Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

Who makes the strongest, most powerful, most durable snow blower?  Price isnt an issue.  I want to buy a new one and wanted to know who is the best of the best

This IS a hard question to answer.......like someone else said, it's like asking "What's the best car??"

everyone has different needs......how much snow do you get........, how big is your driveway.....who will use it......storage needs.......dealer support......do you do your own maintanence.......
do you also do neighbors.........do you need to transport it........etc,etc.

That is why I posted a sticky here last year about "Buying a new Snowblower? Ask these questions first".....   The old mods saw the wisdom in making that a sticky....when the new mods took over they wiped it out......it was very helpful, and stupid to take it off.......it IS on the new forum though.

ANYWAY........Try it before you buy it......check out the features you like......quality and dealer support should be more important then price......a quality unit should last you 20 years.....devide the higher price of a quality unit by 20 years and it is pennies, and you have the joy of owning and using a quality snowblower.

That being said, ANY snowblower well taken care of is better then the best snowblower that is NOT taked care of.

For the record, although I've never used a hydro drive, my Ariens Pro snowblower has 6 forward speeds, the first gear is crawling...very slow...perfect.....the 6th gear is FAST.  It is all I need.

If you tell us more about your needs and wants in this area we could be more helpful to you.

Frank D.

Bill said:

"..What if you want to crawl beside the house and then take off at a faster speed?  The disk drive requires that you come to a complete stop, shift in to a higher gear, then start again...."

I shift on the fly with my 1128DLE. The friction disk "walks" across the drive plate.

The machine is "geared" perfect for 1st gear and I do not go faster than 3rd. Anything faster is risking damage to my machine. Those sidewalks are not always level and I could go head first over the handles. lol

NJ is right....you can shift on the fly with the Ariens.....I usually blow in 4th or 5th gear.......5th is fast.........I have the snow cab to stop me from flying over it....

Frank D.

Hi Frank,

I think you're right. The right way to see the problem is to try to find the right snowblower for your needs..... This is the best snowblower for you.

But I think that the question here was simply: Wich snowblower is the best? Regardless of considerations of price or specific needs.

Yes it's difficult to answer the question: Wat car is the best?  But regarding snowblowers I think it's much more easyer to answer. We can debate over two or three contenders of course. But I think we can put the list down to less than four snowblower for the title.

Anyways.

>>>  " I usually blow in 4th or 5th gear.......5th is fast........."    >>>>  Wow!   You must have very small amount of snow to do that!!!

I usually blow in first and sometimes in second gear!  Never in 3th and in the 5th I have to run behind the snowblower!    ....     You must be jocking!?

We just received 41cm ( a bit over 16 inch.) of snow yesterday and the first gear was just fast enought to do a good job and digest the snow without forcing the engine!  (Ariens 1332 DLE)

I find that I rarely use anything but :

1. Fastest forward gear - straight line,- still too slow
2. Slowest forward gear - EOD and deep heavy stuff - Sometimes its too fast
3. Fastest reverse gear - Still too slow but it helps when I need to maneuver backwards

They promised us 20-30cm ( 8-12 " ) and we only got  10cm ( 4") which seems to be normal for this area. I basically guage how fast to go by the engine sound and how much snow is being snowplowed by the augers. I find if I go too slow there isn't enough load on the engine to cause the automatic throttle to kick in and performance degrades. I'm also impatient and want to use all of my horsepower :

If your machine has a friction disk then cable adjustments will help problems 2 & 3. You will get a slower 1st "gear" and a faster reverse but a slower high speed.

It's not the adjustment that s off its the actual speeds don't match with what I want, a user perception problem as opposed to a mechanical one.

I guess I do not have too much of a snow handling problem because

1) I snowblow often....the other day it was 4 times in one day....

2) 13 hp  for 32 inches seems to handle things well.

I suppose when I have to snowblow heavier snow, or a lot of inches deep I'll go at a lower speed.

Kinda like making love.....you can do it fast, but why rush it?? 

Frank D.

Off colour joke alert

Young bull and old bull are looking down at the herd. Young bull says "lets run down and have a couple", old bull says "lets walk down and have them all".

Except for EOD most of what I have to deal with is 10-20cm ( 4-8" ) so speed is more important than power most of the time.

Bill wrote:

Yes ive tried the Hondas  out. I have snowblower around my House and property before rain storms to prevent flooding with my machines. Never needed anything lower than 1st. My ariens and sears can shift on the fly. And I can move my mahine in the off season much easier than the Honda.

Side note, at the Big county fair, OPE dealer was showing 4 or 5  brands of machines. Alll the Hondas were gasses up, and a few from each other manufacturer. I ran the honda here. They gassed all the Hondas to move them to and about when setting up. The other machines rolled freely without much help.