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

Does anyone have an opinion on which one is more durable?Simplicity P1628E or Honda 928WAS?Also which one would be better at throwing 2-4 inches of that heavy wet snow??

Not to flog the very dead horse more, I'm posting a comparison which might interest some.  I'm not so familiar with which machines are better or worse for disk slip as I usually back off piles fairly quickly when the wheels slip or will soon slip.

I've got two Ariens 1028 machines.  One has two rust locked wheels and the other one.  I've used heat (map gas) and big plumbers pipe wrenches on them without success.  The big plumbers wrench put so much force on the hubs I was worried about breaking something in the gearbox, no luck.  There's a very steep 40-50% hill next door with a road that was tared, old and weathered so a lot of angled peble tops sticking out.  Plenty of grip.  I gave going over there a shot as going up the hill might free up rust.  It's rough road in places so catching the bucket in places.  The big 6 inch knoby tires grip very well but each time the bucket caught the wheels spun even with pressing down a bit on the handlebars.  No luck on breaking the rust.  I then went into the field next door which has a very potted uneven surface so lots of bucket snags.  The bucket caught and the wheels would spin.  No disk slip.  Pressing on the handlebars would only cause the wheels to dig a hole.  The disk never slipped.  

I picked up a Honda 1132 hydrostatic track last week and tried that out the other day on a 2-3 inch snowfall here.  Not much snow but a chance to use the machine.  My area has lots of snags and I'm not familiar with using a Honda track.  Each time the bucket hungup the tracks kept turning driving the machine left, right or stationary with bouncing.  The hydrostatic easily overpowers the grip of the tracks and keeps them turning.  I tried the machine out in the field and it was the same for the tracks slipping.   

I have had similar experiences Trouts. 

I've had wheel spin and never had disk slippage unless the disk was contaminated. 

My last old Craftsman machine actually broke two axle shear bolts for some reason.  I ended up having to put a hardened bolt through the axle drive to keep it from happening again.  In all of my years of experience, I've never had an issue with a disk drive unless it had water or lube get on it accidentally, which was next to never.   

I had some slippage on my Craftsman due to water the first year I used it.  After installing the larger auger pulley and belt cover it seems to have cured all of those ills. The areas that leakage was occurring are apparently covered by the new cover.  I've had her through many feet of dry powder as well as wet snow and no slipping. 

Stock




Upgraded

Borat, I had it happen as a one time thing.  Put it in the garage, dried it off and never happened again. Some freak chance thing happend.  I actually never think about slippage unless someone mentiones it on the forum.  The only way I think about slippage it's telling you your way over what you should be doing.  You get used to that don't approach it.  That's the way I clear.  If I want more $#%* I buy them. Bigger is better. 

Snowmachine, interesting design.  Maybe you were fussy with the fit which does look good but you swamped out the error so the fit does not need to be so fussy.  Nice.  What's the box on top for?  Is that a dope stash, tool kit or what?  The main box looks welded.  Is it?

trouts2 wrote:
Some of the newer blowers have that labeled as extra shear pin storage.  Looks like it is big enough to keep some tools for changing them out too so you don't have to run back to the garage.

You could be right on there for the fit.

Cover is from a Crown series Husqvarna unit.

That is a tool kit box built into the cover and all is just plastic.


trouts2 wrote:

The box is where you're supposed to keep your shear pins. However, I wouldn't use it because the lid will sometimes open unexpectedly.  Not only that, chances are that you'll need to punch out the piece of the broken pin.  The tools you'll need for that, won't fit in that box.  So, you might as well keep the pins near the tools you'll need to replace them.

Found that out recently.  I broke first shear pin on this blower a couple weeks ago.  I had to go searching for my punch set to get it out.

borat wrote:

borat wrote:
Sounds like a perfect place to put spare shear pins.    Under 3 inches of snow.