# Honda Dealer Said No New Machines For Another 18 Months!



## orangputeh (Nov 24, 2016)

Both Honda dealers near me recently got shipments of new machines but Honda told them there will not be anymore shipments for 18 months.

Both dealers had large waiting lists for the new machines but they told me that many people changed their minds about picking up their new blowers. Many got tired of waiting and bought used or other brands.

Honda is also putting dealers are a ration for parts. Example ; dealers can only order so many shear pins, belts , cables , etc for the season. 

Perhaps good for the used machine market. This past season from Sept.to Feb. was my best yet. However good deals on projects has practically dried up. 

Maybe will find some this summer or start accepting more service/repair work for people who wanna keep their old machines going.


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## Breckcapt (Jan 4, 2017)

orangputeh said:


> Both Honda dealers near me recently got shipments of new machines but Honda told them there will not be anymore shipments for 18 months.
> 
> Both dealers had large waiting lists for the new machines but they told me that many people changed their minds about picking up their new blowers. Many got tired of waiting and bought used or other brands.
> 
> ...


Thanks.....I better go get a bunch of those carriage head shear pins, only busted one but I want to have a good supply on hand. I have ten of the others......


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## Johnny G1 (Jan 28, 2020)

Same here in BC, no machines since last Nov. and didn't know when they would ever see any more, maybe late this yr or?????


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## Kiss4aFrog (Nov 3, 2013)

That has to be rough on the dealers. Any ideas on what the reason is they're not able to produce enough machines ??


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## orangputeh (Nov 24, 2016)

Kiss4aFrog said:


> That has to be rough on the dealers. Any ideas on what the reason is they're not able to produce enough machines ??
> 
> 
> .


asked about that and the dealer said Honda is saying covid is hampering supplies and production. he did not seem convinced with that answer


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## Darkwoods (Dec 25, 2020)

Johnny G1 said:


> Same here in BC, no machines since last Nov. and didn't know when they would ever see any more, maybe late this yr or?????


Hey, In BC, some dealers ordered a few new machines late winter and got them, while others got unexpected deliveries they didn't know were coming. Definitely slim pickings though.

In Castlegar, a dealer got a new HSS724CTD delivered and the manager didn't even know it was coming from Honda. It sold in about two weeks. I took a good look at it but waited and found a new HSS928CTD. The Honda dealer in Nelson (Mainjet) sold out early this winter and they also sell Cub Cadet and still have about a dozen of them left. I asked sales and service what they think of them and I got the side smile, with the response being; the Honda's are gone for a reason, and the Cubs are still here for a reason.

I did a google search a couple months ago, and Carter Motor Sports in Vancouver brought in some HSS928 CTDs late winter and I bought one. These are the new machines with the upgraded chute, so you know they aren't holdovers from previous years that haven't sold. They may still have one or two left. I have noticed some next to new hss928s hitting the market lately.


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## Johnny G1 (Jan 28, 2020)

I was talking about RTR in Kamloops, had nothing for sale in Dec.


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## Breckcapt (Jan 4, 2017)

orangputeh said:


> asked about that and the dealer said Honda is saying covid is hampering supplies and production. he did not seem convinced with that answer


Would you suggest laying in a good stock of shear pins and anything else before the word gets out? Thanks for all you do....great input...✌🏼I’m careful but sounds like it’ll be two more seasons perhaps before “normality” returns - whatever that will be.


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## orangputeh (Nov 24, 2016)

Breckcapt said:


> Would you suggest laying in a good stock of shear pins and anything else before the word gets out? Thanks for all you do....great input...✌🏼I’m careful but sounds like it’ll be two more seasons perhaps before “normality” returns - whatever that will be.


Even though in the past dealers have run out of shear pins I dont think you have to go overboard. Depends on how many you routinely break in a winter and keep twice that. Most people only keep auger and impeller pin shears but I highly recommend keeping at least 2 drive sprocket wheel shear pins ( with cotter pins ) and at least one cam lock boss pin. Rare that these break but nice to have just in case. 

Belts can last 15-20 years on a Honda so depending on age usually the drive belt can let go first. All you have to do is remove the belt cover and inspect belts for cuts and damage. If look okay , would not worry. 

Honda recommends a service every 100 hours of operation. I like to tell people to do it in spring/summer before the last minute fall rush. That way you have extra time if you need parts that may take time to get. 

Take care of small annoying issues before they become bigger . I'm really bad on this on my own blowers thinking I'll always have time to do it. So busy with other things so let my own stuff slide. Then I get really mad at myself.


