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

I picked up this old 1983 Toro Power Shovel for dirt cheap.  I found some info on the internet, took it apart to inspect/clean/adjust/lubricate.  Put it all back together and gave it a test run.  These things are incredible!  We've had some serious heavy wet snow here recently.  Not real big dumps.  Maybe 3 to 4 inches at a time.  Certainly deep and wet enough to be difficult to shovel.   I bought this thing for clearing off our fairly large deck.  Couldn't be happier with it's performance.  Why Toro ever stop making these with the gas engine is beyond me.   For it's diminutive size, and little 21cc two stroke engine, this thing can move a lot of snow. 

I picked one up today in very good running condition @ $110.00 wheel kit included. Here are the photos

Great find/buy Hirschallan.  Thanks for the pics, too.  These things are so rare and tough to find - you got a nice one.  You can clean that handle up real easily with some steel wool and WD40 if you want to bring back the shine.

How does it run?

Borat - I assume these pictures will suffice?  Let me know if you need some different angles or whatever though, and I'll be glad to snap them for you.

Nice find indeed. 

Excellent pics.  They are more than sufficient.  Thanks a million. 

The wheel assembly looks complicated to reproduce.  Certainly looks very robust and well designed.   I doubt that I will try to copy it.  Now that I have an idea of the geometry, I'll have to start looking around for some stuff to fab something a lot simpler.

The unit I bought for $50.00 was virtually new.   When I first got it, the pull start wasn't working right.  It took a very fast pull to get the engagement palls to throw out to connect with the starter cap.   The rope was still white and it was fairly stiff.  I suspect that the previous owner couldn't get the pull start to fire up the engine and just put the machine away very early in it's life.   This thing is close to being mint.  I completely pulled it apart, inspected/cleaned, lubed where required and sprayed some WD-40 under the engine starter cap.  That's all it took to loosen up the palls.  Thing fires up easily now and runs like a charm.  No belts on this thing.  All nylon gears.   These things will last  even with minimum maintenance.  Take car of the engine and it will probably be a lifer.  Not too many parts are available for these things.  Fortunately, the wear items can still be had.  We can still get rotors and scrapers for them.

Borat, As you can see in the pics the last two pics the springs are a little wet due to a small gas drip. Need to rip it apart to get to that. Also look at the pics and you will see the wheels have 2 positions it can be at. One bringing the wheels closer to the body and the other pushing them away. Not sure why. You also mentioned you got info off the web when you got yours. Can you please let me know where that was. Thanks,Allan

That is one robustly built power shovel.  Thanks for all those pics, hirshallan.  Does it have a replaceable scraper bar?  What is the function of those springs?

Now I definitely want to get my hands on one.  Makes a great restoration project.

Anyone guess on why Toro stopped making these after a few years?  Is it the cost?

aa335 wrote:

This is where I got most of my info:

I've tried numerous times to insert addresses as a link and it just never works.  Am I the only one having this problem?

The link below has nice diagrams etc. and show availability of parts.  Not too many available but the highest wear item parts can still be had.

http://www.partstree.com/parts/?lc=toro_consumer&mn=38350%2C+Gas+Power+Shovel+Snowthrower%2C+1984+%28SN+4000001-4999999%29

Scraper bar is replaceable as is the rotor.

They only made them for three years.  1983 to 1985.  Could have been something to do with the EPA and two cycle engines.   I've actually been toying with the idea of putting a chainsaw engine on an electric snow shove.   Get some sprockets and bicycle chain, mount the saw engine on the handles, line up the sprockets, put the chain on and see how it goes!

borat wrote:
I was having the same problems using Firefox on the mac.  Simply edit the link and paste it in the field second time, before you submit the post.  It should work that way.

Looks like there's only a handful of replacement parts available from that website.  I guess support for this product is very minimal at best.

I do like the current model electric Toro Power Shovel with the newer curved rotor.  I had thought about putting a 2 cycle string trimmer engine to it.  Is a chainsaw engine more compact and lighter?

Not sure what you mean by "edit the link"?    Would you please elaborate a bit on that?   I'm also using Firefox on a Mac. 

I doubt that a chainsaw engine would be as compact or lighter.   They're just a lot more readily available around here.  I see numerous chainsaws selling very cheaply and virtually no operational trimmers or any other two cycle engine source equipment.  The electric power shovels have double down tubes for the handle.  One could put a cross piece in between to mount an engine on.   It would be nice however if the the rotational direction of the power source was compatible with the rotation of the rotor on the power shovel.   Otherwise.......

borat wrote:
Select the text you want to link the http path to.  At the toolbar, select the Insert/Edit Link button.  A dialog box will appear, paste your link into the URL form, then press the OK button.

Right mouse click on the underlined link that was created and select Edit Link.  You will see the same dialog box again, but this time, the URL box will have some jibberish such as "javascript *(*&* "  .   Recopy the link into that box again and hit OK. 

aa335 wrote:

The springs are there for keeping the tension on the wheel kit when you collapse them as you could see in the pics. There is a hook up in there behind the bracket to hold the wheels in the collapsed position and as you can see the springs give it the tension.I'll try to do a video on the movement of the wheel kit but will need the kids to help me with the posting.I would tend to say that Toro had more problems with customers not being able to maintain these things than it was worth or perhaps the electric option was born at that time and figured it was a much more consumer friendly way to go.