Snow Blower advise

[jonshonda]

Had a local Ariens dealer today tell me not to put my weight kit purchased from Ariens on the front of my Deluxe 24. Told me I would end up killing the plastic friction wheel and Ariens would refuse to cover cost.

The weight it is supposed to be used in conjunction with a snow blower cab/shelter, as the cab/shelter would cause the snow blower to be unbalanced. So I would imagine the two cancel each other out as far as added friction on the skid plates. But I am curious how a company can sell a kit that voids a warranty. It would also need to be in writing on the weight kit that states it must not be used on it's own. If no such documentation exists, then they can just go pound sand.

 

[Skin]

Had a local Ariens dealer today tell me not to put my weight kit purchased from Ariens on the front of my Deluxe 24. Told me I would end up killing the plastic friction wheel and Ariens would refuse to cover cost.

Friction discs are rubber and are only covered for the first season like any wear component. The weight kits don't accelerate wear any great amount. I've had two weight kits stacked on a 24" compact model and it's had the same disc for 6 or 8 seasons.

To add to this the discs are often a common component shared across many model sizes so you'd see the same disc in a 24" as you would in a 32" the latter of which could be a hundred pounds heavier.

I have plenty of experience with Ariens warranty department and they've always left it open to interpretation by the dealer. The absolute most they do is request the failed component back for examination but that was very rare. There is nothing in writing about weight kits voiding any warranty so your dealer is full of it.

I remember I once replaced a friction disc on an old machine, well out of warranty, and during testing the rubber immediately delaminated from the metal. I replaced it again and submitted a defective component claim and they paid the labor on the second job no questions asked. Just to give you an idea on how their warranty department actually works.

Toro was just as accommodating.

 

[nerd86]

The weight it is supposed to be used in conjunction with a snow blower cab/shelter, as the cab/shelter would cause the snow blower to be unbalanced. So I would imagine the two cancel each other out as far as added friction on the skid plates. But I am curious how a company can sell a kit that voids a warranty. It would also need to be in writing on the weight kit that states it must not be used on it's own. If no such documentation exists, then they can just go pound sand.

Balancing forces does not change the fact the weight of the snowblower increases with the cab and front weights. The drive system is therefore asked to do more to produce the same amount of work as before. Normal stress is Force/Area and you would be increasing the force over the same area. You would also be increasing Shear Stress where appropriate, which is also Force/Area. Remember these are cross sectional areas of the part.

All you are achieving by balancing forces is keeping the centroid of the snowblower as close to the original location as possible. You apply enough downward force to the handlebars and you are going to create enough of a moment about the wheels that the snowblower will begin to rotate and tip up. With the weight kit, yes you essentially cancel out the weight of the cab.

Ariens specifically states the weight kit is to mitigate the lifting of the front end in heavy snow. It does not make any mention that is was meant to be paired with the cab or that it's intent is specifically that. However if the cab is in fact between 10-20 lb then yes the weight kit(s) would be a good idea so that the machine is not prone to tipping the front end up on you.

I can see the dealerships argument, but I do not know enough about the drive system to really have a say in it unfortunately. I really need to take a look at a diagram and see what is going on.

It is very possible that the drive system can handle the 20lb of weight from the two plates. At the end of the day the elastic modulus of every part in that drive system is the decider of that.

I only brought this up because the dealers attitude on the phone was portrayed as if he had seen dozens of Ariens non-pro models in the shop due to this very issue with people adding weights. It seemed like a very abstract and methodical conversation to be a sales tactic to get me into a new rig....but who knows right?

There is much more to all this than marrying the word of some parts counter guy who throws out some claim. As stated in another post by someone there is no disclaimer or exclusion that secludes any certain model(s) of snowblower(s). So they would have to cover warranty work.

 

[nbpt100]

Had a local Ariens dealer today tell me not to put my weight kit purchased from Ariens on the front of my Deluxe 24. Told me I would end up killing the plastic friction wheel and Ariens would refuse to cover cost.

Why don't you simply call Ariens directly and see what they have to say?

 

[hoffman912]

I have a Troy built gas powered, 4 cycle. What I love is the electric start. This is such a life saver - f**k pull cord start.

We got ours on sale at Lowe’s during spring. They marked down all their snow blowers to get rid of them and then this was marked down lower because it was damaged.

I bought a new gas tank and fixed the brackets with zip ties and it was good as new.

Anyways - I like electric start and the ability to aim the throw of the snow. I like not messing w two cycle. Get one that you feel is big enough for the amount of snow fall you get. Don’t get too small, but also don’t get the biggest thing out there unless you feel you need it unless you have a ton of snow fall and have the space to store it.


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