I bought an Ariens GT20 with a 60" mower and a 48" snow thrower for...

$600.00.... What a steel.

That's why I'm here. I had a guy plowing my driveway. 2 January's ago I paid over $200.00 just for that month. I bought a snow blower that was to small the first year. The second year I bought an Ariens 824 but that still didn't have what I needed. I'm a tinkerer and needed to build a small cargo trailer. A friend of mine named Bob said he had an axle, wheels and springs but we had to go to a buddy's place to get it. We went and got the axle and stuff and was getting ready to leave when something came up that redirected us to his garage.

In the garage was a huge mess. Clutter and junk everywhere. After a few minutes I noticed a huge snow thrower poking out. Then I saw headlights. In talking with the owner I realized what it was. A 1987 Ariens GT20 with a 60" mowing deck and a 48" 2 stage snowblower. He said he had had it for around 10 years and hadn't run it in over 6... I asked him what he wanted for is and he said with no hesitation, $600.00... I didn't have the money at the time and it was in the spring so I didn't need the snowblower right off and I had a 42" hydro mower that worked fine. Plus I didn't really realize the full magnitude of that machine quite just yet.

A few months later I ran into the Ariens owner at Bob's summer camp and asked if he still had the Ariens. He replied yes. I told him I had a car I was fixing up to sell and when I sold it I was going to look him up and buy that Ariens. A week later, I sold the car and called that Ariens owner.

It took myself, the owner and a friend of mine an hour and a half to dig this GT20 and all of the stuff with it, out and loaded on a trailer. I paid him and we where on our way. I live 100 miles away from where I bought this Ariens. I hadn't even heard it run. I knew I could sell it for much more even if the motor was junk. I did check to see if it was stuck. We got 4 miles away. Not even out of the town the Ariens came from and "pop"... Trailer tire blowout... I thought this was a sign that this thing was going to be a problem child...

Our spare didn't fit. What a fiasco... It took us two hours to straiten out our dilemma. Finally I had to buy a new rim and tire at VIP and we where on our way...

The machine had been well taken care of by the original owner. Turns out the original owner was some sort of land trust association and this unit was serviced by the book. I could see small repairs to the mowing deck and the attachments had been repainted regularly. Well, I went out the next day, but a new battery in, threw some gas down the carb, hit the key and roar. What a monster. I cleaned out the gas tank, put some fuel in and primed the fuel line. Dumped a little more gas in the carb and give it a crank... Oh yeah, this was all after I cleaned the squirrels nest out of the shroud and cooling fins.

The GT20 started right up. Spitting and a sputtering, clanking and a cluttering. About 2 minutes later it smoothed out and ran like a dream. In fact, it ran so good that I decided to drive it a half a mile away to a friends house... Come to find out, that guy could have probably got $1500.00 for it as it was and is worth at least $2500.00 now. With a little paint and TLC, it will once again shine like the gem that she is... I'm so happy with it. I've yet to blow with it but I have mowed with it. I thought it would be to big for my lawn but I love it. No need to overlap the rows as you can clearly see where the last row ended. With my 42" hydro, it took me around 50 minute to mow my lawn. With this unit it only takes me 20 minutes. What a sweet little garden tractor. And it feels like a big tractor as it has hydraulic power steering...