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

My driveway is about 150' long, 40' wide with a pretty good slope.  I also need to go along the side of the house to maintain access to the propane tanks out back.  Trouble there is the snow and ice comes off the steel roof packing in right on the  path that I need to keep clear.  This can be tougher that the snow at the end of the driveway after the plow goes through.

I like the Honda with tracks to get through the tougher stuff.  Not sure if the Simplicity will tend to ride up on it.  The downside of the Honda is the manuverablility (lack there of) and the inability to move the machine at all when not running.  A plus for the track system might also be to climb the steps to my back deck.  It would be neat to be able to snowblow the deck, but not sure if it is realistic to expect even the track dirve to climb the 25 steps up. 

The upside of the Simplicity is it looked to be a little better built.  Purely subjective from looking at them quickly, mayby it's the big steel plates instead of the tubes normally used for handle bars that make if look heavier duty.  The Simplicity's cast iron gear case looks heavier duty and the drive mechanism seems like it might be more reliable over time (less complex and fewer parts.)  The other thing I noted at my local dealers was the directional chute control.  The Honda seemed potentially better.  Well designed mechanical system.  The  Simplicity seems more convenient with the electric control and is easier to reach.  I think as convenient as the electric system is, I would prefer haveing the mechanical system rather than look for replacement parts in an electrical set up.  By chance can anyone say if the electric chute control will ever freeze up?

I'm trying to not factor in the cost of the machine, as I hope it will last long enough not to care.  Is there really a clear winner among these two?  Is honda engineering that good that it will outlast simplicities heavy duty machine?  Is the track system worth the loss of some manuverability?  Hopefully there is no bad decision between these two, I'm hoping someone can make some more educated points on either machine to help me decide.  I hate to by one and then wish for the other.  Thanks for any insight!

Thought I would add one last thing.  My drive way is course gravel on a gravel road.  For this reason I also thought that the height adjustability of the Honda track might be better.  My Ariens always throws the rocks until there is a good base of ice/snow.  Sometimes it digs the lawn going down the side of the house as well.

I truly respect Honda however, I do not consider them to be a good value.  Being almost twice the price of a comparable Simplicity, I cannot, for the life of me, see why.  I can see paying a premium for the Honda but not that much.  Every time I get behind my Simplicity, I'm thoroughly impressed with it.   I just finished doing my yard (dimensionally very similar to yours by the way) and it was windy as hell.  I put the snow cab on and went to work.  It's truly a pleasure to work with a machine that functions as well as the Simplicity does.  My neighbour has a three year old, ten horse power Yard Works (MTD) and he was out doing his drive at the same time I was doing mine.  His was basically p!ssing out the snow maybe fifteen feet (if that).   We had about three inches of fine heavy powder snow.  I shoveled as much as I could then pulled out the snow thrower.  It was blasting snow a good thirty to forty feet.  My neighbour stopped what he was doing and stood there smiling watching the Simplicity in action.   For the money, it's a tough act to follow. 

I have the Honda tracked model and I have to wrestle it to turn on a 2 car wide driveway.  I have the brushed texture on the concrete and it is very hard to turn.  I did my research and this was the trade off I was prepare to accept.  My driveway is sloped upward and I didn't want to try to push 200 lbs of snow removal machinery uphill.  Last week, I had packed snow and ice and I struggled to just walk myself up the slope without slipping.  The tracked snowblower gripped securely and helped pull me up.  I was practically skating behind it like a dog sled.  The tracks have at least 4 times the contact area of a wheel.  It was nice. 

I'm not sure I would attempt to climb 25 steps with the snowblower.  That is a lot of mass coming down at me if something was to go wrong.  Just make sure you have an escape route and get out of its way when gravity takes over.

