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

For single stage users, can these be used on end of driveway hard chunks? I hear you can break it up first with a shovel but seems there would still be hard chunks. Would it beat up the machine? I live in New England and because of several different factors I have to compromise and the single stage Toro 621 would be my best compromise right now. I have a driveway that is a little over 2 cars long and do a run of about 10 yards by the mailbox all EOD and clear out an area going to the deck in back on one side and for the oil man on the other that would both be over grass one about 10 yards long and the other about 15 yards long. Have you ever done EOD with one of these.

Operating a 2 stage snowblower, especially larger ones above 30" wide, is a very physical work.  After using the machine for 2 hours, I can say that I'm exhausted while the beast still wants more.  But overall, operating any 2 stage snowblower requires a lot more skill and concentration than a SS.   It has much more power, heavier, more complex.  Any lapse of concentration not scanning the area in front and the snowblower might end up ingesting something solid that may cause damage to machine or property, or even injury.  Even backup the snowblower, you can pin yourself against a wall.  When tacking EOD, the snowblower naturally wants to climb and reverse cartwheel in front of you.  Most people who encounter this have to think about slowing down even more or manhandle it so that the bucket doesn't come up.

Some people are uncomfortable operating a 2 stage snowblower, and maybe more so with women.  Not trying to be a sexist, but I haven't seen even one woman operating a 2 stage in my area.  I've seen a few women operating a SS, but those are rare too.  So the video portraying a woman just holding on a 2 stage snowblower handles and following behind it with ease like a baby stroller through an empty parking lot just going straight is inaccurate.

It would be funny if someone could do a spoof of their video.  One that shows a small stature person operating a 36" snowblower, running across the pavement and catching the scraper bar on the cracks, and having the handle bars nailing the groin.   Also showing how a person clears and frozen ingested newspaper, changing shear pins in the dark, clearing a clog without getting their hands amputated.

I enjoy using the 2 stage but I never forget there is a lot more risks involved, and it is not as easy as it seems.

Got some snow here finally.  Not much maybe three inches, fine, heavy and a bit moist.  The stuff at the end of the driveway was a mixture of slush and snow.  Did the entire driveway with the old Craftsman SS then tackled the EOD which was maybe 18" high.  

The picture below is a screen grab from a video so you'll have to excuse the quality.  Nonetheless, it gives some idea of the distance that the Craftsman can throw fairly heavy snow when it's on the revs.