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

I have a Honda 828 with tracks it is 23 years old, it stills runs strong. My driveway is about 300 feet long and is a double, since I been here my neighbour has been through 3 blowers. He had a mastercraft, craftman, toro snowblower in the last 12 years I been here, and not one of them could blow very far the most was six maybe seven feet. My Honda can blow 30 feet or more and if I was by a telephone pole I can still blow over the light on the pole no joke. If u got a job to do HONDA is the way to go, I don't work with Honda and I an not getting paid for this but if you are looking for the best snowblower out there I am telling you now it is the HONDA. When you go out looking around for a snowblower, Honda will cost a little more but it is worth it and after u use your Honda you will know exactly what I am talking about.

I remember the first blower I got. I took it out and tried it with the speed set to 4, the snow dribbled out the chute which promptly clogged. I tried two more times at slower and slower speeds. Still nothing. Disgusted I put it into "6" turned around and started back to the garage. The engine started to roar and snow flew. I hadn't put enough load on it to have the governor kick in and take the engine off idle. Ever since I up the speed until it starts to snow plow and then slow it down a bit. You want the maximum snow that the unit can handle coming in. I blew the engine ( L-Head) that came with the unit so I replaced it with a B&S snowtek which made a big difference, quieter, smoother, more power. The two points I'm making is that sometimes its operator error , either on maintenance or in use.

I have a Honda 928TCD for the family cottage. It works great but doesn't seem to throw large rocks too well ;-(. It has lost traction sometimes, generally going up hill, on ice into the frozen EOD. It is a bear to turn but is great on the long "straightaways". It is a a tank and works great, it is a good fit for the conditions at the cottage.

banny wrote:

Yes, the Honda is nice, but keep in mind that you can also get an Ariens that will do 97% of what the Honda will, for two-thirds of the price.

As for me, I'm running a 2006 $850 MTD (Craftsman) 928 with a Clarence kit, it throws 30+ feet.  Maintenance on the machine keeps me busy, though, and the chute doesn't like to behave to0 much (either too tight or too loose, can't seem to find a sweet spot).  The trigger wheels are nice, though.

Don't get me wrong, I'd run a Honda if I could afford it, but there are alternatives out there....

hey banny would you mind stating how much you paid for your Honda 828 back in the day? I'm amazing at how long the machine has managed to last. im in the market for a new snow blower and i have heard nothing but great things about honda and their engines. How much maintenance have you had to perform if any on it?

I usually like to buy "top of the line" but couldn't justify it for a Honda snowblower. They are arguably the best and priced accordingly. It just that living in SE PA I'll go many years with only needing to use a snowblower twice a year...maybe putting on about three hours of use a year. So in thirty years I still won't have 100 hours on the snowblower. Any decently made snowblower would last a long time at that rate...unlike my lawn tractor which gets used at least 60 hours every year. Now if I lived in the true snowbelt my thinking might be different and a Honda may be in my garage. But for my area my 11.5hp Ariens will blow snow 30+ feet for a lot less than an equivilent Honda.

ivysaur01 wrote:

Not Banny, but I bought a first-gen HS828 in October of 1991 for $1,397.00. It's in its 24th winter and we average 190" a year with last year at 324" (27'). My driveway and parking areas equal out to about 650 feet. There are times I wish it was at least a 9HP, but it has been a great machine.

I put $300 into it two years ago when one of the clutch springs broke and I decided to replace both clutch springs, both auger springs, both belts, both auger and drive cables and three bearings in the auger housing, along with the crawler pipe (track axle) in the rear as one of the original adjuster bolts broke off (my fault) about twenty years ago and I had it welded back with a 5/16 SAE carriage bolt...thought it was time for a new one. for that 300, I also added 20 shear pins (bolts) and nuts, springs for the chute, auger and speed levers and the fuel gauge emblem.

Normal maintenance has been an oil change every fall and a spark plug every two to three years. Oh and to make me feel just a bit older, I was 33 when I purchased it and I'm now 57. Fun!

I own a HS 928 track it has the GX 270 my question is can i replace it with the GX 390 ? the machine is an 2012 ,

It's not a direct bolt on since the GX390 is larger engine block.

Paul7 wrote:

Well don't knock the potential of the Honda. My HS35 dates from 1982 and except for replacing the auger rubber, paddles etc it is still going strong. But yes, the use is about 5 hours tops per year. But the HT3810 tractor, purchased in 1983, gets used about 120 hours a year. It also runs fine and has little maintenance except for the occasional bearing on the deck, which by the way are replaceable, as opposed to replacing the entire spindle. One key to these things is use synthetic oil, great stuff for air cooled engines! I use Mobil1, 0W-40, European Formula. That happens to be a formulation for Porsche and BMW and is still high in ZDDP. ZDDP was drastically lowered by many oil manufacturers about 10 years ago because it messed up catalytic converters, which had to be guaranteed for 7 years and maybe 100,000 miles. Let's see, what would you rather replace, a Porsche engine or a Porsche catalytic converter?

If you want to make that Honda or any other snow blower perform even better, check out the young man on youtube who has several videos showing DIY of how to close the gap between the impeller blades and the round portion of the tunnel they run in. I tried it on two very different machines and it does work well. Sometimes the simplest solutions are right in front of us and it takes someone else to point it out. Hondas are a great machine but there are others for less that can work just as well like a high end Ariens for one example.BTW have been fortunate to have owned the least to the best and it is between Honda and Ariens in my experience. A great deal of what makes for longevity of anything is the owners basic PM schedule and having enough common sense to see a "situation" developing before catastrophic failure occurs.

tymwltl wrote:
From what I've seen, this type of modification won't yield any improvement on modern snowblower within the last few years.  The new machines already have very tight clearance between the impeller and the housing.  Toro and Ariens have closed the gap, so to speak.  The Toro Powermax 28" probably has the tightest clearance at this time.