The height adjustability of the bucket is nice when trying to take chunks off a big snow drift.  Although I don't use this feature often, only in transport mode when I need to cover ground quickly.  For attacking tall drifts, I normally set a very slow ground speed and just let the machine chew at it.  Faster ground speed would only make the bucket climb over the snow sooner and faster.  And boy does it like to chew snow drifts and toss it!  Many times I am so tempted to throw the snow onto the neighbor's end of driveway.  Hehe.  He has an Hummer H3 and I'm curious if he would actually shovel his driveway once in a while, if need be. 

When the bucket is up, there is about 2 to 3 inches of snow left behind.  The bucket is bobbing up and down a lot due to all weight balanced over the tracks like a teeter totter.  With the bucket down, there is a lot of downforce so it is very stable.  I don't have experience snowblowing on gravel driveways but I would probably adjust the skid shoes to bring the auger up higher until a base of snow and ice has formed, then I'll lower the bucket.  I assume this is the technique most people would use whether or not they have the tracked or wheel snowblowers.  Using longer skids with more generous kick up at front and back also help prevent digging into the gravel.

I've used my father's single stage Honda snowblower many years and this is my first time using a two-stage machine.  With the Honda tracked model and locked axles,  I stragetically plan my turns to not unnecessarily wrestle it.  The biggest challenge is doing a U turn on the sidewalk in a foot of snow.  At times, it feels like man-handling a 500-pound sumo wrestler.  It is a nice machinery when the big and heavy snow comes down.  It will track in straight line nicely but the side plates of the bucket tends to grab when it contact grass.  Because of more downforce on the bucket, the side plates dig in like a rudder in the water.  It takes considerable effort to steer it away from the grass.  I usually just back up and move it away from the grass rather than trying to steer it.  I attribute this to it's rear mounted skids.  I'm ordering a pair of side mounted skids to see if this problem is alleviated.

There was a lot of frustration initially when operating the tracked snowblower.  I thought I bought a wrong snowblower.  It felt like flying a helicopter.  Move this lever, that lever, steer here, not there.  Watch out for frozen newspapers and hidden flower beds in the snow.  Move chute left, right, up down.  Oops, moved crank the wrong direction.  Turn right to rotate left.  Engage auger.  The snow just blew right back in my face.  Darn it, I should pay somebody to do this.   Now, I've gotten used to it and looking forward to big snow storms.  Last week, I even try to snowblow the paver walkway with a few chicanes.  A little Toro two cycle would have been nice for this application.  However, I was satisfied when completed that I did not tear up the paver bricks and chew up the flower beds.  Hehehe.

I wish I could get both machines, that would be nice.  I'm prepared to bight the bullet on one anyway, but my wife would have something to say about two.  Yes the Honda is more, but not as much as I thought.  My local dealer has a pro series Simplicity 28" for $2000, and 32" for $2200.  At the local honda dealer they had a 1032" tracked for $2800, I forget what they wanted for the 28" honda, but it would ofcourse be a little less.  So in comparison the difference between the Honda and Simplicity is roughly $600.  If the honda is of better quality then I would be happy to spend the extra $600, I'm really only concerned if the auger gear box on the honda is as good or better than the simplicity, will the track drive hold up and somewhat concerned about manuevering the tracked version? 

If I could settle this issues in my mind I would happly by the Honda.  On the other hand, the only concern that I have with the simplicity is will I really wish I had the track dive when the white stuff gets hard and packed around here, and will I wish for the adjustable height of the Honda when dealing with the gravel?

The Ariens track drive (1332 DLET) is in the same price range as the Honda HS1132.  It is a very nice machine with all the bells and whistles, including onboard 12V battery for starting.  It had traction control and hand grip warmers.  I was considering the Ariens and Honda models for a while.  It was a tough choice though.  The Ariens has a taller bucket, auger diameter, and impeller.  The auger and gear case is very heavy duty.  Everything on this machine just exudes raw power.

In the end, I chose the Honda because there was more information available about it on youtube and the internet.  While there is a lot of information on the Ariens in general, very few people seem to own the Ariens tracked snowblower.  I also prefer the controls layout, lower stance, engine and hydrostatic transmission of the Honda.

