# New updated Honda snowblowers?



## nsinspection (Sep 9, 2019)

Just checking in to see if anyone has heard any news about Honda updating their snowblowers in the near future? I just sold my 16 year old 928 and started researching with the intention of buying a newer model with steering. After visiting the dealer I noticed there wasn't much if any changes except for the steering. I already had a Canadian model so the joystick control and hydraulic lift are something I already had. I've read the issues of clogging on the new machines and the change in the chute, which honestly seems like a stop gap measure and I read about the jet and impeller kit upgrade. None of these issues concern me as they are easy mods. BUT, with the reviews of the Ariens Rapid Track and how innovative it is etc. plus the Honda haters saying Honda's are outdated, underpowered etc. I can only think that Honda is listening to this also and would think that they are going to hit back with a new design or some change to their blower line to stay on top. In the end, my fear is that I invest over $3000 this year and then the 2020 model is completed redesigned to address these criticisms. I wish snowblowers were like electronics or new cars where leaks of new products or upcoming products were available. If anyone has any inside information, speak up😀


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## Zavie (Sep 23, 2014)

I've heard nothing. Looks like you've sold your's so.... might be time to purchase a new one anyway.


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## Zavie (Sep 23, 2014)

Husqvarna has been busy, have you checked out the new 400 series? https://www.husqvarna.com/us/products/snow-blowers/

That ST 430T looks nice. Hydro, tracks, 420cc and a 5 year warranty.


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## Miles (Sep 16, 2016)

It took Honda many years to upgrade to its recent model so I doubt there is a totally new revision coming. The HSS928 should get the auger protection system soon. That's probably the next upgrade in the works, but I don't know if it is coming in 2020.


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## ST1100A (Feb 7, 2015)

Like they always say, "If it ain't broke, don"t fix it".
You might want to read what some of the Ariens "Rapid-track" haters say, and they don't care for it too much at all, sounds like they have their share of problems and do not handle as well as they advertise.
The people that I know who have them, and from operating them, are, and I, am glad to stay with Honda, and they were all sorry they traded their Honda's in for them. They could not wait to replace them with another Honda for its ease of operation and reliability, plus not having to replace friction wheels all the time, and no slippage with the Hydro drive and infinitely variable speed.
A lot of the people even wanted the Non Steerable models due to less parts that wear and brake.
They did not like the Rapid Track design and handling at all, they all felt is was a very poorly, cheaply designed unit that was a real pain in the butt to work with, and would much have a wheel drive instead of that. They liked the Honda track design and operation much better, it was built a lot stronger and more useful from what I noticed and everyone else I know that had them.
But, try them if you want to experiment with it. We use ours mostly commercially, and some homeowner use.
I would also say to stay with the Older Honda Hydro units, the unit was built by Honda, and was a far better unit then the newer ones, stronger and more reliable. I would be afraid of all the new machines coming out with Hydro drives nowadays because the manufacturers of the Hydro units are not built that well in all of the other companies machines.
Honda doesn't make their Hydro units now, they are made by an outside company, so it will be at least 25 years to see if they hold up like the older ones.
All of our commercial machines are at least 26-27 years old and never had a problem with their Hydro drive units, I don't think we ever replaced a drive belt on any of them yet, and some with well over 1000 hours on them, I think we got our monies worth out of our Honda's.


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## leonz (Dec 12, 2014)

nsinspection said:


> Just checking in to see if anyone has heard any news about Honda updating their snowblowers in the near future? I just sold my 16 year old 928 and started researching with the intention of buying a newer model with steering. After visiting the dealer I noticed there wasn't much if any changes except for the steering. I already had a Canadian model so the joystick control and hydraulic lift are something I already had. I've read the issues of clogging on the new machines and the change in the chute, which honestly seems like a stop gap measure and I read about the jet and impeller kit upgrade. None of these issues concern me as they are easy mods. BUT, with the reviews of the Ariens Rapid Track and how innovative it is etc. plus the Honda haters saying Honda's are outdated, underpowered etc. I can only think that Honda is listening to this also and would think that they are going to hit back with a new design or some change to their blower line to stay on top. In the end, my fear is that I invest over $3000 this year and then the 2020 model is completed redesigned to address these criticisms. I wish snowblowers were like electronics or new cars where leaks of new products or upcoming products were available. If anyone has any inside information, speak up😀


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Have you looked at the Yamaha 1028EJ or its little brother?


