jdpilot

In response to Steve_Cebu's post saying that John Deere dealers don't sell John Deer snow blowers: I bought my new 1330SE from a John Deere dealer, and traded in my old John Deere 524 for it.. I know that some John Deere dealers don't sell JD blowers (the nearest JD dealer sells Ariens); but, others do.

Also, I think $1500 is a lot to spend for a snow blower for personal residential use (I feel a little foolish and stretched for doing it myself), so I would argue against using that money as a down payment for something more expensive. If you were intending to use it commercially, there might be some justification for spending more to get specific features and warranty advantages. But, for use at home,  there are plenty of sub-$1500 machines available that will do a great job of trouble-free snow removal for many years. If you've been doing the job with a 7 HP yardman for the past 12 years, probably any of the machines recommended in this thread would give you a major performance improvement over your current blower, and get you inside or off to work a lot sooner than your used to.

After lots of hands-on and on-line comparison shopping, that's what I spent on my new John Deere 1330SE; and I think it was a great choice. It's already blown plenty of snow to prove itself.

Awesome pictures, and amazing work by those machines.

Thanks, Dan.

When I reported on my new 1330SE on December 12th, after my first chance to use it, I commented on a few "bad" impressions that I had, in addition to several good things. JohnWI had some astute observations about each of my concerns, and they've all virtually evaporated over the last couple weeks. At this point, after assaulting record snow for any one month in southeast Minnesota, I'm a full fledged fan of the big green beast. It sounds like the whole northern half of the Country is getting pummeled already this Winter; but here's what December looked like around here:

Dec 3-4: 9 inches of snow

Dec 10-11: 16 inches (the first snow for my 1330SE)

Dec 15-16: 6 inches

Dec 20: 6 inches

Dec 25: 5 inches

As you can imagine, the piles just kept getting higher; but the beast made easy work of clearing the snow plow mounds and opening access to the mail box. Those were major chores with my old John Deere 624. It's been great to have the power to launch snow out of the way on a single pass, rather than having to re-blow snow that my old machine couldn't throw far enough to completely clear our wide driveway. I think my disappointment in the Easy-Steer feature stemmed from the fact that turning after that first snow storm required pushing 16+ inches of snow latterally with the side of the bucket, and was no fault of the split (open) axel. Either I"ve gotten used to the strength of the drive lever or it's loosened up some; because I really don't notice it much any more. What I do notice is that my hands don't get cold, I don't have to yank a rope in the tight confines of my garage to get things started, I can change blow directions with the push of a button, and I can launch snow as far as I need to.

 If we've got to deal with record breaking snow falls, it's great to have a blow beast that can handle it.

To answer your question about smaller bites: When you have to bury the whole intake into the snow, use the slowest gear and if it starts to bog down, back off a little to let the blower discharge; then repeat over and over until your first path is done. You can start the next path without completely covering the intake. For such deep snow, it helps to install drift cutters, if you have them. You make better progress, because the cutters reduce the amount of snow falling back into your path.

You probably already knew all this or figured it out; but, since you asked...