Ariens

Ariens Company is a Brillion, Wisconsin-based equipment company which has a long history manufacturing snow blowers and lawn tractors for commercial and high-end consumer markets.^[1] Ariens touts itself as being the "mower of the White House lawn," "official snow blower of Lambeau Field," and the "King of Snow".

Ariens Company has branched into many product development projects over the course of its history. One of the most enduring and successful products has been the Ariens Sno-Thro.

Factory in Brillion

Ariens Company entered the snow thrower market at the urging of an Ariens distributor in the Northeast who wanted a two-stage snow thrower for home snow removal. Product design began on December 15, 1959 and by March 1960, a prototype was complete. Test models were demonstrated to distributors throughout the Snow Belt with widespread approval. It was July 1960 when the company started production and 1,865 units were produced in the introductory season. These first units had issues with their drive systems and had to be replaced with a friction drive system in it's place, which is still in use today. It put great financial hardship on the company that first year but they overcame it to become one of the leading Snow Thrower manufacturers worldwide.

Older Ariens units used a very heavy gauge steel blower and rake (auger) design, and many of their older units remain in service after more than 50 years! Tecumseh engines were used on 95% of Ariens machine's from 1960-2009. A small percentage used Briggs and Stratton engines and other companies engine's before 2009. In December 2008 Tecumseh went out of Business and the 09 model year Ariens were the last to receive Tecumseh engines. Beginning in 2010 Briggs and Stratton became the main supplier of engines for Ariens machine's. A few years after the closing of Tecumseh, LCT the company who purchased the rights to Tecumseh's name began building engines and now base model machines are equipped with LCT engines and the more advanced machine's have Briggs and Stratton engines. As of 2016 Ariens Sno-Thro machine's are built in the U.S.A. but all of the engine's powering the machines are made in China. In 2016 an electronic fuel injection engine was introduced for the 2017 model year machine's in place of the carburetor. There are a great deal of Ariens Sno-Thro machine's that were built in the 1960's and 70's that still have their original Tecumseh engine, still run and still throw snow. A testament to Ariens and the engine's used to power these machines.

By the late 1970s, Ariens produced more than 100,000 Sno-Thro machines each season. In November 2005, the company produced its milestone 2 millionth Sno-Thro® machine. In 2012 Ariens produced its 3 millionth Sno-Thro at the fastest pace yet and celebrated, it was held live and the Governor of Wisconsin at the time, Scott Walker was in attendance. Ariens is well on its way to the 4 million mark.

Ariens lawn tractors are generally characterized by independent left and right wheel drives, making steering a simple issue of traction and providing far smaller turning radius than most of its competition.

Ariens released an electric lawn mower in April 2009 through its dealer network and at Home Depot.^[1] The mower runs for 75 minutes on a single charge.^[1]

Ariens Company Museum

The Ariens Company Museum is located at its original manufacturing plant in Brillion. Opened in 2003, the museum displays highlights from the company's history and the evolution of the company's products, including tillers, tractors, riding mowers and snow throwers.

References

External links

• Ariens Corporate website
• Ariens Products website
• Ariens Company Museum

Media related to Ariens at Wikimedia Commons