If I had to do it over again, it would still be a tough choice.  If Simplicity had made a tracked model with electric chute rotation and some sort of traction differential, I would be all over it.  I just love the steel channel handles instead of the tubes and the overall solid feel of the whole machine.

I don' t think the auger gear box would be a concern or deciding factor among these great machines.  They all have shear pins for the purpose of protecting these gears.  If you want tough gearbox, consider the new Toro's.  Toro decided to eliminate shear pins because they are confident their gear box is tough enough.   Although there is some breakable link to disconnect the crank shaft to protect the engine.

I'm surprised that you have stripped auger worm gear twice within a year.  Did the snowblower pick up gravel stones but the shear pins not break?  Was the auger or bearings bind and not spinning freely?  Was there impact to the bucket side plates to cause bearing misalignment?  I find that the same failure within a short period of time means that the actual root cause (man, machine, operating condition) was not identified and corrected.  Whether these gears made to Ariens, Simplicity, or Troy-Bilt specs, it is unlikely that anyone would design and manufacture a component with a mean time between failure (MTBF) of 6 months.  That is just not acceptable at any price point.

It may be a good idea to determine the root cause of the stripped auger worm gears on you machine before dropping $2000 to $3000 on a new machine.  But if you have to, a Honda HS928TAS and a Toro Power Clear 421Q makes a nice combination to take care of your sloped gravel driveway and the deck. 

I'm a true believer in getting the right tools for the job.  I don' t know how big your deck is, but crawling tracked snowblower up 25 steps and putting yourself in danger is brave and impressive feat, but foolish.  I would have a lightweight single stage always ready on the deck rather than trekking a 300 lb 2-stage up and down those steps. 

When push came to shove I went for the Simplicity P11528E, the 28" pro series.  I went to look at the Honda this morning and tried it out.  It was the 1032, and it is a great machine.  I really liked the fit and finish of all the brackets and plates.  Love the tracks!  Then I left to purchase the Simplicity.  I didn't really care about the price difference, at least not at first.  They want $2500.00 for and Honda 928.  I'm really not knocking the Honda at all, I was impressed, but there were a few things I didn't care for.  I'll list them, seems easier that way.

-Tubular handle bars.  Wouldn't have been a thought If I hadn't seen the big C Channel bars used on simplicity.  I lifted and pushed on the honda bars to compare and wow they did move quiet a bit.  I'm sure they wouldn't break, the dealer had some older ones there and none were broken.  However, the robustness of the simplicity can be seen a mile away.  Honda chassis seem to be closer in design to the large frame Simplicity.  Although the Honda bars are welded to the chasis, not bolts to losen (good unless you did have a problem)

-Cables were nicely laid out and bunched together on the honda, nice professional look.  However, it made the simplicity look easier to maintain.  Maybe not, but at a glance there is alot to adjust under the control panel of the honda.  Also, I really didn't like the flimsy little choke pull on the honda.  I think I would break that leaning into the machine working it.

-Didn't see any grease zerks on the Honda augers.  At first I thought no bid deal I'll just take it apart, drill and tap to install a couple.  Then I thought I didn't want to pay top dollar only to have to tear it apart to do something that should already be there.  Also the smaller diameter of the auger shaft makes it look like the whole front is built a little light than the simplicity.

-Adjusting the Chute deflector.  The honda has a simple lever like most others, works but tends to move itself up as the snow blowing against pushes it.  Dealer said you can tighten it so it won't happen, but is then difficult to operate.  Simplicity seems to solve the problem by making indents that the lever locks into.

