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

GtWtNorth wrote:
I just happened to see this old post near the top of the list of threads, then saw your post.  I got out my cardboard template that I used at Home Depot to measure an Ariens Platinum 30 blower to give you the measurements you were asking about.

The "valleys" are .5 inch.  From "tip to tip" it is 2.5 inches.  Also realize that the "tip" has that little flat spot, which is, interestingly enough, also .5 inch.  They could have designed it to be at a right angle, but this looks better.  I'm counting from where each valley comes back up to the top, ignoring that little flat spot.  I hope what I just said is clear.

You should do the same thing we did by taking a small piece of cardboard into Home Depot, find a Platinum 30 blower, and take your pencil or pen to trace it.  Hold the cardboard very tightly behind or in front of the auger and then draw carefully without letting the cardboard slip at all, and you should have no problem.  My piece of cardboard is 10.5 inches long and 4 inches high.  I then cut it out with scissors so my son and I could trace the pattern onto his auger with a silver grease pen. 

To be honest, the Platinum 30 auger is slightly bigger than the auger on my son's Ariens ST824.  However, when  applying the template to his auger, we just sort of rotated the template a tiny bit when needed as we went along to accomodate the difference.  It doesn't have to be an exacting rocket-science kind of thing, but believe me, it came out really well. 

Hope this helps.  Let us know what happens if you're entertaining the idea of converting your auger.

Here's the original thread that started me on this project:  http://www.abbysguide.com/ope/discussions/59639-0-1.html

Happy New Year.  I am a brand new member here.  Your machine in particular caught my eye.  Was thinking of doing some modification to my blower chute similar to your first metal shields that you experimented with.  I was wondering what your impression was of that setup as opposed to your current stainless setup ??   What do you think of a one-piece covering, verses an open channel down the center, such as you have ??  Did either modification induce any new flexure or vibration points ??   What an incredibly neat job you did on that !!!  Congrats !!!
-Eric

erock1 wrote:

NICE WORK!!

Thank you for sharing your fantastic work! I am thinking about getting one of this machine or a ST1236 to clear snow on our neighborhood pond for the kids to skate on. I would like to be able to throw the snow as far as possible so that I can get the work done in a single run. I've heard that the big machines throw snow better when more snow are fed into the auger house. What is your experience with your machine on shallow snow? Can it throw 1-2 inch snow far? You mentioned that you replaced the auger flank bushing with bearings. What is the part you used? Thanks

I have chances to get a older ST1032 for $250 or a relatively newer old ST1236 for $400. For either one, I probably will swap the stock engine with a 13hp harbor freight engine and do other modification as you did. Do you have any recommendation for which one to take? Thanks. http://janesville.craigslist.org/grd/4843382987. html http://madison.craigslist.org/grd/4817058304.html

   Went through the post again, great machine.  I watched the two videos again.  Nice to see that thing work out.
Hub caps are a good idea, eliminate slop in the garage.  The red bolt caps are a super touch. 

   With a Tecumseh the battery is useful but with the updated Honda not so much.  Maybe you can attach
a coffee maker on the platform. 

   I've looked at many youtube snowblower makovers and yours is about the cleanest and most well done of
them all.

tbe55 wrote:

I agree with a previous comment, probably the best modded blower I have seen jr. Perhaps another small mod would be to the lettering on the dashboard to show ST1332 to reflect the more muscular status?