Unless a machine is extremely heavy, no matter what engine it may have on it, heavy wet snow, or snow that has been sitting for a while (like in the video) there will be problems. One of the problems is that the tires will spin, even with chains on, and you have to work the machine up and down. I just watched a video showing a top of the line Honda blower with tracks in Mammoth Lake where they received heavy wet snow yesterday, and even the tracks were slipping when the person tried to clear the end of the driveway from the snow left by the plow. He had to rock the machine up and down to get it to move forward.
Yes, This is also a plowed pile so is very hard. It has chains so if left on its own in this snow without rocking will dig a hole. This was too much work so broke it up with the excavator. My Honda hs1132 with tracks has less pushing power than the tires on the Ariens. The largest walk behind from Honda has open sides with disk cutters. However, it is not sold by the USA dealers.
I put a Predator 301cc (8HP) on an old Ariens ST824 a couple of years back. I did need to go to an AX belt since the extra power of the Predator was causing belt slippage. I have cast iron wheel casters on the front of the machine replacing the basic steel skids. And, over the last couple of years, I've become rather annoyed with the tendency of the machine to wheelie and climb up from dense street plow cast-off. So, this past Spring (2022) while at the scrapyard, I picked up a section of 1/2" steel plate. I'm currently making two 20 lb. 5"x24"x0.5" ballast plates which I'll bolt to the front of the scoop housing. As a matter of fact, this morning I applied another coat of paint to the two ballast plates. Most likely, I'll only need one. But, while makin' might as well do two... If you'd like to see a TH-cam walk around of my Predator engine swap, search "Russell Stephan Predator ST824".
Nice conversion. My belts have held up so far, about 35 hours in fairly heavy snow. Mine needs weight plates but is manageable. Will make some when I have time.
I cut the cover and used a Harbor Freight plastic welder to join it back extending it to fit. Shown in this video. I think a cover from a newer Ariens is also a possible bolt on fix. th-cam.com/video/D7j9DBRQZp0/w-d-xo.html&t
I’ve been thinking of doing this swap with my simplicity commercial blower it has the original 15hp motor and I feel it’s a bit tired. I’m also planning on doing an impeller mod with those rubber pads to get a tighter fit in the housing. I wonder if I’ll have to make new holes if the engines are close to the same size.
I am doing this exact repower. Ariens 1336 & had a Tecumseh. Putting the HF 459cc on it. Did you have to change pully size or belt size & what size pully or belts ? Thanks.
Mine is a model 924506 serial #4567, you can look up the pulley to see if it has the same one online at places like Jacks Small Engines. I used the original pulley and Gates belts sold at Napa under their label. As a 3L370W and 4L380W. You want a power rated Kevlar/Aramid belt. Aramid is generic for the Kevlar brand name. The green Gates belts are good on snow blowers, but cheaper ones can be bought online or at places like Tractor Supply (Huskee Kevlar V-Belt). Those belts use different sizing codes. A 3l370w is 3/8" x 37" and the 4l380W is 1/2" x 38". To mount the engine, I removed the plates that hold the mounting studs. They are held in place by one bolt towards the forward end. They are on the table lower left corner at 0:25 into the video. Set the engine in place and marked the holes location to keep the belts aligned to the pulleys. The holes came very close to the corners of the snow blowers top plate. So need to be careful in locating them. The plastic shroud that covers the belts needed some work. I cut the top out and raised it about a 1/4 inch. I used a Harbor Freight plastic air welder to weld it back together. It also needs to be extended rearward but I will wait for better weather. It snows here every 3 to 6 days during winter. The Ariens electrical needs modified to charge the battery, or use the starter. The Ariens has a starter solenoid under the battery tray, the Predator engine has the solenoid on the engines starter. To get access you remove two outer bolts on the aft side of the battery support and the aft plate with the solenoid comes out. So there are a few options. You can run the positive battery cable direct from the Predator's starter to the battery. Or you can go to the Ariens Solenoid and move the battery cables onto one post on the solenoid. Either would allow it to charge and start. To use the chute rotation you would still need to turn on the Ariens key. To use the headlight, hand warmers, or Ariens key to start you would need to rewire. And to use both the headlight and hand warmers you need to also add a more powerful charging coil and charging regulator to be able to maintain the battery charge. I ordered the charging parts off a Honda but have not had time to verify they fit. Comments about using it. I now have about 16 hours on it. It is noticeable much more powerful, and uses significantly less fuel. I still have the issue of having to unplug the oil pressure switch to get it started in the cold. The Ariens was a little tail heavy to start with, the extra weight moved back with the Predator is a bit too much weight aft. It is easy to tip it back onto the handle bars. It really needs a weight kit or more added to the front. The Ariens stock drive speed is a bit too fast and I'm not sure yet how to slow it down. After the first 3 gears of the six it is at a very fast walk, sixth gear is ridiculously fast unless you only have light snow and need to get it done.
