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

I'm in the market for a new snow blower and trying to narrow down my choices. I started a post here a month or so ago, with concerns on Simplicity's electric chute controls. As a brief recap, the primary use of this new snow blower will be to clear out a large corner lot, including a 3 car wide, 2 car length driveway. Due to the layout of the property, I have to blow the snow all the way over from one side of the driveway (across the 3 car widths) to the other side ... and over a row of 4 foot tall hedges on that other side.

Being that I feel more comfortable with mechanical parts rather than electric, I'm dropping the Simplicity out of the choices. My choices are coming down to either one of the Ariens platinum deluxe models (24" or 27") or one of the Toros with the easy turning features. In a nutshell, I'm trying to prioritize what's more important to me ... the really slick chute controls of the Toro or the wheel/traction mechanism of the Ariens platinum machines. I really like the idea of not having to worry about cable freeze-ups in the turning mechanism, which is why I would go platinum instead of just regular deluxe on the Ariens.

Any thoughts on this???

Thanks,

Bob

Thanks Snowmann for clearing it up.  I guess I misinterpreted something or the dealer was flat out lying, or both.  At first it didn't make sense to me, but this dealer is respected so I mistakenly believed him.  Maybe he was thinking of the planetary differential?

Are there any manuals that show the ATC?  I would like to see a service or parts manual for it?

I would love to see an exploded diagram of the ATC.

After much agonizing over what to buy, I just took delivery of an Ariens Deluxe 30" Platinum snow blower. This thing is HUGE compared to the old 1971 24" Ariens which it is replacing. I'm hoping I didn't overdo it. I think it might take some adjusting to get used to handling a bigger machine. The reason I went with the 30" over the 24" was pretty much for the extra power of the 30-incher's larger 342CC 1650 series engine. I wanted to make darn sure that whatever I bought could handle the End-Of-Driveway stuff. For what it's worth, the features that drew me to the Ariens over the other brands were the tall chute (to shoot snow over a 4 foot row of hedges), the Automatic Traction Control (one less cable to freeze up), and a little bit of the decision had to do with a sense of loyalty to my home state (where Ariens is headquartered). Snow is in the forecast for Monday here. I'm not sure how much, but if we get a surprise accumulation of snow, I should be all set. Thank you all for your help! Bob

I used my Ariens Deluxe 24 for the first time yesterday, blowing about 7 inches of heavy snow from our drive.  It blew the snow fantastically, but there was one problem.

This model does not have Auto Traction... in fact, it doesn't even have a trigger unlock.  Hauling that beast around at the end of a pass was harder than I thought.  The tires really don't like to be pushed sideways.  Even with the machine moving forward, it take substantial effort to do a 180.  If the machine is stationary, turning it around is a bear.  I'm fairly fit, but this is ridiculous.  At the very least, Ariens should have installed a trigger lock on this unit-- only the 27" and bigger Deluxe machines have trigger locks.

I spoke to my OPE dealer and he is willing to upgrade me to a Platinum 24 (with Auto Traction and remote chute controls) -- he's asking me to take a $75 hit since I used the machine (but he'll waive the usual $40 delivery fee this time around).  I guess that's reasonable.  I feel a bit foolish for not carefully scoping out how hard this thing is to turn.  But since I'll be using it for years to come, I should get something I'm happy to live with.

I've been thinking of upgrading to  plain deluxe 27, but I might bite the bullet and go for the 24" Auto Traction model.  What a dillemma!

I would go for the one with the automatic traction control.  I used mine yesterday, and it was fantastic.  Even my wife was able to move it around and its the Pro 28.

Guinness wrote:
Thanks for the tip, Guinness.  I'll try the strategy of telling my wife that someday she'll have to/ want to/ will crave using the machine, and then she'll relish the easy turning, hand warming, halogen lighting and remote chute controls of the Platinum model. Brilliant!

snowgo wrote:

I had no idea what to buy,, but after finding this forum, I knew "you get what you pay for".

I too wanted to remain loyal to my home state. I just purchased a ST926DLE PRO. What a great machine...let it sonw...let it snow....let it snow......

Bill