I mow 5 acres once a week with a Kubota Diesel 60" z turn but needed something to use in the ditches and around the tight spots that big mowers can't get into. Since I use a 5 year old Trailmate/Kee at work (High School Bldg & Grds Mgr. my first choice was a Kee. Went to the local mower shop where we purchased the one for the school and discovered it was no longer available commercially but one of the clerks mentioned she had seen one for sale on Craigs List. Wasted no time getting it in my garage, $300 used, (new cost for our school's mower was $900 in 2005). These things are bullet proof, you can't bog them down. They won't win a beauty contest but you CAN NOT KILL THEM. The design is simplistic but it does exactly what it was born to do. Cut The Grass. The belt design saves your engine from damage due to sudden stopage, stumps, rocks... Also the engine does not have to run at such a high RPM to do the job, I guess from the belt pully design, the blade tip speed is still fast enough to get it done and not bog down. By the way, bagging is a big no no. You are throwing away free fertilizer. Think About It. Bagging is a pain any way, having to stop every 5 minutes and dumping the bag and all. My next choice on the list had I not been able to find a used Kee would have been a new SARLO, also made in South Florida where they cut grass practically 12 months out of the year. They also have a Diesel push mower that you can Will to your Great Grand Kids. 1 Gallon of Diesel per 8 hours mowing. The Flordia State Corrections Dept. loves them. They are goober proof and last forever. They have the figures to back them up. I would not waste my time and my money for the "Throw-A-Way" mowers available at the local big box stores. How long due you really expect them to last any way? From the frame to the over worked engine. Three years and it's in the dumpster.

I assume that this is a two-stage blower. You have an auger to move snow to the center and a fan to spit the snow out the chute. Most likely, the fan is frozen to the housing. This often happens when owners don't clean their unit before putting it away. You either have to find a way to warm the machine to make the ice melt or you have to apply pressure to the fan and try to break the ice bond that is preventing it from moving. Covering the entire blower unit with some blankets or a tarp and then putting a heater underneath in a way that it cannot touch the covering is my only suggestion. The larger the heater, the sooner it will thaw out but I caution you to be very careful when doing this. You don't want to cause a fire. This will only happen if flammable material directly contacts the heating device. As long as the complete heater is several inches away from the blanket, you'll be ok.

None of grandma's fresh baked cookies until this gets fixed! Does it seem as though the brake pedal comes all the way back up? Like maybe the pedal hasn't fully returned after disengaging the park brake? If it does at least roll, best guess is maybe the traction belt hopped off a pulley. If it does not actually roll- maybe the brake caliper or caliper arm is stuck. If you lift one rear corner and turn the tire, it shouldn't freewheel. If it does, you may have a missing /damaged wheel key as shown above. Best of luck.

This is a very old thread, things have changed at Ariens. The units sold at Home Depot are rebadged Husqvarna/Poulan/Craftsman and certainly not up to their usual standards. The average consumer simply will not pay for the traditional quality although long time Ariens fans such as myself will step up to the plate and go for the dealer only models. Having said that, it appears all models are getting an Ariens branded engines which likely means Chinese. With my experience with MTD's Powermore crapola, I will stick with an older model and repower with Briggs if necessary if and when I need a snowthrower, certainly not at the moment in southwestern British Columbia lol.