Very nice machine! I just purchased the 32" Pro Hydro Rapidtrak myself. Have not had a chance to use it as we have not gotten much snow here yet. Glad to read that you are happy with the machine's performance. I debated going with the wheeled version and saving a few hundred $$$. But figured if I'm spending this much, I'll splurge a little since I hope to keep it at least 15 years.

About the only thing I don't care for on the machine is how loose/sloppy the chute rotation control handle feels. I'm referring specifically to the handle mechanism itself. There doesn't appear to be any way to tighten the handle so that it feels firmer and doesn't flop around. Have you noticed that on yours? Other than that minor complaint, it's a beast of a machine.

 

I see the sideways play I think you're referring to? I measured mine at the rubber sleeve. It's 1/4" A quick look underneath doesn't trigger any solutions for me either, but I'm not worried about it. Good luck with the 32!

 

Just received mine also. Great machine.


It needs a height setting that locks about 2" off the ground for gravel.
I am going to remove the settings bar and create a notch that will lock about 2" off ground.



Blacktop is perfect and transport is excellent.


Bob

 

Just received mine also. Great machine.

It needs a height setting that locks about 2" off the ground for gravel.
I am going to remove the settings bar and create a notch that will lock about 2" off ground.

Blacktop is perfect and transport is excellent.

Bob

No gravel of any kind here. Sounds like a good idea. I'll be curious how it works. If well.....maybe Ariens needs to hear about it. Should be a gratuity connected to it if they like it

 

Great to hear, just traded in my 4 year old Pro 28 for a hydro rapidtrak. Pick it up next week. can’t wait for the hydro, the rapidtrak is a bonus

 

Your dealer takes trades ? What state ? See a lot of interest in the Rapidtracks now. Hope they work good this winter.

 

In Mass there are a few that do, stuff needs to be in really good shape

 

Ah ha. I dont know of any dealers in my area of ct that take any trades on blowers.

 

yea, might have taken a little hit on the old one, but in my case, my old one needs to disappear and the new one reappear in its place pretty much same day...so the wife does not catch on to whats going on....LOL

 

I think weve all done the toy swap in the middle of the day deal :grin:

 

I wonder how well it would tolerate having a 3/4" thick slab of steel bolted to the bottom of it to add more weight for adhesions sake and leave the skids all the way down?.

Do you know what kind of attachment set up it has for the drive sprockets to the axle shafts?

 

"On 2nd thought...not sure how you would accomplish that as the front wheels are a fulcrum of sorts for the adjustment? "
Steve: Good comment. Think of transport mode. You are pushing down on the handle bars with the front wheels as a fulcrum until the rear boggie wheels touch the gound. At this point the front is about a foot off the ground.
The notch I placed on the leveling bar restricts the front lift to about 2" with is perfect for snow blowing on gravel.
I will post pics this weekend.

 

Great mod robrizok! Looking forward to the pics. I don't have gravel, but maybe I'll do it anyway

Ariens should reward you for this. It would add a great feature for those that need it!

 

I definitely want to see where you put the extra notch, That’s exactly what i thought when i saw the system. I’ll be doing the same when i get mine. I have a small section of gravel i usually snowblow over so i cannot see why it would not help. As it is now i usually try to float the wheeled blower over that section, with limited results

 

We are getting the same melting many are now. Rain coming later. Everything on the ground now is pretty heavy and wet. Snowball weather!

I couldn't resist a little test into our yard to work the new machine a little. I first left it in the wheeled position to see how it would do. It started to lift and spin a few feet in. I then dropped it to the regular track position and motored on in. I purposely set the hydro speed faster ( a little past 1/2 way) to see if I could bog the engine. It did bog a tad so I backed off a bit and it easily chewed in at a decent clip to the depth of the picture. You can see it's heavy stuff by the way it's pushed up at the front.

The more familiar I become with this machine, the more I like it. I can't remember waiting with anticipation for a big storm the last many years....but I am looking forward to a good 2-3 footer now

 

Question for everyone with a RapidTrak: What happens when you set the skids to raise the bucket about 1" for gravel? I can see that it would matter in the wheel mode but what about in the track mode? Is it still easy to move between wheel and track without having to lift up on the handlebars like you have to when you go into dig mode?

I asked the dealer this and they didn't have an answer. The reply was"well how high do you want to set it?". My answer was 1" for gravel. Still didn't get an answer, the he said "so let's write it up and set a date for delivery".. I dint think si, not for 2400 for a 28 SHO without an answer!

 

Which dealer in Ct ? Id think it would wear your skids quicker, and wouldnt change the handling anymore than a wheel model IMHO. But i have no first hand experiance with that model.

