I've been using Ariens snowblowers all my life, so I'm pretty disappointed with my 2004 8526LE so far. When I received it, one of the shoe bolts was stripped out and the shoe would not stay adjusted. Ariens sent me a couple new ones, which I was happy with. However during the big blizzard, I noticed my wheel drive was very sluggish, I had to push the thing to get it going forward, and as soon as it hit any resistance, it would stop. I had fully tensioned and adjusted everything after the initial 15 mins but figured maybe there had been some stretching. Brought it in to inspect, the pivot point where the drive cable connects (sticks just out of the body) was not pivoting, it was just hanging around in there loose. Wasn't like that when I got it for sure. Took it all apart, found the bolt with no cotter pin sitting in the bottom. So it apparently had been slid through and no pin ever put on (the bolt was stuck in some ice on the bottom, with no pin in sight). Of course this caused a lot of wear to the friction disc and there is rubber all over the friction plate now. So I also needed to change the oil last night, and while it was draining I decided to inspect other parts again with a fine tooth comb. I am missing a bolt that holds the dipstick tube support and the front of the carb cover in place, my starter has a horrible looking electrical connection that I had to re-do (it stopped working during the storm, I thought it was Ice, guess not) and in general all kinds of stuff was loose.
I bought it in the crate as it came from Ariens, unopened, so this was not a dealer assembly issue. Pretty disapointed for $1000..... I mean I looked it over when I got it and did the adjustments, but I had no idea I had to rip the entire thing apart and inspect the inside too. Sheesh.
Now that its all fixed it works great, would drive itself through a brick wall, its not the quality of the product itself that bothers me, more the quality control of the assembly. So at the beginning of next year looks like I'll need a new friction disc already and spend some time removing the rubber off the plate. Oh well.
-Dave
