22 inch Snow blower ?

Geo-TH,In

Well-known Member
I want to buy my boy a snow blower for his
birthday. I've never heard of a LCT engine. It says
made in America. I've never owned a blower. I like
the 7 ft blade on my tractor better.

My question is, does anyone have a snow blower like
the one from Lowes? If so, what is the good, bad or
ugly on just this brand or on the LCT engine?
Thanks
George
Lowes 2 stage, electric start and self propelled.
 
As far as I know LCT is what is left of Lawson/Tecumseh, they are a distributor of engines built in China but you have a heck of a time finding that out on anything they put out. They claim to design them and own the factories in China where they are made, who knows??
 
I would buy a honda clone from China, but anything to do with Tecumseh is a big NO WAY. I hated their carbs, always leaked.
 
No LCT-(Liquid Combustion Technologies) was a company founded outside of the Tecumseh/Lauson umbrella by different people. They design their engines and "manage" the business here in America but have them made in China. They partnered up with Lauson/Tecumseh back around 2010 to get a dealer & service network, prior to that the support for the engines was through the OEM manufacturer of the end unit. I know MTD was using them on some Cub Cadet products and they were labeled as Cub Cadet engines. It's seems to be an interesting business model that functions. Some of the off shore automotive and ag/industrial equipment folks should of jumped into it and snapped up some of our manufacturers that were on the way out and used the dealer and distribution network. Although I suppose Renault tried it when they tied up with AMC and it worked until folks realized the Renaults were less than stellar automobiles and the new Franco American Motors keep the notoriously bed parts support of both Renault and AMC so when your POS Renault quit you waited 3 weeks for parts. And I guess Fiat is using a similar model with Chrysler to get back into the US market.
 
I would settle for a HONDA CLONE engine, which I already have 2 CLONES and love them.

No more times anyone in centeral Indiana will use a snow blower, a clone will last a life time.
 
Well I will find out how good a LCT engine holds up because that is who builds engines for my new Ariens. I still think how an engine holds up depends on how you take care of it.
 
How big is his driveway, how much snow do you get? I have a 28 inch, 8 horse, but we have a pretty big driveway, I wouldn't want one any smaller. Of course a Honda would be better, but how much do you want to spend? Ours is an Estate, from Fleet Farm, only cost about $650, has worked well for at least 15 years. I moved it into the shop from the garage today and will go over it tomorrow, might change oil in it.
 
Oh, I guess I misunderstood paragraph 2 in this letter I got back in 2011?

Doesn't make any difference to me really and for those that it does bother what are you going to do? I get along fine with the Lifan made Harbor freight Honda clones. What does bother me is when a company insults my intelligence with all the American made BS. All LCT America does is put out specifications. If sitting at a table with the Chinese and telling them they want a 5 HP engine made to sell cheap for the box store markets is designing an engine then I will give that point but to me with the Chinese doing the CAD drawings, specing materials, machining and casting the parts, assembling testing, producing it and boxing it up for export,,, it's a Chinese engine, period,, so just say so and stop trying to act like its anything else,,,, off my box.
Who and what is LCT?
 
How long have you had your Ariens? Yes, most of the time taking care of anything is the key. I looked at used ones on craigslist. Very few 2 stage, electric starts and self propelled. Many of the used ones that need a new carb. IMO, Lack of good care, they let gas get old and gummed up carb.

However my son had bad luck with a 6.5 hp briggs on his JD push mower. The bolt holding the rod end cap came lose, threw the rod. He claims, not me, this was an issue with some briggs made in China.

I did some research on the LCT engine. Found a new one on ebay $140 free shipping. Seems to be some cheap carbs too. It shows your Ariens and many other snow throwers are using the motor. So if you have good luck with motor, I may get this one for him.
LCT engine
 
George I bought mine about a month ago and this will be the first season for it. I think every one of the snow blowers that I looked at had a engine made over seas not a one built in USA. I bought the Ariens 28" two stage with the larger 291 cc engine instead of the 254 cc engine.In the manual that came with blower it says that this motor is not to be used in hot weather its what they call a cold weather engine.
 
Myself, I would prefer to spend the extra money on a better lawn mower with a quality engine rather than on a better quality snow blower. If you do want to spend some extra money on a snow blower, I would go with a bigger size to get the job done faster rather than am higher quality smaller unit that might last for maybe half again as many hours, but will take half again as long to get each job done.

