Wife has giving me a go on a new auger. Of course have to sell my old one first. But looking at the strike master Honda. Like the lightness but worried about the gas issues with setting sometimes and now using them. I have a electric now, but when pan fishing I drill a lot of holes and the power drops after about 10 holes. Looking also at the Jiffy pro 4. Any thoughts?
IMHO, I am not going to go with a 4 stroke until I have to. I’m sure many people with disagree with me, but a solid Solo two stroke engine is tough to beat. IMHO of course.
Wether you choose 2 or four stroke..
Go SM all the way.. I think the Solo motor is fantastic !!
I just purchased a Honda SM and I look forward to using this unit this upcoming year..
Jiffy and Strikemaster aren’t even in the same league! Strikemaster Solo or Honda is the way to go no doubt. Unless, you go talk to some too proud wisconsinites 
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Jiffy and Strikemaster aren’t even in the same league! Strikemaster Solo or Honda is the way to go no doubt. Unless, you go talk to some too proud wisconsinites
Hey easy now i,m a wisconsinite but my auger is solo powered!!!!!
Ajs
My dad just purchased the Honda Strikemaster as well as myself. I would go with the Honda all the way, you fish panfish and drill lots of holes. Grant Sorenson just had a post yesterday reporting that he drilled 120 holes with that Honda Strikemaster, it is quiet, no smelly exhaust, no mixing gas, encapsulated oil, bullet proof at 23 lbs you can drill all day! If Honda is putting there name on it, it speaks for itself in my opinion. If anyone has done any research on the amount of testing that the Honda Corporation does on any engine, it is tested and tested rigorously. I think think you would be happy with both however, happier with the Honda.
Good Luck
Jake
So I guess your not too proud to buy a Minnesota Auger then… Good deal.
I like to cut fields of holes and the jiffy dont do it for me to slooooow and heavy!!!!!!
Ajs
Check out a Nils. Same weight as the Honda SM but cuts faster. The motor on a Nils auger will run trouble free for many, many years.
The more new stuff that comes out and the uncertainty that follows makes me more happy with my old Jiffy every day. It simply works great. Long live my 2hp Tecumseh Stealth!
The words of someone who spends way too much money on open water gear…
Your making a hard case for the Honda. I have been looking at the Jiffy propane also
I will say that one time in South Dakota we went to turn our heater on(1 lb propane tank)and it was froze up,we ended up useing a 20 lb tank.We did not have any cover on the tank,so that might have made a diffrence.
I have not had any problems with gas freezing up.
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Wife has giving me a go on a new auger. Of course have to sell my old one first. But looking at the strike master Honda. Like the lightness but worried about the gas issues with setting sometimes and now using them. I have a electric now, but when pan fishing I drill a lot of holes and the power drops after about 10 holes. Looking also at the Jiffy pro 4. Any thoughts?
They’re different augers for different applications. Nowadays, people fish very differently on ice from one person to the next. Person A might fish in a wheelhouse, and never drill a hole outside the shack. Person B might roam the open ice, drilling more holes than a dentist! While Person C might be a good mix of both. From my testing, seems to me that the Honda 4-stroke does a good job of covering all the bases for a type B or C person. It’s quiet and relatively low-smoke, but more importantly for my kind of fishing, its shaver blade system drills holes without costing you too much in performance like you might expect from a 4-stroke auger.
If you look for the “this-side-up” sticker on the Jiffy and lift it, you realize that it’s quite a bit heavier and needs to be set down each time a certain way to avoid your oil leaking out. It’s chipper blade system is pretty reliable, and is nice for those who re-drill old holes continually. All of which is probably less of an issue for someone who fishes in a wheelhouse 100% of the time, but is a major issue for someone who drills holes all over and jumps from place to place.
If you drill a dozen or more holes each outing, I’m of the opinion that 15 extra pounds becomes a deterrent for drilling more holes.
Joel
Nils gets my vote to, most proven motors on todays market…
Nills is a hit and miss as for quality. I sold mine after 2 years of service. It was a bear to start sometimes and for that stupid ice bit that would not stay sharp a full season that cost $85 or $25 sent out to sharpen if thats if it was possible to sharpen. Yes it was lite and quite and drilled like nothing out their but that was only for half a season at a time. Though it was always lite and quite.
