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

I just picked up a 2012 Honda HS928K1WA. I just replaced my Yamaha YS828 and am clueless  on Honda's Hydro-static trans..

How do you use it?? If I put it is what would be speed 3 and engage the clutch it clunks and does an instant engagement. There is no slipping the clutch so to speak no matter how slow I engage it or how fast.  OR do I have to always have to have it in neutral and ease it up to speed every time I have to start out. If so, that would suck. HELP!!

It's easier to start out with the lever close to the neutral postion. If you have the lever in the fast forward postion, the machine will tend to jerk a bit when you engage the drive lever. I've never had a Yamaha but I would imagine that it's pretty similar in the way it functions.

I do the same way as FrankMA.  Start out in Neutral and ease the lever to the desired speed.  Much smoother and easier on the drivetrain.

Just give yourself time to adjust to the new machine.  That drive lever shouldn't be your biggest problem.  It's the chute rotation, turn crank left to rotate the chute right.  :)  Try rotating the chute while turning the snowblower, WITH TRACKS!!!, and the pedals.    Took me 2 years to get used to it.  Now its just natural.  Just like riding a motorcycle or flying a helicopter, you need a few extra brain cells and alertness. 

The 88 Yamaha had the common disc drive and could be smooth clutched into starting. Even if you rammed the clutch down you would get a smooth start that would not hammer the tranny.  I would of figured the Honda would have a valve that would ease it up to the set speed. If you ask me it is a BIG time fail. Honda should of had Steve Jobs design the Hydro drive and it would have been done right!!!! There is no need to have to ease up speed if the trans was designed right the first time. It would not of taken much to do it right. it would of taken someone up high that would want perfection and user friendlyness. I will get use to it I guess.

For me it has not a problem since I am used to it by now.  The main advantage over my old MTD is that I can reverse and go forward with an ease.  It is interesting to get a different perspective from a Yamaha user.  Maybe it was a bad idea going from Yamaha to Honda. 

Welcome to the forum, are you from NJ?

There are Honda owners on this forum that are not even aware of this BIG fail.  Surprising Honda had not received complaints about this more often.  Maybe the 2012 model comes with racing clutch, which can be abrupt?

Honda is typically and fashionably slow in making changes to their product.  They don't have the budget to hire visionaries like Steve Jobs, nor would he be interested.  Honda has never aimed for perfection, their snowblowers are already quite expensive and quirky.

The library closes in 5 min...

I would of went with a Yamaha,  but they are only available in Canada,  track drive only,  and I want wheel because of having  two small driveways with lots of 180 turning.  A 9hp is $3,800, to 4,000 So that is out of the question.  I know  there is no option because you get what you get, but defending a bad design of implementation because you are a Honda fan makes no sense.
I know I will get use to it, but having to pull back the speed handle every dam time you let off the clutch seems like a half ass way of design. It is missing a key element to make it work like the rest of the snowblowers in the world. Having a valve that brings on the oil flow from 0 to 100% in 2 to 3 seconds to stop the clunk  and save the abuse on the tranny would seems so logical. This valve would work going  any speed you  would preset your  snowblower at. FWD or REV.  Problem solved and then it would run like any other snowblower.

How do you know people have not complained? Why would not any of you see it? I did, right away when I brought it home, and I am  just an average guy.   I will be sending an  email off to Honda so at least they get one complaint for a better way of implementation of the Hydro-drive. I know by the end of the season it will be like driving a clutched car and I won't even notice it, but at first glance it seems they could of went one step further to make it right. We are paying the premium for a Honda.  BUT then again, there is the Acura TL and Odyssey tranny issue that plagues those models too. Honda needs to fire their  tranny guys, it seems to be their only real problem as a whole. Everything else is top notch.

When chewing up an end of the driveway  that a snowplow left I may engage the clutch 4-5 times while chewing up the massive snow heap. I will have to change my style to a less aggressive Mr. Rodgers way of snow blowing :) ( joke, don't take it in the wrong way)


http://old.nabble.com/file/p31817286/2011_SB_YS928J_l.jpg


http://www.abbysguide.com/ope/discussions/55741-0-1.html

Perhaps the problem is specific to your snowblower.  I've had not noticed that it was abrupt.  I don't expect to do clutch dumps on a regular basis on a $2500+ snowblower.

Maybe you should try testing out another snowblower at the dealer to see if it behaves the same.  If it doesn't, then maybe your unit needs work or adjusting.  If it does the same thing, decide if you can tolerate it and get used to it, learn how to feather the clutch, or ease the drive lever to speed.  If not, try other brands, do a clutch dump on all of them and see which one is the softest.

I'm not trying to defend how Honda implement their hydrostatic transmission, I never operated a Yamaha with hydro trans so I don't know if the Yamaha handles clutch dump as gracefully.  Maybe Honda should put in a slipper clutch or hydraulic bypass valve.  Who knows?  Perhaps the next generation of Honda snowblower should be a softer and kinder design.

I am waiting till I run it on the first snow. I will call the dealer that is 50 miles away and see what they say.  As for my old  Yamaha, it was a conventional disc drive, not hydro-drive.  The new Yamaha's are Hydro.  I will ask the question on the Yamaha board and see what the new Yamaha's are like.


HERE IS WHAT I POSTED ON THE YAMAHA BOARD

I need a description or characteristics of how the Yamaha hydro drive works.

Here is why. I just bought a 2012 Honda 9hp two-stage  wheel model to replace my 1988 YS828. It has a hydro trans. I am just curious how the Yamaha's is compared to the Honda's. My problem is the tranny on the Honda clunks and does an instant engagement with no slipping to start with when you push in the clutch like I do on my YS828 and any other snowblower I have owned or used.  Even feathering doesn't work.  I posted this weird characteristic on a  board with a lot of Honda users and  it seems some of the Honda guys have to pull back the hydro drive "speed" lever to neutral every time they let go of the clutch  so they can engage the clutch and THEN advance the speed lever to go from  zero to what ever speed they pick. Otherwise the trans violently engages if you just push in the clutch like any other "disc drive" snowblower that has smooth engagement.  Some think I could have a bad tranny ( I will call dealer Monday)  

Too many people for my liking  seem to do the pull back to neutral and THEN engage the clutch and push on the speed lever to make me think this is a design flaw that everyone has lived with. If so it is a crap design and an incomplete design. The more logical design would be to add a valve that would increase flow from zero to 100% in 2 to 3 seconds to what ever the speed lever was set at when the clutch was engaged. This includes FWD or REV. This would make starting a smooth affair and wouldn't hammer the trans.  Then it would run like any other snowblower that I have ever seen or used.

Always having a hand on the speed lever and dicking around with it seems flawed to me.


How do the Yamaha's with hrdro tranny's work, like Honda above???

    At least on my three machines the clutch can be feathered but no where as easily as on a friction disk implementation.  With practice it would probably be easy to feather but why bother?

    When I do start off in high it's usually only to travel so a quick start is no problem. 

   Inserting a delay would be a bother most of the time when you just want to get going.  Maybe Honda could install and adjustable delay, voice activated.