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

I have an older (1970) Ariens snowblower that has chains (and no differential).

The new ones seem to come with the Carlisle Snow Hog tires, and the dealers claim they have better traction in snow and ice than chains. True Story? The chains do a number on the pavement when turing around.
I splurged and bought new tubes last season, but being kind of wild I can replace the tires every 35 years whether they need it or not....

Hi Garandman,and welcome to the forum. 

   I always had chains on my old snowblower [which I sold at an outrageous price  :-) ]  However, with my new (last year's)  Toro which has those tires, I can now clear a path in the yard to the birdfeeder without worrying about tearing up the lawn.  This makes it easier for me,and makes my wife happy also,knowing that I'll fill  it  more often without grumbling,lol.  I don't have any big grades to contend with though, so I can't say how well  they'd work on hills.  I can say they don't wreak havoc with the pavement like  chains do,so I wouldn't be afraid to recommend them. 

I've found that most of the time I don't want "too much" traction. I break several wheel hub locking pins a year. This is probably caused by my running into a lip in someone's sidewalk, getting hung up on a lump in their driveway or going too fast into the frozen EOD. The point is that there are lots of times when you don't want the wheels to grip, you want them to slip  so the rest of your traction system takes less of a beating.

I guess what it comes down to is looking at how you are using the machine. If you need more traction then the Sno Hogs will give more than the older style. Chains will give more traction still  but tear up the road surface more.

Sno Hogs are great.  I've yet to lost traction and my driveway is pretty smooth.  If there's too much snow, the blower just rides up on it and I have to slow down a bit.  Go with the tires.

LL

I too have the hawgs, and i don't have even a slight quibble about thier traction.  I don't have any experience with chains, cause i spent my child hood shoveling :(  My little differential-less ariens 824 has always had just the right amount of stick.  Plus, i would suspect that it's eaiser to turn the thing around with the hawgs than with chains, esp with both wheels locked to the axle(which is how i always run), i have a decent short grade at the end of my drive too.

Well in my book there's 2 kind of rubber 1 for summer and 1 for winter and I'm telling you there's a big difference

Walby

I have cleared snow off of my frozen pond with the snow hogs and never slipped.  I have had my father's Ariens pull me up my drive.  They are great tires and I would change to them in a second.

C