zupspoon
map-marker Sanford, Maine

Ariens 1128 Snowblower Gear Case Failure

I bought an Ariens 1128(model #924121) in 2003. The aluminum gearcase that turns the augers has broken 3 times.

After the last failure a couple of days ago, I see that the company now requires that a complte cast iron gearcase be used as a replacement. It's obvious that the original aluminum case was either of poor design or of inadequate strength to ensure any reasonable amout of reliability. The original case is so weak that it failed before the shear pins, so why bother having shear pins? The company's official line is that they didn't want to produce the old gear case any longer...yeah, right.

It will now have cost me more than the purchase price of the machine to have it repaired 3 times for the same failure. The company's customer service rep denied having any widespread problem with the old gear case and yet the dealer who ordered the new gear case said that Ariens doesn't have any currently in stock because they can't keep up with the demand.

So much for the official company line.

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Loss:
$1100
11 comments
Guest

I have a sniw blwer Aries 1128 gear case had craked noine is able to fix it i past this winter with not snow blower i hurt my back shoveling, its not rught is a rip off cant be fix.

Guest

I have a 2003 **** and had the same problem. I purchased an aftermarket gear from EBay for $79 and it looked and worked exactly like the original.

If it breaks again I'll go with the gearbox the next time.

I think the excessive breakage problem is because Ariens upgraded to serrated augers without upgrading the gearbox. Smooth augers, like on the older machines, don't put as much stress on the gearbox.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-955050

What was the part #

Guest

I have the Home Depot Ariens 1128 from 2002. Second gear case broke late last season, again the shear pins did NOT break.

Guest

Exact same problem with the same part on there same machine. So far I do not even see an option to replace the rinkydink gear that that worm gear sheared a few teeth off from...

Guest

You realize that all snowblower companies use these same gear cases in their products today, right? Ariens is the only one to upgrade to the cast iron model in all of their snowblowers.....

Guest

my 2008 **** SE has the same gear case failure with the cast Aluminum. I also see it was made obsolete in 2009. An obvious defect that should have been backed by any respectful company.

Guest

I have the same issue, except my blew one month after warranty expired and therefore I was told to take care of it and give the name of the local shop where i could get it fixed. Thanks for the Good Service Aries!!!!!

Guest

I had the same problem as you did on the 924121.

It only broke once though and I figured that I had the machine too many years to justify a complaint to Ariens, so I just had it fixed.

The good thing that came out of this was, the replacement gear box was the castiron one found in their pro models.

Guest

Update...Ariens customer service agreed to pick up the cost of the part to replace the gearcase after I e-mailed them. Evidently e-mail gets more attention than a phone call. Have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised.

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