Mads

It's no secret. You ALMOST always get better service whit small dedicated business than the big surfaces stores when it comes to maintenance and repair.

In fact in Canada except for the Ariens (regular models, not the Pro models) at HD, the "good" more expensives brands are always find in the smaller stores while you can find the more "unexpensive" more affordable ones at the big surfaces stores.

" I bought mine from an OPE dealer and the chute works excellent " ... It seems that you picked up the one out of ten that work well. Happy for you !  Hope this will last! It's like a Volkswagen car. Some peoples have absolutely no problems whit them while many others spend all their time to the garage. It's not my conception of quality production. It need more constance in the quality.

" By far it's the best innovation I've seen yet " ... If slaming the chute to the right than to the left without any precision don't borther you. Ok. Why beeing so hurry to rotate the chute ?

"  No electronics to wear out or ice up " ... Mecanics wear out. Not electronics !  My electric chute never ice up in five years out on temperatures well colder than what most peoples have to experience whit their machine.

" Ariens also had awesome plusses like heated grips " ... An electric/electronic gadget?  >>> " No electronics to wear out or ice up " ?

" the remote chute " ... Don't know what is about here! ... " and diff unlock lever . The Hondas had none of these " ... In fact it is MUCH harder to steer my Ariens whit the diff lock than the Honda trackdrive whit the diff lock.  (Always locked in this case). The possibility to unlock the diff whit a weeldrive is a reel benefit but not that much whit a trackdrive because of the larger surface to distribute the weight and the design of the treads on the tracks that are parallels to the direction to go when steering. I assume that it's for that reason that Honda doesn't equiped their blowers whit unlockable diff.

I am not saying that Honda is better here. After all, I compare all the features of the two and I choose the Ariens in the end. And still happy of my choice! I am just saying that Ariens have a strange philosophy of progress. Instead of slowly improving their products in one direction over the years, they seems to guess and try out in every directions whit the result that their products are improving in somes ways and seems to regress in others. It's not a straight path to improvement. By changing their products concept like that in this kind of "mary go round", ( 3 differents concept for chute rotation in five years ) it look's to me like they take their clients as test dummys instead of testing toroughly their products before putting them on the market. "Locky you if you pick up a good year and too bad for you if this year concept fail... We gonna change it for the next year! ... and the next cusomers"   In fact I consider myself verry lucky cause I love my Ariens... I picked up a good year!   But for the others ? 

I Like Orange call's it  B*ing ?   .... Well it's a point of view... But not my intentions.

Correction: I'd better read what I write before posting.... must have written 1332 Pro instead of 1336 Pro.

Sorry. 

I was at a Home Depot today and checked the three Ariens they had out on the floor. I tried the chute control of the three and none of them was working alike the other one. Three differents snowblowers and three differents way of working. And on 2 of them the chute control worked fine 2 or 3 times and the next attempt: nothing worked. No matter how you pulled or pushed the control the chute would not move. Without the shadow of a doubt this chute control is a crap.

It's bad because four or five years ago Ariens were almost there. They had almost the perfect (weeldrive) snowblower. Now whit the new triger for locking the differential they should be closer than ever if only they could manage to build a decent chute control! Like I sayd; Put the 2000 Pro serie electric chute (and deflector) and now the new triger for the differential and you'll have the perfect snowblower!

Just hope Ariens is reading this site!    ..... and I will sold my 2000 1336 Pro to buy this new perfect snowblower anytime!

I think the electric chute was the one to go on whit. At least for some models. It was an argument over the other brands who don't have it and was working well. On the touch of a button you could throw the snow on the target you want.  Fast enough and verry precise to throw the snow exactly were you want it. Especially wen you dont have large area to dispose the snow .... Just like me.  An electric deflector would be a dream!

I plan to install a joystick (like the Honda 928TCD) and add a small electric motor on the deflector cable line to electricaly control the chute AND the deflector...... One day...... Next year maybe.  Seems pretty easy to do. Finding the right equipement for the job will be more difficult though!    But you can count on me to do some thinking before. I wont try 15 differents concepts!