Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

I was at a local Honda dealer yesterday and I was stunned by the prices on their snowblowers. In Canadian dollars, they were: 928 wheels: $3000 928 track: $3400 724 track: $3400 1132 track: $3500 I know they have tracks, hydro tranny, honda engines, etc. but they're at least $1000-1500 more than equivalent toro and ariens models. Is it gold, they re making?

aa335 wrote:

Considering the cost of this machine would'nt  you rather hire 1/2 a dozen laborers to shovel you out for about for about the next 15 years?

Starwarrior

aa335 wrote:
I wish my property was configured in a way that would make it more conducive to a tractor mounted snowblower/blade type set-up. I could make it work for the most part but would still need a walkbehind for certain areas and can't justify the expense (at least at this time). Perhaps one of these days.....

starwarrior wrote:

That's a tough one. I do enjoy clearing snow so I'm not sure if I'd pay someone else to do it. Although the thought of having perfectly manicured long winding driveway using only hand shovels by a large labor group is quite appealing. Nice perfectly shaped windrows on the sides.

FrankMA wrote:

There isn't one tool perfect for all jobs. Unless all you have on the property is a large parking lot. I would not give up any walkbehind equipment for home use. But having a tractor set up is fun, some times you want to blow snow, some times you want to plow.

I thoroughly enjoy blowing snow by myself so the laborer option is out.... a tractor mount sounds appealing though.

snowmachine wrote:
Snowmachine,

Looking at your sig, I see you have two electric snow shovel/blower.  What's your views on these two products?

I picked these up during the summer off of Craigslist. Each was only $30/each and had never been used. The picture is actually of the MTD branded version... mine is a Yard machine branded version with the only difference being the color of the controllable chute vanes. In my case they are black instead of red. I think the MTD might be fine for a few inches in a driveway but the less expensive Toro Power Shovel blows it away for performance. It can really shoot the snow out there. I think the Toro is also better suited for deck clearing over the MTD. At first glance you would think the controllable vanes on the MTD product would be a nice feature to have but they seem to cut down throwing distance by about 1/4 of what you get straight on. Save yourself the $50 premium on the MTD and get the Toro if you buy one of these new. I haven't had a chance to use them in really wet snow yet but will report back when I do.

My gas engine Toro Power shove excels in throwing wet snow.  It's much better throwing it than trying to shovel it off of the deck.

starwarrior wrote:

Yes, but try to get them there after a storm. Its like my neighbor said to me this past winter when we had a 3' snow "this is too much snow! we need to hire somebody!" I asked him "Who do you think will show up with 3 feet of snow on the ground? Do you have a name picked out? Or were you just going to start calling around" He was very silent. And so I proceeded to use my 26" MTD with track drive over the next 4 hours to plow out our private road. Only one neighbor helped with his single stage toro. God bless him, he stayed up all night and went out once an hour for 12 hours to do the best he could. I finished it off and did EOD. I'd rather be the guy getting unstuck than the one calling around to see if someone could plow us out over the next two weeks or so.

tkrotchko wrote:

Now you are really talking a different language here Bud. You can buy 5 brand new MTD 26" Track Drive units for the price of one of the Honda models they are talking about.

I had a MTD26 Trackster for the last 14 years. A truely Great Machine. The trigger mechanisms would allow you to turn the thing on a dime.

I recently sold it simply because after 14 years of service I couldn't trust the reliability and was forced to hunt for compatable parts since I no longer was able to find certain OEM parts for my specific model number.

There is nothing worse than a machine breaking down in the middle of a storm. It's the shovel we are talking about here and with the amount of snow you guys are getting hammered with you are absolutely right, I'll bet even the reliable laborers are  heading south this winter.

My new unit is an Ariens 26PRO... I don't expect the same manuverability but do expect better performance. 

I hope to have as much luck with the Ariens as I did with the MTD 

Good luck, it will be over soon and I'll bet that next year you'll load for bear like I did... But seriously, if it is taking 4 hours to plow out your private road you may want to think about a bigger machine. Say something in the 32-36 inch range. If it were me, I would be thinking more along the lines of a 7' Meyers Power Angle in front of an F-250