jamesp

Thank you guys for your responses. I guess that I'll have to be resigned to the fact that I'll need to continue turning around and going back up my long driveway. I guess that ease of turning will be an important issue, now.

It's just the nature of my particular driveway and all that surrounds it, but I spend a lot of time in reverse, which, as you all know isn't very productive. It's time for me to replace my ancient Ariens with a new two-stage blower and my budget is for around a $1,000, maybe a little more. I assumed that any of the newer models with two-speed reverse would be a vast improvement over what I'm used to, but in reading this forum I see some complaints from different owner's about their's being too slow backing up. There's plenty of other features to evaluate in buying new, but for now I'll just ask you folks for your thoughts on this subject alone. At this hour I'm sort of  leaning towards Simpicity or Husqvarna blowers, but that changes from day to day. Who is frustrated with their newer units slow reverse?