# Ariens Platinum 24 SHO



## IBME (Oct 28, 2015)

I'm very impressed with my SHO. Here in Jersey we got 30 in of snow and none of it was a problem. Not even the EOD stuff from the snow plow. I'm lucky in that directly across from myself and each of my next door neighbors is a retention basin so I was able to take a direct run at the EOD stuff and blow it completely up and over our street(4 car widths wide) to the sidewalk on the other side. The snow was flying high enough that some nut in a SUV even drove under the arch without getting covered with snow.

I also used my neighbor's 3 year old MTD 24 in and there was no comparison. His felt like a tank compared to the auto turn of the SHO. The MTD struggled with the EOD and had to be pushed and nip away at it. The SHO hit it dead on and in 1st gear pulled me through it. The only thing slowing me down was watching out for anything that could break the plastic parts above the bucket.

As far as the auto turn feature, it is something to be aware of but not worried about. Going up or down my gently sloped driveway there was no problem. I was able to go safely within 3 in of my parked car. However, when I was widening a sidewalk that was only half cleared, the SHO did want to pull to the snow covered side of the sidewalk. I had to push harder on that side to keep going straight. My dealer said my new model with the grey two tone joy stick had an improved auto turn feature.

The 2 speed reverse is a nice feature. Once through the EOD piles and in the cleared street, I was able to put it in reverse and with one hand, back it up to begin another run.


The quick turn chute control took about 15 min to get used to. I'm left handed and would prefer the controls to be on the opposite sides. The throttle is on the left and the auger control is on the right. The auger control locks down so you can use your right hand to control the joy stick for the chute. The joy stick has notches for a positive lock and easily moves the chute side to side. I preferred the joy stick on the Platinum vs. the crank on the deluxe model. I noticed on the MTD there was a lot of play in the crank control for the chute and once I set the correct direction and let the handle go it would rotate downward moving the chute. 

The heated hand grips were nice once my gloves got wet after hours of blowing snow. The headlight was bright at night and helpful and of course useless during the day. You can't turn it off.

The only negative is the pull start. I used the electric start all the time but I wanted to see how hard it would be to manually start it. Since there was no resistance and I was able to pull the handle with one finger(this was before I began my day) something is wrong. When I called my dealer, he said that he experienced Ariens over greasing the cable and that could be the problem. I would think this would be covered under warranty but would the transportation to and from the dealer be covered? I should have had the delivery man test this out before I accepted delivery. 

I purchased this beast to handle the EOD stuff knowing that 80% of the time it will be overkill. After this last snow storm, my neighbors and I are very happy the 20% chance happened after I bought it.


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## Cardo111 (Feb 16, 2015)

Good review I have the same machine and am also happy with it. The gas cap is just a poor design and the tank opening strainer has to be removed to avoid frustration. I called Ariens tech support regarding the gas cap they told me to bend the tabs on the cap with pliers to change the angle, I just removed the strainer and problem solved.

Your warranty states that you the consumer is responsible for transporting the unit to and from the dealer, however I would contact Ariens and check if they can cover the cost to and from the dealer being that the machine is so new and likely came this way from their factory.


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## Town (Jan 31, 2015)

The compression release on your engine will allow an easy pull of the starter if you pull too slowly. You need some speed to bring the engine up to compression, then allow the starter to return slowly and then pull quickly to start the engine. Sorry if you already knew that.

If the starter needs fixing you don't need the whole machine to go back to the dealer, just the starter. See if the dealer will agree to this. Then you just need to undo 4 nuts/bolts and the starter comes off as a complete unit. So much easier for you to get it to the dealer.

Good luck.


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## IBME (Oct 28, 2015)

Thanks Town! After following your suggestion, she started up after a few pulls. At first I pulled and let it return quickly. Then I waited a few seconds and tried again. Following your method she started


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## GoBlowSnow (Sep 4, 2015)

I had to warranty my recoil/starter rope. I shipped it up to the dealer I purchased it from (90 miles away) and he in turn took one off of a new unit that was still in the box and shipped it down to me. piece of cake.


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