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## Breckcapt (Jan 4, 2017)

orangputeh said:


> Even though in the past dealers have run out of shear pins I dont think you have to go overboard. Depends on how many you routinely break in a winter and keep twice that. Most people only keep auger and impeller pin shears but I highly recommend keeping at least 2 drive sprocket wheel shear pins ( with cotter pins ) and at least one cam lock boss pin. Rare that these break but nice to have just in case.
> 
> Belts can last 15-20 years on a Honda so depending on age usually the drive belt can let go first. All you have to do is remove the belt cover and inspect belts for cuts and damage. If look okay , would not worry.
> 
> ...


Thanks Orang: I did just go to the dealer and did indeed go overboard by getting ten each of the auger and impeller shear pins and lock nuts, I want to be prepared for the possible Honda Armageddon you reference. Of course, I wish I had read your post before I went, didn’t even think about sprocket wheel shear pins or cam lock boss pin, not that I have any idea what those are. Lol. Got my oil and white lithium grease for end of season maintenance (will have probably 15-20 hours then anyway for the oil change). I didn’t get stabilizer for the fuel since I intend to drain all the fuel through the carb, sound about right? Gonna put my Drainzit HON 1012 on for the oil change: the tech told me to make sure it came with a new washer, it did, although it sure looks like like a small thread. If I start thinking of drive belts at this stage my head might explode. BTW: the shear pins and nuts were OEM and only cost me less than $2 for the nuts and $.89 for the pins themselves. I was surprised. Anyway, snowing here all week while most of you guys are stowing things way. ✌🏼


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## Falstaff (Feb 17, 2021)

Last I checked INGLES PERFORMANCI in Phoenix NY had several different models available.


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## Breckcapt (Jan 4, 2017)

Falstaff said:


> Last I checked INGLES PERFORMANCI in Phoenix NY had several different models available.


If you want a laugh, take a look at what Amazon will take for an HSS1332ATD Honda.....$4500!


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## vmax29 (Oct 19, 2017)

Acme Tool is out of 1332ATD with an estimated ship date of June 16. Who knows if that’s accurate or arbitrary. $3389 pre orders. Up $200 from a couple years ago. 

Retooling the factory for something new possibly?


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## Zavie (Sep 23, 2014)

vmax29 said:


> Retooling the factory for something new possibly


Maybe converting engines over to EFI.


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## Kiss4aFrog (Nov 3, 2013)

I would think the corporate heads would be smart enough to design an EFI for the engine and implement it without much downtime for the change over.


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## ST1100A (Feb 7, 2015)

Honda has pulled some funny things over the past 25 years that really 'Bit themselves in their ass' business/corporate wise. They made some really dumb mistakes after Mr Soichiro Honda died that the new directors of the company tried, and it cost them a lot of money, dealerships and customers.
We all saw that starting to happen back in the mid to later '90's with the quality slipping, parts changeovers to lesser quality parts used during builds, company changeovers, re-assigning people all across the company divisions and many other things they were doing.
When they decided to take the 'Big Box Store' sales route, they ended up putting a lot of their 'Dedicated Authorized' dealerships out of business, all in the name of 'Money and Sales'.
So much for 'Customer Satisfaction', Quality and Reliability', that all went 'Downhill' after they pulled that.


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## Zavie (Sep 23, 2014)

Are these the same corporate heads that gave us the HSS models with the easily clogging chutes?


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## ST1100A (Feb 7, 2015)

Yes, with their new business methods they decided to use.


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## vmax29 (Oct 19, 2017)

Maybe they are shutting down the plant because you guys hurt their engineer’s feelings. 😂


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## orangputeh (Nov 24, 2016)

I only spoke to the 2 dealers in my area. Both are friends of mine and would give me the inside scoop if there was one. Honda seems to be keeping them in the dark also. They do have speculations but that is all they are.....

Dealers are of course upset as many potential customers changed their minds on picking up new machines mainly because of delays. Honda told the dealer a certain month. The dealer told customers. Then that month of new machine deliveries came and went without the new machines. 

Of course customers would get mad and blame the dealer. The dealers are between a rock and hard place. And now they have parts rationing to make matters worse. The last thing a guy wants to hear that he can only have X amount of shear pins or whatever. What about commercial snowblowing operations that may have 10 machines or more???

I was lucky as this happened back in 2016-17 winter and I bought hundreds of shear pins and thousands of dollars of belts , cables , and other critical parts in case this happened. But , now not sure if I have enough to last the summer service period. The prices have gone thru the roof also......up 30-40% or more. 

It's a real frustrating clustercluck for the dealers. Fortunately they are more diversified with summer equipment than a specialty shop.


