Snow Blower
- Thread starter dukeebear
- Start date
I'd highly recommend any brand that uses a Briggs & Straton engine. My cousin is a small engine repairman & he told me countless time they are the best small engines, by far.
I just noticed by blower of 10 years has a hole near the back of the thrower housing. It looks like years of salt and water finally just caused failure. Otherwise, it is in good condition and runs well. I'm not a welder. Is this worth repairing???
Do they make them that have joysticks that can be controlled from my living room?
Yes it's worth repairing and I have a welder perfect for the job. Live in Waukee so I could help you out too.
I will echo the thought that MTD can do the trick. I have a MTD branded version this year that I havent used yet that my dad just handed down. It was bought in 96 and used til 2002. It then sat in storage til this summer when he hauled it out, put new gas in and it fired right up. Hopefully it will do the same for me this winter! There are also definitely some great deals on CL for used ones. Worst case, find out what your local shop charges to service one, buy used, get it serviced and you should be good from there at still half the price.
I have a older John Deere 826 and it runs great! Best part is if i need a part of service the local John Deere dealer has or can get parts for it. The new Deere snow blowers look like a very nice machine. I agree with buying from the local dealer due to parts and service, when you need it. If I was to buy another snow blower it would be a John Deere
After researching on line I decided an Ariens 26" had the qualities I wanted. I suggest reading the reviews and deciding which is best for you. Van Wall in Ames carries Ariens & John Deere so you can compare side by side. Now hopefully it sits all winter and gathers dust! :spinny:
Reminds me of last year when whoever the dipwad was who got paid to deliver the phone books around the neighborhood decided to drop them off in the driveway about 3 ft from the street and then that night we got 6" of snow before anybody realized that the new phone books were out there. I used my snowblower to help out about 5 neighbors plus my yard and. The smaller books my snowblower would shred and blow yellow pages all over the neighborhood but the big ones would jam in there so tight it would take me 10 minutes to take them out. Found 3 phonebooks that way and if I could find the POS that dropped those books off that night, I might be in prison today.........Unless I was a Iowa student athlete and then I might be fine.:twitcy:
This can be applied for almost everything John Deere makes. Too many people buy into the brand name and just buy it when their snowblowers etc. are built by other companies and you could buy the same thing but different name and paint color for much less. Good products but you pay for the logo and paint color.
My vote would go to an Airens or a Cub Cadet (from a tractor dealer not a box store). And no matter what you buy make sure you get it from a place that will service it. I will not buy any sort of lawn equipment from Lowes, etc.
Vetters in Nevada had some really reasonable prices on some nice Cub Cadet snowblowers but not sure if they have any left. Buddy just bought one and it is nice.
Many years around small engines on sprayer trucks, tanks, etc has proved the exact opposite for me. I won't touch Briggs and Stratton on anything. I have had the best experience with either a Honda or Kohler. My new mower has a Kawasaki small engine on it and it has been flawless as well. But by far the conditions that we put them through the Honda has been the best followed pretty closely by the Kohler.
Just my two cents.
