Snow Equipment Owning/Operating Snowblower Conundrum

[Don87]

Some people pooh-pooh the Chinese-made LCT engine. I have read that it most closely resembles the Honda OHV. My dealer told me that LCT is filling the gap in the market that Tecumseh left, when they went out of the small engine business. So far, mine runs great. We'll see how it does over time.

The reason why most people "pooh-pooh" the Chinese made machines.....is because they may change designs tomorrow, and you will never find parts as long as you live.

Here in the U.S. , a manufacturer is required to maintain parts support for 7 to 10 years when a model is discontinued............China does what China wants.

 

[joe48]

I'm sure someone can beat my walkbehind for long life but here goes. I have a 1963 Ariens 24" that a neighbor gave me because I used it more than he did and did all the service on it. It originally had a 4.5hp Techumseh engine, but 6 yrs ago I replaced it with a new 7.5 hp Techumseh Snowfighter engine from Northern hydralics. The old one was getting tired and the carb needed a rebuild, but I couldn't get any parts for it, hence the engine swap.
Took an afternoonand a few mods to make it fit,chute crank etc, Boy does it throw snow, what a difference 3hp makes and you can't beat the good old Ariens machines, all heavy steel and cast iron gearbox on auger.
PS: my other snowblower for the Kioti is a 60" SMYTHE 3pt hitch machine, got a lot of use out of both this year.

 

[DennisFolsom]

It's interesting to note that Joe couldn't get the parts he wanted for his older Tecumseh, well before they went out of the small engine business. It looks like the Chinese-made engines are not the only ones where parts an be an issue.

Joe has a good point about re-powering an older, well-made machine. With the new engine, it may last as long as he does.

Even though we've gotten no more snow since I bought that McCulloch snowblower, I couldn't resist starting it up this morning. It hadn't been started in a week and a half. It was 22 degrees in the garage. I pressed the primer bulb 3 times, set the choke on full, flipped the ignition switch on, and pulled the cord. To my surprise, it was running on the first pull! After a few seconds on half-choke, it was able to run on no choke.

While I don't totally disagree with some of the concerns that folks in this forum and others have about Chinese engines, I'm satisfied with my LCT 208cc so far. It looks like I won't really get a chance to put it to the test until next snow season. That's OK. I'm ready for Spring!

 

[Snaker]

I recently picked up a used tracked 5 hp Sears Craftsman snowblower. I would window shop those things when they were popular and wonder how good they would work. They were usually a hike in price over the similar sized wheeled machines which kept my thin wallet closed. I clean mostly grass areas and one fairly steep slope and I love this thing. It spins but keeps moving and even pulls me up the slope when I'm slipping.

Being from 10% ethanol country I preach to everyone to install a shutoff valve in the fuel line of a gravity fed tank and be sure to use it.

 

[DennisFolsom]

Well, so much for my earlier statement that my purchase of a snowblower caused the snow season to end! Here, in central Maine, we got close to 14 inches today, and it's still snowing lightly. Making it more interesting, from my point of view, the Mrs and I just got back Monday from a week in Florida, where it was in the 80's and sunny every day except the day we left. (I've seen on TV that they have had some wild weather since, though.) While we were gone, there were a couple of snowstorms here that melted before we got back.

Today, however, I did give that little walk-behind snow blower a workout. My drive was so soft that I preferred for the plow guy not to do it. I think he had all he could handle today anyway. I blowed out our entire 300 ft driveway, the patio, and half of the area beside the garage. It took a while, but it beat the heck out of shoveling. I was impressed with how much of the wet heavy stuff the little McCulloch could handle. It was a good foot deep at the time I was blowing it out.

There was an area where I had to blow over snow that had been blown once. Also, that area had about an hour to settle, while I was doing the rest of the drive. Clearing that area was tough going. If it gets cold, and that stuff freezes, I'll never move more of it, so I wanted to widen out in the one session.

I couldn't help picking up some sand and gravel, even though my shoes were all the way down. The stuff went right through, without a problem.

I wouldn't normally recommend clearing a drive as big as mine with a 27" two-stage blower. However, in this case it saved having the plow guy come in and gouge things up.