automatic1stdown

I have an Ariens 9526DLE that I bought Fall 2007.  It works well and throws snow out the chute like nothing I've seen before.  However, the auger seems to spit/leak out snow on the righthand side (respective to when I'm looking at the auger housing directly from the front).  I took it to the dealer and they said I had a 1/2 sheared shearpin and replaced it under warranty.  That didn't fix it and I'm still left with snow leaking out that side.  It's annoying as it leaves a small trail of snow all over the place that I have to shovel up by hand.  I would characterize it as snow being thrown/spit out forward as the auger spins.  It happens when I'm chewing through snow greater than 2" high.  I thought the auger rail on the right side was installed backwards perhaps... can someone take a look at the pics and confirm the auger rail is installed properly?  Thanks!

I bought an Ariens 9526DLE Pro this past October and have used it about 5 times so far this season.  The first time I fired up the Tecumseh OHV 9.5HP motor, it worked really smoothly and I could run the engine with the choke completely off.  Each time I used it after that, the engine would surge and die completely if I didn't have the choke on.  I couldn't understand what the heck was going on since this was a brand new engine with maybe 2 hours of runtime on it.  Even after letting the engine idle and warm up for 10 minutes, it would surge and die when turning to 1/2 choke.  Turning to no choke will cause it to die immediately.

I called my dealer (who has been fantastic by the way) and told him what was going on.  The first question he asked was "Are you running old gas?".  I said I bought it fresh from the gas station maybe 1 week prior to using it.  The second question he asked was "Did you put Stabil fuel stabiizer in it?".  I said of course and mentioned I always pour in some when I fill up my gas canister.  His response was "Ahhh, that's your problem.  Mixing Stabil with gas during the winter is a big no-no.  The stuff just does NOT mix at all when its cold and ends up gumming up your engine and carburetor."  He advised me to buy a can of Sea-Foam from NAPA and mix it with fresh gas that has no Stabil in it.  After draining the old gas out of the Tecumseh, I poured in the Sea-Foam mix and fired her up.  After maybe 5 minutes the engine was running smoothly again.

I willing to bet your problem is that using fuel with fuel stabilizer is causing your surging/stalling.

I was in the same situation last October.  My driveway is really steep and roughly 200 ft. long.  The only difference I see is that my driveway is straight instead of curved.

My Honda dealer (Northern Tool & Equipment) is a total joke, so that quickly crossed the Honda machines off my list.  I craved getting the Honda since I also have a Honda lawn mower and trimmer, but I followed the advice of others that buying from a good dealer is worth its weight in gold.  I personally would have bought a HS928T if my dealer was halfway decent.

I ended up buying an Ariens 9526DLE Pro from a small town dealer.  The 9526DLE Pro is intended for rugged commercial use and is probably overkill for what I needed, but I like buying well engineered quality stuff that lasts a long time.  I almost bought the tracked version (9526DLET Pro) because of my steep incline,  but decided against it due to the $500 premium, ease of turning,  and uncertain reliability of such a new drive system. 

So far I've used the 9526DLE Pro about 5 times this winter.  It works well going down the incline, but I always need to make sure I have the drive engaged on a low speed.  On the first time using it, I tried just having the auger engaged and pushing the Ariens down the hill.  I will NEVER do that again.  The snowblower ends up coasting down the hill faster and faster.  It happens really fast and will give you a big scare as the only way to slow down the wheels is engaging the drive system.  When the drive engaged, the Ariens will be totally under control and doesn't slip.

The Ariens can go up the hill and snowblow at the same time, but it doesn't work that well if the snow has been driven on already.  The problem is that the Ariens starts to ride up on the snow and gets hard to keep in a straight line.  When I try to lift up on the handles to force the chute close to the pavement the wheels lose traction.  Since I like my driveway cleanly scraped down to the pavement, I end up traveling back up the path I blowed and then come down for a new swath.  It takes me longer, but the driveway ends up cleaner.  I may try the Ariens weight kit in the future to see if that helps.

In hindsight, it would have been nice to have the track-drive 9526DLET Pro because I could snowblow the driveway well up AND down.  It's really up to you whether that's worth the extra $500 though and lack of maneuverability. 

I had the Toro 828 LXE and 1028 LXE on my list as well for a while.  My neighbor across the street had an 828 LXE and the joystick was a really slick feature to have.  He just bought it last winter, so it only got used maybe 4 times.

The main reason I crossed them off my list were the plastic parts.  Another neighbor down the street had a craftsman snowblower (not sure what model) with a plastic cute that cracked down the middle when large ice chunks kept hitting it when clearing his EOD.  His snowblower is maybe 3 years old so it wasn't caused by aging of the plastic.  Perhaps Toro uses a different composite with their plastic parts, but I have always had bad luck with plastic when the temperatures get cold.  Plastic just gets too brittle when the temps get really low.  If the temps stay close to 32 degrees F, then this probably won't be a big issue.  I remember when I had a Honda HS35 single stage snowblower and installed a brandnew scraper bar that was plastic.  The dang thing kept breaking where the bolts attached.  The original scraper bar was metal/rubber and was way better.

I would go for the Ariens 1130DLE.  Compared to the Toro 1028 LXE, the 1130DLE has all metal construction, an extra 2" clearing swath, automatic traction control, handwarmers, and an additional year of warranty.  I may be slightly off on this, but I believe the Ariens also has a 3-tooth 14" impeller versus the Toro 4-tooth 12" impeller.  This means the Ariens impeller can toss snow much further given that both impellers are spinning at the same RPM.  I've also been told the 3-tooth design is superior in cases where large chunks of ice and snow move into the impleller.  The 3-tooth design has larger spacing allowing these chunks to fall inside and be thrown out the chute whereas the smaller spacing of the 4-tooth may have to grind down the chunks first.

Just to provide some closure to this thread I wanted to post that I purchased a 2007 model 9526DLE Pro yesterday at an Ariens dealer.  Here are the reasons why I choose the 9526DLE over the 9526DLET (Track version)

• $500 premium to get basically the same machine spec-wise.  The 9526DLET will undoubtably have more traction and be quieter (B&S Intek), but that's not worth it to me.  That's a pretty steep price increase considering Honda charges only $100 to get a track-drive over a wheel-drive.
• Dealer has not sold any yet.
• Dealer has not serviced one before.
• Track-drive seems more complicated and prone to more problems over the long haul.
• Brand-new track design will probably take a few years to get the bugs worked out.
• Difficult to turn.  There is no way my wife could operate a 9526DLET if I was out of town on business.

I am sure the 9526DLET is a fine machine, but it didn't seem like a good pick right now.  Thanks again guys for the help.