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## IDEngineer (Oct 16, 2018)

Supply chain problems are starting to hit many industries worldwide. I'm sure you've heard about several automotive companies idling plants because they cannot get semiconductors. Ford is looking at ~$5B in lost profits because of it, and I think it was VW that expected to build ~1M fewer vehicles this year because they simply cannot get parts.

I'm working on a project that has been five years in R&D and was finally, finally scheduled to go into production this June. We've had to push that out at least until the end of this year, and possibly an entire 12 months, because in our case the hydraulics industry cannot supply parts. Things like pumps and motors that normally have lead times of 4 weeks are now 16-26 weeks (not a typo, that's SIX MONTHS) and even those are "no promises" schedules that may or may not happen.

All of this is because when COVID first hit, a lot of industries presumed orders would plummet as people stayed home, didn't work, had less income, etc. So the car companies presumed they'd sell fewer cars and cancelled a lot of upstream contracts, including with the semiconductor fabs. Those fabs cannot sit idle, so they signed contracts with other industries like personal electronics, appliances, etc. When the car companies realized the DID need the parts, the capacity was fully booked for other industries so they're stuck living with their bad forecasting. In the case of hydraulics on our project, the hydraulics folks cancelled orders with the upstream casting vendors, who in turn cancelled orders for raw metals, who instead found customers for their raw metals elsewhere. Now the hydraulics folks can't get castings because the casting folks can't get raw metals. It's a huge rippling domino effect.

We're hearing estimates of 3Q2022 before this stuff gets sorted out and supply chains return to normal.

When someone tells you they're having a supply chain problem, it's quite likely they're being totally honest.


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## ST1100A (Feb 7, 2015)

Then you figure our Country relies on other Foreign Countries to supply us with the parts, assembled items, finished products, and especially the raw materials to build those parts.
Our country just recently 'Burned a Lot of Bridges' with those Foreign Countries that produced and supplied those parts and raw materials to us, so we will be in for a long wait for anything now.
It will take Decades for our Country to start producing the things we need again in our own Country.
That is an awful lot of factories that will have to be newly built again to accommodate our supply needs of products we use daily.


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## SteveCA (Feb 17, 2021)

I guess I was lucky to find a new HSS1332 back in early February. Of course the big storms stopped days after receiving it lol


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## Husqvarna_10530SBE (Oct 9, 2015)

orangputeh said:


> Take care of small annoying issues before they become bigger . I'm really bad on this on my own blowers thinking I'll always have time to do it. So busy with other things so let my own stuff slide. Then I get really mad at myself.


Isn't that how almost all mechanics are? Either have no time to fix their own stuff or get sick of working on them and put off doing their own.


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## Husqvarna_10530SBE (Oct 9, 2015)

ST1100A said:


> Then you figure our Country relies on other Foreign Countries to supply us with the parts, assembled items, finished products, and especially the raw materials to build those parts.
> Our country just recently 'Burned a Lot of Bridges' with those Foreign Countries that produced and supplied those parts and raw materials to us, so we will be in for a long wait for anything now.
> It will take Decades for our Country to start producing the things we need again in our own Country.
> That is an awful lot of factories that will have to be newly built again to accommodate our supply needs of products we use daily.


The way things are going, everything will be made in African countries soon enough. China has been investing billions into Africa. They have North Koreans working there dirt cheap. Once we run out of countries to exploit, manufacturing will come back here.


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## Corky (Feb 7, 2021)

Zavie said:


> Are these the same corporate heads that gave us the HSS models with the easily clogging chutes?


What is it about these chutes that is supposed to make them clog up easier? I have waxed mine from time to time. Heavy wet snow does not seem to be any problem.


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## vmax29 (Oct 19, 2017)

There is a whole thread on this. To explain, the HSS line when “new” had a chute design that created a slight restriction near the collar. When enough heavy wet snow built up in that area it would pack up fast causing a very dense ice jam in the chute and volute. Snowblowers other than Honda can pack up like this as well. There would be no such thing as a chute clearing tool if if did not and most snowblowers come with one. Personally, I had it happen about 2 or three times where I had to stop and bring it into the shop and put a heater on it. I am a homeowner so it was just an inconvenience but I can see a commercial user getting pretty pissed off. The new style chute clears itself when it starts to clog. It seems to just push the ice up and out with no restrictions.


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## orangputeh (Nov 24, 2016)

Corky said:


> What is it about these chutes that is supposed to make them clog up easier? I have waxed mine from time to time. Heavy wet snow does not seem to be any problem.


you probably have the new chute design if not having any problems. the original HSS design had a higher collar. Honda covered this under warranty by installing a new chute or some owners cut theirs down .

Many owners also installed an impeller kit to help cut down clogging.


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## Corky (Feb 7, 2021)

Thanks for your replies.


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