From: clewis@ferret.ocunix.on.ca (Chris Lewis)
Newsgroups: ott.general,misc.consumers
Subject: Re: What size of snowblower to buy?
Date: 8 Nov 92 04:56:55 GMT
Followup-To: ott.general
Organization: Elegant Communications Inc., Ottawa, Canada

In article <1992Nov8.020334.11172@dgbt.doc.ca> ted@dgbt.doc.ca (Ted Grusec) writes:
>In article <1992Nov7.195243.939@emr1.emr.ca> kgunn@emr1.emr.ca (Katherine Gunn) writes:
>>In article <1992Nov3.040015.12852@rick.dgbt.doc.ca> andrew@calvin.dgbt.doc.ca (Andrew Patrick) writes:
>>>I am thinking about buying a snowblower. 
>>                                       Are they really worth all that
>>>money?  

>>Instead of spending all that money AND time AND effort, I found I could 
>>have some chap in a truck  come and plough a 60' double driveway for about
>>$200/winter, and then *I* could come out in the morning or home 
>>at the end of the day to find a bare driveway.  Great!

>And where do you find such a chap that will be there when you NEED him
>- e.g. immediately after the street plow has boxed in you with 5 feet
>of solid ice (or boxed you out, as the case may be).  I tried the chap
>in the truck routine one winter and it was a disaster.  They want a
>contract and price that is independent of the number of clearouts, and
>that extends from Oct to June.  And they are NEVER there when you need
>them because they are doing parking lots first, because that's where
>the real money is.  And after a REAL snowfall, you may wait 24 to 48
>hours.>

One thing you should realize is that most standard snow blowers aren't
going to handle piles left by the snow plows if it has half a chance
to freeze.

Depends on where you live.  Out here (Dunrobin), this is done by farmers
with *big* equipment.  Our guy has a full size tractor with a blade
on one end wide enough to do the entire driveway, and a 6 foot wide
blower on the other.  He can do our driveway (200' long, plus 50'
circle plus parking spaces) in about 10 minutes.  No wimpy pickup
truck this.

When a snowfall hits he's out immediately until everybody's done, usually
clearing everybody out by the time they need to go to work.  Though, with
all of the extra stuff he has to do, he's at it for 16 to 20 hours straight.

Best thing is that he charges per clearance.  And knows the capabilities 
of my 12HP lawntractor-mounted blower well enough to only come when the
snow is too much for it.

Amazing thing is, with our large driveway, he only charges $16 a shot.
If we hadn't gotten the tractor with blower, I'd probably have just
let him do it each time.

Incidentally, out in the country, the plows are going too fast to leave
windrows.  They fling it right off the road in a 10-20' wide swath.

As far as Andrew's original question goes, his choice is either something
>=8HP, or if the area is big enough to justify it, a lawn-tractor unit (>10HP).
While lawn tractors are very expensive new, it's often possible to obtain
good quality used ones (eg: an IH - mine's almost 20 years old) for a price
comparable to a new 8HP push blower.  They also tend to last a lot longer,
and are useful for other things too.  Now that I've had this one for
2 years, I don't know how I did without it.  Mind you, I have 10 acres,
and it's probably not maintainable without it.
-- 
Chris Lewis; clewis@ferret.ocunix.on.ca; Phone: Canada 613 832-0541
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