Many years back (30++), one of my suppliers who wholesaled audio gear and John Deere tractors (!) gave me a snow blower as a Christmas present!!! Let my younger brother use it. He killed it and told me it was no longer able to be repair. I grabbed it back, found it had the fuel filter bypassed by whoever he had maintain it. I replaced the fuel filter and cleaned the carburetor. Runs great.
I have two others! After moving into my new building a larger one was bought on the advice of a fellow who worked for me. It was a disappointment and so was he. When it died I took it to the guys around the corner to fix and bought another one. This was a small Toro unit the brand they sold. The most snow I have had to clear was 32". Surprisingly easy.
So the Toro for the shop and the John Deere went to my secretary to use at her place. At home I have nothing to clear!
However your idea of a multi-use tractor seems to be a good idea.
Around here it snows and then goes away. My Russian friends complain about that. They expect it snows and snows, staying until spring thaw. As we are in a river valley, I prefer small controlled melts. 🙂
Cal,
That looks like a Seattle weather forecast!
Seems like a good deal to me based on my experience. From what I remember of Norway, burgers were $35 and guitar tube combo amps $4000+.
Thanks, been busy with stuff not working 😀
Nice to have something to look forward to! 😀
That maintenance story sounds very familiar.
Yeah, I've been thinking it would be better to have a slightly more powerful all-year multi-purpose tool. Using the smallest honda mower with belts now and I have to bend down a bit to use it, really bad for my back that's already giving me grief. Bigger and moah POWAH! I'm sure mr toobman will agree.
Nothings cheap here.
At any rate, would you guys choose a slightly cheaper Briggs and Stratton or a very slightly more expensive Loncin engine? I'm sort of leaning towards the Loncin.
Happy new year everyone!
Not sure what this means, please explain.
Yup, our friendly neighbours just a 230 km drive south. Lotusland and the Emerald city are like sisters.
The number 1 & 2 choices in this part are B&S and Honda.
B&S: You need strong arms. You'll be yanking that cord for quite awhile, but they last.
Honda: Easy and dependable start but they smoke sooner.
I've not seen a Loncin around here.
Don't know what a Loncin engine is, but if it is what I'm guessing, a Chinese clone of the Honda 200 or 250 OHV air cooled engines, I would pick that. In the dirt bike world, they are well regarded.
Cal,
A snow blower is not one who sneezes at a line of cocaine! 🙁
https://www.acehardware.com/departm...VUPHACh2vQQj6EAQYBSABEgJkcvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
The one shown is as small as they get. Up to 18" of snow it clears a path at a moderate walking pace. Normal use would be to clear a sidewalk for this one. A trip out and back would nicely do a sidewalk. The blower vent swivels so you can blow the snow to the side. Unlike a plow it can throw light snow a few feet away from the cleared track.
One twice the size would do a driveway in four passes.
As to engines, all of mine start easily. I own a can of evil liquid that allows you to emerse a carburetor into it. A few minutes is all it takes. After the season "Stabil" is added to the gas tank and run in. At the start of the next season "Seafoam" is run in. Doing that and I haven't had to use my evil liquid!
Most of my small engines are Briggs and Stratton. (Down to three lawnmowers, two snow blowers, one pressure washer and a portable AC generator!)
A snow blower is not one who sneezes at a line of cocaine! 🙁
https://www.acehardware.com/departm...VUPHACh2vQQj6EAQYBSABEgJkcvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
The one shown is as small as they get. Up to 18" of snow it clears a path at a moderate walking pace. Normal use would be to clear a sidewalk for this one. A trip out and back would nicely do a sidewalk. The blower vent swivels so you can blow the snow to the side. Unlike a plow it can throw light snow a few feet away from the cleared track.
One twice the size would do a driveway in four passes.
As to engines, all of mine start easily. I own a can of evil liquid that allows you to emerse a carburetor into it. A few minutes is all it takes. After the season "Stabil" is added to the gas tank and run in. At the start of the next season "Seafoam" is run in. Doing that and I haven't had to use my evil liquid!
Most of my small engines are Briggs and Stratton. (Down to three lawnmowers, two snow blowers, one pressure washer and a portable AC generator!)
