# My first Toro-1128 OXE and Extremely Pleased!!



## hfjeff (Jan 24, 2016)

Living in WI I am no stranger to snowblowers and being nearly 50 I have a lot of experience with several different brands. From the old days of the bullet proof John Deere's of the 80's to Snapper to Ariens, and Simplicity. I always stuck with tried and true brands and avoided the cheaper off-brand units.

After a few years of using another quality brand snowblower, I finally got fed up and decided to give Toro a try. Due to the high price of the HD units, I just could not justify spending the extra $$ for a Toro. However I reached a point where it was only quality brand I had not tried and I am glad I made the plunge.

11hp on a 28" housing is AWESOME! This blower never bogged down and can really throw even the wettest heaviest snow. I was literally throwing about 30ft of the wet stuff. I was able to roll straight down the driveway with one hand on the controls and the scraper bar peeled the snow up right down to bare cement-even after I drove over it first! The blower does not jump side to side or spin or run out of power. 

I am VERY HAPPY with this snowblower. Being my first Toro purchase-and an expensive on at that-I was nervous about my fist trip out with it. Nor did I want to have to explain to my wife that I did not care for this one either. This one is here to stay. Needless to say, I thoroughly pleased. 

Well Done Toro!

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## Kiss4aFrog (Nov 3, 2013)

Nice machine !! Hope you get some more use out of it today !!


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## Hanky (Nov 14, 2014)

Great to hear my 1128 has never bogged down even in 10 in of wet snow it rules our block. How do you like your pivoting scraper bar I ditch mine for a solid one. Now much happer.


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## hfjeff (Jan 24, 2016)

Since it is brand new and working the way it should I like it. Once it gets corroded and starts giving me trouble I will either have to fix it or replace it with a fixed as you did. I have a newer concrete driveway so I really liked the way it scraped the cement clean. Only my first time out with it but so far I love it.


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## SAVAGE420 (Apr 21, 2015)

Awesome rig!


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## 69ariens (Jan 29, 2011)

Great to hear and good luck


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## UNDERTAKER (Dec 30, 2013)

*MAZEL TOV on that 1.:wavetowel2:*


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## detdrbuzzard (Jan 20, 2012)

welcome to team toro and congrats


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## jason (Dec 21, 2012)

Nice machine! Glad it's making you happy!


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## paul78zephyr (Feb 15, 2013)

I have the same machine 11+ years old - purchased fall 2005. I have 81 hours on it over 11 New England winters. I put a record (for me) 17 hours on it last year (winter 14/15) which was a tough winter here even by New England standards.

You will find it is a good machine but you need to keep up on maintenance. I use 5W30 non-synthetic oil and change before each winter. I highly recommend a hour meter (ie Tiny Tach). I replaced the oil drain plug with a 6 in long 1/4 NPT pipe nipple and matching cap so that when I drain the oil it drains into the drain pan and doesnt get all over the place. Be certain to make note of the spark plug type that is installed from the factory and replace with the same exact type. My owners manual listed the wrong spark plug type - perhaps they have corrected that. The factory impeller and auger shear bolts are plain steel and tend to corrode away and when they break within a year or two they will leave you without use of the machine. Keep on hand a spare set of impeller (1/4-20 x 2) and auger (5/16-18 x 2) shear bolts and lock nuts. I use stainless and have not had to replace them since. I also replaced the axle-to-wheel shear bolts (1/4-20 x 2) as well with stainless. I would recommend you replace the factory shear bolts _before_ they fail - the auger shear bolts are especially difficult to remove once corroded. You will also want a spare set of drive belts - especially the auger drive belt. I also upgraded the drive cable adjusting turnbuckles to stainless hardware as well as I have found that they need adjusted every year or so and the factory hardware rusts up in no time. Basically I replaced all fasteners in key maintenance and/or adjustment areas with stainless and inevitably you will need to replace/adjust something at the worst time under the worst conditions. The first year I had it the auger dive belt tensioner spring failed (under warranty) rendering the machine useless and they had to take the machine back and replace it. After that I bought a spare spring but it never failed again. 

The main issue I have the my unit at this point is the impeller is a little loose on the shaft and the impeller shaft bearing is probably a bit worn. Thats a PITA job so I have put off replacing it.

Your unit may have some differences so keep that in mind.

