Honda vs Yamaha Snowblowers.

I think I have finally given up on the cheap american-made snowblowers, mine is a Toro 521. Several years ago I gave up on the american-made lawnmowers, went and bought an Exmark Metro 21 but regrettably should have gotten the Honda engine instead of the Kawasaki motor, but that's another story.

When I lived in New York, my neighbor had a 6hp Honda snowblower and loved it, and it must have been ten years old by then. It had never broken down, started first pull, and threw snow so far that I was embarassed using my 9hp Craftsman from Sears.

Yamaha started selling snowblowers (available only in Canada) in North America back in 2009 after a 15 year hiatus. They were considered even better than the Honda's and are sought after by old-timers and people who remember them fondly. However, driving to Canada this Spring to buy one is not high on my bucket list, especially when extremely good Honda snowblowers are available five miles from my home.

Does anyone here have a new Yamaha or remember the vintage models like the YS-624T, or live near a Canadian Yamaha dealer ?

Certainly Honda & Yamaha make good snow blowers....but I thought I'd toss in a plug for Ariens. They make some similar in duty cycle to the Toro, but the Profession series are the "old style". Cast iron gear boxes, very little plastic, large impellers, big tires, real differentials. (The new Toros bug me with all the plastic). Anyway, I'm just here to say you might want to look at the Ariens pro series in your hunt for a solid built machine. I've had an 11 HP one for 7 or 10 years now & it's been faithful. About the only things I did to modify it was to cut the bar off between forward & reverse. Making that bar shorter makes it easy to go from forward to reverse. Probably a government thing, but before it was cut you had to be deliberate when shifting. Now I can easily & instantly change gears. I also moved the impeller cleaner up onto the handle bars. It makes it easier to clean snow build up from the auger housing.

Best of luck in your hunt for a new winter machine.

From experience, you can't lose with either Yamaha or Honda .. although I have no experience with either snowblower, I know their engines are virtually bulletproof. But nowadays, even their engines (Honda) are getting the El Cheapo treatment with PLASTIC camshafts, and timing belts - failure prone components that have no business in an industrial engine, IMHO.

Can't go wrong with Yamaha. You might find someone on eBay from Canada, or just a dealer in a search, that might be willing to ship one to you. Worth a shot. Will probably cost you in shipping though, but at least you won't be fixing the thing every year. MTD ruined many American brands.

Ariens is the best you can buy outside of the jap ones, even today. If it were me, I'd find an old Ariens - simple design that's bulletproof - that's been restored .. or restore it yourself, and install a light and some heated grips. Will be just as good, if not better, than anything you can buy new.

Thanks guys, you gave me a few things to think about.

The Yamaha's must be great machines, I found several websites dedicated to just Yamaha Snowblowers. A nice one is for sale near me, the YS828t which is the 8hp model with tracks. Another 828 in mint condition, being sold by the original owner that bought it in 1988 recently sold his for $ 1800.00 dollars. They were originally around $ 3,000 back in the late 80's. Not a bad return on investment!

If they're anything like their motorcycles, I'd buy ONLY a Yamaha.

I've owned several. From my very first '86 BW80S back in '85, to my '74 RD350, to my Roadliner, to my generator - they all run and perform flawlessly for years and years.

Go with the Honda.Their gx engines that are on these snow blowers are bullet proof.They put a 3 year warranty on their engines including their gc engines that have the timing belt.Easy to get parts for,parts are not any more money than any other manufacture.
We run all Honda engines in our rental fleet and they get more hours and ran harder than a home owner would ever run one.

SMITTY wrote:................

MTD ruined many American brands...............................

I don't know about that. My dad bought a MTD trck drive many moons ago and his works like a champ.

When it was time for me to get one I also got an MTD (Troy built) track drive. I run that thing all over the place. I needed track drive to be able to go from blacktop to gravel to grass. I use it at home then load it in the truck and haul it all over. Only issue was the wife catching an extesion cord in it and me once eating a rather large rock which bent the auger and took out the shear pin. No issues at all really.




Rick

I know two things #1 Honda generators are GREAT #2 Troy Built Horse rototillers are GREAT ... idk who makes the best snowblowers but id be inclined to investigate an older Ariens because ive heard from people who do that stuff commercially these are the contractors choice for heavy duty use on apartment complexes and condo's.

dcrane wrote:........ #2 Troy Built Horse rototillers are GREAT ...

And I have 1 of those. Got to be close to or over 35 years old. It has the 7 hp Kohler engine in it. I buy lead additive for the engine. Don't want anything to happen to that beast. It just keeps chugging along. They bitch because I make the garden too light and fluffy !!!!!



Rick

The old ones were good. The new ones are junk. Hit or miss. I've fixed a few rototillers with internal failures that required welding. Seems Craftsman, Troy-Bilt ... they're all the same nowadays.

Usually the ones that last are the ones that don't get used much.

Just found this Yamaha snowblower on C-list if your still looking, EW&F.

Too far east into that foreign country for me though ...

http://boston.craigslist.org/bmw/grd/3666606734.html

That's one of the greatest snowblowers of all time, great find Smitty!