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

Two things happened last night.  We got dumped on and I fell in love with my snow blower.
It's just a large Ariens...nothing exotic compared to many other machines.
But it worked very well and saved me (and my heart) from the stress of manually clearing heavy snow.
With minimal effort on my part, big orange moved everything I aimed her at.
Maybe not as far as some, or as quick as others...but she got the job done.

I will always enjoy discussing the many aspects that differentiate one snow blower from another as much as anyone.
But the fact is that any snow blower is better than no snow blower.
The most important thing is maintaining it so that it runs when you need it the most.
All other differences (except in extreme cases) are merely subjective differences at best.

Last year in the middle of a 3 foot dump of snow, I had my MTD in the creeper gear blowing snow, moving about as slow as you can go and as I started to get frustrated, I thought "Man, this would stink if I had to shovel 600 feet of road by hand", and for the next 2 hours was glad to stand behind a machine doing all the work. So yes, a working snowblower is a glorious thing, regardless of the brand or size.

tkrotchko wrote:
I live in SE PA and went through that very same storm...actually two storms back to back if I recall.  You couldn't find a snowblower available for sale in Lancaster County anywhere.  And you nailed it...a WORKING snowblower.  My neighbor is using my blower as I type this.  He has one of his own but just brought it down from his backyard shed this afternoon.  Wouldn't start...he left untreated fuel in it from last winter.  He blames it on Craftsman.  Right.  Point is that these things need to be maintained. 

I agree so much with the "working snowblower" statement.  I decided to retire the ST824 by Ariens and opted for a 6hp Poulan.   The Poulan does not seem to be a very popular brand around Northern New Jersey but  I am very happy with my decision and the machine has worked well in this rough winter.  The Ariens was a great machine but was in need of a general overhaul.  I turned it over to its new owner and wished his the best with it and agreed that with some work the machine has many good years left in it.  I just wanted peace of mind with  a new machine. 

You guys are lucky, we haven't had enough snow to do anything but shovel. I even let it accumulate over a week to justify getting out the beast.

NickM I agree with you. However, I have the time & tools to do the overhaul myself, and I am much happier using an older machine that I have worked on, and am intimately familiar with. So, you get the satisfaction of a job well done, plus you don't have to shovel (except in my case up here).

@GtWtNorth
I know how you feel about working on your own equipment.  I do that with my cars and I know every little characteristic about them.  I just never got to the same point with the Ariens.  I had planned to rework it over the summer but it never happened.  By the time I aquired the old Ariens it had been used and abused.  I plan on keeping the Poulan in nice shape for a long time but realistically  I don't think it will oulast the old machine.  If I had more room I would have kept the old one and worked on it at my leisure and ended up with two nice machines.  I hope its new family takes good care of it!