If they try to convert, or get rid of, their gas snowblowers, it’s officially over for Honda. Enjoy this great piece of equipment! Good luck this upcoming season.
They are definitely expensive but they work very well, last forever if you don’t put rocks through them like I have and they throw snow a long ways. They are worth the money.
I'm up near Fairbanks. We got so much snow I've been moving it with my large frame bobcat and an 8' snow bucket. Took three days. I also have a Yamaha YS828 tracked blower. After thirty years, I'm questioning my sanity staying in Alaska. Ps, love your VK I've got a 2000 VK with 1,100 miles. Best machine I've ever had.
I’ve been having to use my skid steer a lot this winter as my gravel driveway won’t pack to a good base and rocks keep popping up. It’s been too hard on the blower. I much prefer using the blower to clear my snow as it’s generally faster and uses way less fuel. I agree about questioning things. The winters just seem to be getting more and more abnormal. They are beginning to be less fun and enjoyable than they used to be. I’m glad you like the VK content, I wish I’d had bought one years ago. 😀
@@thatalaskaguy I'm an Excavation contractor. I put silt and fines on top of the driveway and roll it good. It's easier here cuz it gets colder and stays cold. I still get the occasional rock but rarely.
@@bradwalsh9122 that’s what I need to do, I need smaller sized material on the surface of my driveway. It’s been the one of the weirdest winters. We’ve been way colder than normal since November, haven’t received much snow and what we did get blew away twice. We finally got our usual wet snow this weekend but then it got cold again. Usually our winters start off with rain/snow mix and that gives us a really good base. The one popular trail people use to access one of the mountains from sea level still hasn’t been broken in yet. I’ve been here for going on 38 years and have never seen the trail not broken in this late. I checked it out yesterday and the sleds that tried were digging down to the dirt and rocks.
I own a HS928 and I don't think you can beat Honda for a walk behind machine. When the snow gets wet in the spring I wax the inside of the housing with ceramic wax, makes it throw even the wettest snow.
What is ceramic wax? I’ve never tired it but I’m definitely interested! I’ve sprayed mine down with silicone many, many times but it doesn’t last long. We usually get tons and tons of heavy wet snow and when it is sticky, snowball making snow the blower clogs up. If the wax prevents that I’d be in heaven!
@@thatalaskaguy It's a newer type of car wax. I buy the Meguiars brand at walmart or an auto parts store. I use it on my honda and my 50" kubota tractor blower. I've never had to apply it more than once a season but our snow is drier than yours.
@@20_below I’d never thought about using car wax before. I just threw away a bunch old old car wax and car cleaning products over Christmas break, dang it. Would ski wax work? I know I have some that dates back to the early 90’s sitting on a shelf.
Thanks for watching 😀 I’d previously blown snow into the area I was clearing in the video. The snowpack was deeper there than what has occurred naturally. We have around 24” of snow in sheltered areas out of the wind. But in a lot of my riding areas we have minimal coverage over rocks as the previous snow was scoured away by wind. It’s been a really weird winter. Super cold, not many snow storms and windy. Compared to many places in the USA we have a ton of snow but we are actually way behind as we get 300” of snow on average. I think Fairbanks was ahead of us on snow until our most recent storm. I believe Juneau has more snow that we do currently. Things are really out of wack this winter.
At least when it's winter up there y'all have something to do. I'm down here in Minnesota just praying every night that we get enough to take the snow machine out or justify my new Boss hydraulic atv plow haha. I'm pretty sure my plow wouldn't be very effective with all that snow 🤔
I never thought I’d say it but I don’t want any more snow right now. All I’ve done for over two weeks straight is move snow almost every day. I’m heading out now to clear the driveway again. I’ve got new videos I want to post but I’ve had no time to edit. I realized yesterday, what good is all this snow when you have no time to play and enjoy it? The snow shedding off our roof plugged up the direct vent on our boiler which is 9’ high above the ground. We had to shovel that out by hand. This is the most snow we’ve received in 10 years.
@@thatalaskaguy I get ya we just got about 5in the 2nd biggest "storm" of the year so we've basically been riding on dirt trails and this is my first sled season. Anyway seeing brown everywhere and being cold it's a bit depressing. Look on the bright side at least all that snow keeps you in shape!
Nothing major, just sheer bolts in the auger and impeller and two sheer pins on the track drivers. I did have a track come loose and wrap itself into a knot last spring. I’d never had that happen before in my 20 years of using these type of Honda blowers. It was a hassle getting the track freed from the knot and being bound up in the under carriage. I did break my old 1132 tree times. I had the pulley assembly break on the belt drive system and had to buy a new part. The steel mount for the chute crack and broke away causing my chute to fall over. I fixed that with some aluminum angle braces and pop rivets. Finally I broke something inside the main transmission so the blower know no longer moves under power. I’ve not yet tired to fix that, I just bought the second 1132 that was shown in the video. Overall they are very tough, reliable blowers. I use and abuse the heck out of them. I can’t say how reliable the current models are? Some of my neighbors have been having issues with theirs because of freezing and ice build up on the motorized chute. If you store it inside so it thaws out every night that’ll probably cure that problem?
@@thatalaskaguy makes sense. I got a newish Honda hss928 wheeled model and one like yours but 1332 track model. I’m liking the wheels so far since we haven’t had much snow.
@@appleztooranges the biggest issue I’ve had with wheeled blowers is always want to wheelie when they hit a lot of resistance from the snow. They also get stuck a lot easier when backing up in soft snow. I’ve had much better luck with tracks. An additional benefit of tracks is you can actually “walk” a tracked Honda up and down stairs to get at a snow covered sundeck on the second floor. It isn’t much fun or super easy but it can be done.