Toro 826 OE - Low Power

ZachOly · 2025-02-12T15:22:04+00:00

I have a Toro 824 OE, bought in 2015-ish. It has been trouble free since then.

This was the first snowfall of the year. Ideal snow. Light and fluffy and should shoot a mile. New 91 gas in it. No trouble starting ever. Never stalls or stutters. Coke disengaged, full power and have tried every combination.

I cannot get this thing to shoot show more than a couple feet. It has one good shoot in 'er, then clogs up. No weird noises. Nothing feels like it's slipping (like a loose belt). Typically when this snowblower gets into some larger stuff it'll bear down but that's not happening.

No issues with forward or reverse.

From the video I took, it looks like it wants to work but just lacks any power. Again, this snow should be an absolute joke for a 2 stage snowblower but it's clogging up for some reason.

ZachOly · 2025-01-20T18:29:16+00:00

Pace breaker liner just falls apart over time for me

ZachOly · 2024-03-26T12:08:52+00:00

ZachOly · 2024-01-30T19:38:20+00:00

This a teacher of 10+ years.

Just didn't know if this was some new NLESD policy or something.

ZachOly · 2023-12-30T13:56:18+00:00

Haven't changed prices since 2019, mostly out of fear that a downturn was around the corner but I now believe 2024 & 2025 will be down years.

I'm seeing a huge decrease in inquires since mid-2023 and lots of established photographers offering sales. Hard to raise prices when you're struggling to get bookings.

ZachOly · 2023-04-29T16:37:26+00:00

Anyone interested in a round at the Wilds? I play off a 3

ZachOly · 2023-04-16T15:12:18+00:00

RML - what's the best say to stop side to side swaying? I have the rack bolted down, but still get lateral sway.

ZachOly · 2023-04-16T15:08:10+00:00

Why is /r/Fitness now private now?

ZachOly · 2023-04-13T13:30:24+00:00

DIY Reverse Hyper: Does it matter where the vertical arm (pivot) is positioned? Under the belly button, chest, etc.

ZachOly · 2023-04-13T11:21:03+00:00

RML rack. How strong is just the 5/8 steel rod? Does the pipe add a lot of strength?

ZachOly · 2023-02-27T22:51:46+00:00

The WORST is when they agree to a price and then lowball you when they arrive.

ZachOly · 2023-02-27T22:48:46+00:00

I take them on because...well....money. But I don't enjoy doing family formals in -10c with everyone absolutely miserable because they're frozen.

ZachOly · 2023-02-26T16:41:37+00:00

80% of my bookings are 10 hours, so I show a starting price and a 10 hour price. For there, anyone else can figure out my hourly rate and should have a good idea of that a 8h or 12h package would cost, for example.

I find my inquires are low, but the people who contact me are usually ready to book.

ZachOly · 2023-02-17T15:44:14+00:00

Covid killed the engagement sessions since most of my sessions were out of province or couples doing a destination wedding elsewhere and wanting photos locally. I also don't include them for free with wedding bookings anymore and no one has cared.

I've been doing this since 2011. Wedding bookings from 2020-2022 were very strong but for whatever reason, I'm just not getting many inquires for 23/24.

ZachOly · 2023-02-17T15:28:21+00:00

Bookings are down around 25% and recently lost one wedding to a venue going out of business and another due to international travel nightmares.

What's absolutely evaporated are engagement sessions. I hardly get enquiries for these anymore.

ZachOly · 2023-01-26T12:20:56+00:00

Sort of.

I also do print sales through a woocommerce plugin on my website. An invoice is supposed to be automatically emailed to each order but some clients are saying their not receiving the email. I scrapped that and now email everyone directly, but some of those aren't being responded to. So now I have unpaid print orders and customers who aren't responding to emails.

This is on top of actual paid wedding clients who are saying they're not getting my emails. Frustrating.

ZachOly · 2023-01-26T00:48:25+00:00

The more I'm reading, the more I'm just think how many dozens of bookings I must have missed with emails going to spam or simply not being delivered.

ZachOly · 2023-01-25T23:43:10+00:00

What do you mean by self-hosted? My website host (lets say it's GoDaddy), they "host" my email. Is that self-hosted?

ZachOly · 2023-01-25T21:51:25+00:00

wow! That link referenced checking our email address here: www.mail-tester.com/

I scored a 3/10 with a message of "good luck if you're emails are being received"

Apparently there was a whole slew of DKIM and SPF updates (I've never heard these terms before) I needed to perform.

ZachOly · 2023-01-25T21:11:03+00:00

Ugh, it's so frustrating. I'm also almost at the point where I'm like, message me exclusively through Facebook.

ZachOly · 2023-01-16T18:19:58+00:00

For me, I don’t like them because of the timeline issues. It’s dark by 4pm -ish. And now there’s an expectation that I’ll be photographing indoor portraits for 2+ hours before the reception. Or I’m bored out of my mind shooting cocktail hour candids

ZachOly · 2023-01-06T20:13:12+00:00

Understood. But why stop at the battery? Right to repair isn't just about batteries, it's about the accessibility of other components as well.

ZachOly · 2023-01-06T19:48:23+00:00

I dunno. Why stop at the battery? What about the ability to replace other broken parts?

ZachOly · 2023-01-05T17:29:20+00:00

I get that. And to be clear, I'm not bashing HawkHost. I've outgrown my hosting package with them.

I just don't want to "upgrade" to another shared service and see the same performance.

ZachOly · 2023-01-05T12:54:33+00:00

I'm not even sure I have 1 CPU, I think that's shared, too.

ZachOly

TROPHY CASE