Tuesday,
January 9th began as any other winter January day in western
Maine. We had a snow storm that morning
dropping about four inches of snow. I
went out about noon to clear the driveway with my 19-year-old Craftsman snow
blower.
The snow
kicked up again in the afternoon and the forecast was for a mixture of rain and
snow overnight, so just before nightfall I went out again and removed another
three inches of snow from the drive and cleared the roof over the front door
where snow tends to build up.
Shortly
after dark we lost power. This is not a
big thing for us as we have a wood stove for heat and gas lamps for lighting – our cabin was originally built as a camp and
so is self-sufficient. Since we are
on a well we also lose water when the power is out, but we keep a number of
gallon jugs stored to allow us to flush the toilet in such an outage.
The main inconvenience
is that I have to get up a number of times during the night and feed the
wood stove.
It snowed
all night: a worst-case scenario with temperatures at 33 degrees and a six-inch
heavy wet snow that clung to trees and power lines, and is difficult to move
with the snow blower.
At seven-o-clock
Wednesday morning I drank a glass of Ovaltine and headed out to move snow. It took me well over an hour, slow going, and
just as I was about to finish it began raining. One last pass with the snow blower and when
I hit the berm at the mouth of the drive the snow blower began shaking and
banging. The right auger blade had snapped
into at the shaft.
BUGGER
##**#% !
The power is
still off at in the house, our road hasn’t been plowed, the snow blower is
broken with another snow forecast for next week and I’m soaking wet.
I take a few
deep breaths and focus: Shit Happens.
Nothing I
can do until the light’s come back on; which happened about 3:30 that
afternoon.
PART 2
I called Sears
to see about a replacement for the right-hand auger for the snow blower and their price was $200
plus shipping, “I don’t want a gold one: it is just a piece of spiral steel.”
I bring up
U-tube (now my go to for any maintenance) to see how to replace an auger in my
Craftsman machine.
The man on U-tube
had great difficulty just dismantling the machine. It seems like a bearing on that holds the
differential for the auger drive was damaged and had worn the differential
shaft, so the whole unit would need replacement; he ended his video with some expletive
without finishing the repair.
Since my
machine is 19 years old it is likely I will find the same problem: differential is $550 dollars, bearing and
washer $125, two auger blades $450 – it seems that a seven hundred dollar snow blower
is made up of five thousand dollars’ worth of individual parts: Thanks for the
support Sears!
Fuck
it! Home Depot has a Troy Bilt snow
blower for $600 with $50 dollars off if you take out a Home Depot credit card,
so Monday I will have a new snowblower:
BRING IT ON
NORTH-EASTERS I’LL BE READY FOR YOU!
A snowblower is a necessity in a wintry climate like yours so yes, get a new one! If you had the old one for 19 years, then you have more than gotten your money's worth out of it.
ReplyDeleteHome Depot (& Lowes) will give you 10% off as a veteran (I used my retired military ID card).
ReplyDeleteI'm amazed it lasted 19 years! Enjoy your new machine. -Jenn
ReplyDeleteI keep trying to reason with my husband to stop buying from Sears. They are going out of business because all their crap is made in China. Would you believe he bought 2, YEAH, 2 top loader HD washing machines from Sears that broke down and would have been cheaper to just buy one from Home Desperate which we did because I told him if he bought one more thing from Sears I would divorce him. Long story short. Sears sucks the big one, hence the reason they are going out of business. If you wan't the best, don't buy from a store chain the files for bankruptcy like Individual #1 does every 3 months.
ReplyDeleteI hope you spring for a little larger one than that one..When my Craftsman died for the 15th time I said "Quack-It"...It was maybe 14yrs old. My local Club Cadet dealer actually gave me $50. trade-in a shiny new blower, even tho he said it was worthless. It never hurts to ask.....
ReplyDeleteThe snow season will be over once you bring it home....(:+)..
Years back, three of us neighbours bought a snowblower. Our motto was "The best blowjobs on Pasqua Street".
ReplyDelete