Tracked Walk-Behind Snowblowers vs Chains

[shallowwatersailor 3,213]

Not that my Ariens walk-behind snowblower let me down, but I really had to work hard today to move the snow off the last remaining driveway belonging to a neighbor. This is the one that I always have problems to begin with due to the grade it has. I almost gave up due to lack of traction. The depth of the snow was still about 24" but had settled almost a foot so was very dense. The Ariens kept climbing while moving forward and then losing traction . This may have been a rare occasion and maybe chains would have helped but I'm curious

 

I have already spoken to 3Six about his but wondering if other members have any thoughts or experience?

[DougC 2,641]

I bought a new 8hp 2 stage walk behind in 1977 and was to cheap to buy the chains. It was heavy and helpless on any incline. After the first snow I used it on I went back and bought and installed the tire chains and couldn't believe how much better the traction was. 

I have no experience with a tracked blower but I see Paul Short in NF Canada has one on youtube so they must work good or he wouldn't have one.

[shallowwatersailor 3,213]

14 minutes ago, DougC said:

 

I have no experience with a tracked blower but I see Paul Short in NF Canada has one on youtube so they must work good or he wouldn't have one.

I love the Paul Short videos! He really has a nice setup in NF.

[roadapples 6,983]

I used tracked type at work and didn`t like nearly as much as my wheeled blower, but chains definitely help. My .02 cents...

[C-85 681]

At my family's business we sold Ariens snow blowers and we sold a lot of them from the 60's through the 90's.  I also use them myself.

 

I'm wondering what Ariens unit you have?  Does this model have a differential lock, lot's of the bigger ones did have, but I'm not sure that any of the newer have this.  If that's unlocked, only one wheel will spin only giving 1 wheel drive.  I like chains on ones with turf tires, but not so much if they have the snow hog tires, unless you get ones that don't fall into the tread of the tire.  My Ariens is an older 10hp 28" and has the diff. lock and snow hog tires.  My driveway has quite a slope and I've never needed chains, it goes up and down it just fine.  If the front end tends to ride up on the snow, a front weight can be added (if you had a cab on it, they came with the cab to offset the weight of the cab), but you can just and one to help ride ups.

[shallowwatersailor 3,213]

4 hours ago, C-85 said:

I'm wondering what Ariens unit you have?  Does this model have a differential lock, lot's of the bigger ones did have, but I'm not sure that any of the newer have this.  If that's unlocked, only one wheel will spin only giving 1 wheel drive.  I like chains on ones with turf tires, but not so much if they have the snow hog tires, unless you get ones that don't fall into the tread of the tire.  My Ariens is an older 10hp 28" and has the diff. lock and snow hog tires.  My driveway has quite a slope and I've never needed chains, it goes up and down it just fine.  If the front end tends to ride up on the snow, a front weight can be added (if you had a cab on it, they came with the cab to offset the weight of the cab), but you can just and one to help ride ups.

Mine is an '08 924 DLE, with a cab, which has the traction control drive (an automatic locking differential  so no pins with one wheel drive) and X-Trac tires. It has always powered through what ever we had when needed. This storm was a bit much though and when the snow was "fresh" it worked great. But the county plow didn't get to us until last night (five nights after it started) so the 35.2 inches has compacted to about 24". I couldn't get to my elderly neighbor's driveway until today. It was riding up on the compacted stuff on the bottom. I'm just wondering if chains would have helped today as the X-Tracs never have been a problem before.

 

 

Edited January 28, 2016 by shallowwatersailor

[Ken B 3,164]

I have used the track blowers and I'm not a really big fan. They are a pain to move if you have engine trouble and they can also slip on the slippery stuff. I think the only track blower I'd even consider would be a Honda and let me tell you Honda is MIGHTY proud of their blowers because they are PRICEY! The best blower for the situation you ran into believe it or not is a Toro Power Shift. The whole axle can swing which adds a bunch of down force to the front of the blower eliminating it to ride up over the heavy stuff at the end of the driveway. The last Toro Power Shift I owned was a 10 hp 28 incher but that was probably ten yrs. ago, I can't speak for how good they are now but the one I had was an absolute animal, even better than my current Ariens ST 10/28 with locking diff. which is in itself an animal.. I'd try chains first and if you need some extra weight in front I made myself a weight tube, I took a 4 inch piece of PVC and cut it to length, capped off one end and filled it with cement. When full I capped off the other end and mounted it on the machine. I will keep my Ariens going forever, it is a late 90's unit and it is totally commercial grade. 

