2022/2023 Snow blower discussion and photo thread

Sundancefisher · #1 10-20-2022, 01:42 PM

Well.. as it suggests… I’m hoping to see some photos of folks motorized snow blower toys both stationary and in action.

Last year was my first year owning an Ariens… and had a little use early on in the winter and mostly quiet thereafter.

Hate to say it… but I want some snow to make the purchase worth it.

Fingers crossed lol.

Anyone say Blizzard?

big zeke · #2 10-20-2022, 01:55 PM

With 32 yrs living in Calgary I can count on one hand the winters I wish I had a snowblower. Most folks I know that have them can go years between uses.

As age is catching up to me, I did justify a used one for like $80 last yr, fella couldn't make it run due to poor storage practises...Seafoam to the rescue and it now starts first pull.

Could never picture paying full price for such rare use though.
Zeke

58thecat · #3 10-20-2022, 02:01 PM

Got the old girl all primed and ready to go for this year!

15 year old yard works
10.5hp tecumseh motor
30” cut.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sundancefisher · #4 10-20-2022, 03:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 58thecat

Got the old girl all primed and ready to go for this year!

15 year old yard works
10.5hp tecumseh motor
30” cut.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Am I crazy saying I hope that’s me in a photo this winter. Lol

That’s awesome.

LeroyvdH · #5 10-20-2022, 03:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 58thecat

Got the old girl all primed and ready to go for this year!

15 year old yard works
10.5hp tecumseh motor
30” cut.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My exact machine. Had it for years. Ole faithfull. Let'er come

elkhunter11 · #6 10-20-2022, 03:58 PM

I have a Craftsman 28" with the 305cc engine, that is about 15 years old, and it has been trouble free. Last year I had to help out the neighbors, when we had a big dump. and their 5hp ,single stage Hondas couldn't handle it. One year, when I still lived in Fort McMurray, we had a huge dump of about 2 feet one weekend, and I had to use the blower to make a path through my back lane, to get my vehicles out of the garage, to the street.

58thecat · #7 10-20-2022, 04:39 PM

Snow removal and ice fishing was last winter in a nut shell!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

tirebob · #8 10-20-2022, 04:53 PM

Me and my trusty Husqvarna and Bercomac 48 inch blower the first year I moved out to Water Valley! Thing works like a champ!

Then after that first winter I found out my neighbour will clear both my driveways with his skidsteer for $40.00... Ever since I watch him from the window holding a hot cup of coffee and think "man wish I would have known this before dropping the extra couple grand of the snowblower! haha!

tallieho · #9 10-20-2022, 05:09 PM

your in the city.I have used a singlestage.All those posts all show 2 stage. Had my Honda 621 for over 20 years.There's more co.selling them now.Honda reliablity is what you pay for.Heated garage,should be no worries for different makes.Only thing ,i'll stress ,is to use no1 gas[ no methanol],n it.

Phil McCracken · #10 10-20-2022, 05:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 58thecat

Got the old girl all primed and ready to go for this year!

15 year old yard works
10.5hp tecumseh motor
30” cut.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Photoshoped...

Seriously...mean machine!...

spoiledsaskhunter · #11 10-20-2022, 05:40 PM

sundance, your one weird sob.........you cheer for two hockey teams and pray for snow so you can use a snowblower??

wth? who knows what you are going to come up with next!

Sundancefisher · #12 10-20-2022, 06:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spoiledsaskhunter

sundance, your one weird sob.........you cheer for two hockey teams and pray for snow so you can use a snowblower??

wth? who knows what you are going to come up with next!

Sometimes the mind works In mysterious ways.

I also fly fish, mooch and troll, bait fish, ice fish, spin fish… it’s true.

Hey… snow and hockey season pair well together.

I also like scotch, home made vodka, and hate beer for the most part.

Listen to all music but stay away from heavy metal and hard rap these days.

