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

I would like to buy my husband a snow thrower before the snow season starts. I have a pretty steep asphalt driveway, and a parking area that would fit about 8-10 cars. The parking area is pea stone. We live on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, so winters are not very predictable, some years we get hammered with snow, and other years we get nothing.  My husband is meticulous with his toys and can fix or build just about anything so service is not an issue.  What type of machine should I get him? Are steep driveways an issue with these things? Will the pea stone shoot out like bullets into my yard or is there a height adjustment on the machines? Are they self propelled or will he be pushing 200lbs up the driveway? Thanks for your help...Goodwife

oh yeah. steep drivewway issue... Thats a tough one. These machines are all self propelled. They are very powerfull. The machine will not have a problem pulling its own weignt up a steep hill, but with ice and snow it might get slippery.  How steep are we talking about? If a person were to try and walk up the driveway during a blizard, would they be able to? Someone else might want to chime in about this one. I have never had a machine slide down a hill on me, but It could happen.  You can buy chains for the tires to add traction. You would buy them separate and It would probably be a good idea.

yeah, I was actually going to suggest the 8526 also..My neigbor has one and it can pretty much keep up with my 1236. Its big enough to handle the end of driveway but not so big that you can't man handle it around a bit...