Ariens 11.5 HP snow blower disappointed me, NOT!

[montelatici]

As I stated in many posts, my Ariens snow blower used very little in 4 years of ownership was useless in these mid atlantic storms. I'd push it and only a dribble of snow would be ejected. I was pushing it to the point of a hernia and gave up twice and used my BX24 loader to move the snow.

Today, I took a look at it and much to my surprise, the fist stage screws were free-wheeling. Both shear bolts were sheared. I was pushing the darn thing into the snow and only the second stage prop was turning. What a dummy.

I replaced the shear bolts today. Head downcast

 

[Rustywreck]

That's funny.

I have one year old version of probably the same snow blower at work and it is a snow eating machine. It never needs to be "pushed." Sometimes a slight lift on the handles, but never a push.

 

[mrutkaus]

I have had an 8.5 hp MTD one for years, sheared lots of bolts and one center transmission on gravel driveway hitting some odd big rocks under the snow.

One thing I've done to perhaps lessen that in the future is loosening up the tension on the augur control. IE, it's going as fast as normal and not clutch slipping, but clutch is not real tight.

Like a slip clutch on a bush hog.

Mike

 

[sevilla]

I remember of a friend who, last year, after a snow storm was pushing a similar machine. He was pail, almost gray, his nostrils were two big icicles and his sweat was frozen around his temple. Ice on his lenses was completely impairing his vision. In spite of this he was pushing the **** thing. I stopped and told him: something must be wrong with the blower. No he said, there is too much snow, too much for this machine. In fact there were 18 inches of snow on the ground. He kept pushing. I left and came back after an hour. He was still there, pushing. The color of his face scared me: paler and grayer, covered in frozen sweat. I remember having seen a similar color only at the morgue.
Stop I said, we need to check the machine, you see, the blades are not running, something is broken here. No, he replied: I have to finish, it is almost done.
Half an hour later later the small driveway was almost clear. Almost breathless, with a final push he put the snow blowers in the garage.
The next day somebody told me that the shear bolt of the snow blower were broken and he had to change them.

 

[oldballs]

Been there .... done that...My neighbor came out when I was doing his driveway and said, "Why is only half of that machine turning"? I'll bet that shear bolts are really selling this year.