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

Bought this Ariens 11528DLE last year, in January. For some reason, the forward and reverse drive will stop working. The friction wheel is fine, and there is no adjustment for the belt. I brought it to the local Ariens dealer, and of course, they could not reproduce the problem. They were nice enough to look inside, clean the wheel that the friction wheel drives with brake cleaner. Next snow storm, same thing, one pass down the driveway, and it stops. The dealer says, never heard of this one, maybe water is getting inside.

Paid lots of money for a machine that is touted as one of the best, I wish I could figure out why it is happening. Any suggestions???

Thanks

Brian from NH

Nice explanation Mac!  I never thought of that happening.

Now I'm wondering if a spritz of alcohol would cure it, by both deicing and drying, and then evaporating leaving nothing. Theoretically, it could even help cool the plate back down. I'm not sure if it would evaporate fast enough in the cold and I'm too lazy to look it up.  Anyway, I'd be tempted to try it if I had that problem.

Bill_H wrote:

Spraying alcohol on the friction disk is problematic for several reasons. First, how do you do it without taking the bottom panel off? Second, alcohol is highly flammable and a mist of alcohol is explosive only needing an ignition source. Third, alcohol allows water to mix with oil, which is not something I would want on the internal workings of the drive system. Some sort of electric heat would be better, either intense light or heated air. Then again, the problem can usually be avoided by letting the machine cool off before starting to throw snow.  Honda avoids the problem altogether by using hydrostatic drive.

Brian....Warm garage, cold garage... outside.... bottom line is this machine should work either way...period...It's a poor design and doesn't work .. I had the baffle put on and it still has issues....I  had a Signature machine for 10 years made by Noma ( a fraction of the cost)  and kept it in the same spot in the garage where my Ariens machine sits now...Never had a problem other than normal maintenance.   If only the Ariens 11528DLE  would work as well as my old one.. .At least I could count on it moving when I put it in gear..  My patience is almost gone!!

bob1031 wrote:
Any chance of showing us a picture of the inside of your machine, the
friction disk and drive plate in particular ?  I had a similar problem but
after leaving the machine indoors for a couple of days to dry out and
setting the tension on the drive engagement cable to just a bit more
than what is specified it regained its traction.

Paul

Hello again, here is where I am with the machine. I contacted Ariens and they want my dealer to put a baffle on my machine, just like Bob1031. Of course, I will do this, even though it did not work for Bob1031. I have a feeling that this will be a big waste of time, but if I don't go along with it, Ariens will say they did what they could do.

Mac, I keep the machine in an unheated shed, they same place that I have kept my John Deere snow blower for the past 15 years and with no problems. The John Deere has the same set up with the friction plate. There is absolutly no reason for this problem. Cables have been adjusted and friction plate cleaned a number of times. I just hope I can get some satisfaction from Ariens, but after reading Bob's post, I am not feeling too good about that.

Brian NH

We have a year old 11528 LE at work and it does the same thing.

I wonder if someone made a bad choice on the type of compound that should go on the friction disk. The harder it is the longer it will last but the less friction you will get. Softer equals more friction but faster wear. While water can lead to some problems it is part of the working environment and should not cause a problem. Colder temperature would also cause the material to harden but a little bit of usage should "warm things up". Cold is also part of the working environment so again it shouldn't be a problem. Its a design decision and it sounds like they pushed the envelope to far in the hardness direction. 

Have any of the people with the problem put their machine up on a block to get the wheels off of the ground, pull the bottom plate(s)off, and fire it up to see what's happening?  I know it's something I wouldn't want to do at 15 below zero but if the machine isn't working, you have to take a look inside to watch the relative mechanical components and how they interact.  There might be some oil on the surfaces or insufficient contact force.  If the problem is intermittent, i.e. works when cold but not when warm, run the machine until the problem begins then inspect.   This is a long shot but is there a chance that the rubber ring might be slipping on the wheel?      

My experience points to the first gear being too high which puts undo stress
on the contact between the rubber and the plate, either while blowing snow
or moving the machine on an incline.   Any kind of water getting on the plate
would just make things worse.  I wonder if the new texture recently added by
Ariens to the drive plate's surface has anything to do with this as I haven't
had any problems with the completely smooth aluminum drive plate on my
10 year old Ariens (though its first gear is also lower).

This and the fact that because first gear is too high when dealing with deep
heavy snow  you have to engage/disengage the drive constantly.

Nobody with the tracked DLETs seems to have problems, and they have a
40% gear reduction on 1st gear compared to the DLEs.

It may also be due to sloppy parts assembly.  The drive plate on my old
Ariens is mounted on a sliding cylinder with ball bearings at each end
whereas the new plate is mounted on a swing plate that's just attached
to the frame.

Paul

brjl wrote:
I wasn’t sure if you kept your machine in a warm garage or not.  I only mentioned that as a possibility as your description of the problem is what happens to a machine kept in a warm garage under the right conditions.  When I say warm, I don’t necessarily mean heated.  Some people have insulated garages which can hover above freezing.  That’s not your case, but there is a reason for it.  It could be the material the friction wheel is made from as nibbler stated.  I wonder if the rubber from an older model that doesn’t seem to have the problem would work in the 11538DLE.  Maybe Ariens changed suppliers and the rubber part of the friction wheel has more plastic and less rubber in it.  You would think Ariens would be hard at work trying to solve this issue rather than taking the hit on their reputation.