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

Hi all, new to this forum after having searched for a solution to my surging hs 1132.
Among the several problems I've had with this machine is the severe pulling to the right when the bucket is in the mid or low position. I've put it on a flat surface and adjusted the shoes and scraper to manual specs and no luck. Shoes are even and scraper is even so no misalignment there. I've tried to adjust the shoes and scraper to counter the pull but nothing worked. Track tension is even. This is a pretty frustrating problem as I clean a long drive and fight against the pull the whole time - tiring and forget it if my wife ever has to run the machine. As usual, my honda dealer is no help whatsoever. I had to inform them of the icing kit I learned of on this forum after three years of bugging them about the surging, backfiring problem I was having.

The pulling to one side or the other is due to a very smallish skid shoe footprint and a huge bucket down force (30+ lbs).  There's only 3 square inches of skid shoe per side.  This combination is what makes a Honda snowblower so tenacious in digging into EOD piles and resisting lifting up on the bucket.  However, this combination is also a source of frustration as it tends to grab pavement irregulatories.  I think this is the reason why US models have the skid shoes behind the bucket just in front the tracks.    At this location, there is less torque generated that will affect the direction of the snowblower.

You can alleviate the effect of "bump steer" by lowering the skid shoes and let the auger and scraper ride higher above the pavement, leaving 1/2 inch of snow behind.  This also allows you to skid steer the tracks better since its not on super high traction surface.  The higher the bucket, the more weight is shifted on the tracks.  Another solution is to use both side and rear skid shoes, now you have more contact surface with less weight on each shoe.

In this regard, I think the Yamaha snowblower have put skid shoes behind the bucket and towards to the sides as well.  I have thought about doing the same modification on my HS1132 and see how it works.

I agree that Honda needs to do something about this design as this is a source of frustration on the operator.  I can deal with locked axles, but constant steering correction can be tiresome after a while.