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Posted by Paul(in NY) [12.64.108.166] on Sunday, November 07, 2010 at 10:03:58 :
In Reply to: OT Snow Blower Needed. posted by The Dodge Boys [216.220.67.76] on Saturday, November 06, 2010 at 18:13:53 :
Bill;
I am not a brand loyal person, rather I look for quality and good design. In 2000, I bought a Snapper 36" two stage blower powered by a 10hp engine. It has six speeds forward and one reverse. Depending on snow conditions, I use many different speeds. Since 2000, my Snapper has performed flawless. All it knows is to blow snow and it does it well.
As a full time snow blower and snow shoveler from the frozen wilderness I will share some of my thoughts on Blowers.
1. Dont buy any Blower unless it has a Cast Iron Engine !
2. Dont buy your Blower from some Big Box Store like Lowes or Home Depot. Rather buy from your local small dealer. If it breaks during a snow storm, you want your dealer to handle your problem quickly as a good customer.
3. Electric Start all depends on your wants. My Snapper sits in my heated shop all winter. I cant remember the last time I plugged it in to use the electric start. Hit the prime button 2 times and she is running on the first pull of the recoil starter.
4.Now comes Good Quality Design. Junk blowers are made to look like Big Boy blowers by adding cheap sheet metal to the front blower area. The extend the
auger (1st stage) area very high to make it look like it can handle deep snow. Then they use a small diameter feed auger and a small diameter 2nd stage blower. Go to any big box store and look at the majority of blowers for sale. You will see
the small feed auger and this huge area of sheet metal above it.
Consider this. When your blowing heavy or consolidated snow, the small auger actually tunnels into the snow, leaving a large area above it untouched. Once you start to tunnel under the snow, the snow above packs against the huge sheet metal
auger area. The end result is the machine can not go forward. You have to back up, come at it again, pushing down on the handles to try to cut down the packed area above the tunnel you dug. Its slow and tiring.
Now refer to the picture posted of my 36" Snapper. Note the Feed auger totally
fills the entire feed chute. That feed chute is 21" high. I can make a easy cut in 21" of consolidated snow in one easy pass. The rotor does not tunnel in the snow and leave hard pack to jam against the feed chute and stop me. I trust you follow what I am describing. You pay a little more and have a machine that will simply do the job. Snapper and Toro are good products with this quality design. Snapper does use a friction drive system to power the wheels. In 10 years of blowing some really deep and consolidated snow, I have never had a problem.
You also want a HEAVY Blower. If its to light, it will start to ride up on the snow and leave unblown snow in its path. Its very tiring to have to blow while lifting up on the handles to provide more down weight to keep it from riding up on the snow.
5. Forget the blower and send the kids out with snow shovels LOL !
Paul
sent by cablegram from the frozen wilderness
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