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

The issue discussed in the Snow Commander thread raise an interesting concern.

Trading distance for torque is a tough decision, and I think a lot of people pay too much attention to throwing distance. It depends almost entirely on the type of snow you get in your location and the layout of your property.

For example: Where I am we usually get light powdery snow in the middle of winter, but starting now we see wet and heavy snow for Feb. and March. Half of my driveway is single width and runs through a wooded area. 15' is more than enough distance and almost any blower will do that. I don't mind if it's piled up near the driveway or on the lawn, as long as it's off the driveway. I'd rather have a strong blower there so I don't have to nibble at it by taking less-than-full-width cuts. Conversely, the top 45' of my driveway is extremely wide, because I have a paved parking area to the side of the garage and a turnaround below it. It's about 40' wide at that point so you need distance!

So big roostertails don't impress me. What impresses me is a machine going full width into deep snow at a good rate of speed; one that's capable of moving large volumes quickly. Power! But if you don't get a lot of deep snow, it can be fun. (as long as it's not being blown by the wind back onto already cleared areas!)

Someone here once posted a video and their driveway was between two houses, the was no way to blow to the side. In that case, distance is very important because you have to toss it far out to the front and once you're past the houses, then you can reblow it to the side. Reblowing is not fun, it hits and packs. The further it goes the less that hits in a given area. IN that case, distance is more important, so trading power for speed is worthwhile. I'd like to see someone market a machine with a two speed impeller. High speed for the light snowfalls, but able to be geared down when you get dumped on hard with the wet heavy stuff. I doubt that will happen because of the extra cost, but it would be nice.

From my experience, power equals distance and I'll take as much as  I can get of each.

I'm in a rural area, so I only have one good reason for throwing distance.  Some winters we can get a lot of snow.  Those winters are usually cool enough that the snow sticks around and doesn't melt until spring.  Once you start piling snow up on the edge of your driveway, pretty soon you have 4' - 5' snowbanks lining the driveway and it becomes more difficult to throw snow OVER that high snowbank.  Moreoverly, those high banks cause MORE snow to drift in onto your driveway, exacerbating your cleaning problems.

Now, with global climate change, this is becoming less of an issue.  Sure, we get greater snowfalls, but they usually melt within a few weeks.

I know what longboat is talking about.

Back in the unbelievale winter of '95-'96 we had so much snow that my street was shut down for almost a week.  Plows couldn't keep up with the snow.   I was using a decent, brand new Craftsman 10/29 at the time and it wasn't exactly stellar for throwing distance.  Nonetheless, it could throw at least 20 to 25 ft. distance with average snow.  My driveway at the narrowest is 18' across.  By mid March I only had nine feet of the 18 available.  The rest was consumed by snow banks.   Another month of that rate of snowfall, we would have been parking the vehicles down at the street.   The Simplicity I have now throws almost double what the Craftsman did.  However, I've yet to see anything close to the winter of '95-'96 since.

borat wrote:

Heh, we always want as much as we can get, the Tim Taylor in all of us :) I was referring to distance as a function of impeller tip speed (high RPMs) and power as being able to go into a deep pile without dying (torque). Sort of like comparing 2nd and 4th gears. In the last 7 years we've had 3 where we got 100" of snow, the average being 70. The first time we had that I ran into a problem with snow banks near the end of the year, I was unable to throw over the 7' or so banks from up close. I ended up blowing it sideways to an area where it wasn't so high and then reblowing it off to the side. Since that episode, I always start my piles a little further back so it won't happen again.

I try to keep poles out so I can tell where the edge of the driveway is ... ever since that time I plowed a tree stump (oops). I run the blower exactly on the line no matter how deep it gets there. After my neighbor drove into the ditch I make extra sure that all the reflectors down at that end of the driveway are always visible too.

robertcoats wrote:
Digging up an old dead horse here Robert.  I'm quoting you from two years ago.  But is there any info you can shed on that new 28" 2-stage snowblower, perhaps named HS1128is?