If you're going to switch to a larger engine you may as well put a larger pulley on the auger drive. Otherwise you'll gain little from the extra power. My AX 12.5 has plenty of power. My problem is that the auger runs too slow and that's what limits my forward speed. I'm stuck in first or second gear with any real amount of snow. If I try to go faster the snow spills out the sides of the front end. The auger can't gobble up the snow fast enough.
What' that sweet little tachometer thing you have? I need a way to test speeds on my belt driven lathe lol. Also do you know of anyone who's done an electric start on these swaps? That's one thing I love about my cub cadet.
I think the tachometer is no longer produced as the prices are very high or out of stock. It is an SM8237 inductive tachometer. Electric start is built into this engine, just needs the battery hooked up. I use the switch on the engine. I have not hooked up the original snowblowers dash switch to the starter yet. This video shows more detail on how it is currently hooked up. th-cam.com/video/CWRcLkgDz8U/w-d-xo.html
The UNI-T UT373 digital tachometer is fairly good for a handheld laser tachometer for the lathe. There are also hall effect and optical tachometers fairly cheap for a permanent mounting.
@@robb1165 thanks for the replies! The lathe I have is a wood lathe from the 40s that has a motor from a table saw, a pulley I put on the motor, and a link belt that probably rides high in the grooves. So I have zero idea what speeds it’s actually going lol. I’ll check those out. The electric start on mine requires you to plug in an extension cord, but that’s fine with me too lol.
Yes, the power is significantly more than the tired old engine. And is plenty of power for this large 36" blower. This install was done between storms outside, so I didn't have time for much break in. I twice ran it for about 15 minutes, and let it cool down. Then filmed this video. This is really hard snow from the tractors plow bank. Later video's show it in fresh snow, but it is still heavy spring snow. So far have about 30 hours on it in heavy snow.
yep, the hard part is the ice layers. Here it melts during the day and freezes at night. Needs a lot of traction to break into it. Wish Honda sold the larger blowers with the exposed auger ends here. The housings cause lots of resistance.
The snow is really hard and refrozen several times. My newer videos of it are in fresher snow. It could use some weight up front to balance out the heavier engine, but it is not too bad, is manageable.
@@miman-ck9jv Thanks, the snow has too much ice in it. Taking partial bites works in some conditions. With this hard of snow a partial pass is more work since it will try to turn into the bank. Also the bank side will lift up and the snow blower will tilt sideways. At about 9:17 it starts the tilt and wants to turn into the bank, I'm pushing fairly hard to keep it from turning deeper into the bank and the tilt is the result.
I would say yes. Most of the time I have been there the snow was fairly light in consistency. This video it is going through the plow bank pile. I have other videos of it going through fresher snow. This one is in fresh but fairly wet and heavy snow. th-cam.com/users/shortseHo8kkw-Rio
Stories from family that lived in the mountains of Colorado, they traveled on the same path packing the snow. And did shovel a little around the house.
Unless a machine is extremely heavy, no matter what engine it may have on it, heavy wet snow, or snow that has been sitting for a while (like in the video) there will be problems. One of the problems is that the tires will spin, even with chains on, and you have to work the machine up and down.
I just watched a video showing a top of the line Honda blower with tracks in Mammoth Lake where they received heavy wet snow yesterday, and even the tracks were slipping when the person tried to clear the end of the driveway from the snow left by the plow. He had to rock the machine up and down to get it to move forward.
Yes, This is also a plowed pile so is very hard. It has chains so if left on its own in this snow without rocking will dig a hole. This was too much work so broke it up with the excavator. My Honda hs1132 with tracks has less pushing power than the tires on the Ariens. The largest walk behind from Honda has open sides with disk cutters. However, it is not sold by the USA dealers.
I put a Predator 301cc (8HP) on an old Ariens ST824 a couple of years back. I did need to go to an AX belt since the extra power of the Predator was causing belt slippage.