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## lake_effect (Aug 29, 2019)

Zavie said:


> Husqvarna has been busy, have you checked out the new 400 series? https://www.husqvarna.com/us/products/snow-blowers/
> 
> That ST 430T looks nice. Hydro, tracks, 420cc and a 5 year warranty.
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kwm84TqHRd4


Looks nice but I don’t want a “unique” engine (he actually uses those words in review). The Honda GX engines have been around forever with minor tweaks along the way. They have more than proven themselves. I am looking to buy a new machine and I don’t like any of the engine choices on all the other makes. If Toro or Ariens had a Honda engine there is a good chance I would buy it.


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## Zavie (Sep 23, 2014)

lake_effect said:


> Looks nice but I don’t want a “unique” engine (he actually uses those words in review). The Honda GX engines have been around forever with minor tweaks along the way. They have more than proven themselves. I am looking to buy a new machine and I don’t like any of the engine choices on all the other makes. If Toro or Ariens had a Honda engine there is a good chance I would buy it.


Speaking of the good 'ol GX Honda's, how about the mini-shocker this spring when Honda came out with the GVC200 engine. That replaced the The GVC190 on the HRX line which was already a higher output than most 21" mowers. So I guess I would not be too surprised to see higher output engines go into their snowblowers. As a matter of fact I'm wondering now....why not??


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## nsinspection (Sep 9, 2019)

leonz said:


> ===========================================================================================================================================================================================
> 
> 
> Have you looked at the Yamaha 1028EJ or its little brother?


I wish they were available in the US. They look like nice machines.


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## ST1100A (Feb 7, 2015)

I would stay as far away from that "Unique" engine as possible. That "Unique" fuel injection is an absolute failure with nothing but problems and extremely costly to fix, but what do you expect for the China recycled engine.
I would stay with the Honda GX series engine, it is tried and true with the most longevity and reliability, especially the older engines. Stay away from the GC series, they were another China mistake and did not hold up at all like the GX series.
The best were the engines that were made in America, and Japan, stay away from anything made in China unless you dont expect to keep it for more than a couple of months.


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## tabora (Mar 1, 2017)

ST1100A said:


> I would stay with the Honda GX series engine, it is tried and true with the most longevity and reliability, especially the older engines. Stay away from the GC series, they were another China mistake and did not hold up at all like the GX series.
> The best were the engines that were made in America, and Japan, stay away from anything made in China unless you dont expect to keep it for more than a couple of months.


Actually, GX engines are made in Japan, Thailand & China... It does not appear that GX engines have ever been manufactured in the USA, however the GC/GS engines are.


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## ST1100A (Feb 7, 2015)

The GX was made in Georgia and North Carolina years ago, they were the good engines. After Mr Soichiro Honda died, the company started to get "Cheap" with everything. We saw that shortly after he died with the motorcycles and power equipment.


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## tabora (Mar 1, 2017)

ST1100A said:


> The GX was made in Georgia and North Carolina years ago, they were the good engines. After Mr Soichiro Honda died, the company started to get "Cheap" with everything. We saw that shortly after he died with the motorcycles and power equipment.


 Not according to Honda: 

https://www.snowblowerforum.com/forum/1173833-post38.html

https://www.snowblowerforum.com/forum/716666-post15.html

https://www.snowblowerforum.com/for...-honda-snowblowers-manufacturinglocations.gif


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## tabora (Mar 1, 2017)

Interesting write-up: What is the difference between the Honda GX and GC series engines?
https://ventry.com/blogs/faqs/honda-gx-versus-gc-engines


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## ST1100A (Feb 7, 2015)

tabora said:


> Interesting write-up: What is the difference between the Honda GX and GC series engines?
> https://ventry.com/blogs/faqs/honda-gx-versus-gc-engines


The GX was overhead valve with gear operated camshaft next to the crankshaft. It was designed with a 2000 hour service life before major repairs.
The GC is the overhead cam engine that uses a timing belt and a funny crankcase with the cylinder head and crankcase/cylinder all in one piece, no separate head.
The GC engine was their "Economy" engine, not designed to last that long, like 500 hours before major repairs or replacement. Competition for Briggs and Tecumseh.
The GX was made in the States before Robert was involved with Honda as he was when he posted that article.
I spoke with Robert a few times, he was a good person.
I remember when they opened the Swepsonville plant, they used to make a lot of stuff there, and before that was in operation they had other plants across the country, that was before Robert started with Honda. I was very active with Honda back before Robert was there, and knew a lot of the people and worked with engineers before him. Most of that was before the "Internet" days became so popular.
Robert was the "Go To" guy for anything Honda on here, I don't think he is doing that anymore now that his position changed and retirement was coming up soon for him. He was great help and information to a lot of people on this forum.


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## tabora (Mar 1, 2017)

ST1100A said:


> The GX was made in the States before Robert was involved with Honda as he was when he posted that article.


