SnowRemover

SnowRemover wrote:
RuhiA wrote:
Hate to come late to the party, but just in case someone is reading this forum I'd like to restate that the OP is looking at the Toro 828XLE which does NOT have shearpins. At least twice a year my neighbors will be at the bottom of their driveway (where the plow seems to drop off large boulders that have come from another town) and back in the garage to get another shearpin. They stock up on them now.

gsnow wrote: I totally forgot about the lack of a shearpin - what a great feature (or non feature). I'm not sure if its patented by Toro, but I would strongly argue that if you work for a shearpin manufacturer, you better start looking for another job.

I own a Toro 828 XLE and can say without a doubt it is well worth the money. The steering alone makes mincemeat out of my neighbors snowthrower. He has a smaller driveway but has to spend 1/2 minute at the end of his driveway to get his machine back into position to go back up. Then he spends another 20 seconds of so cranking the chute to face the opposite direction. With about 15 of these turns he spends 15 minutes of his 30 minute just turning. Once you get used to the Toro with its joystick chute control, you can do everything in one smooth motion. My driveway is easily 50% larger than his and I finish mine in the same time he finishes his.

I stayed away from Ariens years ago when I joined this site due to the numerous quality control issues I read on this site. My neighbors bought an Ariens from Home Depot two years ago and ended up borrowing my five year old Toro for the last winter storm as their Ariens wouldn't start (actually I did their driveway because I don't like other people touching my Toro).

That's my 2¢

During past snowstorms I have occassionally done the neighbors driveways. Yesterday, just after the blizzard, I started doing my driveway. About ten minutes later one of my neighbors was standing in my driveway with his kid watching. I'm cool with that, just stay a safe distance away. But after five minutes I could tell from the look on his face that he wanted something. So I shut off the blower and asked him if I he wanted something. He asked me if he could borrow my snow blower. Now this guy has borrowed many tools from me in the past, but a screwdriver or electric drill doesn't cost anywhere near a snowblower. Instead of just saying "I don't loan out my snowblower", I felt to be a good neighbour I'd snowblow his driveway for him and told him so much.

Now my issue is that the guy made no attempt to do his driveway all day - as if he was expecting to ask me the whole time. He is not old (he's younger than me - mid 30's), not poor (makes twice what I make), and never been a great friend (not a bad guy, but not someone I'd call a friend). Truth be told, I probably would have done his driveway without his asking, but the way he asked, his lack of effort just really pissed me off.

The advice I'm seeking is either a) I'm way out of bounds here and should let people borrow my snowblower when they ask OR b) How do I not lend out the snowblower without pissing off the neighbor.

Thanks!

Next year you'll know exactly what size snow thrower you needed for last year. :-)