>>I might be better off haunting the scrap yards for an older >>Ariens/Simplicity/Toro chassis
Late 80’s to early 90’s Ariens 924 series is a good machine to refit. I put an 11hp Honda GX340 clone on one which worked out well. The weight (63lb) with that bucket (24) was just about the max though. The Twin-V at 93lbs would probably be difficult to handle. One good part about this setup was the motor was $230 with sales on coupon discounts at Harbor Freight.
A Simplicity 870 is a substantial body but just barely fits it’s own motor because of the handlebars and linkage rods. You have to move the motor to get the cowling off. Most of them I’ve seen came with tires that were not so wide for the body but worked well.
Newer Toro’s can come with a Japanese motor which I think is a Mitsubishi. They run them on the same bodies as fitted with Briggs motors but at 4000 rpm. With a 28 inch bucket to offset a big motor it would be good candidate if you could find one with a broken rod.
Another is an older Snapper. The base platform is pretty big and would take a big motor. The gearbox on the older heavy duty machines was one of the best ever made and the drive section robust. The auger flange support came with zerks. The buckets on the older models can probably be comfortably pushed to higher rev’s. A great candidate for a big motor is a Snapper 10301 which is one of several models over a few years. It’s a 10hp 30 inch with dual headlights and a big base and big very wide tires. Many of the older heavy duty Snappers had the same parts. Some of the series are 8260, 8265 and 1030X. Around here at least they can be gotten in good shape for under $50. Fitting a 10301 with a decent chute makes a great improvement over the original chute.
An excellent candidate would be a big early 2000 Ariens with a large 4 blade impeller. I think those were 28 and 32 inch. You can find those bodies for about $200.
Some of the drawbacks of an older bodies are they did not come with auger clutch locking with drive. They mostly had dash mounted chute controls some with hood controls but some with low side cranks. Most of the HD models came with big diameter tires but not all with very wide tires which are nice in a big machine.
From the 70’s through the 2000’s auger speeds went from 100 RPM to 140 RPM. You’d probably want a model with at least 120 RPM as a starting point. I have not found much of a relationship with 12 inch impeller diameter being at a disadvantage over a 14 for distance. The best tossers I know of are 12 inch which throw a thinner stream. A 14 inch Ariens 4 blade 11hp comes close to matching a Honda 9hp which I think is 12.
One of the desirable bodies for refit would be 90 and later Ariens but they are a problem. Many of their models have a special arrangement for supporting the chute control rod so straying very far from the foot print of the original motor makes a problem. I’ve got an excellent condition Ariens newer 11.5hp OHV 28 inch body that’s been sitting around waiting for a motor. It’s been difficult to locate anything that will fit in without a lot of mods.
One consideration of making a “franken” machine is what to do with it once it’s done. It has to be fairly practical if you’ll use it or especially for when you want to sell it. Even a GX610 is 93 lbs. A GX 390 is 63lb and would make a substantial machine but still be in the range of a practical machine when done.
This message was modified Mar 17, 2010 by trouts2
