Johnny

I just came across this site, saw this question and decided to reply.   It all depends on what you want to do and how much you want to spend.   I have a snow blower attachment for my garden tractor and I love it..  I prefer my setup over my neighbor's as he has a separate walk behind blower.  My neighbor has even commented to me that he thinks my setup is better.  I have found that I can go out and clear 10 inches of snow from my 140 foot driveway in about six minutes, whereas my neighbor takes at least an hour.  I'll admit that his blower is only about 24 inches wide, so he can fit in between his cars easier than me, but my blower was 42 inches wide.  That extra width allows me to clear off my driveway faster than him, but I can't fit into small spaces.  Of course I don't need to because when it's going to snow, I just move my cars so that they are behind each other in a line, that way I don't need to fit in any tight spots.

As for power, well, the tractor I used last year was an 18hp twin cylinder model with a 42 inch blower attachment, and it worked well for me.  I've used that setup for the past 15 years.  I just traded it in for a bigger machine, so I won't know till the winter how well it works.  I think it will do a lot better since the new machine is a 27 hp, 3 cylinder diesel with 4 wheel drive.  The blower attachment is 46 inches.  I also had the tires filled with liquid to add an extra 200 pounds to it and I also got the wheel weights that add another 100 pounds to it. 

The thing is, I have a bad back and arthritis, so I can't use a walk behind blower because I can only stand up for about 5 minutes before my back hurts, so I need to be able to sit down as I use a snow blower.  Also, I have an acre of grass to mow, so I need something a bit larger than just a riding mower, which is why I use a lawn and garden tractor.  Of course, a garden tractor is expensive, so you need to determine what you want to spend.  Even if I didn't have a bad back, I still prefer the garden tractor with a snow blower attachment because it's a lot easier to operate in deep snow.  A garden tractor has a lot more pushing power than my legs do.