I have cast iron wheel casters on the front of the machine replacing the basic steel skids.
And, over the last couple of years, I've become rather annoyed with the tendency of the machine to wheelie and climb up from dense street plow cast-off. So, this past Spring (2022) while at the scrapyard, I picked up a section of 1/2" steel plate. I'm currently making two 20 lb. 5"x24"x0.5" ballast plates which I'll bolt to the front of the scoop housing. As a matter of fact, this morning I applied another coat of paint to the two ballast plates.
Most likely, I'll only need one. But, while makin' might as well do two...
If you'd like to see a TH-cam walk around of my Predator engine swap, search "Russell Stephan Predator ST824".
Nice conversion. My belts have held up so far, about 35 hours in fairly heavy snow. Mine needs weight plates but is manageable. Will make some when I have time.
What a unit! Interesting to see the factory setting is 3750z. Wonder if that’s where it gets the extra power from
The old engine was tired and did ok. This engine makes it my best performing walk behind blower.
Beast !
Thanks, I really like it.
One issue I have is you loose the belt pulley cover and that’s definitely an issue in wet blowing snow
I cut the cover and used a Harbor Freight plastic welder to join it back extending it to fit. Shown in this video. I think a cover from a newer Ariens is also a possible bolt on fix. th-cam.com/video/D7j9DBRQZp0/w-d-xo.html&t
I’ve been thinking of doing this swap with my simplicity commercial blower it has the original 15hp motor and I feel it’s a bit tired. I’m also planning on doing an impeller mod with those rubber pads to get a tighter fit in the housing. I wonder if I’ll have to make new holes if the engines are close to the same size.
I had to drill holes to move it back. I had the smaller Tecumseh 13hp on mine originally.
@@robb1165 thanks I’m hoping when I start the project this summer it will be fairly straightforward.
I have this exact same snow blower. My question with this is did you have to use the sleeve that goes on to crankshaft for the pully to fit?
The original pulley fit perfectly. It did not need to be sleeved.
@@robb1165 awesome thank you for the info
Hi my 33" MTD snowblower has the Tecumseh OHSK-130 engine on it. Is that the engine you replace with HF Predator 459cc?
Yes, it was an OHSK-130
I am doing this exact repower. Ariens 1336 & had a Tecumseh. Putting the HF 459cc on it. Did you have to change pully size or belt size & what size pully or belts ? Thanks.
Mine is a model 924506 serial #4567, you can look up the pulley to see if it has the same one online at places like Jacks Small Engines. I used the original pulley and Gates belts sold at Napa under their label. As a 3L370W and 4L380W. You want a power rated Kevlar/Aramid belt. Aramid is generic for the Kevlar brand name. The green Gates belts are good on snow blowers, but cheaper ones can be bought online or at places like Tractor Supply (Huskee Kevlar V-Belt). Those belts use different sizing codes. A 3l370w is 3/8" x 37" and the 4l380W is 1/2" x 38".
To mount the engine, I removed the plates that hold the mounting studs. They are held in place by one bolt towards the forward end. They are on the table lower left corner at 0:25 into the video. Set the engine in place and marked the holes location to keep the belts aligned to the pulleys. The holes came very close to the corners of the snow blowers top plate. So need to be careful in locating them. The plastic shroud that covers the belts needed some work. I cut the top out and raised it about a 1/4 inch. I used a Harbor Freight plastic air welder to weld it back together. It also needs to be extended rearward but I will wait for better weather. It snows here every 3 to 6 days during winter. The Ariens electrical needs modified to charge the battery, or use the starter. The Ariens has a starter solenoid under the battery tray, the Predator engine has the solenoid on the engines starter. To get access you remove two outer bolts on the aft side of the battery support and the aft plate with the solenoid comes out. So there are a few options. You can run the positive battery cable direct from the Predator's starter to the battery. Or you can go to the Ariens Solenoid and move the battery cables onto one post on the solenoid. Either would allow it to charge and start. To use the chute rotation you would still need to turn on the Ariens key. To use the headlight, hand warmers, or Ariens key to start you would need to rewire. And to use both the headlight and hand warmers you need to also add a more powerful charging coil and charging regulator to be able to maintain the battery charge. I ordered the charging parts off a Honda but have not had time to verify they fit.
