snowblower threadim thinking of buying one this year, live in a coastal area with heavy wet snowmy driveway is about 150 feet to the garage but since ive lived here ive just shoveled about 1/6th of it and kept the cars parked up front outsidei know nothing about them other than what im reading online im thinking a 300cc would be ideal maybe a toro, honda looks nice too but a bit $$
>>2960865just bought pic related. its a swedish branded chinese shit but for its specs it was half the price of a brand one. 1300€ for an 8kw engine, throwing distance of 15m and width of 70cm. thats 3000 if it was a honda, stiga or ariens. and they would still rattle apart and im not shure but i think atleast one of them is powered by the same loncin engine so what exactly are you paying extra for?
>>2960873
>>2960865I decline to participate. When I moved out of Chicago and left my snowblower I just paid a bunch of money for 2 years earlier, I didn’t even care. Whoever bought that house got a move-in gift.
>>2960889>73>fahrenheitjust leave, internet doesnt want you.
>>2960899Ok. I’ll go outside and enjoy the weather
>>2960865Ariens (pronounced aarons) is one of the best you can get. Whatever kind you get, get one with heated handle grips. MUST HAVE that and a light on the front for low light conditions. I'd go MINIMUM 26" and more like 28" or higher. Those inches add up on each pass. Thing is, over 28" and if you have heavy wet snow, it starts to clog the impeller area and you end up pushing it and it's exhausting! Make sure to adjust your skid shoes on the blower. My driveway and compound are VERY long and is gravel and grass (grown over). A snowblower is NOT a lawnmower. I fight mine a lot because of the uneven terrain and the grass. It will catch and bind and you will bag yourself on the handle of the snowblower...I know this from experience. The only solution is to lower the skid shoes and raise up the blower leaving down a bit of snowpack/icepack to even out the terrain and stop hoovering rocks. Rocks will break the sheer pins to prevent fucking up the impellers. So get extra sheer pins.Snowblowers require oil changes. Stabilize your fuel at end of season. Buy fuel stabilizer. DO NOT CHEAP OUT and not do this or any residual fuel in the tank could gum things up. Get used to your choke settings. SUPER cold temps require full choke to start but it will run like shit so you have to adjust it after starting to something that won't kill the engine...you'll know, it will run sweetly when it's warmed up. Also, get an electric start capable machine --- MUST HAVE! It will have a pull start too but they're only good once the machine has been running for a while and warmed up. Steering machines are bullshit and a pain in the ass to use. Also, get a metal machine and not a light plastic machine. You want this baby to plow through ice and snow...otherwise it will bounce around and you will be fighting it and will take several passes. Disclaimer: I have 2 machines. I live on a ranch in rural snow country. The only thing better is a snowblade on the front of your work truck.
anyone else use a power broom to shovel?i do my stone driveway in like 5 minutes as long as there's less than a foot of snow, and my 2 strokes don't sit idle over winter.
>>2961026You'll also want a good waterproof LED headlamp for your head over your toque. You can never have enough light. If your snowblower has an LED light then you're in business. But a good quality LED headlamp that runs on batteries will help definitely help. Where I live, light is gone at 4:30-5pm ish. Then it's jet black. If I get home from work after this time and it snowed that day, the only way to deal with the snow is to see what I'm doing. So the more light the merrier...When you've done clearing the snow, brush your machine off with a snowbrush (from your car will do). Eventually the metal bits can rust when the paint chips off or comes off from use. So you're minimizing potential rust and prolonging the machine.Honda, Toro, Ariens, Cub Cadet are all good brands. I'd stay away from Craftsman now that Sears sold them and went out of business. Also, find a good repair shop nearby and go talk to them. Often you can get a rebuilt machine for half price of a new machine. They often buy old machines and repair them and then sell them. You can get deals! Buying a snowblower in the spring or summer is the best time to get deals. NOT in the winter...that's when they have you by the balls. Don't be shy about looking on classifieds for your area. Thing is you will need to get it home. So do you have ramps for your truck? If not a truck, you'll need a trailer to get it home. Think about this...how the fuck am I going to transport it by myself in minus 30 or colder???
>>2961029Last post. Make sure you get a remote snow chute adjustable machine. Meaning you can turn a hand crank to adjust the snow chute in a circular horizontal fashion AND be able to remote tilt the chute to aim the snow discharge. Cheaping out here and buying a manual adjustable chute tilt is a major pain in the ass...you will be furious at yourself if you do not buy a remote adjustable chute tilt. When you're doing this, you're going as fast as possible and having to stop all the time to adjust your chute angles by hand is horrible and you'll be pissed off. The chute itself can be plastic or metal. Metal is preferable but plastic is lighter. Think durability. Plastic can handle rocks...but it makes a lot of noise. If the snow chute remote adjuster is not smooth to operate, do not buy it because when cold, it will get worse and freezing cold temps exacerbate everything mechanical. That's all I got...from years of experience...Get a good brand. Don't be cheap. This is a lifetime investment.
>>2960906>>2960899Was a little cloudy this afternoon tbqhwy
>>2961039>>2960899Fishes4u
>>2961026never use pump gas on them. get thoose bottles of alkylat fuel at the gas station (remember to get the 4-stroke version they often come as pre-mixed 2-stroke as well), its not that expensive you need maybe 2x 5L in a season and its perfectly pure fuel, no lead, no ethanol, no water, you can store it over summer on this and it will fire straight up in winter.
