# Slowing down a Platinum 24 SHO



## lnh (Mar 17, 2019)

There have been very few opportunities so far this season to put my new machine (921050) through its paces, but one thing I did notice when tackling the EOD was even 1st gear seemed a bit faster than I wanted especially compared with my old Honda HS828 where you could have it crawl as slow as needed. I'm not concerned with top speed gear 6 being a bit slower and faster reverse would be OK as well.

Logically it seems like moving the threaded connector on the rod upward should accomplish this change. Is this correct?


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## cdestuck (Jan 20, 2013)

You are correct in your thoughts. Not exactly sure if your lever goes up or down for forward speeds as I’m not familiar with your model. But by threading that piece either up or down will complete your task.


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## Ziggy65 (Jan 18, 2020)

I too found that 1st gear was faster than I liked on my Ariens 28 SHO, especially for EOD piles and deep snow. I made the adjustment on the threaded rod you indicate so the drive wheel was just maxing out on the hex shaft bump stop when in R2. I still found 1st gear was faster than I liked.
My solution was to clamp the lever in place between the 1st forward and 1st reverse notches and find the desired speed by adjusting the clamp left or right. Mark the position and cut a new slot in the control panel. see attached photo.
Not sure if the Platimum series has the same control panel, but worked great on mine, also prevents the machine from climbing when going through the tough stuff.
Hope this helps


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## Kobuk (Dec 3, 2019)

Ziggy65 said:


> I too found that 1st gear was faster than I liked on my Ariens 28 SHO, especially for EOD piles and deep snow. I made the adjustment on the threaded rod you indicate so the drive wheel was just maxing out on the hex shaft bump stop when in R2. I still found 1st gear was faster than I liked.
> My solution was to clamp the lever in place between the 1st forward and 1st reverse notches and find the desired speed by adjusting the clamp left or right. Mark the position and cut a new slot in the control panel. see attached photo.
> Not sure if the Platimum series has the same control panel, but worked great on mine, also prevents the machine from climbing when going through the tough stuff.
> Hope this helps
> ...


That's awesome! I was playing with my machine and the adjustment and like you I tried putting it between the f1 and r1. I wondered about cutting a slot but thought that I would get some time on it in the full up adjustment before I tried modifying my new machine and possibly mess up my warranty if I ever need it. Good job, it looks clean...... Now you got me thinking again! haha


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## gibbs296 (Jun 22, 2014)

If a person is just trying to raise the position of the block on the rod could one just use a die and cut more thread on the rod? I would rather do that instead of cutting the control panel.


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## Ziggy65 (Jan 18, 2020)

Kobuk said:


> That's awesome! I was playing with my machine and the adjustment and like you I tried putting it between the f1 and r1. I wondered about cutting a slot but thought that I would get some time on it in the full up adjustment before I tried modifying my new machine and possibly mess up my warranty if I ever need it. Good job, it looks clean...... Now you got me thinking again! haha


Thanks Kobuk. When I got the SHO last year 1st gear seemed fast to me, I had been used to my old Ariens which crawls in first. I thought about modifying the SHO but like you was worried what it would do to the warranty. This year with one of the few snowfalls we had I was using the old Ariens to do the EOD and realized it just felt more comfortable at the slow crawl and did not rise up at all. So I said the heck with it and went to the garage and did the mod on the SHO. Only took 15 minutes and I am very happy with the speed now (had a couple of 4 to 5" dumps, although I would really like some snow to give it a good work out.:snow48:


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## tadawson (Jan 3, 2018)

My Plat 24 crawls in 1st, and I have all forward and reverse speeds, so the needed range of adjustment seems like it should be there.


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## lnh (Mar 17, 2019)

Many thanks for all the responses. I pulled the pin and wound the piece up the rod several rotations. From the starting location, more than about 3 rotations made it so I couldn't move the lever into reverse. I settled on 3 rotations up which did slow down gear 1 and would still allow one reverse gear. It wouldn't go into reverse 2 anymore. For now I'm OK with this compromise as the Ariens doesn't blow snow all that great in reverse anyways 😉. Now for a snowfall to really test. Notching an extra slow gear as shown is probably the best solution, but I'll give this a try first.


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## Ziggy65 (Jan 18, 2020)

gibbs296 said:


> If a person is just trying to raise the position of the block on the rod could one just use a die and cut more thread on the rod? I would rather do that instead of cutting the control panel.


The issue with the rod adjustment is that there is a stop (pin) on the hex shaft that limits the speed of R2, long before you run out of thread. If you adjust the rod/nut too far you hit the stop before you are into R2 and are binding the lever when you put selector in R2 slot. 
This is what I found for my machine, others have said their first gear was a crawl just by setting up as per owners manual, but for some reason my speed was faster than I liked.
Cheers


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