Need advice on Snowblower, which brand?

[B-Edwards]

I have a concrete drive at my home approximately 4000 sq ft, it's in nice shape and I just sealed it so I don't want to scrape snow from it for obvious reasons.

I also have another two property's one paved and the other gravel, I don't want to scrape as the gravel will be thrown over a bank and the new pavement gouged.

My neighbor loaned me his craftsman blower which worked ok but stopped up over and over in wet stuff.

I wanted to ask you guys what you would recommend ? I know some of you do snow removal professionally and would have a better idea .

If you would please give your experience with the brand ,size , model you use and what type areas you are cleaning. Pros cons if possible. I'm sure others will benefit from this also.

Thanks for any help or advice.

 

[Marshy]

I cannot comment on brands but one thing I would advise is get the largest one you can afford. You'll find that some cheaper brands are just rebadged more expensive ones. If your handy with a wrench and don't mind doing your own maintnance and repair I would focus on build material (thickness of metal, bearings vs bushings etc) and engine quality vs name brand. The weak spots on the older machines is where the auger hood attaches to the rest of the machine. Eventually the material fatigues and starts to crack.

 

[Mowingman]

Ariens or Toro are about the best you can buy. Generally well built and troublefree. Warning: Many dealers are sold out already this year. Both Toro and Ariens are telling dealers they are backlogged, and there may be no more snowblowers available this season to sell. If you see what you want at a dealer, grab it up right now.

 

[firebrick43]

Best is very subjective.

For example, I bought my mother a honda HS720 single stage blower. She lives in a subdivision and here in north central indiana we get decent snows, probably more than anywhere other than some tall mountains in North Carolina. I own a gravely walk behind tractor with a snow cannon 2 stage blower. The honda on snows that are sub 12" puts any two stage blower to shame on pavement. It throws far enough for a double wide drive but it is Fast! Insanely fast, as fast as I can walk. The rubber paddles actually pull it forward. Belt drive prevents damage and is fairly quiet in comparison to briggs powered blowers. Now when you get over the height of the auger then 2 stage blowers take over. Also it does not work on gravel at all.

My gravely blower is considered by many to be the best ever made. It has been said when you want to blow snow on your neighbors drive you get a gravely. It will blow an honest 50' with the right consistency of snow. It will go thru 4' drifts slowly but surely. When you get 30+ inch snows and live on the prairie like I do drifts get deep and snow plows have a hard time especially after the third or 4th big snow because they have no place left to push it. The gravely is. No longer available new but BCS makes a nice equivalent walk behind tractor and mount a 2 stage blower, it's a Cadillac. Ariens is a good brand as well


As far as gravel, well a blower will put it over the yard as well, much farther than a plow will put it. If you put runner feet on the plow and set it up so it's not scraping they do ok. A rubber or poly edge would work on your pavement without scratching it. Sorry to say but there is no perfect solution for your situation.

Will say one thing about snow removal. No matter what system you want to use, if you want it down to bare pavement don't drive on it before you blow or plow. On gravel I hope for small snows to drive on and make an 1" or two of hard pack as to prevent gravel from going through the blower. A few years ago I got a piece in the blower just right and it broke the gear in the auger gearbox. Most of the time it goes right on through but this was just the right size at the right place. Very expensive.

 

[marne]

By picking the right one, you should consider the weight and width, if it gets tight and you got to do small curves or circles or you got to cross one or two stair steps a light blower can be pushed/pulled, you can handle it.
Most have a fixed axle!

A small 250lbs Monster can be pita but fast.

4000ft² sounds like a job for any 6,5hp blower.

 

[Mowingman]

Nothing can compare to a Gravely blower on their old 2-wheel tractor. I did not mention that as an option, as they are no longer in production. I love those old Gravelys. In fact, I used to be a Gravely dealer years ago.

 

[Marshy]

I'm goin to have to look for some older Gravely blowers by the sounds of it. I see them for sale on craigslist all the time with the mower decks and plow blades but not many with the blower attachment or in great shape. The DR series mowers are like the new version of the Gravely. They can be set up with any attachment you can think of and seem well built. The only problem is you basically have to consider a new machine because they cannot be found used and if your can they usually only have the mower attachment. The down side is after you bought the brush mower deck, the snow blower attachment, rototiller attachment and the straight blade attachment your pushing the cost of a used 25-30hp compact tractor. But hey they are cool.

Here's my local county snowblower moving some snow...

 

[firebrick43]

We received a DR at work late last season with snowblower and I was not impressed at all. Seamed very cheap to me. But I am used to gravely, old cub cadets, and exmark mowers so my standard are high.

The bcs is very close to the old gravely, in fact reversible handle bars and diff locks maybe better. Still expensive

Marshy if you are in New York you are close to gravely heaven. I have less than 2000 in 4 tractors and maybe 8 attachments. Indiana is gravely hell (most around here have never seen one) and took me several years to collect my attachments. Had a fellow just give me two of them among with a blade and Dogeater after he found out I collected them. If you get the blower make sure it's a later enclosed 26" blower instead of the earlier "Dogeater" design with the exposed 1st stage auger. While the dog eaters aren't bad, and that big exposed auger does work well on sleet/ice, it's geared to high and pulls heavy snow in to fast and the second stage isn't nearly as good as the later enclosed blower AKA "the snow cannons"

 

[Marshy]

We received a DR at work late last season with snowblower and I was not impressed at all. Seamed very cheap to me. But I am used to gravely, old cub cadets, and exmark mowers so my standard are high.