>>2960865most low end snowblowers is basically the same china model with a loncin engine. I'd recommend buying a store branded low end machine for half the price of a branded machine if you're getting a new one. if you're handy and don't mind buying second hand I'd buy something like yamaha, honda or ariens. you probably need a bigger engine than you think, minimum 8hp
>>2961026I like the fact mine is steering. You disengage one wheel or both. Makes turning around much easier.As far as hand warming grips …I use the engine exhaust . My driveway is 1/4 mile, this 26 inch works great. Tip : blow the snow while fresh. If you wait and it crusts over it’s a bitch….thank me later
>>2961026yeah after thinking about it i mihht hold off another day and spend the money on something brnd new and top of the line i the springbuy once cry once hopefullywhy stabilize instead of just emptying and oiling the tank?
>>2961115>why stabilize instead of just emptying and oiling the tank?Ethanol tends to attract water from the atmosphere and corrodes metal parts. This includes parts inside the carburetor and engine which won't be affected much by simply draining the fuel tank. Sta-bil drastically reduces this corrosion and since you treat the fuel before it goes in the tank this treatment/protection reaches everywhere the fuel reaches.https://youtu.be/OHXYWxMkhog?si=B3rZd0pbhTR6kXGJ
>>2960874Bilhelvete...
>>2961039Pussy. Chicago doesn’t want you.
>>2960865Ariens are the standard and make sure to get a TWO STAGE, with an auger in front and discharge impeller. Single stage blowers are lame and gay and only practical on light powder puff snow.>>2961121Sta-bil is a meme. It's obviously better than leaving gas in the tank/carb all year but eventually, the carb will get gunked up anyways. All you're doing is postponing it with Sta-bil.Best course of action for snow blowers, mowers and such is drain the tank and run the equipment until it sputters and dies, then pack it away until next season.
>>2961127I don’t want it. That place is more and more of a hellhole since I left. The entire lakefront was a homeless encampment when I was there for a wedding a year or two ago.Enjoy your freezing temps. I’ll know it’s cold when this dinosaur falls out of the tree.
Skid shoes: They are typically metal that come with the machine. But you an also make your own that glide a lot better using old cutting boards (the hard white plastic kind). Those things glide over anything like butter. You can also buy hard plastic skid shoes off Amazon or elsewhere. These won't fuck up specialty glued rock chip style driveways (these driveway toppings look nice and are actually pretty durable but chunks eventually chip off and requires fixing). There are plenty of videos out there to DIY your own High-Density Polyethylene skid shoes. It's not a super big requirement since the metal ones that come with your machine already will most likely do the trick. But if you have a specialty driveway topping, look into the High-Density Polyethylene ones as they make a huge difference. If you find your blower binding on the ground, then adjust your shoes higher until you find a sweet spot.
>>2961115Ideally emptying your tank is the best solution and easiest. Getting a gummed up carburetor is one of the biggest reasons snowblowers and lawnmowers won't start. There is carb cleaner and plenty of vids on how to clean these out yourself. But it's usually a gummed carb that will cause you grief after a spring and summer of non use/storage. Be careful though with removal and examination. There are sometimes little plastic parts used and if one of those breaks you're buying a whole new carb. I broke a hose attachment (grooved nipple like thing) and I was fucked for a month until the repair shop got me in my part and swapped out the old one for me.
>>2961598Running Rec 90 0% ethanol gas will normally get you through an off season without gumming up carbs.I wish more small engines had fuel cutoff switches. My generator has one and I’ll hit that and all I have to do is run the fuel lines and carb dry instead of having to burn up the whole tank.>tfw just told the boss to order two new carb kits for a couple Honda GX engines on pumps that were put away wet
just use a shovel
>>2961768Shoveling is annoying as hell with 12”+ of wet snow.Also what other anon said about the 2 stage snowblowers is true. I got a new 1-stage when I was still up north, and unless you had the perfect 2-3” of super fluffy snow, it was useless and I would drag out my ancient 2-stage and starter fluid that bitch until it ran. Got a new 2-stage and did not regret spending the extra like $300-$400 at all.
>>2961804I do have a solution for starting snowblowers with a gas press pump bulb & an electric starter that are problematic. Prime the snowblower with two full finger presses, then try and start...it won't start yet but WHILE it's cranking, press the bulb one more time...varoooom! The first two get some fuel moving through the system but don't seem to get into the carburator for the spark to take. If you go nuts on the bulb and then try and start it will flood the carb and nothing will happen until the gas evaporates. However, pressing the bulb while it's cranking gets it over the hump and lights up every single time. Saves ware on the starter. Oh and make sure your ON/OFF switch is set to ON, I've missed that before too in the dark... LOL.
>>2962093>the dreaded on/off switchYup, I’ve wasted some calories there too, why can’t they have a momentary kill switch like so many other gas engines so retards like myself don’t get frustrated?Oh and these Honda GX engines, the on-off switch is on the opposite side of the engine from where a right handed person would stand to pull the cord and adjust the choke and throttle so you don’t see it as you’re pulling and pulling. Those shifty japs!
My only criteria for a snow blower is that is two stage and made of metal.
I like my ego electric and it works in all but the worst blizzards. It's light and quick and I don't have to fuck with fuel and starting and shit. I wonder if they've improved since I've had it for seven years now. t. Coloradoan
