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

Ok, tracks may be a little more effort to turn, but when you have 30 - 40 inches of blown hard packed snow, you need to have tracks!! A hydro drive helps too, because I had to go very very slow.

I had to put the Hydro Drive down to a crawl, and a few times I did have to back up, to let the cut snow fall in front, and then go forward again. There was a couple times when the tracks slipped, and I did have to rock the unit a bit, to get it going again.

This is on gravel, so I could not put the bucket all the way down which did cause some riding up, which I was able to control by going slower. I was able to cut this path in under 5 minutes.

My previous wheeled unit would never have touched this, and I suspect, other wheeled units would have not have got through this in the same amount of time: 

And Yes, I backed out, there was an obstacle at the front of the driveway.

Location really doesn't dictate whether wheeled or tracked machines are needed.  Conditions are what matters.  As in rubinew's situation, hard packed drifting requires steady progressive forward speed even if it's just crawling as well as the ability to keep the bucket down.    The larger Yamaha and Honda machines are  ideal walk behind snow blowers for what he's dealing with.  However, if I were in his situation, I'd probably own a nice Kubota or JD 4WD diesel powered yard tractor with a heated cab and a 60" blower on the front.   Cut grass with it in the summer and blow snow in the winter. 

borat wrote:

I am with you on the Kubota, nice units. Maybe in the future, when I can build a place to store it. Meanwhile, the Yamaha fits in my current garage.

If I get a tractor in the future, I will have to build an extra shed to store it in. Good news is, if/when the time comes, I will be able to sell the Yamaha for a decent price.

rubinew wrote:
That snow in the pictures...can you walk on it?  If so I couldn't even imagine tackling it with my wheeled snow thrower.  Maybe a flame thrower...

Walk on it?  lol  We had the same stuff here and I could drive my SUV on it without leaving much of a footprint either.

Paul7 wrote:

Walk?? You could cube this stuff and make Igloos out of it!!

My wife took her van, Chev Astro, not 4 wheel drive,  through a thinner part, maybe 20 inches, about 6 feet wide, hung it up.

Had to shovel and scrap it out, esp the stuff under it, so she could finally get out

I had used the Yamaha to clear a path for her, I guess 10 feet wide wasn't enough  She skewed right, and backed into the drift by mistake.

And if it wasn't so temperature sensitive.......we wouldn't have to buy concrete.