[shallowwatersailor 3,213]

3 hours ago, Ken B said:

I have used the track blowers and I'm not a really big fan. They are a pain to move if you have engine trouble and they can also slip on the slippery stuff. I think the only track blower I'd even consider would be a Honda and let me tell you Honda is MIGHTY proud of their blowers because they are PRICEY! The best blower for the situation you ran into believe it or not is a Toro Power Shift. The whole axle can swing which adds a bunch of down force to the front of the blower eliminating it to ride up over the heavy stuff at the end of the driveway. The last Toro Power Shift I owned was a 10 hp 28 incher but that was probably ten yrs. ago, I can't speak for how good they are now but the one I had was an absolute animal, even better than my current Ariens ST 10/28 with locking diff. which is in itself an animal.. I'd try chains first and if you need some extra weight in front I made myself a weight tube, I took a 4 inch piece of PVC and cut it to length, capped off one end and filled it with cement. When full I capped off the other end and mounted it on the machine. I will keep my Ariens going forever, it is a late 90's unit and it is totally commercial grade.

 

Ken, I hear you about the Honda track blowers. What I have noticed is because of the exorbitant price, they sometimes are purchased by people that can afford them but who have no clue on adjusting the skid shoes. Looking at used ones, a number have the bottom of the bucket/auger housing (depending on which forum you are reading ) worn away and even the teeth on the auger worn smooth! What a shame to destroy a nice machine.

 

My Ariens would probably be one of the last pieces to go if I ever needed to move to a condo !!! Even with the Techy, it has always been good to me and I am good to it. I will probably get a set of chains for next season. We are going to be in the 60's next week so another storm is not likely for a while. I like the idea of the PVC pipe with concrete for weight. Are the additional bars from the bucket to the handlebars something you added?

[C-85 681]

I like those handle supports!  One weakness of most of the Ariens sno-thro's were the handles.  In most cases they were okay, but if you really used them or put a cab on them the lower handles would sometimes break.  We made some brackets to go from the handles to the engines head bolts, so this was interesting and I'd never seen anyone go all the way out to the blower housing to eliminate this problem.

 

Does anyone make good chains for small snow blower type tires, I mean with rings to keep the cross links from failing into the tread?  I can't imagine regular chains helping to get traction that much.

 

Here's a picture of my snow fleet -

 

And this has been terrible because in Vermont we've hardly got to use these things, so far most of the snow has gone south!

 

WE NEED SNOW

 

C-85

[shallowwatersailor 3,213]

24 minutes ago, C-85 said:

Does anyone make good chains for small snow blower type tires, I mean with rings to keep the cross links from failing into the tread?  I can't imagine regular chains helping to get traction that much.

 

WE NEED SNOW

 

C-85

 

I found these on-line. They are about 1/3 more expensive than the standard cross link chain.

 

[Ken B 3,164]

Yes I added the support brackets to the housing because the lower handles did crack, and that was before I added the weight to the front housing. 

[DennisThornton 4,769]

6 hours ago, shallowwatersailor said:

 

I found these on-line. They are about 1/3 more expensive than the standard cross link chain.

 

 

That big gap in between concerns me!  Not sure I'd like the big Xs...

[shallowwatersailor 3,213]

1 hour ago, DennisThornton said:

 

That big gap in between concerns me!  Not sure I'd like the big Xs...

I'm not sure that they could be any closer. There is only one link between them as these are only 6" wheels. Regular chains would fall in the tread and be useless.

[DennisThornton 4,769]

2 hours ago, shallowwatersailor said:

I'm not sure that they could be any closer. There is only one link between them as these are only 6" wheels. Regular chains would fall in the tread and be useless.

 

Yep!  I see that.  Don't have a better suggestion but I'm not sure that I'd theirs either...

[wh500special 2,160]

John,

back when I lived in a place where it actually snowed in the winter, I had a Gilson blower without chains.   One season was all it took to order a set from tirechains.com. World of difference in traction.  Especially backing up. 

 

Made de no difference on riding up over the snow though.  But helped immensely once a bite had been made in the hard pack and I could take smaller bites on adjacent passes. 

 

When eb I got my trailblazer 7 to replace the Gilson, I ordered chains before the first flake dropped.  

 

One of my neighbors in South Bend had equipped his 2-stage walker with a forward-facing cutting edge that would hook under the hard pack to keep the front end planted. I think it was basically a piece of angle iron instead of a piece of flat stock.   He used his single stage 90% of the time and only broke out the 2-er when necessary.  

 

Might be be a cheap fix if you have the clearance between the cutting edge and auger.  

 

We've had 3 inches this season here    Used my push broom. 

 

Steve