Okay guys!

What type of snow blower is the best?

Thanks

One still in its box unrequired

The kids?

Or just suck it up and pay a plough person to do it, because a snow blower still sucks, just less so than doing it with a shovel.

Grah I like your thinking!

Last year we had a house in the middle of the street - only a little bit of path to do and a mild winter - Doddle.

This year we have a corner plot (It's a BIG corner ) and more snow already than we had the entire of last year, so I just wanted to know if snowblowers are a help or a hindrance really - any thoughts any body?

What are you looking at clearing? How much do you have for a budget?

A long double width driveway will be different to a short path.

In general its safe to say ignore the electric ones...no guts, no glory

Dual action, gasoline power is the way to go short of having a fancy lawn tractor mounted model (and they can get stuck anyway). More horsepower will work better for heavy (weight, as well as volume) snowfall. Power steering might be nice, but will cost you.

I like "Craftsman" toys from Sears...good value and stellar after sales parts and service backup... take a look at the sears.ca website and buy when they are on sale...which is frequent, but go to the store to check that you will be able to manouver it easily...some of those big ones are a bit cumbersome. Id have thought something like the 10HP "value" model would do the job OK for years to come.

Personally I dont have a blower...shoveling is good for the soul...but then Im in Ontario, not the Atlantic provinces, and I dont have any side walk to be responsible for, so Im just clearing the drive at my leasure.

I bought a mid-sized (8HP?) blower from Sears Craftsman last winter (first year with no sprogs living at home) and of course sod's law being what it is, we had relatively little snow in Toronto last winter. Anyway, beat's shovelling.

In Red Deer I'd probably get the biggest I could afford. Or pay someone else to plow it.

Once again an uninformed comment from someone who has no idea of how much or how little snow we get in the west.

According to long term averages Red Deer gets 116 cm of snow per year. Richmond Hill on the other hand get 156 cm per year.

Do you still think Red Deer warrants the biggest snowblower you can find.

I thought everything had to be bigger and better in Alberta

But you misunderstand.

I said "warrants" that has nothing to do with the actual purchase being the biggest baddest mother out there.

Oh so one of these then..................http://www.v8snowblowers.com/ ?

Meanwhile in the real world....Honda are the dogs danglies I'm told. Out neighbours have a 8hp tracked model which will climb up onto their deck & veranda f'r example. The other neighbour has the snowblower attachment for his John Deere Lawntractor so I'm hoping that a few beers sees me sorted for snowclearing this winter!

Ariens & Toro are also supposed to be good. Get High HP but not neccessarily monster wide cut otherwise too hard to manoeuvre. The MTD brands - Yardman/Wardworks/Troybilt etc from Crappy Tire, Kent etc are not so good. Sears better but seem expensive.

AX

Not as expensive as a Honda!!!

The difference as I understand it is:
The Honda wont break, but costs a lot more at first.
The Craftsman might break eventually, but will be easy to get parts to fix it when it does.
The MTD/ Yardman, will break, and when it does, forget about getting parts after about 5 years.

The John Deere might be nice, but who in there right mind pays $4k for a $2k lawn tractor. Its OK if you are a farmer and the dealer throws one in as a freeby with your new combine, but other than that its just an expensive designer label isnt it?

Unless you intend to make a living clearing other people driveways I cant see anyone getting enough usage out of a snowblower to justify the high end ones. Might as well just spend that money on having someone else go out in the cold and do the work instead.

Shoveling is the only real excercise I get in the winter anyway, and the last couple of seasons have been pretty wimpish...hence my expanding wasteline!

Ive just paid $1299 for a 9.5hp, 27" with power steering etc etc Craftsman from Sears. By far the best value I could find with the best features.

My advice for what its worth is move into an apartment like i did and enjoy watching some other sucker do it hehehehehe

Good luck with the ploughing, too bad theres not any kids at home to bribe to do it.

Per year? Hell; us folks to the east of you regard that as an overnight dusting.

<my snow bank's bigger than yours etc ad infintum>

I know you do and some figure that we out west get even more.

I'm not sure where that idea comes from but it seems to be quite pervasive in Ontario and points east.

We spent September through January 1972-73 in Ottawa, I've never seen so much snow in all my life, we got more snow in one month than we get out here in Alberta all winter. The guy teaching us the weather portion of our course said that the Ottawa area had its own little low pressure system that produced rain and snow all winter.