http://www.troybilt.com/equipment/troybilt/storm™-2625-snow-thrower-storm-2625 My small Toro just died and this was the best I could find short notice and in my price range . My son thinks I purchased a lemon even through it hasn't been delivered yet . I'm hoping that's not the case .
I had one of those for 2 years. Great machine.. I sold it because I bought a 4x4 quad with a plow. I sold the Quad and bought a 36" snowblower. Best advice I can give, is buy a cheap $50-$80 cab enclosure. Well worth the money.
I have a 28" Craftsman with the bigger Chinese engine. MTD builds tons of these for various brands. The engine is solid and thousands have been made so no worries on parts if needed down the road and it gets very favourable reviews. I love the polymer chute and it has a lifetime warranty if something did happen to break it. There are videos online of people driving over them without damage. For a cost effective snowblower they are great. I am on my second winter and it fires up on the second pull every time (I use stabalized premium). It's starts easy with the pull cord that I don't bother with the electric start. Run mine for 2-3 hours at a time and have no complaints. If yours has heated handles they work well. A buddy of mine has sold snow blowers for 20 years at Sears and recommended this to me. I too was on a budget when I bought mine and for the money I spent I am very happy. Good luck and enjoy your new purchase. Tell your son their are thousands upon thousands of happy customers with this type of blower.
Good luck and enjoy your new purchase. Tell your son their are thousands upon thousands of happy customers with this type of blower . Thanks you
I had a friend that bought a new blower a couple years ago. He said that that winter we didn't get much snow. I said that I hoped he'd buy another one the following winter too.
It all depends on what you are expecting. They throw snow fine, the engines are on par with everything else (pretty good). Where they fall short is durability. If you suck up the garden hose or other debris, expect it do some fairly $$ damage as those auger flights and housings are not very thick metal. A lemon it's not. But it also won't be quite as durable as your Toro was either. Do you remember what model the Toro was?
A Toro CCR 2450 which I had for 20 years . Also I'm pretty sure it was bad fuel that caused the problem even though I use stabilizer .
Great little machines. Not much to go wrong on those either. A belt, a pulley or two and the paddles. Then there is the whole engine thing. Me thinks you'll do just fine with the Troy-Bilt if you've been getting along with a little single stager for all these years.
As has been mentioned, Troy Built is now made by MTD. MTD makes Sears Craftman blowers as well. They work great, but as also mentioned, the durability suffers. The transmission components are made from cheap cast metal. When you suck something up that you shouldn't, you would hope the sheer pins do their job and break before the transmission does. That was not the case with mine. I sucked up some ice chunks at the head of my driveway that was deposited by the county snow plow. They were buried under the snow. The sheer pins held up, which meant the transmission housing cracked into several pieces. It was a $175 bill for the parts. Provided you clear your driveway of debris before the snow starts and you stay away from ice chunks, you should enjoy many years of happiness. You may consider weakening the sheer pins a little more so they take the hit if you do suck something up. Oh and get a supply of sheer pins ahead of time, nothing worse than breaking one and having to wait a few days to get new ones. I think a package of them are under $10.
Yeah I still got a 7-24 and (2) 8-24.. a 1978, 80 and 82. how this happens is dad's sister hurts her back.. so he buys her a new Toro for Christmas present... then grand father has a stroke.. he gets new one with electric start and auto shutoffs. Dad take his old one tells his kid to use it.. 30 years later.. people die, go to condos I end up with all 3 plus my Honda track blower and kubota... the mechanic he bought them from put new belt and cleaned carbs on all three.. darn things still run and work good.. they were redistributed to people in need last year.. when new one were dying in the deep snow...
Thanks guys appreciate the advice . I did already order extra sheer pin but of course they were for the MTD model and a little to long so I I'll have to make a new groove . I like the idea of making them a little weaker . I only used it once and it ran fine , I'm pretty good at not running over things.
It can't hurt to experiment with the sheer pins. Pretty cheap insurance if you ask me. Besides branches and ice chucks, the next most sucked up item is the newspaper rolled up in a plastic bag. The paper guy throws the paper into the driveway in the pre-dawn hours, snow covers it and wham, you don't see it and it jams the tines. Ah, life's simple pleasures.
