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

FWIW, I bought my 1st 2 stager - Honda unit - without ever demoing a unit that had Hydrostatic Transmission.
Just short of the fact that it's variable infinite speed, can anyone just give me a laymens primer on the benefits of a Hydrostatic Transmission ?


BTW, how often if any do you do a OCI on the hydro transmission.

I was just surprised how much ~harder~ is is to move when not engadged as opposed to ~regular~ geared transmission.
I was at the local orange borg last night and wheeled the Organge buckets around and they wheel so much with ease...

snowmachine wrote:

Yes, the best description is Understeer is when you see the wall before you hit it and Oversteer is when you don't. Most cars setup today are setup for understeer intentionally. I remember the old Porsche 911 air cooled models that would swap ends in the blink of an eye on a corner if you let off the throttle in a turn. Nasty!

Thankfully my snowblower pulls rather than pushes.

Steve_Cebu wrote:
Ah, those early 911 were known for being "widowmakers" for a reason.  Before the whale tale, they were even more hairy to drive.  They should be standard issue for lawyers.  :)

Not for the faint of heart.  If you're going into the turn too hot, better plant your foot on the gas and stay committed to the turn. 

So tell me Steve, how does your snowblower pulls?  :)

aa335 wrote:

Yeah but those old 911's had soul (probably from the death of the previous owner) But they were fun to drive.

My snowblower pulls so well that I hear a local biker gang is going to get 2 Toros and chain people they don't like between them and blow snow in opposite directions.... Painful!  Might just be a rumor tho.

Sounds like something from a Mad Max movie.

I bet the hydrostatic transmission might pull better than those ole friction disc types. 

aa335 wrote:

I'm sure they do pull better for an extra $800+ they should cook me breakfast in the morning too.

Honda does make good stuff, dead reliable and feature free. Less stuff to break means more reliable if it's built well. I did hate the rear skid shoes on my 928TAS. I prefer side skid shoes. But it was built like a tank, albeit harder to turn.

Steve_Cebu wrote:
Clarification, that's ONLY $500 for the hydro transmission and $300 for the unique Honda red paint! 

Still can't cook me breakfast either, but it can put the snow on my neighbor's driveway.  He's got a Hummer H2 and I've been tempted to snow wall him in.  It's never been offroad and has made more Starbucks coffee runs than I can remember.  :)

aa335 wrote:

Hummers are too big to go offroad. There are far more capable vehicles out there. I don't know if they have hydrostatic trannys tho.

My old Landcruiser was a 1984 with a turbo dioesel engine in it. It would shame any Hummer made. I have pics of it but would have to find them.

I don't miss my Honda, I like my Toro too much but the Honda was a good machine.

An interesting observation....I've moved the HS724 plenty of times with the engine off/transmission disengaged.

There was a link to a video on youtube that showed how *productive* one could be with wheels when just going straight, pulling the unit backwards in one heap, then make another forward pass,  rinse and repeat.
I guess to do this on the Honda, it's not easily done in this fashion due to the hydrostatic transmission.

Just yearning for more info, to get a better idea of the pros and cons of various things while figuring out what are the best methods of importing ~old blue~ back stateside.......

chefwong wrote:
I'm sure if you want to, you can rig a bicycle brake lever to that transmission to make it easier.  That might be worthwhile with the wheeled unit, I wouldn't do it on track unit since it's still quite a bit of effort to move it.

Also, another method to try with your wheeled snowblower is lift up the rear and put more weight on the skids when pulling back.  You can let the wheels glide over the thin layer of snow.

Try them all and see which method works for you.  Your 724 is a pretty lightweight and being wheel, not track, may be easier to do.  Us people with tracks snowblowers have no choice but just have to flick the speed selector lever forward and reverse.  :)

Good luck on getting ole blue

1. The hydrostatic drive has the variable speed forward and reverse like a joystick for one hand control.

2. Hydrostatic has no cable stretch issues and no friction disc to clean or worry about water getting in causing slippage like on the John Deere of 2009 before the new seal kit.

3. Below the unit is a release lever to disengage the transmission to roll around with the engine off. Apparently the person complaing about moving it didn't switch the release.

This high technology cost more but the payback is in ease of use and the elimination of service calls and repairs that everyone is paying on the pressure plate design when your not handy and can't fix or clean it yourself.

PS I saw the comments on Subaru all wheel drive. The A3 transmission is 80% front wheel, 20% rear wheel. The slip correction doesn't occur unless you tap the brake to tell the computer to check the slip differential. The demo on how this works was on a film of a Subaru going up an icy ramp. To make this work in the snow you must take the car out of "D" for over drive and put it in "3" for driving in snow to increase 4 wheel drive ratios and automatic corrections.  The newer models may be different but I know most cars even my Caddy tells you to take it out of "D" and puty  in "3" and there is a special button that looks like a snow flake. From talking to people about this 99% never read the owners manual and always leave the car in drive "D" until after the accident and they read about it or get informed.

 Drive safe, drive smart.