Comments about using it. I now have about 16 hours on it. It is noticeable much more powerful, and uses significantly less fuel. I still have the issue of having to unplug the oil pressure switch to get it started in the cold. The Ariens was a little tail heavy to start with, the extra weight moved back with the Predator is a bit too much weight aft. It is easy to tip it back onto the handle bars. It really needs a weight kit or more added to the front. The Ariens stock drive speed is a bit too fast and I'm not sure yet how to slow it down. After the first 3 gears of the six it is at a very fast walk, sixth gear is ridiculously fast unless you only have light snow and need to get it done.
If you're going to switch to a larger engine you may as well put a larger pulley on the auger drive. Otherwise you'll gain little from the extra power. My AX 12.5 has plenty of power. My problem is that the auger runs too slow and that's what limits my forward speed. I'm stuck in first or second gear with any real amount of snow. If I try to go faster the snow spills out the sides of the front end. The auger can't gobble up the snow fast enough.
What' that sweet little tachometer thing you have? I need a way to test speeds on my belt driven lathe lol. Also do you know of anyone who's done an electric start on these swaps? That's one thing I love about my cub cadet.
I think the tachometer is no longer produced as the prices are very high or out of stock. It is an SM8237 inductive tachometer. Electric start is built into this engine, just needs the battery hooked up. I use the switch on the engine. I have not hooked up the original snowblowers dash switch to the starter yet. This video shows more detail on how it is currently hooked up. th-cam.com/video/CWRcLkgDz8U/w-d-xo.html
The UNI-T UT373 digital tachometer is fairly good for a handheld laser tachometer for the lathe. There are also hall effect and optical tachometers fairly cheap for a permanent mounting.
@@robb1165 thanks for the replies! The lathe I have is a wood lathe from the 40s that has a motor from a table saw, a pulley I put on the motor, and a link belt that probably rides high in the grooves. So I have zero idea what speeds it’s actually going lol. I’ll check those out. The electric start on mine requires you to plug in an extension cord, but that’s fine with me too lol.
Awesome video! I was wondering if someone had put one of these on the 36 inch
Thanks
I put one on a 46 inch Troybilt. Works great.
Any difference in power with the new 459? How much break in did you do??
Yes, the power is significantly more than the tired old engine. And is plenty of power for this large 36" blower. This install was done between storms outside, so I didn't have time for much break in. I twice ran it for about 15 minutes, and let it cool down. Then filmed this video. This is really hard snow from the tractors plow bank. Later video's show it in fresh snow, but it is still heavy spring snow. So far have about 30 hours on it in heavy snow.
Is the headlight still working??
Yes, this snowblower just needed a jumper wire installed to make it work. Explained in this video. th-cam.com/video/CWRcLkgDz8U/w-d-xo.html
I'm in the process of building a 40inch into a 50inch using that same engine and mounting it in front of my four wheeler
Should be enough power to run that. With my 36 inch it is hard to feed enough snow into it to bog it down. I hope you post a video of it.
My Honda, 1332 with have ate through that snow.
yep, the hard part is the ice layers. Here it melts during the day and freezes at night. Needs a lot of traction to break into it. Wish Honda sold the larger blowers with the exposed auger ends here. The housings cause lots of resistance.
Too much fighting. Maybe can add strip of weights to top of front housing
The snow is really hard and refrozen several times. My newer videos of it are in fresher snow. It could use some weight up front to balance out the heavier engine, but it is not too bad, is manageable.
Man don’t fight with it . just take a smaller bite just use half or 3/4 of the chute looks like your trying to push it threw the snow , nice blower 👍👍
@@miman-ck9jv Thanks, the snow has too much ice in it. Taking partial bites works in some conditions. With this hard of snow a partial pass is more work since it will try to turn into the bank. Also the bank side will lift up and the snow blower will tilt sideways. At about 9:17 it starts the tilt and wants to turn into the bank, I'm pushing fairly hard to keep it from turning deeper into the bank and the tilt is the result.
The question is... Can it handle buffalo NY snow? Lol
I would say yes. Most of the time I have been there the snow was fairly light in consistency. This video it is going through the plow bank pile. I have other videos of it going through fresher snow. This one is in fresh but fairly wet and heavy snow. th-cam.com/users/shortseHo8kkw-Rio
I wonder what cowboys did without a mini-excavator and Predator engine snowblowers to clear their homesteads?
Stories from family that lived in the mountains of Colorado, they traveled on the same path packing the snow. And did shovel a little around the house.