-Tracks seem great!  However, the only way to back the machine up really is put it into reverse.  This wasn't that fast when I tried it out, but similar to my experience with wheeled machines.  There are some areas Where I just pull the wheeled machines back as it's much easier and faster.  Can't do it with tracks.  When I tried it out it was snowing pretty good, 3-4 inches on the ground, and we were on clean pavement otherwise.  Made roads and parking lot a little slick.  Set the machine to the lower position, moved the hydrostatic full forward and engaged machine.  It sort of jumped at engagement, the front probably bit on the pavement alittle, and the tracks spun.  Machine stayed put until I pushed some on the bars.  This really sold me on the Simplicity, as I felt I was trading off some build quality and comfort of control layout and manuverability for the unstopable traction, only to see them spin.  I still really feel the tracks are great.  This was I'm sure not a totally fair test of there ability.  The machine was probably only unboxed and not set up properly, and conditions just right to work against it.  However, with my uneven gravel driveway which always has an ice base on it in the winter, I wouldn't be surprised to experience similar results.  Not that a wheeled one will be necessarily better in that situation either, but I couldn't compromise on everything else (in my mind) and not see a significant advantage when I tried it.

-I had spent some time with a good dealer that deals both simplicity and honda.  In short he didn't want to steer me, but felt the honda wasn't worth the extra cost.  Both machines were great and I would be happy either way.  As I said before, I didn't mind the extra initial cost.  The Simplicity was $2000.00 even, and would pay the $500.00 extra for a better machine.  As we looked at some of the older one he explained that there was pin in the hydrostatic trans that sometimes sheared.  Repair cost was over $800.00.  This included an update to the drive that the newer machines already have, and he assured me it solved the problem.  Some of the used ones were 8 and 9 year old machines that ended up getting traded and were for sale.  Owners didn't went to spend that much to repair a 9 year old machine and bought new ( the one owner we discussed replaced the old honda with a new simplicity, not that it says anything bad about honda really).  I really want to bite the bullet and buy something reliable for many years to come.  These older hondas looked to be in fairly good shape, but I understand the logic of owners that traded them instead of doing an expensive repair.  Bottom line, I don't want to have to trade a good machine because repair will likely be to costly to justify on older equipment.  Most parts on Simplicity are considerably cheaper from what I can tell.

-The Simplicity did seem more comfortable with the higher handle bars and controls.  The Honda handle bar height wasn't to bad, but I did really have to bend over to crank the chute around.  I suppose I would get use to it, and didn't really think it was that big of deal.  I did really like the smoothness of the Honda's chute crank.  One thing I'm not to sure on was the Simplicitys electric motor to move the chute.  I would rather have the Honda's mechanical set up.  I decided not to worry about it to much because I know that parts like the electric motor are simply and wiper motor, reliable and easy to replace at NAPA if need be.  The dealer assured me that they had been used reliably like that for some time, I'm hoping so.

The little things like the above mentioned chute deflector with indents to hold position are what sold me on Simplicity.  Honda seems to make products that are great, many of them are second to none, by putting so much thought and engineering into it that it's almost like engineering art work (the brackets and quality of the auger crank is really slick).  However, simple and rugged to me is they way to go for snowblowers, and even then things break.  I think, even though it may be minimal in reality, Simplicity has the edge here.  Not as fancy, but straight forward things that work.  Also most likely any repairs down the road will hopefully be easy and cheap enough to keep running it.

So, in the end, I got my Simplicity pro 28" for $2175.00 out the door delivered and serviced with tax from a good dealer.  Should be here tomorrow afternoon, can't wait!  No, I won't be trying to climb my 25 steps with it.  I am debating if it is a good idea to try it on some really hard snow ice that piled up when it got warm and is now nice and solid at 8 degrees outside.  Perhaps I should break it in on some easier stuff and forget about that pile until spring takes it away.  Any thoughts on that one?

As far as break in goes, don't be afraid to work it hard for short spells.  It's good for seating the rings.  Load and unload the machine.  Generally, a normal clearing of the driveway will be just about right providing you don't have a foot of heavy snow.   Change your oil after a couple of hours, check adjustments, belt tension, fasteners and enjoy.