Good to know oh mechanical guru.. Thanks for the info I will keep this in mind and yes the OHV engine much more compact than the L-head one was.. My Ariens mower has a 500CC B&S OHV engine.. Says 17.5HP and it climbs steep hills with ease.. So far i love it..
For the money? This is the largest I have seen Same company that makes Stanley makes these. But this is cheaper. I have a 36" on the way myself. So we shall see how cheap they are. I wanted the 45", but I have 2 areas that the 45" is to much. Here is the Stanley. . And the cheaper DEK model
36" won't be awful but I don't like 'em much wider than 28" (in a walk-behind) myself. They get real tough to maneuver in deep snow and it takes a LOT of extra inches to save you a pass, let alone two or more on the typical driveway. I've seen 42"+ units like that (Sears usually has one on the floor every year) and they have one major drawback in addition to the handling. They have the same size impellers and discharge openings that your regular 8-9hp Lowes/HD special has. Which means that even with a big engine and a monster clearing width, it won't move more snow. I see this with my setup, a 42" tractor mounted blower powered by a 17HP V-Twin engine. It's fast for snowfalls under 8"-10" or so, as long as it's light and fluffy. But I also have an older, 38" wide single stage tractor mounted blower, powered by a 17HP single cylinder engine, and in deep snow, I can travel faster with the single stage unit because it's discharge system is nearly twice the area of my 42" two-stage machine. It's all about weight/time (lbs/min). That goes for performance in wet/heavy snow too. The bigger the discharge opening, and the larger the impeller, the less likely it is to clog.
I'm not a fan of a this particular Chinese blower. It looks very cheaply built. The body, the auger and the controls look cheap, and flimsy. I prefer a metal discharge chute. Plastic, even on the toros doesn't seem to hold up. Plastic sounds like a good idea on this past, but I've yet to see it ever last very long. If you wax the chute with good car wax, snow will not stick. I waxed the chute on my new ariens last year, and even in we heavy snow, so I waxed it again this year. Those Tecumseh snowkings were the best snowblower motors. They made then less than 3 mike from me on Grafton Wisconsin. Also, those snow king motors were on nearly every 2 stage snowblower.
Those wide walk behinds will be all done when you get into a drift that you have to back out of. Trying to get that thing unstuck would be interesting to watch. Dual wheels but no chains? Snowblowers designed and built in the Mid-West U.S. are engineered to deal with the realities of heavy snow instead of a marketing gimmick.
I have a cheap-o Tecumpseh powered MTD 2 stroke single stage, that was given to me a few years ago. A friends dad had trouble with it, and had taken it apart. He wanted to pitch it, but my friend saved it for me. I put it back together, new fuel lines and some carb work and it hasnt missed a beat for 4 years now. Only thing I have had to replace was the drive belt. Couldnt be any happier with the thing. If I do get another.... I will find a track drive Honda, just 'cause haha.
My eBay machine will be here tomorrow We'll see if it's worth a hoot or not. My drive is 160 long and opens up to be 4 cars wide at the house, and I have a 4 car parking lot midway up the driveway. The ATV is nice, but you soon run out of room to put the snow. Being able to launch it out into the yard will be nice (again.. Been 2 years since I sold my last snowblower)
Came today. This is one big MoFo!!! Started 1st pull and ran great. Only problem is my driveway is packed from running my ATV/plow across it and driving our vehicles over that.
Take a look at this review:http://bestreviews.com/best-snow-blowers. I have a poulin pro. A large one that easily steers. Have it now for about six years. Does a good job in these Maine winter storms.
My snow blower is an old MTD I inherited from my dad, it takes a licking and keeps on ticking, it's like the energizer Bunny it just Keeps going and going and going ,
I have a Troybilt (MTD) that is a 2007 model. It has a Tecumseh Snow King some where around 9-10 hp? Never had any trouble with it and never sheared a auger pin. It has 2 pins on each side. It has the serrated ripples on the edges of the front auger but doesn't knaw on solid ice very well. My driveway is about like Dex's and it is concrete. Just me and my wife. She uses the blower, I just work on it and use a shovel. I have another driveway that extends behind the house to the barn with a couple turn arounds but I normally don't blow it out. I had a earlier 1997 MTD and there was one complete smooth auger on each side with one shear pin on each side. It didn't do solid ice either. My DIL still has it and though it has had belts and many shear pins and a worn bottom scraper and shoes, it still does very well. There has never been anything done to the Snow King engine. Her driveway is 600' up a hill but I have no clue how much she does? She also has a Rino with a 4' blade. I'm thinking the old one is 22" and the new one is a 24"? Prior to the MTD's I had a Bolens yard tractor (not MTD) with a 36" blower for 20 yrs. It was faster than the MTD's but was bigger and more trouble & more initial $$.
Have to give you guys a super tip/mod for your 2-stage blower. Take you less than an hour. Some of you may have already done this, and I'm sure there are better materials and ideas but this has worked flawless for me. Raybonz mentioned the slush problem with blowers, and this mod basically eliminates clogging/bog unless your engine isn't enough for the job. I have found that thinner rubber floormats, mudflaps, or even belt conveyoring (read: repurpose) works very well. The mod is clearancing your impeller arms. The snowblower manufacturers have to leave a distance between the impeller and housing because metal on metal doesn't work too well Problem is, this space gets easily filled with hard packed ice/snow/slush and greatly reduces your blowers efficiency to clear, eventually leading to a clog which means shutting down the machine and clearing by hand (pita). All you do is cut the mats/flaps/whatever to fit your impeller arm and use some self-tappers to mount them. Just enough to take up the space between impeller arm and blower housing. Don't be cheap/lazy and only do one, you will most likely get a bad vibration or damage some bearings if you do. Try to cut all 3 to same length/weight to promote good balance. Your blower will throw snow a little farther, and will be virtually clog-free!! Here's a good youtube video to show you how: oh, and don't skip the ad! Well, unless you don't go for that sort of thing.
Thanks for the video and your efforts. I have the same model 26" Troy Bilt. I went out to the garage to check. But mine is older and has the Tecumseh Snow King engine.
I picked up this snow blower about 8 years ago from Ebay for $25. Basically in good shape but needed a little TLC. Hahn Snow Giant made in the 70"s. Still running well, used it a bunch this weekend! Built like a tank, almost no plastic parts. I also did the rubber on the impeller mod. I used 1/4 thick fabric reenforced rubber sheet that I cut on the waterjet at work. I removed the impeller to do the install as it was not difficult. I used 1/4 stainless screws, washers and nylock nuts to attach the rubber to the impeller. Works much better now. I just thought of another mod I think I will try. You can get Teflon sheet with one side etched so you can glue it to surfaces. A Teflon lined discharge chute should work nicely.
