Cast iron or aluminum

fordtruckin · #1 10-13-2018, 06:46 PM

So in part of my winter prep I’m looking at a new snowblower for the places in my yard I can’t get to with my truck plow. I’ve narrowed it down to a cub cadet 3 stage 26” wide and an Ariens 2 stage 28” wide unit. The cub cadet has a larger engine than the Ariens but a smaller impeller 12” vs 14”. What really has me stuck is the cub has cast aluminum gear box while the Ariens is cast iron. I’d be happy with either although I like the yellow a bit more. My question is how reliable is cast aluminum? I see on some consumer reports they rate the cub fairly high which has me wondering is it that big a deal? Anyone with any real metal experience have any suggestions? Probably going to buy one or the other this week provided I can find one in stock. (Although if I can I only find one in stock that will narrow my options down)

reddeerguy2015 · #2 10-13-2018, 08:40 PM

Honda.

fordtruckin · #3 10-13-2018, 08:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by reddeerguy2015

Honda.

Yes if I was made of money I would go with Honda, but I'm not so back to the initial question, cast iron vs cast aluminum??

My dad bought a 28" White back in the winter of 2002 and that thing is still going 16 years later and moved 6 years worth of Corner Brook NL snow. Paint is a little chipped with some surface rust, the started went out last year and I bought a replacement for 65$ so i'm not a believer that ONLY a Honda will last...

220 Swift · #4 10-13-2018, 09:02 PM

From my experience - Craftsman was aluminium and didnt last. 2years and the gearbox was toast. 1700 was the new cost of the unit , a 31" i think it was.
Gear box was 950

I tossed it on a rock pile.
Bought an old unit on Kijiji with a cast gear box and did a motor swap.

CaberTosser · #5 10-13-2018, 10:44 PM

My John Deere 1028 has a big honking cast iron gear drive, I wanted to avoid those aluminum/ pot metal units as I thought they looked flimsy for the torque involved with wet snow. Back when I bought it there was a range of Craftsman snowblowers and one even looked identical to my JD save for the paint, it had the same cast iron worm-gear drive. There is such a myriad of options but the ones I wanted were: name brand motor, cast iron gear drive, metal discharge chute, power chute directional control, 120v electric start, good headlight, heated grips and I wanted the squared off looking tires.

I saw a Craftsman snowblower at a local Lowes recently but didn't look at it aside from recognizing it was yet more Craftsman-branded product being carried at Lowes

bloopbloob · #6 10-13-2018, 11:28 PM

By gear box, do you mean the casing, or internals as well? Cast aluminum (grade of Al is a huge deal) can be very strong. The heat cycles can cause issues. If I had to make an off the cuff decision, I would pick cast iron. A little more info would help, like the grades of materials for both. I know a lil bit about metallurgy....

Xbolt7mm · #7 10-14-2018, 10:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by reddeerguy2015

Honda.

I have a honda on tracks and would go with either of the ops choices before I bought another honda, or buy each of them for the price of the honda. Plugs up with wet snow every time. Garbage

Kim473 · #8 10-14-2018, 10:38 AM

Ran a 5 year old club at work and it worked great.

My 25 year old craftsman still works better than my 10 year old machine.

mac1983 · #9 10-14-2018, 10:53 AM

Mine been a workhorse for 10 years now. Deep snow and cold temps in northern alberta.

huntwat · #10 10-14-2018, 11:00 AM

Buy a single stage. You will wonder why 2 and 3 stage are built.

58thecat · #11 10-27-2018, 09:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kim473

Ran a 5 year old club at work and it worked great.

My 25 year old craftsman still works better than my 10 year old machine.

I got a craftsman too, 14 years old, it bucks, farts, and growls but still chucks snow 20 feet....not sure about the gear box, hmmmm maybe I should change or at least check the oil.....

fordtruckin · #12 10-27-2018, 11:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 58thecat

I got a craftsman too, 14 years old, it bucks, farts, and growls but still chucks snow 20 feet....not sure about the gear box, hmmmm maybe I should change or at least check the oil.....

They don’t make things like they used to. My dad has a 16 year old white and it sounds about the same as your craftsman. Sounds like it’s going to come apart she’s so loud but holds it together and keeps chugging!

JimW55 · #13 10-14-2018, 06:19 PM

Hey bud,
Weight wise and monoverabilty I would go with the aluminum but I need the grade of it before I could tell you more.

fordtruckin · #14 10-14-2018, 09:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JimW55

Hey bud,
Weight wise and monoverabilty I would go with the aluminum but I need the grade of it before I could tell you more.

If your referring to the grade I will be moving snow, my yard is pretty much flat. I have a snow plow on my truck for the majority of my needs but I need a blower to blow oaths to the wood pile and back door etc...

If your referring to grade of aluminum, whatever cub cadet uses.

JimW55 · #15 10-14-2018, 09:20 PM

I would say that what ever grade is built in the machine then it was engineered to with stand what your going to do with it.