The bcs is very close to the old gravely, in fact reversible handle bars and diff locks maybe better. Still expensive

Marshy if you are in New York you are close to gravely heaven. I have less than 2000 in 4 tractors and maybe 8 attachments. Indiana is gravely hell (most around here have never seen one) and took me several years to collect my attachments. Had a fellow just give me two of them among with a blade and Dogeater after he found out I collected them. If you get the blower make sure it's a later enclosed 26" blower instead of the earlier "Dogeater" design with the exposed 1st stage auger. While the dog eaters aren't bad, and that big exposed auger does work well on sleet/ice, it's geared to high and pulls heavy snow in to fast and the second stage isn't nearly as good as the later enclosed blower AKA "the snow cannons"

Pictures would help if you have'em. They come up for sale regularly but it's usually when I'm day dreaming about walk behind equipment I'd like to own.

 

[firebrick43]

Here is a video of the snow cannon (not mine).

It a 26" wide MA210.

I have a 526 tractor in addition to a LI and a 5260. I would highly recommend the 500 or 5000 series over the older L and C series. My 526 and 5260 have 8 hp kohlers which are very nice for most attachments (due to light weight/balance) but is a bit anemic on the blower. Also the larger engine gravely will balance out the weight of the blower better.

If I remember correctly a 546/5460 is a 10hp and a 566/5660 is a 12hp also the last of them were pro series such as pro8 pro10 pro12 and pro16. While available as an add on with the 500/5000 series it seems a lot of the pro series had steering brakes which are nice on the heavier 12/16hp models with heavy attachments. Just remember to get an 8 speed model. There were a few odd ball machine out there with 4 speeds.

If your mildly mechanically inclined you can also transplant a honda or honda clone motor on one and make a nicely balanced but powerful combo. I have a 13 hp vanguard waiting on me to put in my 5260. You just need a little help from an adapter kit from Bruce gutherie. Cue the Johnny cash song. The transmissions are really heavy duty and if taken care of rarely cause trouble but the kohler engines do wear out.

 

[066blaster]

I plow and snow blow commercially. I have 2 simplicity 9 horse 27 inch cut. They are about 16 years old and have alot of hours on them. Way more than any homeowner could ever put on one. And they are still going strong. I'm looking for an excuse to buy a new one but they still work great. Use the hard plastic skid shoes if you don't want rust marks on your drive. I'm thinking even the cheaper brands would last a homeowner a long time. Just turn off the gas and run it dry at the end of the season or the carb will get gummed up. These have solid metal frames for handle bars . I even run them down flights of stairs. Only thing I have broke is the linkage for engaging the auger. Fixed it with a piece of wire, been using it that way for years.

 

[mesupra]

Before I got into selling saws I use to buy and sell blowers 5-10 a year, I always liked the simplicity the best, the Ariens, honda, toro are also at the top of my list. Certain craftsman are also very good depending on your need. Don't hesitate to purchase a solid older machine and repower with a harbor freight predator, typically a 2 hour job at most.

 

[hartbilt]

Toro for parts availability and service cant be beat

 

[firebrick43]

Toro for parts availability and service cant be beat

When it comes to tractors, even if I like John Deere the best, I recommend individuals go with the closest dealer that gives superior service as long as it's a top their brand. I think this applies in this case as well

I certainly think that toro is a top shelf brand, as I own an exmark mower and they are the same company and share many parts. However the toro dealer here was so bad that they finally went out of business a couple of months ago.
Somehow the simplicity/ snapper dealer is hanging on even with their terrible service. The John deere dealer(who sells stihl and skag) and the case dealer ( who sells exmark) and the gravely/honda/stihl dealer has things wrapped up here because they care!

 

[porsche965]

I use an old Ariens 36". 12HP Tecumseh. Only use non-ethanol fuel. Put her away last spring after the oil change and maintenance. Turned off the fuel valve and let it run out. Topped off the fuel tank and was very surprised this fall when changing out equipment and bringing her to the top of the garage hit the primer bulb 6-8 times and on one pull she roared to life! I was amazed. Not one bit of problems with it and it always starts no matter how cold within two pulls max.

 

[joe25DA]

I just sold 2 of these toro 8/26 machines. One was an '80 the other a '78. The '80 I ran for 5 years 14 driveways a storm. I did some work to it. I had to grind the ex. valve and replace the intake As I was losing compression. On some older Briggs the valve seats weren't presses completely into the block and over time the valve pressed the seat and caused blow by. Ran like new since then. Upgraded to electronic ign (80 was a swing year from points to electronic), bypassed the hand clutches and rebuilt carb. Of course replaced belts and oil. These are super rugged, heavy machines, 1/8" steel not cheap sheet metal. I stopped doing driveways so I sold those 2. Kept my 1985 11/32 toro and a smaller 5/24.
By contrast, here is my neighbors POS Loews Troy/Mtd/built. Not the Troybilt of years ago. Box store junk, look at the drive "belt", my dryer uses a thicker one!

 

[joe25DA]

Here's my current setup
1985 11/32
1984 5/21-has new belts and carb going on this week

 

[mesupra]

I had a little toro 521 for a while, great machines can't say enough good things about the toro's, they actually have a better weight forward position than the simplicity, you almost had to work to keep the simplicity down while the toro pulled itself down and forward. I have always wanted to find a good clean 11/32. I think an 11/32 with a 13hp predator would be a great combo.

 

[joe25DA]

I had a little toro 521 for a while, great machines can't say enough good things about the toro's, they actually have a better weight forward position than the simplicity, you almost had to work to keep the simplicity down while the toro pulled itself down and forward. I have always
wanted to find a good clean 11/32. I think an 11/32 with a 13hp predator would be a great combo.

Never ran a 5/21 before. Got this one with a scrap load from my high school shop teacher, not as part of the scrap mind you. The 11/32 needs a little more high speed on the carb I think, feels like it's got way more left