[14v6]

Honda making some big changes. Will it win out? IMO, now a good time to exit Honda and come back if they are successful with this transition.

Honda to create division to speed up electrification development

Honda Motor Co said on Tuesday it would create a new division in a bid to strengthen and speed up its electrification business as part of an overhaul of its organisational structure.

www.reuters.com

 

[longboat]

Sounds like they are making changes throughout their divisions. Word is that they'll phase out ICE lawnmowers over the next year, going all electric on those.

I was looking at snowblowers and Honda seems to have taken a hiatus on two-stage blowers for now. None available in the U.S., and haven't been for a while. Either they are giving them a major re-design, or they are getting out of the snowblower business in the U.S.*. There's a rumor that they are replacing snowblower/lawnmower operations with ATV/UTV operations, because that is what all the new money is buying.

* Ariens and Toro have made some great strides in snowblower tech over the last decade. Ariens top models now out-spec Honda in every category. Interestingly, Honda was still offering three years commercial warranty on their machines, while Ariens/Toro max out at one year... that is a bit telling, IMHO.

 

[14v6]

Here everyone has Ariens. When my Troy built with a Tecumseh engine died two years ago I was all ready to buy an Ariens and the HD buy talked me into a Cub Cadet. So far so good but in 3 winters it has had minimal use.

 

[22RTLE]

I have no interest in electric cars as I think there are better alternative fuels, and I generally just dislike the overall EV experience. However, since everyone else is on this sudden EV push, Honda really had no choice to stay relevant.

 

[DockingPilot]

Here everyone has Ariens. When my Troy built with a Tecumseh engine died two years ago I was all ready to buy an Ariens and the HD buy talked me into a Cub Cadet. So far so good but in 3 winters it has had minimal use.

Troy Built, Cub Cadet and a few others are all made by MTD in Tennessee I think.
I bought a Toro but I see the electric Ariens now. They make nice zero turns too.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[longboat]

Honda, Ariens and Toro are the top snowblower mfrs. Hard to imagine Honda getting out of the business.

I've been using a Toro 721 single-stage on my driveway. It works well for snows up to 10" or so, and blows it about 20'. My problem is that the SS machines don't work well on sloped driveways unless you go straight up and down.

If we start getting lots of snow again, I may be trading this SS up for a dual-stage again. We have 18" snow on the ground now, about as much as we've gotten in the last three winters combined.

I just don't think the electric snowblowers are there yet. If I upgrade my blower, it's going to have to shoot up to 50 feet (Honda's standard, and Ariens and Toro are now shooting up to 60').

 

[stevem5215]

My method of Snow Removal. Steiner 420 with a snow brush. Takes it down to nothing easily.

 

[bluegrass]

My method of Snow Removal. Steiner 420 with a snow brush. Takes it down to nothing easily.

How long have you had your Steiner and what attachments do you have?

I'd love to have a Ventrac for my property, but I can't stomach the price of the tractor and attachments.

 

[Sparkland]

I guess I won't be selling my Honda 2-stage snowblower. I did notice that the price on mine has risen from $2299 to $2699+. There are very few to be had on Craigslist or FB Marketplace.

My local Honda dealer (Peak Honda) has Honda 2-stage snowblowers in stock even this late into the winter season.

 

[stevem5215]

The Steiner is a 94' model year lol. Almost as old as some people's kids. They are a long life machine though and I bought it used around the 10 year old mark. It has a Onan 20hp engine which has been shown to basically last a lifetime if serviced well. As for my attachments, I have a full loader unit, a blower for leaves which blows leaves into the next township (next door lol) and a rotating brush (as showing in the video) for snow removal, I do have a 60" mower but it's really only a backup mower in case one of the primary cutters goes down for a lengthy time period. I sold my dirt/plow blade as I found the brush very capable of doing both plowing and brushing (turn off the brush to plow big heavy snow). It's been a good machine. I take it to the selling dealer once every 5 - 10 years for fluid exchange too.

 

[150limited]

biggest complaint have with battery tools is battery life seems too be poor.
Just have few charged batteries ready to go, will need them

 

[eurban]

biggest complaint have with battery tools is battery life seems too be poor.
Just have few charged batteries ready to go, will need them

I do construction for a living and have drills from Dewalt (20v lithium batteries) that were purchased in 2011 and the drills and their batteries are still going strong even with close to daily use.

 

[zroger73]

Our assemblers misuse and abuse drills for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. We've instructed them to use pneumatic drills and impact wrenches for certain jobs, but they're defiant and prefer the convenience and lighter weight of cordless electric drills/drivers. Even under extreme conditions, we typically got a year out of the DeWalt units with NiCd batteries before the batteries gave out. Mechanically, they'd last about 2-3 years. Several years ago, the NiCd models we'd been buying were discontinued in favor of a less heavy-duty model with lithium batteries. I'm the one who buys most of the tools and I've noticed a dramatic decrease in failure rate. I think we're going on 5+ year with most of the lithium-based models. At this point, I'm less concerned about the premature failure of an EV battery than I am a 6-speed Honda transmission based on my experiences.

 

[SEW]

😊I certainly don’t see another Honda 6-sp in my future.