Just in case it snows, but only a little.

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Danno77

Minister of Fire
Oct 27, 2008
5,008
Hamilton, IL
picked it up for $25 bucks without testing. It's green and it has a 2-cycle engine, so you know I had to buy it.

Started right up, but it ran a little rough. 40:1 was rather smokey, too. Then it sputtered and died and leaked gas out of the carb/fuel line areas.

I think it should be an easy fix. for $25 it will give me several hours of entertainment and an excuse to drink beer down in my shop this fall.

For the bigger snow storms I'll break out my vintage Montgomery Ward Dual Stage. The orange machine didn't get used even once last year.
 

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Do you really have to remind us of winter?
 
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heck yeah, buddy. It's coming quickly. Pull out your fleece footed jammies, I bet its a good one this year.
 
picked it up for $25 bucks without testing. It's green and it has a 2-cycle engine, so you know I had to buy it.

Started right up, but it ran a little rough. 40:1 was rather smokey, too. Then it sputtered and died and leaked gas out of the carb/fuel line areas.

I think it should be an easy fix. for $25 it will give me several hours of entertainment and an excuse to drink beer down in my shop this fall.

For the bigger snow storms I'll break out my vintage Montgomery Ward Dual Stage. The orange machine didn't get used even once last year.
Gamma the weather person for hearth.com said we are in for a tough winter, get the vintage ready!
zap
 
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I hope and pray it's a good one, Danno. And BTW I think you got a good deal there. I used to have a little Toro like that, was good for "sweeping" the deck after a dusting to 4 inches or so. Ran pretty good too, until I hit the dog chain with it! :rolleyes: Wasn't quite the same after that, so it went in a yard sale for (you guessed it) 25 bucks!
 
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new oil and plug and that Monty Ward is ready to rock this year. It worked so well for the price I paid that i can't imagine the new ones being worth what they cost. I got the Monty and a big dresser with a mirror for $100, I like to say the dresser cost 90 and the thrower cost 10.

I'm really thinking of giving this JD to my parents. they just did a patio with hottub this year and dad uses his work truck with plow for the driveway, but they have to hand shovel between the house and garage (patio) I think it was two years ago I gave them an electric start self propelled JD pushmower I found for like 95 bucks. They seem to end up with my cool yardsale finds.
 
I'm ready ::-)
 
Good score on the snow blower.
I picked this one up on Ebay for $25 a few years ago when I got tired of shoveling.
Was made in the 70's. A little TLC and it works fine. Built like a tank.
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Our Simplicity can handle up to 14-15 inches...over that, neighbor comes by with his plow. We hand shovel the decks- this could come in handy for something like that...would it throw over the railings?
 
Our Simplicity can handle up to 14-15 inches...over that, neighbor comes by with his plow. We hand shovel the decks- this could come in handy for something like that...would it throw over the railings?
heck if I know. I might try that, though. Although we don't bother with the deck in the winter.
 
WES, very similar construction to mine. Mine was a 70s version as well. I looked it up once, can't recall the exact year off the top of my head, though. It handled the blizzards in early 2011 pretty well, even if it was laborious to run it through the 24" deep stuff. When it got deep it was like run forward a few inches, back up, run forward again, repeat.
 
I grew up using a simplicity that was built like that. We had a drive about 100 foot long, stone, and definitely used that poor machine for work above its pay grade, but it did the job.

If I was able to keep up and do the driveway every 4 inches or so, it did a great job. If it snowed hard overnight, it would be slow going, but I could get it clean up to about 8 inches if the snow wasn't too very heavy. I remember there being times where I'd go down the driveway with the roof rake and pull snow to the sides with that just so I could get things thin enough to use that blower.

After 12 or so years of hard use, dad put it in the top of the garage and bought a 2 stage toro. The old girl sat for 7 or 8 years before we did some work to it and got it fired back up to give to a family member to help out on their small flat parking area and sidewalk. That bone head didn't like it and tossed it :( If I had known it was going to go down that road, I would have kept it and used it on my back deck where I can't get my big snow blower.