Dynamic · #13 10-20-2022, 06:37 PM

Give me a 30 dollar snow shovel and you get your daily exercise. No fuel. No noise. Much more control. Unless you got a very large driveway it’s not much faster. Watching my neighbors wrestle these hulking machines it makes me chuckle.

spoiledsaskhunter · #14 10-20-2022, 07:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dynamic

Give me a 30 dollar snow shovel and you get your daily exercise. No fuel. No noise. Much more control. Unless you got a very large driveway it’s not much faster. Watching my neighbors wrestle these hulking machines it makes me chuckle.

i'm assuming you're not old......in due course, you will change your mind. besides, sd would rather be watching hockey (bet that's what he's doing right now, flipping channels)

elkhunter11 · #15 10-20-2022, 07:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dynamic

Give me a 30 dollar snow shovel and you get your daily exercise. No fuel. No noise. Much more control. Unless you got a very large driveway it’s not much faster. Watching my neighbors wrestle these hulking machines it makes me chuckle.

For small amounts of snow, I use a shovel, but when we get 4" or more, the blower is much faster and no big piles of snow to deal with. And when we get one of those big dumps , it would take a long time, and a lot of effort to do my triple driveway and the sidewalk, with a shovel, the blower is fast, and easy to handle.

Trochu · #16 10-20-2022, 08:24 PM

I no longer live there, but I used to have one of the worst driveways in town and shuddered every time we got more than a light dusting.

Garage was in the back of the lot, with the driveway going by the house. So I had house and neighbour's house on the sides for 45', then I had neighbours property (they asked me to be considered and not throw snow in areas of their yard as they'd had issues with flooding in the past) and deck on the sides for 30', then the driveway went beside the garage to the back, so I had garage and 6' fence on the sides for the final 30'. Once that was done, I was rewarded with the easy part, driveway at the front with nothing buy yard on one side and the sidewalk.

jungleboy · #17 10-20-2022, 09:00 PM

I use a Leaf blower as much as possible. If it’s too much for that I break out the Atv with a blade on it and push snow. I live on a corner lot with lots of sidewalk along with the driveway. When the blade comes out I do all my neighbour’s walks and if they aren’t parked on the street I plow in front of the houses as well.

I have a 26” Craftsman snowblower as well. I hate that friggin thing.

brslk · #18 10-21-2022, 02:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dynamic

Give me a 30 dollar snow shovel and you get your daily exercise. No fuel. No noise. Much more control. Unless you got a very large driveway it’s not much faster. Watching my neighbors wrestle these hulking machines it makes me chuckle.

I've got about 1500sq/ft of driveway behind the garage, about 200' of sidewalk winding it's way from the garage man door to the deck or around to the side door of the house, or keep going straight and wind your way to the front yard and out to the street. These are 4' wide sidewalks.

I'll bet you a $1000 that I can clean it with my relatively small snow blower faster than you with a shovel. Once it snows over a foot or heavy wet dense snow

58thecat · #19 10-21-2022, 06:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sundancefisher

Sometimes the mind works In mysterious ways.

I also fly fish, mooch and troll, bait fish, ice fish, spin fish… it’s true.

Hey… snow and hockey season pair well together.

I also like scotch, home made vodka, and hate beer for the most part.

Listen to all music but stay away from heavy metal and hard rap these days.

Hate beer

Bet you don’t like bacon too

The only thing that saved you from visiting banned camp from here was you stated for the most part

Dynamic · #20 10-21-2022, 07:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brslk

I've got about 1500sq/ft of driveway behind the garage, about 200' of sidewalk winding it's way from the garage man door to the deck or around to the side door of the house, or keep going straight and wind your way to the front yard and out to the street. These are 4' wide sidewalks.

I'll bet you a $1000 that I can clean it with my relatively small snow blower faster than you with a shovel. Once it snows over a foot or heavy wet dense snow

It would all depend on the how much snow and if it was the heavy wet stuff. You will have me beat on those circumstances. My driveway is probably about your size plus I got my front entrance beside the garage to my front door.

However if it's like anything like last year where we had several 6-12" snows of the light white stuff I like my chances. I don't mess around and it is usually a pretty quick affair . Nice reasonable snows and no March/April wet dumps.

-JR- · #21 10-21-2022, 07:52 AM

My snow blower got used at least once a week last year, and used the shovel a lot between those days . The days I would use the snow blower is when we got a lot of snow and would do the whole block from corner to corner.
The neighbours caught on very quickly ,and would not come out to shovel their snow until a few days after a good snow dump because they knew i would do it .LOL I did not mind at first for the first few years. But was hoping they would do mine when it snowed only one inch or when i went on holidays Lol again. Now I only do corner to corner when we get massive dumps like 2 ft .