Residential snow blowers really don't get used for very many hours per year, even up here in central Minnesota. Granted, the miserable conditions in which you often have to run a snow blower might make it seem like a lot more hours. We average about 50 inches of snow per year, but most residential snow blowers only run between 10 to 50 hours per year.

The cheapest snow blowers with the old Techumseh SnoKing engines still lasted for twenty years or more if they received halfway decent maintenance. Here we put five to ten times as many hours per year on our lawn mowers as on our snow blowers.

If you live in an area that gets a lot of heavy lake effect snow, then your winters are more severe. Farm and commercial snow blowers also get a lot of used hard use compared to residential units.

Good luck.
 

I told my boy about the blower, he said the same thing, too many bad reviews, especially after 2 years. So many thanks to all. I told my boy to look for something he wants. He is finishing an on line business degree in 2 weeks, so I told him this is his birthday/graduation present. He will be 35 soon, works full time, IT security, has 3 kids, Mr Mom, he is his daughter's soccer coach, busy man.

He said he wants to go look at blowers before he decides.

Again, many thanks.

AS for the size of drive, it would only take be about 3 minutes to clean off drive with tractor. Takes him 4 hours with shovel. I'm not a fan of blowers, looks like too much work for me.
 
My wife bought me a blower made by MTD in 1995 for my birthday. It's a two-stage with 28" swath. It has the 10hp Tecumseh engine with electric start. I was never fond of Tecumseh engines, but I have no complaints on this engine.
Hal
 
Hello George Marsh.

Here is what you/he needs! B&S Engine, starts on the first pull. Big starting handle, can be started with gloves on. Electric (AC) start 26" swat. 6 speeds forward, two reverse. Green paint a bit pricey though...... China junk = zero parts support, even under warranty,

Guido.
a173375.jpg
 
I take it that you don't know that all of Briggs & Stratton snow blower engines are built in China. Vertical Vangaurds are made in USA and horizontal Vangaurds components are USA but assembled in Japan.
 
Hello D Beatty,

Mine is a horizontal one. So it is made in the U.S.A? I like the fact that my local guy can get parts for the B&s. You probably know that chinajunk parts are not easily obtained!,

Guido
 
My boy's John Deere push mower had a 6.5 vertical Briggs. The bolt holding the end cap on rod came lose and put the rod out the side of engine. Sooo there are some Briggs lemons.
 
You son snowblower must be several years old because Briggs & Strattons web site states that "ALL" snow blower engines are made in China.
 
Hello D Beatty,

So you got one of those? No reason to beat mine up. By the way yours is brand new. Ran maybe a few minutes? mine is not! It has performed flawlessly for 4 snow filled winters. That's is how far behind is Your unproven, brand new, chinajunk compared to mine.........I'm DONE!

Guido.
 
Yours may very well have a B&S and nobody is beating yours up but if you go to buy a new snow blower even your green will have a chinese B&S engine because B&S now builds all their snowblower engines in China none in USA. The only thing that is Chineseon the Areins is the engine. Ariens is American built and the only manufacture to give you a 5 year warranty on gears and case. Some say Tecumseh was not a good engine but I just sold my dads 1977 Craftsman SST 16 garden tractor with the first overhead valved engine they built and it mowed a three acre yard for 36 years and still was mowing when I sold it ( one set of rings in 36 years).
 
Hello Guido,

I done some research on a briggs engines and snow blowers. The cheapie ones, $4-500 range, only have LCT's or a china clone engines.

Anything I found with a Briggs are in the $900+ range. Way more than I wanted to spend. Used blowers don't come close to what you have.

You have a good time proven blower.
George.
 
I use and abuse toro 2 stroker single stages for work. I look out for barely used homeowner 3650's, 2450's or similar. Pretty dang bullet proof. Obviously no new ones, but some really nice good used ones in Indy typically. Probably 6 of mine from down there
 
My boy works in Indy, lives in Plainfield. He was given a 2 storke briggs. Engine won't work under load. He was going to order a new carb, $100 and a muffler. Instead of fixing it, I deciced to get him a new one for his Birthday. He's looking at the Troy-bilt one at lowes, 4 stroke, electric start, self propelled, 2 stage, 24 inch. Double the price if you get one with a briggs engine on it.

After looking 5 out of 6 bad reviews on the LCT engine and blower, he doesn't want it.
 
Hello George Marsh,

Thanks! It is a 26 " wide, and has proven to be pretty good. That was the price 4 years ago. Like I said the green paint cost extra. Have a good day...


Guido.
 

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