ot- snow blower recommendations

[charlesn]

Now I'm convinced John F is the man because he's trying to save me money... Lightweight is good for me as I'm not getting any younger/stronger and have no "farmer genes" in my family.

 

Yo Brian, my favorite exercises for flipping and pitching all day long are flipping and pitching all day long. I'll leave the muscle building to you and JP!

 

Charles

[JohnF]

Now I'm convinced John F is the man because he's trying to save me money... Lightweight is good for me as I'm not getting any younger/stronger and have no "farmer genes" in my family.

 

Yo Brian, my favorite exercises for flipping and pitching all day long are flipping and pitching all day long. I'll leave the muscle building to you and JP!

 

Charles

 

Seriously, bigger ain't always better - well, except for horsepower on our toys. Snowblowers are just tools. Be careful buying small though. Sometimes small equates to crap. It had never occurred to me to buy a CTC blower until I talked to two separate snowblower service type guys (not from CTC) who both assured me they'd looked at 'em all and dollar for dollar decided the CTC version was good enough for them. And they offer a 4 year warranty. Perhaps if we were clearing driveways all day long we might go for something commercial duty. I would. But I only use it a few times a week at most so why tie up $1,500 or $2,000 for something that I can get for $550 today and replace in 5 or 10 years for that same amount again. I'm still money ahead. A friend of mine just spent over $3,000 on a Honda for a driveway no bigger than mine, and then phoned me yesterday to see if he could borrow my little guy cuz he has an emergency at one of his rentals and he can't get the Honda over there without a truck or trailer but he knew how portable mine is.

 

JF

[pikehunter]

Don't know 'bout the small one John, I just watched my neighbour walk his new 8HP through the 3' high bank left behind by the snowplow. With my little Crappy Tire 5 hp it was a struggle to do mine and he is 70 years old and just had heart surgery a couple of months ago, so a larger machine is not harder to maneuver. Still say a little bigger is always better. I have used both and given the choice the bigger one 'cause it doesn't bog down so easily, the tires are bigger and that helps again don't worry about the weight factor after all the blower does most of the work anyway.

 

Whatever you buy look out for the sales, I have seen the 5Hp anywhere from $450 to almost $800. Just depends on the store and the sale of the week. You may be happy with the 5 but I just speak from my own experiences from the past 30 or so years of using a blower.

[misfish]

I should of added ,I just bought a new Toro for the blowing at work and I have to say it can throw that snow almost to the roof of the plant.So if you dont like your niegbor 3 or 4 houses away,I would get one.LOL

The only thing I dont like about it is,the drive trigger, is on the left side,same as the control for direction of the snow chute (multy function for both direction and throwing hieght).

Also, if it starts to climb the snow it seems to want to lay back.

 

But since I get paid by the hour,I just take her slow and easy.

Edited December 17, 2007 by misfish

[JohnF]

Don't know 'bout the small one John, I just watched my neighbour walk his new 8HP through the 3' high bank left behind by the snowplow. With my little Crappy Tire 5 hp it was a struggle to do mine and he is 70 years old and just had heart surgery a couple of months ago, so a larger machine is not harder to maneuver. Still say a little bigger is always better. I have used both and given the choice the bigger one 'cause it doesn't bog down so easily, the tires are bigger and that helps again don't worry about the weight factor after all the blower does most of the work anyway.

 

Whatever you buy look out for the sales, I have seen the 5Hp anywhere from $450 to almost $800. Just depends on the store and the sale of the week. You may be happy with the 5 but I just speak from my own experiences from the past 30 or so years of using a blower.

 

Can't argue with you on any of that. It's just that after 30 or years of my own experience and trying both big and small, for my own application small works fine. Technically I still own the big one so I could go and trade with my son today if I wanted to but I don't want the big one. If my use changed so might my opinion.

 

JF

[fishinfool]

If you are interested in buying used, you might want to try the kijiji site.

I have purchased many very good, very cost efficient items from this site.

 

http://toronto.kijiji.ca/f-snowblower-Clas...wordZsnowblower

[bigbuck]

I'd go for an 8hp Toro. I have a hand me down 5hp Toro that my dad gave me that's about 17 years old and has never had a problem (knock on wood). 8hp is perfect for a city driveway, it's powerful enough and not too big. You'll spend the dough up front but it will last for years (probably only 50 bucks/year of ownership).

[Gerritt]

I would look at used also... for the simple reason...They dont build things like they used too! Older small engines are a dream to work on, have little to no plastic (new ones do)...Besides if you can pick up a decent 8hp for 600.00 and have it last 10 years... well I figure your ahead of the game..

 

If you want to consider used.. I would purchase it from a place that actually sells and services them new.. that way you know your getting something that has been looked at tuned and serviced by the professionals...

 

Here in Hamilton, Peters, O'Neils and Berts come to mind.

 

Gerritt.

[charlesn]

Well, I didn't have too much choice in the matter. Everything was sold out everywhere. lol Got lucky and a new batch had just arrived. They were carting them out to the aisles still. 10.5 hp Yardworks Snow King or something like that. 30" blade. It was $1199 at Canadian Tire. Then I had to drive around to find a jerry can for gas. That $7 purchase took waaaay longer than the snow blower as Rona and CT were sold out. Found a 5 litre can at an Esso eventually with the world's least friendly counterstaff. Southwest corner of Hwy 10 and Britannia. Holy, you'd think I'd slapped the lady in the face when I asked if she had gas containers. "YES BACK THERE!" "ok, please don't hit me!" lol

 

Got it home, and it was for the most part assembled already. I'm not anywhere near handy and I put the rest together in no time. Added the gas and oil, read the manual twice, double-checked everything, hooked up the electric start and it started on the first push of the button. Wow, I can barely tie a palomar knot and I 'assembled' this huge loud powerful thingamajigger and it actually worked!

