Toro is not made in Willard Ohio. The Toro Company is out of Mn. All there engines Chi-Com.
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I would buy a Simplicity. They're the best value out there.
Not sure what size you're looking for. Are you looking for a Single Stage or a two stage? If you give me your zip code I can look up a dealer in your area.
Simplicity is owned by Briggs and Stratton which is base out of Milwaukee.
I'm in Milwaukee the only thing I've found w a Briggs motor is snapper. So I looked on line, seems like simplicity is only sold @ small hardware stores. Hmmm . I need a single stage due to narrow walks and a 3 tier lot. So I gotta be able to drag it up and down some steps. the snapper single stage could be the simplicitys brother judging from the pics.
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i had a problem with a new one 6-7 years ago bought at a big box store. forget the name on it but it had a honda motor, which sold me. the motor fell a-part quickly. pull cord came apart and something else with it. took it back and told them stuff it where there is no snow. couple of weeks later i run into an old school buddy who was a manager at the store and i had to tell him my thought's about it. he tells me that the blowers were built to their specs and they had a pile of problems. honda quit supplying the motors due to the feed back.
moral to this is buy a pure-bred what ever, not a half breed made to their spec's to keep the price down. if you can buy a john deere 3-4-500 bucks cheaper at the despot than at the j-d dealer there has to be a reason.
here's what i ended up with. its behind the old massey. good luck on your choice. sometimes cheapest isn't always the best.
Last year was a free pass for all of us but the year before..........
Let me tell a story (I wish I had pics!)
Get up early after it snowing all nite 2 years ago. It was windy that nite so expecting some drifting I was going to sno-blo then get to the shop. The way the wind blew drifted in the back door on the house but actually made a clear path to the garage. I'm thinkin' oh this wont be to bad.... WRONG ANSWER!!!! I turn the corner to the garage and the snow is as high as the cowl on my Exploder.
Holy crap!! Even in 4WD I'm going nowhere. The entire alley has snow fron 4 to 5 feet high.
I start ddigging - any sno-blo machine is worthless at this point. Its about 6am at this point. Mean while people are starting to filter out into the alley... and get the BIG surprise! So I decide on a plan and negotiate a deal w the neighbors.
OK - we live a block off a main drag which I figure (this was a guess) has been plowed at least once or twice thru the night and should be passable in 4X4 mode. The deal is this.... help me dig out to the street and I will get my BIG loader and plow the alley (this was really more of a scoop and move operation). Ok were about halfwat thru and my buddy calls me who lives just 3 blocks away. -
Sidebar- he also does all my local towing. So he's stuck in his alley also and cant get his truck on the road either.
So I tell him get over to my alley and get digging. You can come down to the shop with me and we can dig out your alley too!
We get pout to KK (the main drag by me) by about 10:30am. We ride down to the shop in 4X4 mode all the way. We make it to the end of the public street and look at the road (which is private and not plowed by the city)down to my shop. It ranges from waist to chest high snow allthe way down and maybe 200 yards to my shops front door. We only have 1 choice.... walk! I'm dreding this. I'm already beat out from the alley digging . The thought of walking and then digging out the front gate was not very appealing.
We get to the shop.... the snow is covering the front door , but the way the wind blew the snow in front of the gate was minimal. (thank you GOD). By this time ol BIGS is ready for a nap, I'm workin way to hard, but the show must go on. I climb up in my BIG loader..(ol Fiat Allis 545B w 2 1/2 yard bucket) which is always plugged in to assure quick starts in bad weather. Ya.... of course the storm blew out the ground fault interupt. Shess colder than a 90 year old virgin..... $hit. I reset the outlet and give her 15mins (belive me I needed the brake anyway) and she fires. I gotta restart her a few times but we get it going. At this point I have to dig a path just to get her to the street.
Once were at the street I drive her on home... this took over an hour and a half. At a blistering 8MPH. Everyone stuck on the street was trying to be my friend. But I kept going, I had a job to do and a promise to keep. I coulda made a pocket full of cash that day. But I'm not insured for that and this day was bustin my balls as it was. We get to my alley after 1pm. People have been digging. but for most part are just exhausted. We got the alley dug and had sno piles as high as my bucket could drop - 13/14 feet.
Drove to my buddys alley and repeated the process. When we were done he folowed me back to the shop in my truck and we put the loader back to bed. This was the very first time we were ever closed for business ever. And I've been there since 1984!
Afterwords we drove back to the nieghbor hood, I talked to my wife a minute, and we headed to the bar down the block for an adult beveage or two. By this time is was 6pm, I was crashed in my lazyboy by 8.
