JoeyJ said:
The older Toro's were nice machines. I bought an 8 HP 24" cut Powershift model in 1987 and the thing never let me down. I did pay close to $1100 but the thing was still running 17 years later. I was able to replace worn cables and belts myself. Tinker with the carburator and I even took apart the gear box when it developed a leak; resealed it and it was fine. I sold it for $350... 3 years ago and bought an Ariens Pro 9 HP with 30" cut.
I had a VERY old Toro 7/24 with the pull out disconnects to the drive wheels. The engine on it was getting "tired" when I sold it, but the machine was otherwise pretty good, however I found that I did NOT like the control setup
I felt having the gear shift in the middle of the control panel where I had to take my hands off the bars to back up was a poor design...
The Pro model has larger tires, clutch and a cast iron gearbox, while the new ones have an aluminum gear box. I paid $1475 for this thing and have had many small problems with it, i.e., drive belt slipping off from winter to summer (this happened twice)...requiring the machine to be up ended and the drive belt access plate removed. I finally had to drill a new hole in the drive tension belt pulley rod to keep the belt on the machine. I say minor problems because I'm a bit handy, but these problems always occured when there was 20" of snow in the yard.
My $500 30 year old Arien's 10/32 that I replaced the Toro with has IMHO a better control setup, though I liked the old machines with the live clutch much better than the newer (gov't mandated) deadman clutch... I will admit that I normally keep the auger interlock lever tied down just so I don't have to worry about the engine crapping out because I need to work the controls... I haven't had any issues with the belts coming off.
Another problem with the Ariens is that the auger blades are notched instead of smooth like on the Toro. Being notched they are very prone to catching the edge of low walkways or other obstacles and breaking the shear-pins. This has happened twice in 3 years. I always keep a bunch of shear pins on hand. My Toro never broke a shear-pin in 17 years.
I agree, the Arien's loves to eat shear pins, even though my augers are smooth not notched. I think the difference is that Toro has those solid center drum style augers while the Ariens is open centered - this lets the Ariens take a bigger bite in deep snow, but it also allows more crud to get in where it can jam stuff up... (I seem to be good at finding branches, and splits that escaped from my wood pile...) OTOH, a lot of people seem to like the notched augers - allegedly they are a big help in chewing through crusty snow or the frozen lumps one sometimes gets in the EOD snow. OTOH my OPE guy tells me that while Toro's almost never blow shear pins, if they do it's a major pain to change them because of the limited access through those drums - at least the Ariens pins are easy enough to change.
The downside of the Toro drum augers was that if you tried to go faster than the machine could nibble at the snow, it would climb up on top of the snow in a hurry (another downside of that badly positioned gearshift) - I had more than a few times that I had to drag the machine back after it ended up with the augers pointing straight up, and the handle bars ends resting on the drive... The Ariens will climb, but not anywhere near as much, and it's easier to stop... However it has more of a tendency just to power through, or just bog out and stall depending on just how excessive the load is...
I do like the heated handles and the upper chute control feature and have never had to use the electric start feature. The cable and belts are all accessable so they can be replaced with a little bit of skill, but I am disapppointed in this machine...for all the money I paid for it.
No heated handles, and all manual chute stuff, no head light either, even though my machine is supposedly a "pro" model - I guess they thought the pro's were built tougher 30 years ago and didn't need those wimpy accessories... %-P I do have electric start on the engine, but I've only ever used it when diagnosing "no start" problems (it works better when you turn the ignition key and the gas on :red: )
My dealer sold both Toro and Ariens and he and his mechanics both reccomended the Ariens as the better machine.
Unless you need the machine on a hill I think chains are overkill. Also there are just some really wet storms where the machine just won't cut it. I have only experienced this situation maybe 3 or 4 times in 20 years of snowblowing. Probably the MTD would serve you just as well for a whole lot less money and most of these new machines come with electric start and heated grips. Unless you have a very small area to clear I woulldn't buy anything under an 8 HP machine
My neighbor has an MTD machine, it has a few nice features (a big glove friendly sized starter rope handle) but he has had chronic problems with it - ditto his MTD lawn tractor... We have a sort of mutual support agreement in regards to doing each others drives in case of machine problems, vacations, etc... I find that I do his drive much more often than he does mine...
I agree that chains are probably not needed for most situations, but I would insist on the "Sno-Hog" type agressive tire treads - my Ariens had turf type tires on it when I purchased it and they were terrible. I put a pair of Sno-hogs on it, and the machine was MUCH better. My drive is flat, but if I end up doing my neighbor's he has a very steep up and down section in his drive, and the Sno-Hogs handle it without a huge problem, though they do spin a little bit.
For wet snow, see my earlier post in this thread where I talked about the "Clarence Kit" - it helps a lot in the dry stuff, but it REALLY makes the difference between whether it works or not when the snow gets wet and sloppy... If slush is solid enough that the auger can get the stuff into the second stage, the Clarence kit machine will blow it nearly as good as dry... With the kit I have successfully blown snow that was so wet it was like THIN cement... Pre-kit I would have been lucky not to clog the machine every 5 feet or so...
Gooserider