Good luck
Paul


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## Chad (Jan 30, 2016)

paul78zephyr said:


> I have the same machine 11+ years old - purchased fall 2005. I have 81 hours on it over 11 New England winters. I put a record (for me) 17 hours on it last year (winter 14/15) which was a tough winter here even by New England standards.
> 
> You will find it is a good machine but you need to keep up on maintenance. I use 5W30 non-synthetic oil and change before each winter. I highly recommend a hour meter (ie Tiny Tach). I replaced the oil drain plug with a 6 in long 1/4 NPT pipe nipple and matching cap so that when I drain the oil it drains into the drain pan and doesnt get all over the place. Be certain to make note of the spark plug type that is installed from the factory and replace with the same exact type. My owners manual listed the wrong spark plug type - perhaps they have corrected that. The factory impeller and auger shear bolts are plain steel and tend to corrode away and when they break within a year or two they will leave you without use of the machine. Keep on hand a spare set of impeller (1/4-20 x 2) and auger (5/16-18 x 2) shear bolts and lock nuts. I use stainless and have not had to replace them since. I also replaced the axle-to-wheel shear bolts (1/4-20 x 2) as well with stainless. I would recommend you replace the factory shear bolts _before_ they fail - the auger shear bolts are especially difficult to remove once corroded. You will also want a spare set of drive belts - especially the auger drive belt. I also upgraded the drive cable adjusting turnbuckles to stainless hardware as well as I have found that they need adjusted every year or so and the factory hardware rusts up in no time. Basically I replaced all fasteners in key maintenance and/or adjustment areas with stainless and inevitably you will need to replace/adjust something at the worst time under the worst conditions. The first year I had it the auger dive belt tensioner spring failed (under warranty) rendering the machine useless and they had to take the machine back and replace it. After that I bought a spare spring but it never failed again.
> 
> ...


Sounds like a lot of work to me. I thought Toros were supposed to be one of the highest quality brands.


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## paul78zephyr (Feb 15, 2013)

Chad said:


> Sounds like a lot of work to me. I thought Toros were supposed to be one of the highest quality brands.


What? Changing oil, belts, and some bolts over an 11 year span and 81 hours of hard use is 'a lot of work'. Let me know when you have invented the 'maintenanceless' machine.

Paul


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## hfjeff (Jan 24, 2016)

paul78zephyr said:


> What? Changing oil, belts, and some bolts over an 11 year span and 81 hours of hard use is 'a lot of work'. Let me know when you have invented the 'maintenanceless' machine.
> 
> Paul


Agreed. Most of things listed are recommended or suggested (thanks for suggestions-I am maintenance intensive). Most all of them are applicable to any snowblower (spare belts, oil weight, spare shear bolts, extended oil drain pipe, spark plug). I will give it a once over this summer with a cold Bub Light in the comforts of August.


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## Koenig041 (Dec 18, 2013)

Nice machine. Love the 11hp for the 28 inch cut. Nice hp to inch ratio. Are you going to do the impeller mod?


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## Vitreous (Feb 10, 2016)

I like the idea of a good hour meter Paul - I found some good ones on amazon for $12 that might be useful!


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## 404 (Feb 1, 2015)

Is there really such a thing as a stainless steel shear bolt with the grooves cut into it and all?


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## wheelhorseboy (May 30, 2014)

Toro doesnt use a grooved sheer bolt.


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## MagnumB (Oct 1, 2014)

Koenig041 said:


> Nice machine. Love the 11hp for the 28 inch cut. Nice hp to inch ratio. Are you going to do the impeller mod?


Impeller mod is unnecessary for the current models in the HD lineup. They have about the tightest impeller housing tolerances of any machine. It would be a waste of time. Which says a lot about the toro's build quality. :blowerhug:


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## MagnumB (Oct 1, 2014)

Chad said:


> Sounds like a lot of work to me. I thought Toros were supposed to be one of the highest quality brands.


Current models will likely not have some of the issues of which he speaks. But I'm with the OP, after a good long use a few things are bound to come up as wear items. Along with the usual things.


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## Mr Fixit (Nov 19, 2013)

404 said:


> Is there really such a thing as a stainless steel shear bolt with the grooves cut into it and all?



Stainless steel is extremely hard to cut. To try a stainless steel bolt as a shear pin would triple the break strength minimums. Try cutting one with your hack saw first to realize the difference. I'd always go by the recommended bolts/shear pins myself. Try the stainless steel LOCK nuts though.


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## unome (Aug 29, 2016)

Mr Fixit said:


> Stainless steel is extremely hard to cut. To try a stainless steel bolt as a shear pin would triple the break strength minimums. Try cutting one with your hack saw first to realize the difference. I'd always go by the recommended bolts/shear pins myself. Try the stainless steel LOCK nuts though.


Extremely hard, yes, triple the break strength, well maybe but that is not the value that matters. It's shear strength is.
So a little engineering...
basic carbon steel = 36,000 psi yield
basic stainless steel = 65,000 psi yield
assume a 1/4" bolt = .05 in^2 area
shear:
carbon steel = 36,000 * 0.05 = 1800 lbs 
stainless steel = 65,000 * 0.05 = 3250 lbs
My numbers are just basic values taken from a Fastenal document that will tell you more about fasteners than you ever wanted to know.

All that being said I still don't think I'd replace a shear pin with stainless as replacing the bolt would be much less expensive than the part it is there to protect. What I might do is lather the bolt and bore with grease to reduce corrosion and ease removal should it shear.

Just sharing some of what I've learned over the past decades doing my job.

Oh and hfjeff, that is one awesome machine. I (sort of) wish we had enough snow to justify something like that.


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