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

Last year I bought a John Deere 1130SE snowblower and for the most part I was extremely happy with it's performance. I love the hand warmers, electric chute rotation, easy steer and the front end weight just to name a few.  The only problem I had, which was pretty significant, was the intermittent transmission slipping.  After sealing the transmission housing with silicone and some weather stripping, the problem was completely gone.  The remainder of the winter was very pleasing and I always looked forward to using the 1130.  I also had a second snowblower that I'm trading for a new 1330SE.  So now I'll have the 1130 and the 1330.  The 1130 will be for my business parking lot.  Some of the interesting features of the 1330 is the addition of an electric deflector control and dash area integrated headlights.  So now the chute is totally electric (both rotation and the deflector).  The slipping transmission should be resolved from water getting into the rubber/aluminum disc drive.  To fix this problem, Deere added a rubber gasket between the engine mounting plate and the transmission housing.  I'll try to post some pictures in the future.
BTW, my second choice would have been an Ariens since they seem to give people on this website support from at least one poster.  I wish Briggs, Simplicity or Deere would give the same support.

When I reported on my new 1330SE on December 12th, after my first chance to use it, I commented on a few "bad" impressions that I had, in addition to several good things. JohnWI had some astute observations about each of my concerns, and they've all virtually evaporated over the last couple weeks. At this point, after assaulting record snow for any one month in southeast Minnesota, I'm a full fledged fan of the big green beast. It sounds like the whole northern half of the Country is getting pummeled already this Winter; but here's what December looked like around here:

Dec 3-4: 9 inches of snow

Dec 10-11: 16 inches (the first snow for my 1330SE)

Dec 15-16: 6 inches

Dec 20: 6 inches

Dec 25: 5 inches

As you can imagine, the piles just kept getting higher; but the beast made easy work of clearing the snow plow mounds and opening access to the mail box. Those were major chores with my old John Deere 624. It's been great to have the power to launch snow out of the way on a single pass, rather than having to re-blow snow that my old machine couldn't throw far enough to completely clear our wide driveway. I think my disappointment in the Easy-Steer feature stemmed from the fact that turning after that first snow storm required pushing 16+ inches of snow latterally with the side of the bucket, and was no fault of the split (open) axel. Either I"ve gotten used to the strength of the drive lever or it's loosened up some; because I really don't notice it much any more. What I do notice is that my hands don't get cold, I don't have to yank a rope in the tight confines of my garage to get things started, I can change blow directions with the push of a button, and I can launch snow as far as I need to.

 If we've got to deal with record breaking snow falls, it's great to have a blow beast that can handle it.

Catt, could you please tell me if the handle bars on the 1330SE are height adjustable? Jason

producerboy wrote:
Sorry that I didn't respond earlier.  The height of the bars isn't really adjustable.  The cables for the drive / auger and gear selector wouldn't work if the height was changed with the existing design.  Height is certainly something that you should evaluate as only you can determine if it's acceptable.  For me it's pretty good, but depending on your height and arm length it may be acceptable or unacceptable.

Moeman wrote:
The bolt holding these 2 pulleys in place became lose on my machine after 2 hours use. The drive belt then came off rendering F/R unuseable. I would guess it was not tightened down properly at the factory. I used a large wrench to hold the HEX between the pulleys and another smaller wrench to tighten the bolt down and re-installed the belts. Works now.

I just picked up a 1330SE from Lowe's.  Do these units have the same drivetrain issues that people were experiencing with the 1130SE?  I'm assuming they're essentially the same machine from a major component standpoint. 

Someone else also reported that this blower is worthless in hard snow due to lack of traction, but I'm not sure the individual elaborated on exactly what he meant by hard snow.  I guess his older John Deere unit had not problems.  Are wheel weights available for these units?

Yep - that was me!  And the JD people (Kudos for em) drove out and spent an hour testing it and finally agreed that it just did not meet my needs and took it back with a full refund .  I imagine that it wasn't just a JD problem, rather that any wheeeld blower woulda been similar.  The snow was hard enough to walk on.  My old JD 826 did manage to cut into it, but with some difficulty.  But, I then bought a Honda 928 with tracks and I would never look back now.  Just set the speed right and it'll chew through just about anything.  One more comment on the JD 1330 is  that I really disliked the auto steering on it.  Even in soft snow that it did blow OK, it tended to wander from side to side and took quite a bit of effort to keep it in a straight line.  And when taking just a partial cut, it had a strong tendency to pull to one side.

FYI, John Deere is phasing out their OPE and will soon be a franchise for Honda Power Equipment.

longboat wrote:
Maybe that will help JD recover from some of the damage they did to their good name.  Selling those JD badged low grade junk riding mowers at Home Depot and their outlets lowered their reputation considerably.  If I were Honda, I would have thought that move through a bit more.

It's a bit disheartening to hear of Dr Woof's issues.  This is my first snowblower, and I've never blown snow.  I grew up down south, and have lived in an apartment since moving to Michigan.  My only experience with snow has involved looking at it, playing in it and driving in it.  I just moved into a new house, and I suspect this blower is probably overkill.  My driveway is approximately 100 feet long and is 13 feet wide at the narrowest point and about 40 feet at its widest.  I've also got a decent bit of incline.

I read several reviews and pretty much settled on Ariens, Honda or John Deere.  The Hondas were just too much money for me.  It seemed that a Honda comparable in size to the 1330 would have been at least 1K more, and I wasn't exactly super excited to spend what I spent.  Even though they didn't build it themselves, I guess I just really wanted the John Deere, and I heard good things about Simplicity's products.  The local Deere dealers around here weren't even carrying them.  Most of them seemed to stick with Ariens whenever Simplicity began manufacturing the Deere products, and they also mentioned that they would soon be carrying Honda.

If I have to, I'll put duals on it and some weights.  I guess I would also be willing to try chains.  Does anyone know if they actually offer weights that can be mounted to the wheels?  Given their size, that might not even make much of a difference.

I looked at chains for the 1330.  Only dealer that had em here had nothing good to say about them.  They have special chains for the snohog tires that sit down in the deep tire grooves  but the dealer said they moght even make things worse.  It is notable that the old JD 826 DID have chains, but with the ordiary tires (not snohogs).  Also, I talked to the JD people when they came out and they did not seem very enthusiastic about chains.  If I were you I'd just try it without chains and see how it goes.  Don't get discouraged - might be fine under your snow conditions.