Troy Bilt makes small engines? Lowes says Yes

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I was at Lowes today shopping for a snowblower. They had Troy Bilts and John Deere's on display. I was about to pull the trigger and purchase a 24" snowblower with what I assumed was a Tecumseh engine. The larger models prominently displayed the Briggs & Stratton label. I casually asked one of the employees if the engine was a Tecumseh and he replied: "It is a Troy Bilt" engine". "Yeah, but Tecumseh manufactures it for Troy Bilt, is that correct?", I asked. "No, this snow blower has a state of the art OHV engine and Tecumseh only makes side valve engines and nobody uses them anymore." I suspected that he didn't know the product very well and I stopped at Sears on the way home and picked up a Craftsman snowblower with an OHV engine I suspect was made by Tecumseh. I will be absolutely shocked if somebody tells me Tecumseh never got with the times and upgraded to an OHV design and that Troy Bilt manufactures their engines in house.
 
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NO..they use B&S; Kohler and Tec


FYI At Home Depot you can get a 28" 8HP Tec Ariens for $999.

Probably the best value for a blower that will last 30 yrs and will have parts available for that long too.

I am not a fan of Craftsman or Troybuilt. Evene the Deer model at Lowes is not a "Deere".
 
Originally Posted By: Pete591
NO..they use B&S; Kohler and Tec


FYI At Home Depot you can get a 28" 8HP Tec Ariens for $999.



Thanks for the info. The Ariens is out of my price range, but I do not doubt that is is an excellent product. My MTD 5 HP snowblower with a Tecumseh lasted 20+ years.
 
Tecumseh is shutting it's doors after the first of the year.

Troy has always used somebody elses engines. They have used Kohler, B/S, and Tecumseh. They have to fit troy though. Special bolt pattern.
 
Originally Posted By: hate2work

Tecumseh is shutting it's doors after the first of the year.


they are????? what, like going bankrupt or re-organizing? Or disappearing from the marketplace forever?
 
Tecumseh small engines are no more. Tecumseh is focusing on their refrigeration/compressor business. In another thread I mentioned some Tecumseh parts are getting more difficult to find even now. I wasn't joking.

Troy-Bilt is owned by MTD. MTD has it's own Chinese made engines on some of it's equipment. It would not be a big stretch to see Chinese made MTD engine on a Troy-Bilt unit. Maybe they have already started.
 
well that sucks! I recently (2 years ago) bought a 6 kilowatt generator powered by a 10HP Tecumseh side valve flathead engine. I've used it a total of about 5 weeks during power outages caused by hurricanes. Man, it was a lifesaver at certain times. It's louder than [censored] though. I really dont like the idea that parts for it will be getting scarce as the years go by. I was thinking of going diesel sooner or later, maybe this is a good reason?!?!
 
If you buy a snowblower from Home Despot or Blowes, do yourself a big favor and inspect it carefully before you use it even once. Pull the shroud that covers the pulleys coming off the engine. Make sure the crank pulley and auger pulley are properly/perfectly aligned. Also check to make sure the auger and drive engagement is within spec (specs will be in the manual).

These machines are not set-up well ... at least not the ones in the big box stores. Our 11528 Ariens was horribly misaligned and chewed up its first set of belts in just the first few hours of use. Also, the engagement of the auger was pretty 'iffy' and it would stop throwing in really deep/heavy snow.

There was nothing wrong with the design ... it just wasn't set-up properly. About 20 minutes of reading the manual and adjusting it myself and it runs beautifully. :D
 
Originally Posted By: Bror Jace
If you buy a snowblower from Home Despot or Blowes, do yourself a big favor and inspect it carefully before you use it even once. Pull the shroud that covers the pulleys coming off the engine. Make sure the crank pulley and auger pulley are properly/perfectly aligned. Also check to make sure the auger and drive engagement is within spec (specs will be in the manual).

These machines are not set-up well ... at least not the ones in the big box stores. Our 11528 Ariens was horribly misaligned and chewed up its first set of belts in just the first few hours of use. Also, the engagement of the auger was pretty 'iffy' and it would stop throwing in really deep/heavy snow.

There was nothing wrong with the design ... it just wasn't set-up properly. About 20 minutes of reading the manual and adjusting it myself and it runs beautifully. :D


Even Ariens has gotten sloppy. I heard this as well from my dealer.

He suggests Simplicity as they are tanks and precision built.

Goes without saying the Hondas are as well.

http://www.mayberrys.com/simplicity/snowblowers/commercial.htm
 
Originally Posted By: Steve S
Can't argue with the pros at Lowes.


Bwahaha!! Ain't that the truth. Tecumseh has made OHV OPE engines for at least the past 9yrs. I have a 7hp OHV Tecumseh on my 2000 model year Yard Man (MTD) thrower. Tecumseh more recently also made OHV V-twins, with one model even having dual carbs! Ariens has indeed gotten sloppy over the years. Just like everything else, they are not the Ariens of 25yrs ago. If you want a heavy steel beast, your only choice now is a Simplicity large frame snowblower. IMO, once you go 8hp and above for 2-stage models, they all throw snow the same. Unless you go Honda hydrostatic, they all use rubber friction disk drive systems. Really, for snowblowers you can't go wrong with an MTD and toss it out in 10yrs when it's too rusty to work on.

Joel
 
The lengthy thread from a couple years ago when we were discussing Ariens snowblowers is still here. I ran across it a few weeks ago when looking for info on Arien's NLG2 gear oil.

I think it was in that thread that one person claimed it was a selling point for Ariens dealers that they would go through the machine and ensure it was set-up properly ... service you won't get from Blowes or Home Despot.

I'm not sure if I believe that Ariens would do that on purpose as a favor to their dealers (purposefully 'sabotage' their machines going to big-box retailers) but I was the second person who complained about sloppy set-up of these otherwise fine machines.

I'll have to look at Simplicity ... haven't seen one up close.
 
Kind of pricy.
The regular residential blowers seem to have gone to the cheaper, tube frame. Bummer.
Hard to compare to older models since these engines are rated by torque and not horsepower.
Some dealers have more confidence in Tecumseh engines than the Briggs.
 
Originally Posted By: dwendt44
Kind of pricy.
The regular residential blowers seem to have gone to the cheaper, tube frame. Bummer.


That's true. You've got to bump up to the "Commercial" series Simplicity to get away from tube stock handlebars. IIRC, all their "large frame" units used to have the steel plate sides, etc. They're all getting closer to a run of the mill MTD every year.

Joel
 
That Troy Bilt branded engine is probably a chinese engine. They actually make pretty good small engines!
 
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