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

Hello,

I have an Ariens 11.5hp 28" snowblower that's two years old.  I recall when I bought it Ariens sold a weight kit, basically steel bars, that mounted on the front top of the machine.  The purpose was to help prevent the machine from riding up and over the EOD snow. 

Does anyone know about this accessory?  I can't find it in locally so I could go out and simply buy plate steel bars & drill and mount them.  But it would be helpful to know the dimensions and weight of the original parts in order to duplicate it more closely.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me out.

Paul

The genuine weight kit from ARIENS is exactly 10 lbs.

I made one from used steel that I bought from a recycler ($0.40/lbs).

The specifications for the steel plates are: 24" long x 3" wide x 1/4 inch thick = 5 lbs.

I found that 20 lbs works best, so I took 4 of these plates and bolted them under the blower housing using 5/16" bolts and LOCK WASHERS.

I was under the impression that the weight kit was to counterbalance the weight
of a cab.  My Ariens is balanced so that the front can be easily lifted, like when you
want to go quickly without plowing, or are on rough terrain.  I've found that adjustment
of the skids and scraper can help prevent the front from climbing up on snow.  On
packed snow it may be the skids that are doing the climbing.  On my old machine
the skids are not symmetrical and if you reverse them you can have a knife-edge
pointing down which would prevent this, though I've never tried it.

Paul

The front weight prevents the front housing from lifting off the ground when the SERRATED auger bites in the packed snow at the end of the driveway.

The direction of rotation tends to lift the housing off the ground.

Thanks everyone for the replies.  I did find a kit on-line but at $60 with shipping I'm going to fabricate my own. 

I had a 3' piece of 4" pvc kicking around, along with a 1/2 bag of old cement. I mounted it to the top of the bucket, about 40 lbs.  Helped a little but I'm getting a track 1st of the year. There's not much you can do with it diving up, the more weight on the front of the machine the less on the wheels and they just spin.