The SnowKing

 Built by Tecumseh Power Products, and used on a big MTD Snowflight 826 2-stage Snowblower, it's a monster of an engine!
The first time I heard it fire up and run, I said... "WOW! That thing is loud!"
Maybe because I'm standing right behind the muffler, but I'm pretty sure it's actually really bloody loud. I do like the sound of the engine, and I do like how loud it is... but I can't deny that it's likely at a hearing damage level. I mean, it sounds close to that of a motorcycle.. But not quite.

The 826 means it's a 8 Horsepower engine, with a 26" clearing path. So it's a pretty big snowblower, but I am thinking it might be a little too much snowblower at times! 

It was nice to have, when we got the big dumping of snow recently, and boy did it chew thru the snow! Made short work of the small mound the plow had dumped there.
It's not as bad as one year when we had a near 3 foot tall wall in front of our drive because of a plow.. That was a terrible snowfall! 

Could have done with the big snowblower then, it would have enjoyed that.  I had a single stage snowblower, but it was battery powered. Talk about useless! it would often cut out while clearing snow, and was useless in anything but powder. Add a bit of slush to the mix, nope... wouldn't do anything, just clog.  Add ice, and it would stop.  Heck, it would stop on powder too.  Terrible, was happy when I sold it, as I was done with the Battery Powered experiment, and found it to be lacking a lot.  The lawnmower was junk, and the snowblower could barely blow snow.

This Snowflight snowblower, well, it lives up to its name! It blows snow, and it makes the snow fly away!  

It's hard to believe that it was towards the end of summer that I thought to myself, it's time to get the snowblower ready... and not until October that I actually got around to it.
Sure enough, a quick carb clean and the Snowflight was back in action!

Now funny story.. I was out using it not too long ago, no before the large snowfall, just to get the hang of it, and understand how it works. WELL, the tire chain came off and got sucked up into the chute... Stalled the engine, as expected it would, and the chain got all tangled in the auger. Blah!  I was worried I had sheared the key, so I started it up, and it ran fine... Thank goodness! 
Shut it down, did my best to get the chain off, and out of the auger, but nope... Out came the grinder, and goodbye chain...
I decided to take the other tire chain off, don't need a repeat, and those chains were pretty toast.
Funny, because it has loads of traction! Enough that it does a wheelie when I engage the transmission.

It's a great snowblower, and one I would highly recommend to others.  Sure, it's a Tecumseh engine, but they are really good snowblower engines! The King of Snow, after all...

Alright guys,

Chat soon...

Why This Craftsman, Isn't.

 The problem is that Craftsman was a Sears & Roebuck brand, and that ended when Sears decided to end their existence by entering Chapter-11, and disappearing from the market. Sure you can still buy Craftsman branded products, but now they are basically higher End Black & Decker, as they were sold off to the Stanley, Black and Decker, DeWalt brand.
Sears did not manufacture the product, however they were not made by MTD.

Craftsman By MTD

This mower, being an MTD, is definitely not the Craftsman of Old, completely made by a totally different company, considering the model number of the mowers usually started with a "944", vs 

Old Craftsman Mower from 1989

 MTD with a model number usually like 11A or 12A, and this Craftsman started with a 11A for the model number, meaning it's just a rebranded MTD product. Not the quality that Craftsman used to be.
Does that make this a bad mower? Not exceptionally, other than the fact that the deck is thin, and the engine is clunky, and poorly built.  It's a Powermore engine, which is a poorly made Chinesuem engine, which MTD is one of the sole sellers of.
Would much rather have Tecumseh make a comeback, as at least those were manufactured in the USA, vs China.

While I did the repair, I found that it was a fairly simple mower, simple design, simple operation, and simply made to fail.  Longevity is definitely not built into these newer models at all, but that seems to be par for the course lately.

Sadly, it's at the point where they pretty much only make junk these days. You either buy poorly built Battery operated equipment, that usually fails within 3-5 years, and the batteries often become obsolete by the next model year, as something changes, or you buy poorly built gasoline models.  They've been bumping the prices of Gasoline models lately, trying to make the "Battery" models more "affordable", when in truth, a well maintained Gasoline Engine will outlast any battery operated model, hands down.
Just be forewarned that modern equipment, is sadly manufactured with obsolescence in mind. Nothing today is made to last, unless you have an enormous pocket, which the average person doesn't.

Personally, I would recommend buying a well maintained, used machine, as they will often outlast anything made today.

They aren't a bad mower, for what they are, and what they do, but they've been made cheaper, and cheaper, year after year.

That's the one thing I've found as I've been working on these machines.  The newer the machine, the more likely it is that it'll fail before the models it was made to replace. For the cost of these new machines, I highly recommend, buy a good, used model.

Anyway guys,

Chat soon!