 

Awesome.

 

I basically did not shovel at all this weekend and was able to blast the snow off the driveway in about an hour. It was actually kind of fun. If had to guess, I would honestly say there was at least 2+ hours of shoveling work as the drifts were well over 2 feet deep in many sections. This thing cleared the snow right down to the driveway.

 

Thanks to all for the recommendations. They helped me have some peace of mind in buying the machine even though I wasn't able to be as selective as I might have wanted.

 

Charles

[pikehunter]

It's too bad though that you couldn't find the one you really wanted. But regardless you had fun!

 

Tim Allen (Tooltime) had better watch out! After putting that machine together you're going to be setting your sights on a new do-it-yourself TV show. Congratulations on getting her done.

[Mike the Pike]

You won't regret the 10 Plus HP wait till you get a dumping of heavy wet snow this is where 10hp will shine.

 

Congrats on your purchase.Charles when your unit is new be sure to go over all nuts and bolts and make sure they are tight.

 

Although your unit was mostly assembled don't trust who ever put it together.After just one use with mine I found some loose nuts and another time I actually lost some nuts and screws.Once you have checked things after a few uses everything should stay tight.

 

Don't forget to dump the oil after the break in period.Now have fun in the snow

 

MTP

[Gerritt]

Loc-tite works wonders Mike!... Use the Blue though... if you use the red only way to get em off is with a torch..

 

G

[irishfield]

Don't forget to dump the oil after the break in period.Now have fun in the snow

 

MTP

 

DANG ! Now you tell me. Did the FIRST oil change on the 10 HP Tecumseh.... on my 10/28 Yard Man / MTD... today. Bought it in 1990 or so. Other than freeing up the carb throttle shaft (so the governer could actually move it) and the choke today...putting the primer line back on that had rotted off the carb...it's never skipped a beat..including the 2nd pull to start it after service today. Then moved the 4 foot deep pile on the sidewalk that was snow fall and roof fall combo. Always been a good machine.

 

Like Mike said... you'll appeciate that 10 HP come the first deep wet snowfall.

Edited December 18, 2007 by irishfield

[Mike the Pike]

Loc-tite works wonders Mike!... Use the Blue though... if you use the red only way to get em off is with a torch..

 

G

 

It was only when I got the machine .All is fine these days but hey I think I am going to buy some of this loc-tite stuff for other applications.

 

Thanks

[JohnF]

Well, I didn't have too much choice in the matter. Everything was sold out everywhere. lol Got lucky and a new batch had just arrived. They were carting them out to the aisles still. 10.5 hp Yardworks Snow King or something like that. 30" blade. It was $1199 at Canadian Tire.

 

Sounds like the one I gave my son. It's never missed a beat. He knows nada about mechanical things unless they have guitar strings or speaker jacks but it always starts right off and runs great. You won't be sorry. Like the guys are saying there'll be times you'll be happy to have the extra power.

 

JF

[NANUK]

Nothing wrong with YardWorks/MTD blower, I am sure there are better/expensive makes out there but for residential use YardWorks is plenty good enough,

Electric start is a blessing and you will appreciate the 10 ponies when you get the wet & heavy stuff or when that street plow leaves a 3 ft packed snow bank in front of your driveway.

I have the same machine, I do the oil change(synthetic), clean or replace the spark plug every spring before I put it away, I always use fuel stabilizer, keep spare shear bolts and a new spark plug handy.

[charlesn]

Nothing wrong with YardWorks/MTD blower, I am sure there are better/expensive makes out there but for residential use YardWorks is plenty good enough,

Electric start is a blessing and you will appreciate the 10 ponies when you get the wet & heavy stuff or when that street plow leaves a 3 ft packed snow bank in front of your driveway.

I have the same machine, I do the oil change(synthetic), clean or replace the spark plug every spring before I put it away, I always use fuel stabilizer, keep spare shear bolts and a new spark plug handy.

 

Thanks stonefish! I'll keep that in mind for the spring. Now let's hope that since I finally bought a snow blower, it will never snow again!

 

Charles

[taper]

I would stay away from the ones with the plastic chutes. The Craftsman line is pretty decent.

[pikehunter]

I finally bought a snow blower, it will never snow again!

:clapping: :thumbsup_anim:

Thank you Thank you Thank you.....the weather forecast is for rain and above freezing temps for the next few days!

See what happens when you buy a snowblower, now get down to the mall and buy yourself an umbrella so the sun will come out and we won't have to worry about the rain

[charlesn]

:clapping: :thumbsup_anim:

Thank you Thank you Thank you.....the weather forecast is for rain and above freezing temps for the next few days!

See what happens when you buy a snowblower, now get down to the mall and buy yourself an umbrella so the sun will come out and we won't have to worry about the rain

 

lol, I own 4 umbrellas. I think maybe I need another 6-800 goretex rain suit? Do you think the drought in the southeast is bad? Wait until you see what happens now!

 

Charles