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

Snowmann, I was not referring to the remote lockout models.  I was referring to the Automatic Traction Control machines.  I have read and heard that the "automatic" mechanism can get tricked and only supplies power to the slipping wheel, instead of the wheel that has actual grip.

In the scenario I illustrate, the wheel that is on the ice will continue to rotate, while the wheel on the ground will not move.  Once again because of the ATC mechanism.

opecrazy wrote:
Hmmm. Wouldn't you think it would work the opposite way? ... in that the power would be supplied to the wheel that still has the traction and not the one that's slipping?

The Automatic traction control is awesome! I really love it and it makes turning my machine so much easier.  30" machine like mine is a fairly large rig and I don't think I would ever go that size without it. As for the quick chute over traction control and throwing end of driveway snow far, I am with borat on that.  EOD is heavy, don't be surprised if you have to blow it twice, specially later in the season when the snow banks are high. I have all sorts of brand names around me and all in different sizes.  When the heavy wet packed snow comes into play, they all struggle to some degree.  As for the features, ditto again.. Look at the build quality of the machines in question.  But I must say, the traction control is nice.

To the poster taking about the traction control slipping on ice, when going straight..  I see that you read this information, can you post a link?  I have never had that happen to me and I get A LOT of ice in my drive.  I find it a bit hard to believe, but not impossible.

Blowing the EOD stuff twice wouldn't bother me. I want to find something that can go "through" it ... period. The snow blower I've been using as far back as I can remember is an old 1971 Ariens. (I'm 54). Where I live (NE Wisconsin), the last 2 winters have been unusually harsh. My 1971 snow blower couldn't get through the EOD stuff after many of our storms. It just would come to a complete halt when it hit the EOD stuff. Then I would have to bring out the hand shovel to finish the job. That's a lot of snow to carry around by hand (3 car wide driveway) and I don't want to ever have to do that again. I may have even torn a rotator cuff carrying the heavy wet snow around (... because I can't toss it 3 car widths). So anyway, that's a big reason why I'm looking for a new machine.

And one more thing I'd like to bring up ...

It seems that the higher end machines all have some kind of "gizmo" kind of chute on them. They're either some form of joystick control or electric. It's too bad the higher end machines aren't built with good old fashioned, simple and reliable, no-nonsense cranks.

You should really try this feature before you buy into any bogus hearsay or speculation. The Ariens ATC is a dual bidirectional over-running clutch. As such, the condition you describe is not possible. Once again, someone is confusing a planetary differential with the ATC or has a defective unit. The entire purpose of this mechansim is to omit this condition so a lockout is not required. "Bidirectional" refers to the fact that it operates whether you are moving forward or rearward. "Dual" refers to the fact that each wheel has it's own clutch. To unlock one of the wheels you need a relative over-running torsion accross the axle. The condition you describe would not provide this torsion. The ATC is all mechanical and cannot be "tricked" by certain conditions like computer controlled automotive ABS and traction control. The Ariens ATC technology is heavily used on all terrain UTV's and other off road vehicles that depend even moreso on this same function. If the condition you described were possible, these vehicles would not function to their intended purpose, nor would thy be equiped with this feature. It's also possible an unscrupulous dealer sold a 2006 model Pro as a 2007 or newer. Some are not forthright to avoid discounting non-current models. That is, this person might think they have an ATC equipped model when they have a planetary system.

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!