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

We got a mess of this wet slushy stuff some were calling snow yesterday. Snow just can not be any heavier than this stuff. I knew it was gonna' Make the blower work hard. I have a 2005 Ariens 926 pro. There was maybe 5" of the stuff.  It was the biggest challenge the blower has seen and while it barked at me more than ever it was impressive to see and hear. The unit threw the stuff a minimum of 10 ' . This was for the pure slop. I thought for sure thr chute would clog on this, even though it has never has before.  There were moments that it filled up  but then but then "fudged?" out somehow. Never really missing a beat. Maybe stumbled but not missing. For the max throwing distance it didnt seem a whole lot shorter than  normal . It varried as the snow changed throughout the drive. The neighbours blower was benched and he resorted to the trusty shovel. I did his 2 contract jobs a few doors down and a couple more drives as well. All in all the blower earned its spot in the garage ( like it hadn't before? ).

STILL AN ISSUE is that irratating slipping fricktion slip drive. Never liked it never will. Damnit, when I say go, GO!!  Now it only happened a few times and recovers within seconds but it pissed me off every time. I've sealed the unit up to prevent water/snow intrusion but I'm goin' back in. They've peppered this drive housing with so many openings forcing its fate.  To me it is unacceptable behaviour and I want to beat it into submission. Can you tell I hate it?

I'll lighten up a bit and praise the differential. What a work of art it is and a pleasure to turn. Effortless one handed turns and goes where I piont it. I have a trigger to lock both wheels when needed like the super heavy EOD yesterday. It did not unlock immedeatly upon release but that is a minor adjustment I'll tend to shortly.

The motor, a 9.25hp some say is the same as their 11ish hp.  Now I have no idea if it is or not but I can say without reservation that this 9hp is plenty.  Who can't love more hp but I'm guessing that there can't be much difference. My driveway layout is such that I have to send that snow a long way and this unit does it.

All in all I am very impessed and can you beleive even with the fricktion slip "drive" I would do it again?

On a side note there were some single stage units around town that were doing an impressive job in the giant slurpee.

Tomorrow gonna' heat the garage  and give the beauty a mid-winter wax.

Tecumseh

References to wet slushy stuff are very subjective. iLikeOrange mentioned tossing 5 inches of it and that is impressive. Here in Mass really wet snow, grey colored, really soft so you could not make a snow ball with it rarely gets over 2 inches as it can't stand up given its own weight. Very few two stage snowblowers can deal with that kind of slush. Single stages can. They can throw water.

For slush with more body most snowblowers will clog in the chute. The very strong snowblowrs will pump out blocks of compressed slush that fall on the barrel and ground and don't break.

Given a little more body gets to the point where two stages can throw. At this consistency of slush different snowblower features would make a different. The diameter of the impeller, shape, speed and the same with the rakes. Just comparing Ariens to MTD or Toro is not so helpful and then there is always the subjective "slush" conditions.

Auger and impeller speed seem to be key along with good engine compression. I used two older Ariens machine that were the same model in throwable wet snow last week. One had a 7hp Tecumseh and the other a new 6.5 OHV. The 7hp has quite a bit of trouble but the 6.5 did very well. The difference was compression. The 7hp tossed well otherwise and the compression ok. Just that extra compression margin made a difference.

Impeller speed makes a difference. A poster in another thread mentioned a new Toro not being able to toss slush. That’s very subjective. A new Toro would seem to be able to toss slush with the best of them excluding Honda and Yamaha. He must have had some very difficult slush. So I wondered about the engine and speeds. Below is some info on the newer Toro models.

The 3300 is the Briggs engine RPM, so not like Tecumseh at 3600.  Ariens has 1300 impeller.

Impeller speed (3300 X 3.000/8.062) = 1228 RPM

Impeller tip speed - 3893 ft/min.

Auger speed - 123 RPM

We got 2-3 inches of wet heavy slushy snow on New Years Eve and I tried to clear it with my Ariens 722 single stage snowthrower.  Sadly even with 7hp it couldn't handle 2-3 inches of slushy snow.  If the chute was aimed straight forward it threw the snow about 5 feet.  If I aimed the chute to the right the snow got clogged up in the chute.  Very disappointing.  I ended up using my 11.5 hp Ariens 2 stage machine to clear my driveway.

Direction of impeller rotation  will determine a favored side to dischare. Wow that sounds complicated.

O

iLikeOrange wrote:
It's a single stage machine, there is no impeller...just a simple uncomplicated auger.  

The two stage I've had all toss to the right best. 

Single stages toss best forward and drop off fairly quickly as you go to either side.

I've had two newer 11.5 OHV Tecumsehs on Ariens machines (24, 28 inch) full great compression.  They were impressive in all conditions.  If I remember right the single stages could bet them at slush that was close to soup, all grey loose mush.  More like a frap than a slush cone.   Anything white stuff no matter how wet the Ariens would slop up and out the chute. 

I've only had 3 and 4.5 hp Toro and MTD machines.  The Toro 4.5's had Suzuki engines and a great engine.  They did very well in slop but they had full rubbers. 

I never had a big single stage but I thought the 7hp guys would be spectacular.  I think those are 4 cycle but they still must have high impeller speeds with good torque. 

Yo Trouts: Reference this comment of yours: "The 3300 is the Briggs engine RPM, so not like Tecumseh at 3600." Are you saying that the overhead valve B&S snow engines run at 3300 maximum operating rpm? If so, I beg to differ. My 305cc engine runs at 3600 rpm. I have an electronic tach on the machine and can observe engine speed under various loads. At w.o.t., with a very heavy load, it might drop 50 to 100 rpm. Normally though, it stays pretty much at 3600.

trouts2 wrote:
My Ariens 722 is a 7 HP Tecumseh® Snow King® 2-Cycle with a displacement of 139cc.  It blows okay if the chute is aimed forward but terrible if it's aimed to the side.  I'm going to check the drive belt because I can't imagine that it would perform so poorly with a 7hp engine.  But then again I think that Ariens discontinued their single stage machines last year so maybe it's just not all that good.

Paul7: I've heard people bark about the 7hp Ariens machines but still it should be potent.  It almost sounds like my 3's and 4's could match yours.  They'll toss very wet slush 5-15 feet but there is a big difference between forward or to the side.

Borat: What's with the Yo?? Usually that form of address is  to be an insult. 

The 3300 comes from the factory.  I called the other day to find out about newer models auger and impeller speeds.  I asked about the 3300 RPM  which was a surprise.  The rep said refereing to the new Briggs engines that they "all" ran at 3300.  I had asked him to qualify that also and he did.  Now he may be talking generally meaning most and not every single model but as told to me by the rep the new Briggs engines as a group ran at 3300.  If yours is stock at 3600 then it could be just a variant engine or you may be running over REV'ed.   What does your manual say you should be running at?  Possibly Toro recommended speed is 3300 versus max for the block but then you're probably running SeaFrom and experiencing much better performance and higher revs.

Borat: If you re-read the above posts the reference is to Toro Briggs engines.  They run at 3300 as told to me by the Toro factory and just checking their service manuals are goverened at 3300.  You have a Simplicity yes?  Your either running over reved or Simplicity has configured their engines at 3600.