Sounds like the work needed is minor and that unit should serve you well. Changing the belt isn't a bad idea if it looks to be glazed at all or the first time you hit snow it'll be worthless.

pen
 
That is a pretty cool find. Heck, around here you can pay way more than $25 for entertainment and after it's done you don't end up with a nifty internal combustion thingy. Ya done good. Would be interested to hear what it took to get it running right.
 
After our freak snowstorm in October of 2011, I bought this for $1,500.....then got no more than 5 inches of snow<>
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No offense, but does that do the job 15 times better than a vintage? It ought to!
 
We have a lot of driveway, so I have a multi-stage plan. Good for when one machine goes down (always have backup!).

Patio and walkways:

100072283


Light snow:

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Medium snow:

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Heavy snow:

john_deere_855_tractor_loader_4wd_7200_waterloo_22559667.jpg


None of these photos are my actual machines, but they're the same models I have. Guess I never took time to take any photos. ;lol
 
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Joful's got the right idea. ;)

After our freak snowstorm in October of 2011, I bought this for $1,500.....then got no more than 5 inches of snow<>

I'd say it worked better than you ever imagined it would. ;) My BIL has a brand-new Toro PowerMax in his garage (housewarming gift last year) that he has yet to get the chance to use.

Had a customer buy a top-of-the-line Toro PowerMax 1128 from me several years ago. On his way out the door, another grouchy customer said "You know now that you bought that thing it won't snow right?" to which my guy replied, "In that case I'll take two." >>

No offense, but does that do the job 15 times better than a vintage? It ought to!

Quality modern 2-stage units (Not the cheap folded up sheet metal ones so dominant in box stores) are far and away better than most of their vintage ancestors. Things like freewheel steering, composite chutes that don't ice up or rust, tires that work well without chains, and 40+ ft throw distances put them far above the old iron.

Danno, that little Deere you found is a good unit. For light snows (Under 4") it should run circles around that Monkey Wards and clean up better.


Our Simplicity can handle up to 14-15 inches...over that, neighbor comes by with his plow. We hand shovel the decks- this could come in handy for something like that...would it throw over the railings?

My "secret" weapon of choice for the deck is a Toro PowerCurve 1800 electric. Thing throws over the railings if I don't get too close, through them as I get within 3 ft or so. Handles at least 12" of snow and had no problem chucking 6" of nasty wet slop either. Very underrated machine. If you have electric within reach of a good HD extension cord, I highly recommend it. IIRC they sell new for about $300 but I do see them in yard sales from time to time. My second choice would be a Toro CCR Powerlite for a gas powered unit but they don't sell them anymore. CL usually turns up a few in excellent shape for under $200.

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If it works, it is well worth $25. I always like to start up my snowblower over Thanksgiving break to make sure that it works. I move it from the back of the garage so that I can get it out without moving my car and then I start hoping for snow. Last winter, I only used it twice.
 
No offense, but does that do the job 15 times better than a vintage? It ought to!
I wish I could answer that. I can tell ya that at my job we have a 9.5 hp / 28 in. version....mine is 11.5 hp / 30 in., and the one's at work go thru anything we've had in the last 10 years we've used them....mine also has a Locking Diff that you can unlock at the sqeeze of a handle....and love them hand warmers
 
Nah, around 15x30. It's behind my attached garage. The side of my garage is paved (trailer/camper parking) so I can drive the tractor onto the deck without problem. The deck is 6" concrete in the middle and 12" on edge so not too worried about damaging it.

Much easier to use the tractor vs shoveling by hand.

That must be a mammoth sized deck.
 

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I'd call that a patio. that's pretty danged fancy.
 
I installed the plow mount bracket on the ATV this week. I figure that reduced our chances of snow by about 50%. If I buy some new tires for it then it won't snow until 2014.
 
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