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

I'm looking at a used in very nice condition Toro 824XL. It has the a different auger style than the typical one. It looks more like a drum style then the usual small shaft style. I want to know if this is a desirable model or something that i need to stay away from. Couldn't find much info on it so I resorted to the forum. Thanks guys.

   The XL was a great model.  I've had a couple during winter so got to use them in snow.  Good tossing distance on par with any decent maker like Ariens and Snapper (pre Briggs models like the 8265).

   About the auger barrel.

    I've also used older classic style 521's and 724's that had barrel augers - no problem.  Also uses 624 and 824 PowerShifters which had the standard barrel augers, no problem.  Those models are essentially XL's with the back wheel shift option.

   I've never noticed any advantage or disadvantage to the barrel style augers for auger collection or feeding the impeller over standard augers for any condition of snow. 
 
   For checking out an XL all the standard things apply and also:
 
   Check for any loossness of the handlebars where they connect to the tractor sides.  Wiggle the handlebard up and down stiffly and feel if they are tight.  They could have been tightened so look for any slip markings on the side of the case.

   Life the machine off it's wheels and check for any slop in the wheel bearings.  Try to shift it when stopped from reverse to last forward.  Do that with the clutch disengaged then engaged.  Check for sloppyness in the shifting and run it through all gears.  Full throttle dead start with a snap clutch engagement in the highest gear.  It should take right off, no slip and lift the bucket 6inches to a foot off the ground.

   The XL is nice and if previously used properly, kept up and garaged would be a great second hand machine to buy.

  

Caveat: I have no experience with the drum augers, so this is purely speculation, not based on experience. But I wonder if they could more easily have problems with wet, really-packable snow?

On a few occasions, with my "standard"-auger MTD, I have gone around to the front after shutting it off, and found that snow had packed into the augers, like between the auger shaft, and the "webs" of the augers themselves. I had to scoop it out of the augers, as it was just going around in circles with the augers, and was never moving towards the impeller. This is on a fully-open auger design, which I'd expect should be better able to resist "packing in".

I've wondered if an auger with a solid face (tube/cylinder diameter), and auger webs that stick out maybe 2" beyond the drum might be prone to having that type of snow fill in the gaps between the auger webs? And basically giving you what's essentially just a big smooth cylinder of packed snow spinning around?

Again, this is just something I'd wondered about, nothing more than that.

Also, trouts2 mentioned Toro's PowerShift system. I was initially interested in that system, because it uses a geared transmission, without a friction disk, which can slip. But in doing some more reading about it, it sounds very complicated (so more prone to mechanical trouble), and those systems can apparently develop slippage in the transmission. From what I understood, that kind of slippage effectively signaled the transmission's death. So I got a machine with a good ol' friction disk system, which has a lot fewer parts, and is not able to shift the axle front/back to change the balance of the machine. I decided I'd rather have a simpler machine which should be less likely to leave me hanging in a blizzard. I'll just keep the friction disk system in good shape, to maximize its ability to keep the machine cranking forward without slipping.