# Ariens Ax414 vs Briggs polar force 420



## Mountain Man (Oct 14, 2018)

Anybody have any input between these two engines, such as strengths and weaknesses ? The AX is on the Platinum 30, and the Briggs on the Pro 28.


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## 1132le (Feb 23, 2017)

i have ax414 its a beast starts 1 pull everytime i have the rpms at 3825 it uses no oil iam happy


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## tabora (Mar 1, 2017)

I concur with 1132le. I have the LCT 414cc engine on my generator and it's close to my Honda engines in fit, finish & performance. Hopefully will hold up over the long haul, as well!


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## rslifkin (Mar 5, 2018)

From everything I know about them, both are good engines. The Briggs comes with a much larger (1.5 gallon) fuel tank though. The LCT tank is about 3/4 gallon IIRC.


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## Mountain Man (Oct 14, 2018)

1132le said:


> i have ax414 its a beast starts 1 pull everytime i have the rpms at 3825 it uses no oil iam happy



You turned up the rpm for more horsepower I assume, but does it really need it ?


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## 1132le (Feb 23, 2017)

Mountain Man said:


> You turned up the rpm for more horsepower I assume, but does it really need it ?



I turned it up so i could increase my impeller rpm from 1020 to 1111 the sho is 1083
it made a clear better


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## rslifkin (Mar 5, 2018)

It probably does gain you about 0.5 hp as well at the higher rpm, being that its right around the LCT spec for RPM which should be pretty close to peak HP rpm (and the extra power goes along with the higher impeller RPM to help move snow faster).


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## Mountain Man (Oct 14, 2018)

rslifkin said:


> From everything I know about them, both are good engines. The Briggs comes with a much larger (1.5 gallon) fuel tank though. The LCT tank is about 3/4 gallon IIRC.


Average storm the small tank is fine. Marathon storms luckily dont happen here all that often. February 2013 was the record, worst one. I burned almost 5 gallons of gas in that blizzard.


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## cuz (Mar 19, 2018)

I was comparing these two as well. Ultimately I chose the 414cc Platinum 30” SHO. I don’t really care about the smaller gas tank. I figured they were close enough in size that the Platinum would handle any storm we get here in New England. It’s getting delivered tomorrow.


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## Mountain Man (Oct 14, 2018)

Stopped at local dealer tody for some parts to tune up the path pro and also fix the broken recoil starter. Was able to look at the Briggs vs Lct engines in general. Dealern says they are very evenly matched, with no real differance in reliability. I do think i like the Briggs throttle lever vs the turn knob on the Lct.


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## 1132le (Feb 23, 2017)

my 28 414cc runs 50 to 55 min before running out iam done in 35 to 40


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## GoBlowSnow (Sep 4, 2015)

Yes. I like the throttle lever as well. And I haven't run into an issue with the polar force on the 4 or 5 machines that have them that I run other than a distinctive oil burning smell at first when starting the polar force and it runs for the first 30 seconds.


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## Ariens hydro pro (Jan 24, 2014)

I have both engines here one on a platinum 30 the other on the 36 pro.

Both start on 1 pull. Both put out enough electricity to run hand warmers and a pair of led lights at the same time. The gas tank on the 420 is a huge steel tank. Gas it up and your good to spring, well all most.... I usually fill it about 3/4 tank

The tank on the smaller 414 is small plastic tank but adequate for your drive way and maybe a neighbors before you need to head back to top it off.

Power wise, the 414 can do a 30" X 21" tall bucket (full cut), EOD piles without stalling out on the 30 inch. You may have to slow your travel speed but you don't have to stop moving forward. It's a fine engine.

Power wise the 420 is very strong. It will throw the snow were it came from. But on a 36" bucket taking a 24" X 36" (full cut) EOD piles will lug the engine, so if that was put on a 30" machine you won't even slow down for the plow piles. 
I have maybe 40 HRS on the 420, no issues at all. I did put an hour meter on it for fun last year I think.


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## 1132le (Feb 23, 2017)

Ariens hydro pro said:


> I have both engines here one on a platinum 30 the other on the 36 pro.
> 
> Both start on 1 pull. Both put out enough electricity to run hand warmers and a pair of led lights at the same time. The gas tank on the 420 is a huge steel tank. Gas it up and your good to spring, well all most.... I usually fill it about 3/4 tank
> 
> ...


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## cuz (Mar 19, 2018)

Ariens hydro pro said:


> I have maybe 40 HRS on the 420, no issues at all. I did put an hour meter on it for fun last year I think.



What did you use for an hour meter? I think I’d like to mount one as well. 

Thanks.


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## Mountain Man (Oct 14, 2018)

Ariens hydro pro said:


> I have both engines here one on a platinum 30 the other on the 36 pro.
> 
> Both start on 1 pull. Both put out enough electricity to run hand warmers and a pair of led lights at the same time. The gas tank on the 420 is a huge steel tank. Gas it up and your good to spring, well all most.... I usually fill it about 3/4 tank
> 
> ...


Great information :grin: How smoth running in comparison, and is either quieter ? 

Doing some seriouse google digging, and ran into this article. Back in the day, I talked to the author on the phone, he was a engineeer at aries, and a wealth of info. IIRC, hes moved onto other companies., im quoting his post ...



Snowmann said:


> "Most of the information in this thread is incorrect.
> The Briggs engine model, type, and trim for the engine used on Ariens Pro and Pro Track Snothros is 25M137-0110-F1
> 
> The manuals are here:
> ...


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## rslifkin (Mar 5, 2018)

I will say, in the very limited runtime it's had so far, the Briggs 420 on my Pro 28 is pretty smooth. It's also pretty loud at full RPM, even with no load on it (although it's surprisingly quiet at idle).


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## Bob z (Apr 5, 2015)

How did you adjust the engine speed?


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## 1132le (Feb 23, 2017)

Bob z said:


> How did you adjust the engine speed?



Moved the gov spring to the outside hole rpms went from 3525 ish to 3825 ish


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## Morphector (Sep 2, 2014)

Bob z said:


> How did you adjust the engine speed?


Right under the gas tank you have to move that spring to the hole on the top from that picture perspective.

From factory it was on the second hole...


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