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

    The results of Borats Craftman seem pretty good even in comparison to the newer Toro's with 141cc engines and curved paddles runing stock rpm.  I gave up on MTD straight paddles a few years ago so stopped buying them. BUT given the good showing of Borats machine decided to give an HSK850 a fling for which a cheap MTD or Murray is a good candidate.

   This morning I picked up an MTD 5.5 in excellent shape, (mostly) for $100.   The body is excellent, no rust no scratches but the inside of the bucked has the paint scrapped.  The guys 3 car lot was sand and gravel with mounds and holes.  It's electric start, 4-5 years old but only used for two seasons due the owners heart condition. 

    It came with a line cord and for some reason three brand new belts, a bottle of Sta-Bil and a gallon and a half can of gas half full.  His son gave it to him with a bottle of Sta-Bil which he thought was the mix required.   He only ran it with Sta-Bil, no oil and from what he tells me only ran about slightly less than a gallon of gas through it since he got it.  He claimed that one can of gas half full he gave me was the only fuel he ever bought for it.  

   It fired up on the first pull and seemed to run strong so I ignored the no oil part and bought it.  It gets 95psi compression on three rope pulls and 115 on electric start so seems ok. 

Borat,

    I'd like to compare the flat paddle section of this one to yours.  If you can please measure your mid-paddle section flats.  What's the L and W of one section and what's the distance front to back?  The MTD is (2) 1 3/4 x 4 1/4 sections and the front to back span is 8 1/4.  If they match then the MTD should compare your Murray with booted RPM.  I've got an excellent condition Toro 3650 I'm using this year so have a good machine to compare with.

You're right Trouts.  Our snow is most often dry and fairly light.  Sometimes, if it's blown in on a blizzard, it gets finely packed and much more dense.   That's a once or twice a year occurrence.  Sometimes we get heavy amounts that is fairly wet and lots of it.  When that happens, it's the Simplicity's time to come out.  More often than not, the SS machines get the job done. 

Even when powered up, the Craftsman can choke on wet slushy snow.  Happened earlier this year.  We got about five inches of slush and the Craftsman was having trouble with it if I tried to feed it full width passes.  I cut it back to half to 2/3rds width or so and it moved it nicely.  I should have pulled out the Toro to test it on the same stuff to see how it would have fared.  Might have done better due to a superior paddle system but maybe not considering the power advantage of the Craftsman.