Good to hear you are happy with it,Ariens has an excellent reputation.
If you think yours is heavy and awkward, it's a good thing you did not move up to the 8hp. The thin skiff left behind is characteristic of most two stage machines, yours is set up properly. Too many people drop the shave plate to the ground and destroy it along with the bucket.

We just got 6 inches of wet, heavy snow, and the Ariens did fine. They must use extra slippery paint on the chute, it never clogged up on me. The engine started on the first pull, as it has in the past. There have been no problems with the Tecumseh engine. I changed the oil at three hours per the manual.

Like canguy said, you cant have the shaveplate right to the ground or you will destroy it. Nice to hear people happy with their purchases.

Between 1880 and 1980, Wisconsin was home to all sorts of manufacturing, including General Motors, American Motors, Briggs & Stratton, Tecumseh, Evinrude, and Kohler. Since 1980 many of these manufacturing jobs have disappeared. We still have Harley Davidson, Kohler, Evinrude, and Ariens, but there have been great losses, including much of the paper industry located in the Fox River Valley. The snowblower review above is really a plug for the state, I just wanted to show that we still manufacture products here, and that they are of good quality. My snowblower has a Tecumseh engine, and that company recently went out of business. However, the engine starts easily, and runs fine. A supplier of parts for small engines located in Janesville, Wisconsin, has purchased the remaining inventory from Tecumseh, and plans to supply parts for these engines, so I expect to be able to maintain this engine in the future, when tune up and/or repairs are needed.

I just purchased a used Husqavarna snowblower -ST624E and I do not know what size this snow blower is...6HP, 7HP???? Is it made by Ariens??? Please reply. Thanks

I just bought an Ariens ST624E to replace my old 8hp Ariens snowblower that was lost in a gargage fire. I loved my old one but I was looking at over $1600 to replace it with a new one. I bought an older 5hp Ariens ( late 70's ) model at the end of the season, but came across an 09 ST624E that had been used only a few times and looks like it was just pushed out of the showroom. So I'm giving my son-in-law the 5hp model and can't wait till next winter to use the new one.