# Snow-thrower speed challenge



## LightBulb (Dec 22, 2012)

*HERE IS THE CHALLENGE:*
ARIENS says that that the single speed entry level Sno-Teks are geared to be equivalent to the* FRIST GEAR OF A SIX SPEED dual stage.*

The challenge is this: You have an average snowfall (2" - 8") and you take your dual stage out and *do your entire job only in the first gear.  *

Then come back here and tell us what you think.

fair enough?

(Maybe then it will be okay to criticize the entry level ARIENS Sno-Tek without tread being cut off, deletion, and banishment??)


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## Snowmann2011 (Apr 5, 2011)

Sounds like a pretty fair challenge to me. LOL. Though I dont own an Arens nor have ever used one, I would like to hear the results of this challenge. I do know for certain though if I was to do this challenge with my Gilson it would take me FOREVER!! First gear is snail pace on it LOL!! 

Look forward to seeing the results
Cody


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## detdrbuzzard (Jan 20, 2012)

i'm still waiting on some snow to blow with the craftsman


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## uhall (Dec 17, 2012)

detdrbuzzard said:


> i'm still waiting on some snow to blow with the craftsman


I have a 1995 Craftsman II, 10hp, 29in, 6 frw and 2 rev speeds. This thing is a beast and has cut through 18"-20" deep snow like butta.

I know people put Craftsman products down and won't give their "Gray" machines any credit against the "Green, Red or Yellow" lines that are out there, but I would put this thing up against any of them. 

I can't wait to clear my sidewalks, while shooting the snow 35 feet across the street, covering the other sidewalks.


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## Snowmann2011 (Apr 5, 2011)

uhall said:


> I have a 1995 Craftsman II, 10hp, 29in, 6 frw and 2 rev speeds. This thing is a beast and has cut through 18"-20" deep snow like butta.
> 
> I know people put Craftsman products down and won't give their "Gray" machines any credit against the "Green, Red or Yellow" lines that are out there, but I would put this thing up against any of them.
> 
> I can't wait to clear my sidewalks, while shooting the snow 35 feet across the street, covering the other sidewalks.


Id put my Gilson up aginst anything out there as well, it may not throw quite as far but it will cut through anything mother nature puts down.


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## detdrbuzzard (Jan 20, 2012)

uhall said:


> I have a 1995 Craftsman II, 10hp, 29in, 6 frw and 2 rev speeds. This thing is a beast and has cut through 18"-20" deep snow like butta.
> 
> I know people put Craftsman products down and won't give their "Gray" machines any credit against the "Green, Red or Yellow" lines that are out there, but I would put this thing up against any of them.
> 
> I can't wait to clear my sidewalks, while shooting the snow 35 feet across the street, covering the other sidewalks.


 its not the older craftsman snowblowers its the newer one that get a bad rap. mine ( purchased in '03 ) was never set up properly so i don't know if its good or bad. i've been at the toro dealer the last couple days for parts but i did go look at some of their new two stage snowblowers and all i can say is thatthey sure look wimpy compaired to my toro 826


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## uhall (Dec 17, 2012)

detdrbuzzard said:


> its not the older craftsman snowblowers its the newer one that get a bad rap. mine ( purchased in '03 ) was never set up properly so i don't know if its good or bad. i've been at the toro dealer the last couple days for parts but i did go look at some of their new two stage snowblowers and all i can say is thatthey sure look wimpy compaired to my toro 826


I've seen a couple post where people say that the snowblower wasn't set up properly. What does that mean exactly? The auger/propeller gear isn't set up correctly with the speed of the motor?


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## detdrbuzzard (Jan 20, 2012)

uhall said:


> I've seen a couple post where people say that the snowblower wasn't set up properly. What does that mean exactly? The auger/propeller gear isn't set up correctly with the speed of the motor?


 the skids were uneven so the scraper dragged on the ground the left control cable was soo far oof hat if you pulled the lever more than 1/3 of the way down to the handlebar the cable would pop off. hey i was a single stage snowblower guy and knew nothing about the skids, never had to adjust a cable or anything else. when i purchased the craftsman my stable consisted of my 2450e, a powerlite-e, and a 2000r . a few days before finding this forum i had put an ad on CL to sell the craftsman but last winter was sooo mild the people were not interested in snowblowers so i did some reading and you tubing to set things right on the craftsman. it always did run good


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## uhall (Dec 17, 2012)

detdrbuzzard said:


> the skids were uneven so the scraper dragged on the ground the left control cable was soo far oof hat if you pulled the lever more than 1/3 of the way down to the handlebar the cable would pop off. hey i was a single stage snowblower guy and knew nothing about the skids, never had to adjust a cable or anything else. when i purchased the craftsman my stable consisted of my 2450e, a powerlite-e, and a 2000r . a few days before finding this forum i had put an ad on CL to sell the craftsman but last winter was sooo mild the people were not interested in snowblowers so i did some reading and you tubing to set things right on the craftsman. it always did run good


AHH,OK. I thought maybe it had something to do with the motor and gears not matching up properly.


