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

I am looking at replacing a 25 year old snow blower. I live in Iowa and have a driveway that measures roughly 70X30. I do get some nice drifting, last year over the bed of my old truck, and some nice piles at the end of the drive. I am looking at the Toro Power Max 2-Stage 26 in. Snow Blower and the Ariens Deluxe 2-Stage 28 in. Snow Blower. They are the same price so I am not really sure which one to buy. Any help would be appreciated.

 

I looked up the specs for you. Toro $1,400 has only a  26" wide clearing width and only a 14" tall auger. It has a 250CC engine to drive the 221 lb machine and blow snow at the same time. The auger will chop packed snow but  not ice at the end of the driveway like the Honda 928 series.

The Toro and the Ariens use the same $277 engine. Toro doesn't list if the auger handle interlocks with the drive handle nor does it list a heavy duty gear box so it must use a cheaper one. The Ariens has the heavy duty gearbox and clears to 28" wide but has the small 14" tall auger. Both of these lower cost snow blowers use the old pressure plate system as do the John Deere and Craftsman to drive the wheels. These less expensive blowers have the old hand clutch to shift into the 6 forward and 2 reverse speeds. So your constantly shifting, using  at least 3 of the forward speeds and both reversew speeds. The Honda hydrostatic drive has no clutch, no shifting. It  has a variable speed joystick like lever for forward or reverse. 

These snow blowers advertise 45-50 ft throw but that is light powder snow. If you have a long wide driveway you should spend a couple hundred more and get the Ariens Delux 30" because it jumps the engine size from 250 cc to either the 287 or 305 CC optional engines.

As mentioned above if you want to avoid the shifting, eliminate systems with pressure plates that slip with dirt or melting snow, then upgrade to the Honda series with the Hydrostatic drive. The advanced drive system eliminates the friction disc on pressure plate that needs to be clean and dry. No annual cleaning of the pressure disk and no cable stretch issues etc that cost you plenty of service calls just when you need the snow blower. The better engine and high tech drive system with ice breaking 20" tall auger cost alittle more $ $2,579. You can get good discounts by buying in  the fall, some snow blowers advertised $500 dollars off, pre-season sale.  The 4 cycle Honda engine and thrower gear ratios  throws even the heavy wet snow  50 feet.. Bought it in 2003 no repairs, starts easily to the present Jan 2011.  

For long straight driveways you may want to consider the tractor tread design instead of wheels with chains. This unit has the best traction and has a pedal to select the height. Touch the pedal and raise or lower the handle to the desired height and your done. This is the only system that you can use on stone driveways, The side skids drag and lift the decorator stones into the chute. The snow chute is metal, not plastic!  If you have a stone driveway, like mine or an old lumpy paved driveway then the tractor tread design is perfect.  When you do the sidewalks , depress the  pedal and raise the handle so the blower scrapes the pavement clean. All the other systems have side skid plates that have to be adjusted with a wrench!  I tried to  be objective and have owned three other brands but will never change from my Honda. 

JGtravelor

Do you have any pictures of your 2003 Honda HS928 snowblower you can share with us?

New_Yorker wrote:

While I agree with your assessment of the Honda, great units, just bought a Yamaha, very similar specs, I don't understand your comment about 'maintenance intensive Friction Wheels'. My MTD is 14 years old, and in that 14 years, the maintenance amounted to a cleaning and Lubrication, during shutdown, at the end of the year! It still has the original parts in it, and I used to have 15x50 driveway, and clear about 100 feet of the Crescent for parking. Not sure what you were using, but I don't think your experience is typical?

JGtravelor,

You sound so much like NJDavid and New_Yorker.  BTW: Your Ariens snowblower video was pretty good.  Looks like the friction disk on the Ariens was working just fine. 

MN_Runner wrote:

I think that video was done by a different anal-retentive guy, not DavidNJ who complained about his MTD and then went out and bought another one. If I had that many complaints about a product I wouldn't go and buy another one.

rubinew wrote:
I'd say that 95% of friction wheel powered snow throwers work flawlessly for the life of the machine.  

Anyone making statements that friction wheel systems are unreliable and/or maintenance intensive are exhibiting their ignorance.  They know not of what they speak.

And, by the way, I'd bet that Yamaha will soundly spank any equivalent Honda in every imaginable operational aspect.   There's a new king in the snow blower world and it's painted blue.  

Why are you pitting Yamaha against Honda?  The RED is trying to get along with the BLUE and learn to coexist without name calling and incorrectly referring certain terminology that is totally irrelevent.

I have the Ariens Deluxe 2 Stage 28 inch.  It's built like a tank. It's a great machine.  I considered the Toro you're referring to but ultimately went with Ariens.  Given the opportunity again, I'd make the same decision.  Both the Toro and Ariens are fine machines.  However, with its all steel construction, the Ariens felt like it  had more of a solid feel to it than the Toro...a better build quality over all you could say...that's the perception I had.   Also, if the Ariens has a more powerful engine, then the choice is clear, go with the Ariens. 

MN_Runner, if you google GC vx GX you'll get some good info.

>>>MN_RUNNER, "Why are you pitting Yamaha against Honda?"

Borat hates Honda.  Blue was the greatest thing to come down the pike for turning a Honda hater into a Honda basher at the slightest oppertunity. 

Borat dosen't open his wallet that much and has to treat it with anti-sieze so it won't lock up.  The cost of a Honda or Yamaha would give him a heart attack.  His was under doctors orders to get a snowblower to replace the shovel or he never would have bought one.  

>>> There's a new king in the snow blower world and it's painted blue.

   Well sort of.  There are big Hondas out there we don't see.  What about those to Blue? 

>>>Yamaha will soundly spank any equivalent Honda.

"Equivalent Honda"?

  If you're going to stop at the HS1132 that's not the "equivalent Honda".    Take the HS1132.  Is that the "equivalent Honda"?  Bucks wise, power wise, build wise & etc.  There are a lot of considerations for comparison.   It would be tough to consider, "I'd bet that  in every imaginable operational aspect." to be true without knowing more about the Yamaha.  If you know what's under the hood post it.  Which model are you comparing to what Blue?  I can't find much other than marketing lit on the net.

>>>There's a new king in the snow blower world and it's painted blue. 

So the question is what is the "equivalent Honda"?  Are you drawing the line at HS828, HS928, HS1132 or what? 

I love the guys on here that are all about Honda machines. While no one will doubt that they are great, the OP is looking in the low $1k price range and asking about 2 particular machines. Someone almost always comes on who loves and/or owns a Honda and suggests they spend almost 3x the money that they were asking the question about. If they were considering spending close to $3k on a machine I'm sure they would have posted that in the first place.

I am perfectly happy with my $700 Ariens, and while some may scoff at it's lack of headlight, differential, non heated grips and small engine it does the job well enough for my needs. To me I was not crazy with the chute mechanism on the deluxe (ice drill I think it's called), I just found it kind of awkward to reach over the control panel to crank the chute. Had the deluxe had the same quick turn chute on the compacts I might have considered it. The toro stick does look pretty slick although I've never actually used one other than playing around in the stores.