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Cal knows darn well what a snow blower is. He's just pulling your leg.
I have the exact unit linked above and it is a hard working little machine. It does my 60' x 12' driveway, plus a large parking area, in no time. Rock it forward slightly and the rubber blade pulls it along with very little effort. The guy across the street has a smaller driveway and a way bigger machine and it takes him longer to do his because he spends all his time just getting the thing turned around and cranking all the levers and knobs. By the time he is done his driveway, I have done my larger driveway plus a path up to the back yard, the whole patio area, then the whole back deck and upper deck areas.
Light, fast, maneuverable, affordable and plenty powerful. Zero regrets on that purchase.
I have the exact unit linked above and it is a hard working little machine. It does my 60' x 12' driveway, plus a large parking area, in no time. Rock it forward slightly and the rubber blade pulls it along with very little effort. The guy across the street has a smaller driveway and a way bigger machine and it takes him longer to do his because he spends all his time just getting the thing turned around and cranking all the levers and knobs. By the time he is done his driveway, I have done my larger driveway plus a path up to the back yard, the whole patio area, then the whole back deck and upper deck areas.
Light, fast, maneuverable, affordable and plenty powerful. Zero regrets on that purchase.
I almost forgot, one of my snow blowers has an electric starter. Powered by the normal AC power line. I forget which one had it, as with my current gasoline treatments, it is not worth the bother to find a cord and plug it in! Really! Three pumps on the gas primer bulb and a single pull starts pretty much all the time.
Cogi,
That was my experience with the Toro, small light fast, single stage style, very effective unit. Oh I left out one of my important issues, less noisy!
Two stage units have power to the rotating scraper and to the drive wheels. Three stages adds more oomph to the blowing stage. Although sometimes the other way around.
Cogi,
That was my experience with the Toro, small light fast, single stage style, very effective unit. Oh I left out one of my important issues, less noisy!
Two stage units have power to the rotating scraper and to the drive wheels. Three stages adds more oomph to the blowing stage. Although sometimes the other way around.
Indeed... The tiny honda I'm using at the moment is quite good, but when my back is out of order it is a pain to maneuver about. Best thing is to spin the belts and just pull it to aim in the right direction.
The walk behind tractor would be steered using individual disc brakes on the wheels.
AFAIK Loncin is more or less the best of the Chinese engines, heavily inspired by Honda unless I'm mistaken.
I watched my neighbours work their two and three-stage units for a couple of seasons before buying a machine, and it convinced me that I didn't want one. There's no way in hell I could use one of those to do my back patio and decks. We mostly have very dry, light snow that can be blown by a mouse fart so there is no need for a massive $2000 unit, and the 99cc Toro handles the wet stuff surprisingly well when we get it, as long as I don't let it pile up beyond 8 inches. Since it only takes me <10 minutes to whip out and run up and down the driveway 8 or 9 times, there is no excuse for it to pile up. Of course the snow plow always comes by to push a foot of snow into the end of the driveway 5 minutes after I come in the house, no matter what. 🙄
Funny that you say less noisy. That's one thing I don't like about it. I find it very, very loud. I actually wear hearing protection when I use it.
We're expecting some oddly "Vancouverish" weather over the next few days...
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My back is a bit screwed up this evening, but I blame that on the bit of shovel work I needed to do. My right shoulder is messed up so I am favouring my left arm and getting off-kilter a lot.
I have a "Remington" single stage blower that I got from Sams Club for $229 on a Black Friday sale several years ago. It looks a lot like the unit in the ACE hardware link. It does have the electric starter, but as stated once it has been started for the first time each year it starts up on the first pull. It takes me about an hour to do my 110 X 22 foot driveway, and about the same time to do my neighbors 85 X 20 foot driveway. Their driveway sits lower and is always covered in frozen mud, which can be like chocolate ice cream on a real cold day. It clogs often in the mud.
The grand kids came out to play in the snow Dec. 26. They were Coming Christmas day, but the road out here was unpassable. The oldest hit me straight in the face with a snowball, so I threatened him with a snow cannon.