Many happy Nills guys out there unhappily I happen to be in the group of many that were not happy with their product.
Now after my experience with a shaver blade that Nills had I am leery of the Honda with a shaver blade. As I would love to have The Honda 4 stroke I just do not want the nightmare of continuous dull blades.
I should mention my first auger was a Nills and after that and seeing my buddies old Strikemaster with chipper blade still doing what its meant to do without a continued stream of blade sharpening it sure makes the decision making of purchasing a new auger rather irritating.
I got 5 years out of my first blade and then only got dull due to something buried in the ice, I went through a set a season on my old Lazer so far I’m money ahead spending $25 every 5 years over $50 a year…
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Your making a hard case for the Honda. I have been looking at the Jiffy propane also
I tried out my buddies Jiffy Propane 10″ last winter and it blew my mind
Started on 1 pull, no gas smell, quiet and drilled over 110 holes on 1 1lb cylinder.
Although i thought the 10″ version was a bit heavy i really liked it 
Wow,this makes lean more towards the Jiffy propane. 
Pro 4 is nice but at alomst 40 pounds is a beast to drag around when your punching 20-30 holes…
I hear a lot of good things about the Nils and contemplated going that route but the thought of not dealing with gasoline mixed or not pushed me to the jiffy pro 4, it is heavy but not much different than the old jiffy’s that have been used for over twenty years by a large number of ice fishers. I would say that last winter I regularly drilled 40 plus holes per outing when the gang was along on the weekends, plus they all had to give it a try as well.
As far as laying the drill down I talked to the Jiffy rep today at the Wausau Ice Show and he said that they put the sticker on the unit to make it easier for people to get used to having to lay it down a certain way but it can also be laid down with the muffler facing down so that it is on its side and will fit in the back of a pickup truck with a lid on the back.
I know it’s pretty tough to mix a gallon a season…
Spent the better part of the day at Cabelas today and the augers… I would noy haul around the Jiffy propane auger..
I’m 50 and a bit more… I really liked the HondaLite 35cc with 23 pounds…
The only thing I would as is that Strike Master put out 6 and 5″ bits for us back water river folks…
I’m happy Honda 4stroke lite owner !!!
SM Lazer for me…..light weight, more metal than the honda and the blades last for a long time if you stay out of the dirt. I’m a hole hopper and cant imagine dragging around my old jiffy any more. 
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Jiffy and Strikemaster aren’t even in the same league! Strikemaster Solo or Honda is the way to go no doubt. Unless, you go talk to some too proud wisconsinites
It may take a while but us WI guys get smart after a while. I love my Solo 2.5 HP Lazer!!! Amazing auger, light , cuts super fast, starts on 2-3 pulls every time.
I looked at the Honda 4 stroke and I found 2 things that I did not like. They are just minor things but, the recoil handle is super small, I thought it was small on my solo and this one is even smaller, way to easy to slip between your fingers if your gloves are snow covered. Second the primer bulb is way down inside, you need to remove your gloves to get at it.
Maybe those Japanese guys with small hands can reach it easily!!! 
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Spent the better part of the day at Cabelas today and the augers… I would noy haul around the Jiffy propane auger..
I’m 50 and a bit more… I really liked the HondaLite 35cc with 23 pounds…The only thing I would as is that Strike Master put out 6 and 5″ bits for us back water river folks…
I’m happy Honda 4stroke lite owner !!!
Koonce – you can get the smaller bits here!
Joel
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Spent the better part of the day at Cabelas today and the augers… I would noy haul around the Jiffy propane auger..
I’m 50 and a bit more… I really liked the HondaLite 35cc with 23 pounds…The only thing I would as is that Strike Master put out 6 and 5″ bits for us back water river folks…
I’m happy Honda 4stroke lite owner !!!
Koonce – you can get the smaller bits here!
Joel
I couldn’t decide wether to get a 6″ or a 5″… So I called SM and they have both for the Honda Strike Lite…
So I bought both !!
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