snow throwers????

phester · #1 01-30-2011, 09:46 AM

I suppose that this "survey" is mostly for us northeast members.....although some of you southeast centeral guys have had your share of snow this year. Anyway, I upgraded my older craftsman 9hp 26" to a brand new Areins of the same size. I, at least IMO, did some pretty extensive reseach between Husqvarna, Troybilt, Toro ect. and decided on the Ariens. Just under 1100.00 shipped to my front door. I could not find one, new, for sale locally....they're all sold out. Other units seemed good, the Husq. was a 2nd runner up, most others had to much plastic on them or they appeared to be lightly spotwelded together. We've got about 2ft. of snow on the ground now, approx 10" of it was from the Christmas storm and we got nailed last week w/ an add'l 15"-18" and they're calling for another coastal storm by mid week.....just didn't know if the old Craftsman could handle any more.....so, I hope I made the right choice in the Ariens. What type of machine have you other members have and are you happy with it? BTW, you can bearly see the gunnels of my V, as the snow sheds off the cover it of course piles up right next to the trailer....the cover itself has no snow on it, it's all piled on the ground.....sigh.....

yodaddy · #2 01-30-2011, 11:13 AM

I'm up in the mountains of New Hampshire, with a 660' driveway. I can usually plow until January, but then the snow banks get too high and the stuff falls back into the road when I plow, so I switch over to a snowblower until spring. I had a 15 year old Ariens 8/24 that did the job well until it gave up the ghost back in 2007. I replaced it with a Craftsman Professional 12/33 and am very pleased with it.

Destroyer · #3 01-30-2011, 01:28 PM

Ariens are great machines from all that I've heard and seen. (My neighbor has one and loves it). I run a 26" Snapper and am very pleased with it. (I also have 2 Craftsman units, but the Snapper runs rings around them) You push it into a snow bank, it throws it and looks for more.. To me that's all I want or need.

yodaddy · #4 01-30-2011, 02:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Destroyer

Ariens are great machines from all that I've heard and seen. (My neighbor has one and loves it). I run a 26" Snapper and am very pleased with it. (I also have 2 Craftsman units, but the Snapper runs rings around them) You push it into a snow bank, it throws it and looks for more.. To me that's all I want or need.

The smaller Craftsman units are on the anemic side. This is the one I'm using now - http://www.craftsman.com/shc/s/p_101...2_07188835000P. I can clear 1 foot of snow off a 660' foot drive and large parking area in about 1.5 hours. 2 feet of snow takes just over 2 hours.

If I ever get another new one I'll be looking at a large tracked Honda.

cape cod v20 · #5 01-30-2011, 03:15 PM

I have a 7.5 hp 24" Troybilt. I just got it about a month ago ,and seems to do the job.

phester · #6 01-31-2011, 09:07 AM

my older Craftsman was a bull.....it is 7hp Tecumseh, not 9 as mentioned earlier....also, I think it is a 24" path, not 26. Reguardless, it is/was a little tank. The new Ariens is basically the same size overall, however, you can fold the handles down when in storage. [they refer to that as being in the Ariens "compact" series]. Same 249cc [9hp] polar force ,briggs and stratton motor as the 28" and 30". My neighbor has a Snapper 7/24....it seems to have good power for a smaller machine, another neighbor has a Honda, 7/8 hp, they are the Mercedes/BMWs of snow machines and come with the same pricetag. Seriously, you can buy two Ariens for the price of one Honda. I used it once last year, just to test drive it, I thought it would have a little more power, but, I was VERY impressed how far it could throw the snow. It put up this column of snow about 20ft. high and nearly 30ft out.....pretty cool. Just cannot justify the 2300/2400.00 pricetag. Whatever you have, it sure beats shoveling.

bassarama · #7 01-31-2011, 10:03 AM

Ariens gets my vote too.

I had an old 8 HP Craftsman for a few years, I spent more time working on it and trying to get it started than cleaning snow with it. One time I borrowed my neighbors 5 hp Ariens and quickly realized this little machine out performed my old one. At the end of that same week I was a proud owner of an 9HP Ariens...30 minutes worth of snow cleaning with the new machine, the second stage stopped working. I took it back to the store where I bought it from. The store manager give me $100 credit for upgrating to a larger model a 13HP, 34 inch cut Ariens, which were $250 off. Unless the snow is wet, I never have to rev it up all the way even up to 12 inches of light snow, a little over iddling it's all it needs. Wet snow, heavy snow, slushy snow, snow banks, bring it on, this machine will chew it and spit it out...far away!

Bruce · #8 01-31-2011, 10:24 AM

I use my F250 and its all terrain tires to clear my driveway when we get our 2-3" of snow... Not that it really matters if i can leave or not, because nothing is open.....

Road King Cole · #9 01-31-2011, 12:20 PM

I currently have a 42 inch john deere snow blower attachment for my lawn tractor. I got it years ago because back then I was not sure if I would ever be walking good enough without a crutch to do a walk behind. It's a great unit, but a pain to install\remove every fall\spring
My Dad had an ariens that worked great for about 30+ years...

charlie_the_tuna · #10 01-31-2011, 02:07 PM

i have a 24 inch steel plow shovel and i can dig out over two feet or more. my carb never needs adjusting and all you need is to pour some hot cocoa into me after i'm done. i can dig all morning if neccesary and i'm a whole sh!t load prettier than some old gas powered snow thrower.