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## td5771 (Feb 21, 2011)

response to uhall .. I know people put Craftsman products down and won't give their "Gray" machines any credit against the "Green, Red or Yellow" lines that are out there, but I would put this thing up against any of them. 



My only issue with craftsman, or any other is the quality. not how well they work. when they are in good working condition and taken care of, they work fine. but how long will they last with out a good amount of parts put into it. Even if it is 40 or 50 bucks in parts every other year to me is too much. and I mean on top of standard maintenance.

My neighbor has an old international harvester for his mothers house. every year gets oil change and spark plug. thats it for the last 10 years. his craftsman was new 10 years ago for his house. regular maintenance plus belts, friction wheel, couple springs, bearing or 2. the international is at least 30 years old.

I tried a brand new machine with all the bells and whistle. worked great. but so does my old one that was bought by some old timer and he intended to buy 1 blower once. 
and he did.

I know its all about the buck. I don't blame the companies for the cheap machines, I blame the buyers. they want cheap. very few look ahead at the long road and say I want to buy this item and I will pay but it better last a lifetime.

A perfect example is a craftsman in my shed right now. I am not sure how old it is but its a craftsman 2 stage driftbreaker 26 inch 6hp with electric start. I am absolutely positive it will out last any blower I would buy today and I believe it is older than all of hcbph's blowers and he has the great ones. this is prior to the enclosed transmissions. I took the belt cover off and couldn't believe my eyes. there was a chain where there would normally be belts.

Craftsman made great products. I have a drill press, band saw and others that are great. just not any more. and its not just craftsman.

Its a shame.


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## HCBPH (Mar 8, 2011)

*Blower speed*

Regardless of brand, the forward speed needs to be within reason for the amount of snow, plus the right amount of snow to begin with. Too little of either and it will underperform. Too much and it will overwhelm the blower.

On the Craftsman blowers, I'm a big advocate of the 536.918xxx & 536.882xxx models. Built like a tank, perform well and throw snow well. Except for 1 part for the small frame models (a plastic bushing), any other wear part I can get or have an alternate for. I like them, I've bought, rebuilt and sold about a dozen over the last couple of years. Right now I think I have 6 of them along with 2 Ariens, my 2 keepers are those model Craftsmans.


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## Simplicity Solid 22 (Nov 27, 2012)

Uhall what is the model and Ser # of your craftsman?? If you don't mind??? Love researching...


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## LightBulb (Dec 22, 2012)

HCBPH said:


> Regardless of brand, *the forward speed needs to be within reason *for the amount of snow, plus the right amount of snow to begin with. Too little of either and it will underperform. Too much and it will overwhelm the blower.


----------------------------
PRECISELY the point I am trying to make.  I was a little too *passionate *in my orig postings, and being a newbie, one would think that the mods would have given me some time to MODERATE/edit my comments, like I asked for. Instead my thread was deleted and I was threatened with banishment for being disrespectful of ARIENS and of ARIENS-badged moderators. (I asked if they were ARIENS Social-Media staff. I am sorry for implying a conflict-of-interest. I apologize for my passions and will try to suck them up. Please try to mentor this newb instead of whipping me?)


Anyways, the point is that any snow-thrower that is geared to BULL LOW, or the slowest speed of any snow-thrower lineup - including antique single speeds with half the power - that there may be an issue there. 



I mean it is supposed to be a light-duty entry level machine, yet ARIENS says that they geared it to clear 10” of snow. * TEN INCHES is not a light nor average snowfall, but falls with in the heavy snowfall range.* So a light duty machine designed exclusively for heavy snowfalls....?


I have tested the entry level ARIENS Sno-Tek against *30-yr old single speed blowers of HALF THE HORSEPOWER *and they were all twice as fast or even THREE TIMES FASTER.* So why does the entry level ARIENS Sno-Tek have TWICE THE POWER AND HALF THE SPEED? *Videos coming soon.


Watch as an old worn out single stage ARIENS product outperforms the Sno-Tek by 3X, and ask yourself:why is this machine so slooow?
SINGLE STAGE blows circles around ARIENS Sno-Tek - YouTube


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## LightBulb (Dec 22, 2012)

Snowmann2011 said:


> Sounds like a pretty fair challenge to me. LOL. Though I dont own an Arens nor have ever used one, I would like to hear the results of this challenge. I do know for certain though if I was to do this challenge with my Gilson it would take me FOREVER!! First gear is snail pace on it LOL!!
> Look forward to seeing the results
> Cody


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EXACTLY! I also am interested to see if anyone else is willing to *test their patience* with such a slow speed. Then maybe you all may understand my passion about this issue. There is something not quite right with the entry level ARIENS Sno-Tek. I challenge you to test it!


