Snow Preparedness-First time home buyer (square footage, dangerous, garage)

[Parsec]

Originally Posted by ramaka

Thanks again! Damn, that is one helluva machine!!

Haha, I was joking. Those tractors cost as much as a house.

Anyway, if you decide to get a 2-stage there's something you should know about them. Buy an extra set of shear pins. It's guaranteed they will break on you at one point or another - sometimes even once every 1-2 years if you have a lot of rocks around your driveway. Learn how to replace them yourself because you can't just throw the whole thing in your car and have a shop do it for you. It's something that needs to be done on the spot in order to finish clearing your driveway. Single-stage blowers have a lot fewer moving parts, so they don't break down as often and are easier to maintain.

[absood]

Originally Posted by mmyk72

I Got An electric blower 2 yrs ago when I bought my house and it helped when we had the mega storms that would have been almost impossible to shovel all by hand. I have a 2 car driveway and I'd say it works for this size and not much bigger.

When we have 8+ inches of snow, it takes quite a bit of muscle strength to push it thru the snow. And if there's even more snow than that, it still takes hours of hard work because it needs 2 passes (I had to ram it into the top 4-5 inch layer first, then pull back to get to the bottom half). The sweet spot is 4-6 inches of snow when it takes hardly any effort to clear the whole driveway. Any less snowfall, it's not worth the hassle to deal with the cord.

Thanks mmyk72, seems like considering the amount of snow in the area, electric snow blower may need much more time and energy

Originally Posted by Parsec

I think your driveway is too long for an electric blower. This is the one I bought 5 years ago for my 4-car driveway:
Toro Power Clear 721 R 21 in. Single-Stage Gas Snow Blower-38741 at The Home Depot

I think it's adequate for any typical driveway you see in the suburbs here (up to 4 car long, 2 wide). That's assuming your driveway is flat and has no obstacles like a 4-foot wall along the side. I do agree on the maintenance part though. At a minimum you'd need to get it serviced every other year, but preferably do a basic tuneup every year like you would do on a lawn mower (oil if you have a 4-stroke engine, filter and plug). Some years I spent more time tinkering with it than I did using it to blow snow. If you can't maintain it yourself you probably need an SUV or minivan to get it to the shop unless you want to be one of those idiots who transport lawn equipment in the trunk of their sedan with the lid held down by bungee cord. I got mine serviced once when I didn't have time to do it and it cost something like $150 for a tuneup.

Thanks Parsec.. I believe i can manage doing maintenance myself, just not my favorite thing to do... but so is the snow cleaning
Is the single stage gas blower okay for cleaning the deck? I mean are they too heavy to carry and move around..

[Parsec]

Originally Posted by absood

Thanks Parsec.. I believe i can manage doing maintenance myself, just not my favorite thing to do... but so is the snow cleaning
Is the single stage gas blower okay for cleaning the deck? I mean are they too heavy to carry and move around..

Mine's about 80 pounds which is light enough to lift up a few steps, but too heavy to carry from my garage all the way to my deck. How would you get to the deck from your garage? If there's a paved path then it's no problem lifting it up a few steps, but I wouldn't want to carry that thing 100 feet. After doing some more research I'm actually leaning towards the 4-wheeled Honda with tracks. I've seen videos where people just "drive" it up the stairs like a tank.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by Parsec

Mine's about 80 pounds which is light enough to lift up a few steps, but too heavy to carry from my garage all the way to my deck. How would you get to the deck from your garage? If there's a paved path then it's no problem lifting it up a few steps, but I wouldn't want to carry that thing 100 feet. After doing some more research I'm actually leaning towards the 4-wheeled Honda with tracks. I've seen videos where people just "drive" it up the stairs like a tank.

You can always lay a couple planks down on the stairs to make a ramp and drive the snow blower up and down the makeshift ramp. That's how you'd get a heavy 2-stage machine on and off a pickup truck. I used to have a 14 1/2 Toro back when I had a 300 foot driveway where half of it was concrete parquet paver blocks that would have been destroyed by a plow.

I've since learned not to buy large houses with long driveways that can't be plowed with a truck.

[Cape Cod Todd]

I'm down on the Cape so we usually don't get as much snow as off Cape and it doesn't stick around as long. 3 out of 4 of our cars are 4x4's and one is a JeeP wrangler so we can crash through the snow bank that the plow leaves at the end of the driveway. I usually shovel paths to clean the vehicles.
My Mom has a really long driveway on the South Shore and if she gets a bit of snow she will shovel but if she gets a lot she will call a plow guy.

Shoveling snow is part of living in New England so get used to it.

[Parsec]

Originally Posted by Cape Cod Todd

I'm down on the Cape so we usually don't get as much snow as off Cape and it doesn't stick around as long. 3 out of 4 of our cars are 4x4's and one is a JeeP wrangler so we can crash through the snow bank that the plow leaves at the end of the driveway. I usually shovel paths to clean the vehicles.

I wouldn't recommend doing here on the mainland. Our thaw/refreeze patterns are different. I had a friend who tried that with her Civic and ended up cracking half of her rear bumper. Also if you just shovel paths to your vehicle and leave the snow on the driveway too long it becomes rock hard. You won't be able to drive through it - not even with your pickup or Jeep. I learned that the hard way a few years back. I didn't shovel half my driveway near the house due to time constraints and when I went to shovel it a few days later it was impossible to dig up, even with a spade shovel. I ended up losing 2 parking spots for the rest of winter.

[Cape Cod Todd]

You are right Parsec. It is not a good idea to try and crash through the snow banks with any car that has plastic bumpers or a valance because they can be damaged or even torn off. I don't crash through with the Forerunner or my F150 due to this but the JeeP is nothing but steel. I'm also only talking a foot or so not 3 feet or packed ice.
If the snow takes a while to melt we do end up with ice but with a gravel driveway it is really hard to get right down when shovelling also having a plow come in can result in a damaged driveway.
It is true the mainland is different. I grew up there and shovelled many winters.
I guess I should have written "your results may vary" LOL

[maggiekate]

my idea was the car out and snow so the car was in the drive hood out and sun did melt the rest. problem move to the sunshine state and the Honda gets a non snow home

[maggiekate]

Originally Posted by Cape Cod Todd

I'm down on the Cape so we usually don't get as much snow as off Cape and it doesn't stick around as long. 3 out of 4 of our cars are 4x4's and one is a JeeP wrangler so we can crash through the snow bank that the plow leaves at the end of the driveway. I usually shovel paths to clean the vehicles.
My Mom has a really long driveway on the South Shore and if she gets a bit of snow she will shovel but if she gets a lot she will call a plow guy.

Shoveling snow is part of living in New England so get used to it.

Cape Cod when in does Snow it does lucky me at a hotel in Boston with a cape cod blizzard. not so lucky my Scottie dog and mom or me lost in Boston one week!

[absood]

Originally Posted by Parsec

Mine's about 80 pounds which is light enough to lift up a few steps, but too heavy to carry from my garage all the way to my deck. How would you get to the deck from your garage? If there's a paved path then it's no problem lifting it up a few steps, but I wouldn't want to carry that thing 100 feet. After doing some more research I'm actually leaning towards the 4-wheeled Honda with tracks. I've seen videos where people just "drive" it up the stairs like a tank.

Thanks.. though so..
so, shovel for the deck..