 I'd love to see a GX engine with a USA plant code. All I've ever seen are Japan and Thailand. I understand some were built in Brazil and China, too.

https://engines.honda.com/support-and-service/engine-type-identification
https://global.honda/about/group/category.html?category=manufacturing-facilities


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## ST1100A (Feb 7, 2015)

tabora said:


> I'd love to see a GX engine with a USA plant code. All I've ever seen are Japan, Thailand and China.


I will have to try and find some of the OLD literature and info that I hope I still have, then I can share it with you.
Do you remember when all of the Auger Housings were made in Canada?


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## tabora (Mar 1, 2017)

ST1100A said:


> I will have to try and find some of the OLD literature and info that I hope I still have, then I can share it with you.
> Do you remember when all of the Auger Housings were made in Canada?


I doubt that the literature would prove anything. The plant code stamped in the block is really the only way to tell where they were made...


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## ST1100A (Feb 7, 2015)

tabora said:


> I doubt that the literature would prove anything. The plant code stamped in the block is really the only way to tell where they were made...


I will try to get you that info this weekend. I had the old factory technical and sales literature from my dealership from American Honda and Honda Power Equipment that had dates listed when produced, the models, numbers of each produced and what plant they were produced at in the USA.
Honda started making OPE in 1953. They opened their first plant in the USA in 1979 producing the CR250 motorcycle, then in 1982 the auto plant opened.
Honda originally started making piston rings before anything else back in the later 40's.
Some of their power equipment plants opened in the early 80's here, and some were before that. The original Swepsonville was around '84. A lot of that info was public knowledge that was easy to get back then until Obama had things changed and wanted to rewrite history, he didn't want the manufacturers to tell the public where their products were produced because he wanted everything to become "Global". So he made them hide a lot of their production figures prior to him becoming president. That is well known what he did and he pissed off a lot of people doing that.
It is harder to find a lot of the documentation now about the older stuff. He convinced them to hide a lot of that data and not release it to the public.
I worked at an older dealership, the 1889th in the USA, our dealer number was 1889, then changed to 101889 after a lot of new dealerships opened.
Our first dealership opened around 1959-'61 era selling cars, then motorcycles, our second dealership opened back in '61-'63 era as a motorcycle dealership, then in the 70's-80's we began taking on Outdoor Power Equipment.
At one time they used to cast the "Made in Japan" or "Made in America" on the blocks. They did that for a little while but stopped because it cost more money to cast that on them. I will look around to see if I have some old ones to send you a picture.
They stopped doing that I know thanks to Obama. He made all manufacturers take the country of origin off of their products back around 2008-09.
Your engines were made in Georgia and the old plant in Greensboro, N.C.and an early plant in Swepsonville. Swepsonville was rebuilt into the new plant. Some parts were also made at Anna engine plant.
A lot of that was done back in the 80's and early 90's. They also had plants in Indiana and Alabama and California, plus others over the years.
Honda used to produce around 1.5 million engines per year in the USA back then. That's not including what they made at their other plants in Japan and worldwide. Honda was and probably still is the largest small engine manufacturer.
I am supposed to see my old Dealership Principal/Owner this weekend, so I hope to get a lot more info from him that I can share with you.
You figure most of the paperwork I had is from around 40 years ago and newer, so keeping a lot of that laying around the house in a pile might be a little bit tricky to find as long as it wasn't thrown out, so let me see what I can come up with for you. I'm sure you find it very interesting.


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## bigredmf (Jan 16, 2018)

ST1100A said:


> A lot of that info was public knowledge that was easy to get back then until Obama had things changed and wanted to rewrite history, he didn't want the manufacturers to tell the public where their products were produced because he wanted everything to become "Global". So he made them hide a lot of their production figures prior to him becoming president. That is well known what he did and he pissed off a lot of people doing that.
> It is harder to find a lot of the documentation now about the older stuff. He convinced them to hide a lot of that data and not release it to the public.
> 
> They stopped doing that I know thanks to Obama. He made all manufacturers take the country of origin off of their products back around 2008-09..



Curious if you have a source for this info? 



Red


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## tabora (Mar 1, 2017)

ST1100A said:


> Your engines were made in Georgia and the old plant in Greensboro, N.C.and an early plant in Swepsonville. Swepsonville was rebuilt into the new plant. Some parts were also made at Anna engine plant


Again, according to Honda at the links I previously cited, GX production was originally at the Kumamoto, Japan plant, but production was started over 30 years ago in Bangkok, Thailand and virtually all GX engines produced for PE assembly in Japan and the US come from there. Jialing-Honda in Chongqing, China made GX engines for a while, but apparently no longer. The plant in Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil is listed as having produced mid-size GX engines.