 

Should have said wouldn't matter for wheel mode.

 

Schmidt and Serafine in Waterbury

 

Have a buddy who bought exmark and toro from there, they were knowlegable on the lawn stuff. Maybe just unfamiliar with the new Rapid tracks.

 

For the past several days we've been getting dustings of snow...maybe 4-5 " total. I scraped the driveway once at night letting it pile on each side for later blower removal. I've let our vehicles run over it daily and ridges have built up some. Last night, we got an inch or two of heavier stuff...enough so that a few pushes with the scraper told me there were better ways to move it. So I got to give the dig mode a pretty good test just now. Granted, you have to move slow, and tracks are turning a little faster than you're moving, but it completely peeled up the truck and car ridges. Pretty impressive! It's 30F here now. i'm sure the results would less if it were a lot colder

Of course, there is a little downside: When you lift the front wheels off the ground in dig mode, you're pretty much negating auto turn and yes you do need to bull it around some. In regular track position, autoturn still works. I also find that the wheeled position easily handles most everything here so far in which case the auto turn is almost like finger tip control it moves so easy.

As a final thought today on dig mode. I don't think they could have put much more 'dig' weight on the front end because there wouldn't be enough traction. Seems they found a happy medium.

 

Today was the 1st real test of the new machine. We left here Saturday early with 6-8 inches of heavy wet snow on the ground and still snowing. After witnessing an ill fated game in Green Bay, we got home a bit ago today with a pretty good load of snow to do including what the plow brought. There was no driving in. Left the truck in the street The first 6-8 feet of driveway at the road was higher than the front of the machine. The stuff was so heavy that we only sunk in a few inches (breaking through the crust) to get to the house. The weatherman said 14.2 fell from Sat to Sun at midnight, but several more inches have fallen since.

I put it in regular track mode and motored right through to the street on my 1st pass. I did have to let it 'digest' a few times on the way as it had all it could take of the heavy snow. The hydro tranny works really good to inch along when you need to. The old 1236 was a lot more work to bull around. With this load of heavy snow I would of had to been pulling up on the handlebars to dig down. This one did that work for me. Hand warmers worked well with finger gloves. 25F now.

The machine performed very well! One little note I would add that I hadn't thought of

With my old machine, When I bit into something and wanted to back up, I could easily lift the front end and back up. Even the normal track position of this new machine puts a fair amount of weight on the front end.....backing up acts like a scraper and pulls some snow back underneath until you stop...which leaves a little mess to clean up. Yes, it only takes a couple seconds to put it back in the wheeled position and easily lift the front end up when backing up.

Not a big deal, but in the track position, backing up isn't what I'm used to. I'll also mention that the autoturn works well in regular track mode, but it's less than in the wheeled position. No surprise there.

 

Good to hear. Still waiting on some decent snow for me to try my Pro 32. All we've gotten so far are 1-2" every few days.

Just out of curiosity, are you using the electric start or manual to start the machine. I was thinking I'd use the electric start for the initial start, then manual for the rest of the day.

 

Just out of curiosity, are you using the electric start or manual to start the machine. I was thinking I'd use the electric start for the initial start, then manual for the rest of the day.

Honestly I haven't used the electric start yet. I suppose I should see if it works 🙂

Like my old machine, full throttle, full choke, 2 primer bulbs, and one easy pull. Always has started. Easier than hooking a cord up.

Tecumseh and Briggs.. Both starting excellently for me the last almost 30 years!

 

Good to hear, i just picked up my Pro Hydro 28 Rapidtrak, Thing is a beast. Will be installing some LED lights and adding a notch in the track bar for gravel this weekend. For now i’ll Just drive it around the back yard while the wife wonders *** is wrong with me...LOL
I was impressed how will it turned in track mode too

 

I decided to go with the Honda HSS1332. Everyone's thought about adding a custom notch to the height adjust bracket makes sense but I don't have the tools or experience to do make type of adjustment.

Either way they're both nice machines. Thanks to everyone for their feedback. I'll post in the Honda forum once the machine is delivered.

 

You won't regret it. I tried out both before buying my HSS1332 and was pretty sure I'd like the Ariens more since I was coming from a Pro 28 Hydro. The Honda is so easy to use and takes so little effort to manage that it won me over. The clogging complaints almost made me skip the Honda, but other real-world users and dealer advice said don't worry. Can't get mine to clog no matter how hard I try! I understand all the Honda fanboys now.

 

they are both great blowers...each having their pros and cons . Something that I haven't heard mentioned is honda has 18 month same as cash with a 200 cash back card....this helped push me to the honda also. not sure if ariens has a finance deal or not. For me this made the hss 1332 3000 dollars and use hondas money free for a year and a half....

