Good choice. That’s what I’ve got. One thing is I got a B&S hour meter from Northern that I put on mine right away. Just wind the wire around the spark plug wire.
I don’t know what you mean.
Good idea. I’ll do that too.
Of course not. As is tradition, the old one broke halfway down the first row in the first snow, and the new one got here the day after the second one.
The hour meter has an internal watch type battery. It then has one wire to sense the operation of the engine. You just take that wire and wind it around the spark plug wire and it senses every time the plug fires and runs the meter. Of course my CPA BIL just records every time he uses his to compute the number of hours used. Another way.
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I live on a Cul-de-sac that gets cleared with a front end loader rather than a plow and the snow all gets pushed to the middle of the circle so no rubble gets pushed up my driveway.
I have a two stroke Toro CCR2000 that I use when the snow is 8" or less and only get out the 318 cc Airens when I need it.A lo† of years I put 10 hours or less on it so I just change it once a year. it still uses no measurable oil.
Every once and a while we will get a couple of feet of snow in one storm. Our town plows always get through, but the contractors who plow driveways get overwhelmed and may not get to you for a day or two, so in those situations, I do everyone’s driveways on the court.
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I have the toro ccr 1000, still works great, new scraper bar and rubber paddle things a few years ago, Ariens is a 6.5 hp I picked up quite a few years ago, probably 90’s vintage. Yeah when I need to get the big boy out it is easier to to do the neighbors sidewalks than to turn it around. Good neighbor you are! Oil in the Airens is looking a little dirty so planning on changing it, but it has been 3 years maybe since the last time. I doubt the Afiens had any service previously in it’s life, but it starts and runs well after tweaks,
I bought my dad a little two stroke Toro snowblower for Christmas in 1977. The following month of January 1978 we had a big blizzard that we old timers still remember. My parents, fortunately, had moved into town at that time. Fifteen years later, my parents moved into a retirement home and the snowblower came back to me. I didn’t have to use it a lot, but one season I couldn’t get it to fire up. I found it didn’t have spark and the compression seemed low to me. I took it to a repairman and he confirmed the problem. He said he had never seen a snowblower like that Toro that was worn out and asked me if it had been used commercially. I then remembered that my dad would do his driveway and sidewalk and then go do the same for residents in the neighborhood. That snowblower might as well have been used commercially. I replaced it with a 2 stroke MTD that I bought at Walmart in 1990. Last season I had to make the first repairs. I had to replace a leaking fuel line and had to replace the belt.
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I guess my average is 8-10 hours a year in Minnesota with a standard sized 3 car driveway. It always seems like it is more due to the cold. I change plugs and oil every Spring though just as a normal routine to begin the warm season.
Yeah plows can make a mess. If I’m out there before the plows I clear a good portion of the street before my drive and the neighbors to reduce the pile. In Sioux Falls they were experimenting with plows (I forget what they call them) but they have a gate that they close when going by a driveway and then open it again after the drive. I guess it works ok but seems like a lot of extra work for the driver.
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Yeah before I bought the big boy, have a pic somewhere we got snowmaggedon. Took a pic, probably a 4’ high pile of snow at the end of the drive, my good little boy cleared it, it was work, so I saw the Arens at a moving sale, $75 as it was Sunday half price. I only had $69, asked if he would take it, NO he said, got all the loose change in the car and got up to $75. His wife apologized for him being such a dick. Yes I clear ahead of the drive also. Kind of related to cars eh!
In the 30 years I have had mine I have had to clean the float bowl of crud twice and the pull starter no longer works,but I bought a used electric start for $25 about 10 years ago.
Mine kept dyng after 20 minutes or so, an eraser size brass filter vertical in the tank would get filled up with debris and stop the gas flow. Cleaned out the tank and life was good. I wonder how many good pieces of machinery have gotten disposed of because of a simple fix.
I don’t know, but for years my son in law never had to buy a lawnmower because the school teacher that lived across the street from him would throw his out the first time it wouldn’t start. That was usually every 3-4 years. My son in law was very disappointed when the neighbor hired a lawn mowing service.
How many slant six cars were stranded on the road because the owners did not have the sense to carry a $1 ballast resistor in the glove box?
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Guess you are Older than I, Never had to replace a ballast resistor but have heard stories on this board for like 50’s Ford trucks. Glad you got the mowers, I guess being a teacher does not automatically indicate genius.
I was a school bus driver for 15 years after I retired from trucking so I have plenty of teacher stories.
I had one teacher at the start of a field trip who kept counting her students and coming up one short. It was time to leave and she was getting very exasperated and in an angry outburst shouter"Alright , whoever is not here ,speak out."
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We are getting a little off the track but our neighbor from about 20 years ago didn’t see why she should buy a lawn mower at all, or a paper, or snow blower, etc. as long as we had one. She thought everything should be shared (as long as I was paying for it). Bless her heart though, she was really nice, lost part of her family in that Rapid City flood so she was trying to make her own way with what was left. Still would have been nice if I could finish the paper before she got it.
We all do stuff, my post so please go anywhere you want. Little old lady behind us. I was cutting my grass, polish accent, she had been out over the years cutting her grass with a reel pushmower.
Neighbor can you help me I cannot cut the grass. Sure sad, cut her grass, and then she wanted to offer me a $5 bill. I said no don’t worry about it. She says no you take, please do not want nothing for free. So many years I cut her grass and shoveled the snow until 2016, taking the 5 dollars.
She ended up in a nursing home for 9 months. We went to visit her, and somehow a guy from the church got hold of me and I said I will keep cuttting the grass and taking care of the snow no problem.
She loved the nursing home, so much care so many nice people. She died and there were only the 3 of us and 3 others at her service. The guy from the church called and said she wanted to leave you some money for your care, but she did not have much and her relatives are going to court. Is there anythng you would like? I said she had a pretty mirror in the living room with pink flamingos painted on it, that would be nice.
He said it is yours. Unfortunately not, the day of the funeral the relatives stripped the house during the funeral ceremonies they did not attend. Did not need it anyway. House got put up for auction, too much needed to be done for me to think about it.