Swepsonville, North Carolina, USA has only ever produced the GC/GS engines and there is no record of GX production there, only import for assembly.

A photo of a GX engine stamping with a Swepsonville plant code would prove me wrong, of course... :wink2:


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## ST1100A (Feb 7, 2015)

Hi Tabora, can you get me some of those plant code numbers? I used to have all of them, now I have to try and find them.
The map you showed and one I saw from Honda is probably what is made at those locations now. I used to have an old map that was a lot different than the one shown now.
It had the GX made in USA and Japan, the GC was China and USA.
I'm going to try and get the old info I had from the owner of the dealership I was at then. I hope to get it this weekend.
All the info I had was before the internet was popular and everything was done/ordered by phone or mail, everything was printed on paper from Honda and our service reps would come to our dealerships in person. That was when Honda had their own training facilities. Honda did away with all of that stuff now.
My dealership was an old dealership and we didn't get online until Honda made us back around 2001, they did everything online then and did away with all phone and mail correspondence, even the service reps stopped coming around by 2002 unless you called them and they did away with their own training centers.
Now you got me going nuts trying to find all that old stuff, you could put that in the history archive, we had stuff from all the way back in the early 60's.


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## help (Mar 3, 2015)

All-new GCV Series engines will be produced in Kumamoto Factory in Japan.

se links : https://global.honda/newsroom/news/2018/p180613eng-gcv.html?from=r

Honda has 4 new engins coming for sale late 2019

iGX700/iGXV700 and iGX800/iGXV800 V-Twin Efi all the way.

se links: https://www.globenewswire.com/news-...es-Expands-GX-Series-V-Twin-Model-Lineup.html

they are all ready up on the site: Engine overview - Honda Engines


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## ST1100A (Feb 7, 2015)

Tabora, I remember very well the big thing with Honda going after and suing the China place that was making their engines. The place was making engines and selling them with the honda name on them and keeping the money. Since China did not have to honor USA copyright laws, there wasn't much that could be done, Honda cancelled the contract with them and the USA boycotted those engines until they took the Honda name off of them.
That is where a lot of those "Chonda" look-a-like engines came from, like predator, loncin and lct. Plus the new Briggs Intek engine made in China is another copy of the Honda GX engine.
China stole the Patents for them and were making copies of them under different names. But the USA couldn't do anything about it because China doesn't have to honor our copyright laws. The only thing the USA could do was boycott them and not let them come into the country back then.
I remember when ordering parts, the USA made and Japan made parts would fit each other because of the exact manufacturing tolerances. China parts usually would not match up because of the poor manufacturing tolerances and clearances and quality. That was when we had to check all those code numbers and I had the list back then. I used that list a lot because the parts were different for the engines, if it was made in China, I had to order China parts to fit it, same with the USA parts. The USA parts fit the China motor but the China parts caused problems on USA motors. Japan and USA parts fit perfectly together.
A lot of that happened in the mid to later 90's when they started to shift the manufacturing plants around and relaized the mistake they did making things in China, with China stealing all of the ideas and copying them.


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## tabora (Mar 1, 2017)

ST1100A said:


> Tabora, I remember very well the big thing with Honda going after and suing the China place that was making their engines.


Are you just making this all up? The China plant I've referenced is a HONDA plant...


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## ST1100A (Feb 7, 2015)

tabora said:


> Are you just making this all up? The China plant I've referenced is a HONDA plant...


Not making that up. It was back in the 90's. Honda contracted out the engine building to someone, probably an outside company. I know Honda has China companies, we knew about them from auto and motorcycle. This was power equipment division that did that. They contracted out the small engine work to someone when that happened, but our rep wouldnt tell us who, he just told us about the problems and what honda was trying to do about it so we followed it very closely.
I talked with the one guy tonight and we are getting together this weekend. He is going to try and find all the info he has about it, he owned the dealership from back in '64.
He thinks he has some of the pictures he took of some of the engines with the "Made in USA" stickers on them.


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## ST1100A (Feb 7, 2015)

bigredmf said:


> Curious if you have a source for this info?
> 
> 
> 
> Red


Red, That was on the TV news all the time with Obama's political opponents complaining about what he was doing taking the "Made is USA" and other country of origin labels off of products they were buying and hiding where the item originated from if somebody tried to look up where it was made at.
That was also one of Trump's big campaign promises when he was running for president, was to put the "Made in America" label back on products again and make companies disclose the origin of their products. He also wanted all the "Made In ....." countries labels put on products, to make people feel guilty of buying foreign products instead of American products. 
Think back in the "Reagan Days" when bikes were either made in America or "Jap" bikes and all the political hoopla over that.
I know its "Political" crap and don't want to talk politics here, although sometimes we do.


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