15 replies to this topic

[Lmiller3358]

Ok, at my house after the storms, I use my MTD Yard Machine, 10 hp 28 "... I purchased this about 10 or 12 years ago at Home Depot to replace a 1978 Toro 8 24 I had... Its been a good machine except for replacing the starter once,,, and I find it comparible to a few of my neighbors Ariens, but just not as fancy... On the other hand, when I finish here, I go across town to my buddies house who is battling cancer to do his driveways.. He just bought a new Honda 1132 with the tracks, runs great, blows snow a country mile, but I feel like I just wrestled a bulldozer for an hour as far manueverability goes.... Just curious what every uses if they don't have blower on there GT, oh, by the way, I had sold the Toro to buddy of mine, its still alive and kickin every winter........

 

[Cat385B]

I have a older Ariens ST824s around here somewhere.........oh, it's at the FIL's place. Dead reliable machine. It's throwing distance isn't what it used to be. I should tear that one apart, too.

[EconChuck]

Hi,

 

We have a Yardman with tracks that we've had for 10yrs and its benn very reliable.

It has a 9 hp Tecumseh that is a consistent 1 pull start when primed.

I think the width is 26" and  aside from breaking a shear pin every so often.

Our driveway is limestone so a rock once in awhile is reality.

 

I don't have experience with a wheeled unit, but would probably buy a tracked unit again.

 

Chuck

[Kurtee]

Hi;

I went from a 726 Deere to a Honda 928 track machine about 5 years ago. Yes they can be a bear to handle. You need different techniques to operate them. You have the 3 track settings which give you travel, flat land blowing and dig. I mosly use the flat postion for blowing but need to change to travel to turn around. If the area where I am turning is slick I just leave it in the flat postion and lift the handles a bit and slide it around. These things will climb stairs and walk over snow to blow another area. I would not swap for any other walk behind. I have used Ariens, Deere, Snapper, and several others and it is just not the same. The Deere I had for over 25 years and had repowered with a 10 horse which made it one snow eating machine. Now I have other options for snow removal so the walk behind hasn't moved yet this year.

 

KURTEE

[John@Reliable]

Give me a 25 + old year old anything, bet it will be better than anything new today

 

P.S,

wife brought me a new Ariens a few years back, to replace a really old Ariens, I tried the new a few times, it's behind the shed

[JD DANNELS]

It's down in the shed, but I think it's an Areins 520E, I used it for everything, drive, sidewalks when I lived in town. Since I moved to the acreage,I only get it out when I need to blow snow off the deck. I have a ramp up to the deck and it walks right up it and clears the deck in a few minutes.

[MH81]

Takes a while, but here is me before I got the blower for the SS12.


Just kidding I went straight from the shovel to the blower. Saves time and much more fun.

[daytime dave]

The Bat-blower is an Ariens 10/28 I bought new several years ago.  I have always liked Ariens and owned about 4 of various age and size. The Bat-blower is the largest and the only new one.

 

[JDBrian]

I've got an Ariens 1128 pro. I bought it in April 2004. It has the cast iron transmission, 12volt battery start and heated handgrips. It's a real nice machine, well made and deals well with heavy deep snow, being only 28" wide but having 11hp. It also has a differential and you can lock and unlock it. With it unlocked it handles easily and it still gets good traction unless the snow is really deep. Previous to that I had a 5hp MTD. I spent 10 hrs doing my 300ft driveway with that when we had a huge storm that dumped 3ft. of snow back in 2004. After that storm I upgraded. 

[Nato77]

A few years back when we lived in town I used an old AC Tracker 7. The neighbors always knew when I was blowing snow, has a burnt out old hot dog muffler on it. Awesome good old blower! Paid $40 for it with brand new chains (couldn't go wrong), used it for 5 years. Before the AC had an older Snow Bird, it worked OK. The thing that hurt it the most was the solid wheels were bald, so you were pushing all the time time. Now they both sit in the shed just waiting to to blow snow again.

[BowDown]

I have a 10yr old John Deere TRD24. Has a 5HP Tecumseh engine (I believe). Starts first pull every time and throws snow a good distance. Bought it used a few years back for $225.

[1978murray]

i got an old toro 2stroke 4.5 hp blower with 21in clearing area. works realy good and runs amazing. good free blower.  I had a 5/21 I believe craftsman. with a 6.5hp briggs intek on it.  that thing was a pain to use but moved snow good

[cookiemonster]

I use a 1962 (I think) Toro Sno-Hound which is part of the 'power handle' set that I have.  That's the thing where you move the engine and handle around on different implements and I have the blower, a propelled mower, a tiller, and an edger.  For the most part, I leave it as a snowblower in winter and an edger in summer to give it enough run-time.  The blower is 20 inch single stage, but the drives I do are small.

[ggsteve]

Ariens 1128 for me.  A little heavy but it will move any kind or amount of snow.  I only use it to do the paths around the backyard and other places where the tractor can't go.

[Titus]

I found at a yard sale for $25 a Berbro Mustang snowblower. 

 

I found it was made in Bristol RI, but that's all the info I could find on the company. 

 

After swapping out the engine for a newer Tecumseh with electric start, this beast moves and throws snow. Has 3 F & 1 R speeds. 

 

 

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