He laughed, I got the last laugh, as he had never seen a snow blower work. There was about 6 inches on the ground that day and I had already cleared the driveway, so I pushed the blower into the big pile where most of it had landed during the driveway clean, pointed it at him and let it rip. He looked like the Michelin tire man!
The picture is from a few years ago.
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I've purchased a cordless 2-stage snow blower because of the noise level and the gasoline mess whenever I have to work on my old one (which was just about every snowfall). AND during the last snow the machine was dripping gas without starting...
We get upwards of 2 foot snows just about every year so we needed a little more than those single stage units. Mine was expensive but my limited testing so far has me VERY happy I made the purchase. it is POWERFUL and relatively quiet. I'll still use ear protection because...um...I'm into audio... I'll report back once we have a real snow.
We get upwards of 2 foot snows just about every year so we needed a little more than those single stage units. Mine was expensive but my limited testing so far has me VERY happy I made the purchase. it is POWERFUL and relatively quiet. I'll still use ear protection because...um...I'm into audio... I'll report back once we have a real snow.
I have never broken a reciprocating part on a Briggs and Stratton engine. I can't say that about some other brands.
The only Honda small engine I have is hard to start and noisy. I don't care much for it and probably wouldn't get another one.
The Chinese engine on a couple of year old harbor freight ac generator is actually much better than I expected it to be, but lives an easy life - you don't hit many immovable objects hidden in brush with generators.
The only Honda small engine I have is hard to start and noisy. I don't care much for it and probably wouldn't get another one.
The Chinese engine on a couple of year old harbor freight ac generator is actually much better than I expected it to be, but lives an easy life - you don't hit many immovable objects hidden in brush with generators.
I can't imagine using a small gasoline engine powered gizmo without hearing protection! Over the ear style also help when it is cold!
I have had a running battle with the Briggs and Stratton 22 HP Intek V twin in my riding lawn mower for years. There is a known problem in these engines that Briggs blames on "customer abuse" but many users have seen an engine failure without incidents of overheating. The cylinder head is aluminum as are most heads these days. The valve guides are bronze inserts pressed into the head. Cylinder heads get HOT, especially around the exhaust valve. The aluminum expands faster than the bronze making the guide get loose, especially after 10 years of use. The guide gradually gets pushed out of the head over time until it begins to contact the upper valve spring seat, limiting the valve's ability to open. This causes the pushrod to bend. As the guide continues it's upward motion, the pushrod will bend further until it eventually comes loose and winds up in the crankcase, where it usually gets mangled. Briggs will gladly sell you a new upgraded head for $250, so I resorted to Ebay for $50 pulled head.
You can find all sorts of other failure modes for this engine on Youtube, but the migrating guides are the biggie. Sheared flywheel keys are high on the list, but attempting to mow a large brick or an iron pipe can be expected to do that....sure beats a broken crankshaft. Dead starters and voltage regulators are common too, I used cheap Amazon parts in my repairs.
The Intek V twin was replaced by the Vanguard V twin several years ago. It seems to be a much more reliable engine.
When we bought this property nearly 8 years ago it was a mess. It was overgrown with knotweed, some over 10 feet high. The previous owner simply threw his trash out the door of his trailer, and then shot at it when he got drunk. We gathered up three of these dumpsters full from the yard and the trailer before we could attack the overgrowth.
Then we bought the lot next door, complete with a condemned house, which we had reduced to another big mess. Big pieces were hauled away, the rest we dealt with.
I went to the Tractor Supply Company and bought the cheapest lawnmower they had. Knowing what I was going to mow, I bought a 3 year "unconditional" warranty. That was 8 years ago, the mower has a Honda engine on it.
I also got a used 6.75 HP "weed eater." It proved to be the best weapon for cutting down the big stuff, and the Honda powered mower gets to eat what's left over. I never expected it to live out the Warranty, but it's still kicking.
In the 8 years since, I have cleared the property to the point where I can walk anywhere in bare feet only looking out for deer poop. I have gone through 3 or 4 blades, changed the oil a few times, and patched up the deck with JB weld and window screen, but that old mower still runs good, doesn't smoke, and starts on the first or second pull.
The mower is about a year old in this picture. I still lived in Florida at this time, and only came here two or three times a year to keep the regrowth to a minimum.