Sundancefisher · #22 10-21-2022, 08:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 58thecat

Hate beer

Bet you don’t like bacon too

The only thing that saved you from visiting banned camp from here was you stated for the most part

Sadly had to stop buying bacon. My addiction was becoming too costly. How does one only eat one piece from a package?

Like seeing all the snow blower pics

spoiledsaskhunter · #23 10-21-2022, 08:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jungleboy

I use a Leaf blower as much as possible. If it’s too much for that I break out the Atv with a blade on it and push snow. I live on a corner lot with lots of sidewalk along with the driveway. When the blade comes out I do all my neighbour’s walks and if they aren’t parked on the street I plow in front of the houses as well.

I have a 26” Craftsman snowblower as well. I hate that friggin thing.

sounds like we should be friends....stihl 600 leaf blower handles snow really well, especially if its not wet. polaris with a blade for the back alley, and the walk behind blower for when it snows more. wife also has a small electric she does the deck with and it works really well (or at least it did until i decided to help her out and ran over the cord....its pretty neat how all that plastic explodes when the auger goes from 1000 mph to stop instantly) was in the dog house until i bought her another one.

elkhunter11 · #24 10-21-2022, 08:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jungleboy

I use a Leaf blower as much as possible. If it’s too much for that I break out the Atv with a blade on it and push snow. I live on a corner lot with lots of sidewalk along with the driveway. When the blade comes out I do all my neighbour’s walks and if they aren’t parked on the street I plow in front of the houses as well.

I have a 26” Craftsman snowblower as well. I hate that friggin thing.

When I first lived in Fort McMurray, many people used their atv with a blade to clean snow off of the sidewalks for entire blocks, but then the council in their infinite wisdom passed a bylaw, so that people would be fined if they left their property with their atv. As a result, the people that used to do entire blocks with their atvs, had to stop, and some sidewalks took a long time to get cleared.

Stinky Buffalo · #25 10-21-2022, 09:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sundancefisher

Sadly had to stop buying bacon. My addiction was becoming too costly. How does one only eat one piece from a package?

HEATHEN!

What we did was buy the pre-cooked stuff from Costco. Just peel off the one or two pieces you need and put 'em in the microwave.

We did get concerned about what kinds of preservatives etc. would be in it, so we started doing something else: We (IncrediGirl) cut up packs of bacon into little pieces/chunks and then bake the whole batch in the oven. Then we drain off the fat (use that later) and we put the bacon bits into containers that are then frozen. So, in the morning, I just scrape some of these bits into my eggs etc. or use them to mix in to other stuff that we cook.

No more excuses, Sundance!

boah · #26 10-21-2022, 10:14 AM

Depending on the size of area you’re going to do, or if your doing multiple places. A dual stage may not be needed. They are bulky and heavy.
I have a double driveway and 100’ of sidewalk at my place. I do my mothers triple driveway and sidewalk and a couple other smaller properties.
My single stage Toro is ideal for this. Light enough to throw into the truck and plenty of power to throw lots of snow. Annnnnnnddddd cheaper.

fishnguy · #27 10-21-2022, 10:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sundancefisher

Sometimes the mind works In mysterious ways.

I also fly fish, mooch and troll, bait fish, ice fish, spin fish… it’s true.

Hey… snow and hockey season pair well together.

I also like scotch, home made vodka, and hate beer for the most part.

Listen to all music but stay away from heavy metal and hard rap these days.

burbotman · #28 10-21-2022, 01:15 PM

Sorry Sundance I am not following your rules with a non Snowblower pic, this could see action out here this weekend

brslk · #29 10-21-2022, 11:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dynamic

It would all depend on the how much snow and if it was the heavy wet stuff. You will have me beat on those circumstances. My driveway is probably about your size plus I got my front entrance beside the garage to my front door.

However if it's like anything like last year where we had several 6-12" snows of the light white stuff I like my chances. I don't mess around and it is usually a pretty quick affair . Nice reasonable snows and no March/April wet dumps.

Heck, we haven't had a really bad snowfall since I bought the snow blower 12 years ago. Honestly though, 90% of the time the snow is light enough that I just shovel or use the leaf blower. Seriously considering getting a Ryobi cordless snow blower one of these days

fishtank · #30 10-21-2022, 11:47 PM

I run a Stihl backpack blower and a floor scraper to loosen it up …