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## detdrbuzzard (Jan 20, 2012)

well lightbulb if you would have asked me how i felt about my craftsman back in '03 i would have had nothing nice to say about it either. its been used less than 10 times and has never been out of my back yard nor have i ever finished clearing the snow in my back yard with it. it seem to throw snow well but all the noise it was making just moving along was too much and i quickly put it back in the garage and got my 2450e. so basicly for the last ten years it has sat in my garage. i would pull it out and start it up but it hasn't thrown any snow since some time in '03. i didn't sell it because nobody wanted a $700 machine that i had a problem with so i was going to wait and see if i could trade it in on a toro but my dealer went out of buisness. i really don't know what to think of good or bad but i'm glad i found this forum because it got me going in the right direction with the machine now only if we would get some snow to try it out on


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## LightBulb (Dec 22, 2012)

detdrbuzzard said:


> all the noise it was making just moving along was too much and i quickly put it back in the garage and got my 2450e.


---------------
I understand completely. This ARIENS Sno-Tek is the same. Big huge muffler with dual exhaust that does little muffling.

The truth may be that according to tests of housewives' opinions, housewares manufacturers learned that women were convinced that *the more noise the machine made, the more WORK the machine did.*

I have not heard of any study that tests men similarly, but perhaps the same is true when those young fellas roar by my house with their noisy trucks....

I am a grumpy old man and also detest excessive noise. I tested a brand new CRAFTSMAN single stage that has the same engine as this ARIENS entry level Sno-Tek, and the only thing I liked about it was the QUIET MUFFLER! (video coming). I took it back and am waiting for SEARS to test it and make sure I did not abuse it B4 they will refund my money.

Imagine this: It was a half price Black Friday special, and EVEN AT HALF PRICE, I was unwilling to keep it. Also have coming video criticism of my experiance w/Craftsman 522 single stage, their largest and heaviest duty model wearing excessively and breaking repeatedly....


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## uhall (Dec 17, 2012)

Simplicity Solid 22 said:


> Uhall what is the model and Ser # of your craftsman?? If you don't mind??? Love researching...


Hi Simplicity Solid 22, No problem. It's model# 536.886331 serial# 427304578. 

I bought it brand new in '95 at a Sears scratch and dent sale for $400 (reg.899.99) Gas tank had a crack in it (only damage). I've used this thing every winter, except last year. Last winter being the mildest on record for Ohio. 

The only thing that I've done to the snowblower is change the oil every season and replace broken shear bolts. I did replaced the snow chute cable and skids this year. Knock on wood, but I haven't had to replace belts, friction disk or anything like that. I might purchase a scraper bar as well (another $50 bill) 

Shoot, almost forgot. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Years to you all.


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## Bain (Nov 22, 2012)

LightBulb said:


> *HERE IS THE CHALLENGE:*
> ARIENS says that that the single speed entry level Sno-Teks are geared to be equivalent to the* FRIST GEAR OF A SIX SPEED dual stage.*
> 
> The challenge is this: You have an average snowfall (2" - 8") and you take your dual stage out and *do your entire job only in the first gear.  *
> ...


Seems most people enjoy there single speed ariens
SnoTek | SnoTek 20, 120v Electric Start, Single Speed, 20 Inch Clearing Width | Home Depot Canada


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## LightBulb (Dec 22, 2012)

Bain; c my reply here:
http://www.snowblowerforum.com/foru...ry-level-ariens-sno-tek-reviews.html#post9187


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## Simplicity Solid 22 (Nov 27, 2012)

Uhall

10 hp 29" Big Boy??


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## uhall (Dec 17, 2012)

Simplicity Solid 22 said:


> Uhall
> 
> 10 hp 29" Big Boy??


 That's what it is, 10 hp 29". It's definitely a big 2 stage. No power steering like these new ones. So she'll give you a work out. And having 6 forward speeds, it'll get up and go for how big it is. 

I'm a little bummed right now cause my float bowl gasket is cracked and leaking like a sieve. I should get it by Fri-Sat.


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## detdrbuzzard (Jan 20, 2012)

lightbilb the noise from my craftsman was not the muffler. the muffler actually did a good job of quieting the machine down but there were loose bolts almost everywhere, the scraper and the skids had to be set. with all the loose bolts tightened it doesn't rattle anymore and with the scraper bar and skids adjusted the noise from the bottom of the snowblower dragging on the ground is gone and it moves better but for some reason i still want a toro 524, 622, or 624. i guess because of my great experiance with toro single stage blowers


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