 

I too had considered both machines. What swayed me to the Ariens is the super heavy-duty build, much more so than the Honda. Also, my local dealer gave me 10% off my Pro 32 Hydro, making the price the same as the Honda.

 

I’m still considering the Honda HSS928 and the Ariens 28 Hydro RapidTrak. The Ariens is 71lbs heavier so I’m assuming that a lot of that must be in the “heavy-dutiness” of the build quality. I understand heavier is better to help with traction so on my steep drive that would be a plus. I’m wondering how the traction compares between these two makes in normal track operating mode. Is one head over heels better than the other.

 

I too saw the 0% for 18 mos and $200 back on the Honda so it brings the price to 3K.

As for the chute clogging, I thought that it was interesting that the 724 and 928s on display had the new chute but the 1332 didn't. Either way, my dealer doesn't charge for pickup and delivery for warranty work on machines they sell so I get a free trial for a couple seasons.

My salesperson knows my property and I asked him if the 928 would have thrown the heavy snow we had on Nov 15 30 feet and he said no. When asked about the 1332 he said yes.

Like everyone knows, there's not much difference between a 28" and 32" in terms of time savings unless you have a HUGE area to clear. For me, it was to have a track machine that would be easy to use on a gravel drive with an incline and throwing distance. The 1332 was the right machine for me. If I could only store a 28" machine then an Ariens would have been the best choice because, IMHO, the engine is too small on the Honda 928.

 

Saw this and wanted to mention that there are minimum monthly payments starting on the second month. They are not much, I think 10% of the balance on the card but if you miss one payment or are late by one day on any payment, the interest charges kick in for the entire balance on the card. And they are pretty painful- 31% if I remember correctly.

Just wanted to let everyone who is using or considering this deal that you cannot basically 'ignore' the charge on that card and then pay it in full at the end or the interest will jam you up worse than a clogged Honda chute....

I am not saying anything negative about this, it is a great deal and I myself took advantage of it, just wanted to pass along that caveat. It is easy to set up monthly payments to go off automatically when the next minimum becomes due BTW and that is what my wife did- we are paying $200 / month so basically the minimum is met (and far more) and the machine will be paid off in something like 16 months but that is basically invisible to us.

Brian

I too saw the 0% for 18 mos and $200 back on the Honda so it brings the price to 3K.

<snip>

 

One of the many things that I learned from this Forum that people are very passionate about the snowblower's brand. i.e. Ariens vs Honda with Toro being a 3rd choice. Very similar to trucks, i.e. Chevy vs Ford with Dodge being a 3rd choice. I love to read the different opinions and justifications for their choice - give me a smile when reading them.


THANKS for opinions. "Everyone has them..."

 

Yes, it is tough to be neutral after dropping a wad of money on a product. No one wants to believe there could be / is a better or even equal choice out there. It is worse as the amount of money spent goes up, which is probably why you have seen the conflict between those two brands specifically; all Hondas and top- line Ariens are expensive machines and that makes a bad choice even worse. My favorite bias is when someone buys exactly 'one in a row' of a product, then declares it the bestus machine ever. How would he / she know? Saying something like I have been using Brand X for 30 years and it has been wonderful is a blind statement because we have to ask the question: 'compared to what ?'.

That said, there are real, quantifiable differences between machines and rational decisions can be made. At least that is what I tell myself.

I think in the real world, there are parts of several machines that are really excellent but you cannot get them altogether on one machine 'cause they are spread across brands. Honestly, occasionally I see a 'Frankenblower' that is perhaps unattractive and a little rough but perfect in design IMO.

Brian

 

Interesting comments. I own a Toro 1028 PowerMax, and also an Ariens 1026 DLE. Which do I like better ? After 3 years of owning both of them, I am not really sure. They both work great, and except for the color, and one has a plastic chute, and different controls for the chute, neither is much different in operation. My next purchase will probably be a track Honda, and then I will cull one out of the herd, but right now i am not sure which one. I hope to have 2 of them operating for another 20-25 years - God willing ! (me, not the snowblowers !)

 

I added a little video showing the Rapidtrak running with the new notch, so it can be hovered around 1” off the ground for gravel. Works perfect. Also the end of the video shows all the Rapidtrak positions

 

Same area as Steve70 (my childhood home also) showing one of the blowers in use. Note how they make a point to *NOT* crap in driveways! We always appreciated that! Our neighborhood was plowed by a large grader with a side wing blade - basically could do a full lane and full shoulder a the same time . . . One pass each way, typically prior to 7:00 AM in any conditions . . .

 

Clearing the streets in town . . . the blowers get a lot of use there!