lland

Not MTD bashing, just calling it as I see it.  I've often defended MTD as I believe they offer a product at  price points that appeal to many, many people,  Just saying you can do better...at a higher cost.

LL

Joe,

They are made by Murray.  Not great, but not bad either.  Better than MTD.  As Chris said, if you can find a comparable "Murray branded" unit, you'll most likely pay a lot less (that green paint must be pretty expensive...perhaps it's made with real money to turn it green).  If the Deere branded machine is $1,000 or more and that's within your budget, you may be better off looking at an Ariens, Toro, or Simplicity (assuming you can find one that fits).  One thing the Frontier may have in it's favor is the Deere dealer who sells it.  But like all other brand dealers, there are good and bad.

LL

When I was shopping for a snowblower, I looked at (almost) everything.  It came down to the Toro and the Ariens both of which I felt were equal interms of price, quality, etc.  If one had a deficiency somewhere, the other had an offsetting deficiency somewhere else.  I ended up with the Toro basically for one reason, the "Quick Stick" chute control.  It makes it VERY easy to control the height and direction of the output which looks like something you can use.

It throws snow great, even pretty slushy stuff.  Yes, it does have a bunchof plastic but all indications were that it was well researched and tested prior to being introduced to the market.  There was apparently an issue with some of the plastic parts cracking under some circumstances (I never had any touble) but the newere machines have upgraded parts and Toro replaced the parts on earlier machines (mine included) under warranty (which includes pick-up and delivery).  In fact, the dealer who repaired mine was not the dealer I bought it from.  This delaer is much closer but didn't have any machines left when I wanted to buy one.  He fixed it with a smile!

One last thing about the plastic...it will never rust.

You should be happy with either the Toro or Ariens.  Depends on whether you like red or orange better!!  Either way, I'd try to buy from a dealer rahter than Home Depot as you will most likely get better service.

LL

Just let the mower deck make the pattern...no roller.

I change directions each time I mow (90*) which gives the grid patter.  Once when I had some extra time, I cut twice on the same day, at 90* and really had a nice gris.

LL

A picture of the stripes from cutting my yard.  I took the picture through an upstairs window so sorry for the screen.

LL