goofienewfie

Nibbler

I haven't done the math on fuel, but I can say this.  The town I am in has to truck snow about 20km. The still have a dragon snow melter and are in the process of possibly ordering another one based on savings from the test on the first machine.  So your 135km doesn't reflect actual cost based on many other things other then fuel.  You have to remember that truck involves men to operate, which based on municiple wages is not cheap, often when snow needs to be trucked away its wage overtime since they have already spend days pushing it off the roads to begin with.  Then there is maintinence cost.  There is also dispatching and logistics, etc...   The snow melter's can be ran by one man, the loader operator.  Granted it has to be moved from place to place, so a truck driver has to come into play at times.

Environmentally it is safer as drainage is treated in my area.  But of course that comes at a price too.. it cost to be green :\

Just to put things in perspective how much our lives revolve around snow in my area.   The city has gps tracking on all loaders, graders and salters.  You can track in real time were everything is on the municipal website.

Here in Newfoundland, Canada we use many methods to remove snow.  One of them being Snow Dragon Melters.  Here is their website http://www.snowdragonmelters.com/

If I were to use a snow blower for a driveway like that with a "steep" hill.. Then I would be looking at a machine with a track and not wheels. But I think I would look at snow plow options with a four wheeler, truck or something..  Check out local auctions, some times great deals can be had on trucks with plow attachments, would make your life so much easier for sure!

oh my mikie... Haven't been on this forum in a month and your still going on about Ariens vs your Simplicity and quoting Borat..  Yes, some machine you got, wicked eh!

The Automatic traction control is awesome! I really love it and it makes turning my machine so much easier.  30" machine like mine is a fairly large rig and I don't think I would ever go that size without it. As for the quick chute over traction control and throwing end of driveway snow far, I am with borat on that.  EOD is heavy, don't be surprised if you have to blow it twice, specially later in the season when the snow banks are high. I have all sorts of brand names around me and all in different sizes.  When the heavy wet packed snow comes into play, they all struggle to some degree.  As for the features, ditto again.. Look at the build quality of the machines in question.  But I must say, the traction control is nice.

To the poster taking about the traction control slipping on ice, when going straight..  I see that you read this information, can you post a link?  I have never had that happen to me and I get A LOT of ice in my drive.  I find it a bit hard to believe, but not impossible.