type of drive; well, at least on their top three blowers.  The Husqvarna's also have power steering levers on both handlebars.  Ariens does not have either of these features, but they are well known for their differential axle system, especially the DLE series machines.  This is better than power steering levers.

Sears also offer a hydrostatic drive on their Craftsman line.  I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the Husquvarna and Craftsman come from the same plant.  Possibly manufactured by MTD, Murray, etc. 

borat wrote:

I was in Sears recently, and noticed that their top model (#88106) is a Husqvarna.  It just has the Craftsman label and red paint.  I had to laugh.  The salesperson admitted it is a Husky. 

I have the brand new 2008 Craftsman snow blower brochure (the exact one on their web site), but all models listed there have the usual 6/2 drives except one model that has only one speed.  However, if Craftsman is introducing hydro drives after the brochure was produced, I have to wonder if this feature will spread to all major snowblower brands.  Since there are only a handful of real players (AYP, MTD, Ariens, Toro, Briggs/Murray/Simplicity/Snapper, etc.), I don't think it's too hard to imagine.  Husqvarna already has hydro drive on their top three models for 2008 (I have the brochure).  That was certainly a nice surprise.  By the way, Husqvarna is owned by MTD, but is under the Poulan camp which is also owned by MTD.  This corporate layering gets to be ridiculous.

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

Snowmann wrote:
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. 

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.

AJ

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. 

borat wrote:

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.

AJ

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... 

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

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?

nibbler wrote:
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

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

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.

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.