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

Moved into NYC last year.
The way the houses sit / snow, not much place to blow snow just short of the backyward.

For all intents and purposes, the single stage - even with last years heavy snowfall, did the job, albit slower.
I was living in NH previously  and had a 2 stager.

I don't tend to blow snow while it's ~snowing~ as the snow is just blowing everywhere and will just settle and level with the rest of the snow - so it's a moot point for me to take smaller bites.
I'd rather wait till it snows and then go out and then snowblow.

I'd have to get rid of the SS if I went for the 2 Stage. My setup does not allow me to have 2 for storage.

The EOD is brutal however. Last year, I shoveled and blew the driveway and 18+ out (close towards the edge of curbside parking) and left a 8+" thick wall of snow parallel to the curbside cars and my driveway. The friendly snowplow decided to break that wall and plow the heap of snow that I cleared out. So even leaving a ~wall~ of snow -------the plows just come in and push to the right, all night and daylong. Hence my consideration for a 2 stage.

The 24" is MAX I can go in width - that due to some ironwork gated areas I need to push the plow past.
So it would be a Ariens 24" Deluxe.
Seems like ALOT of weight just to deal with EOD.
It would make blowing the backyward, etc faster ----but also more work to move in some tight space where a single stage is easily manhandled.

Debating. Whether to spring for the 2 stage or stick with the SS

stresst wrote:
While I wholeheartly believe that a 24-28" two stage snowblower with a large gutsy engine such as the Honda HS928TA track model is awesome at tackling monumental EOD piles, you can definitely get by with a single stage unit.  For 2 years, three of my neighbors was bailed out by me when those big storms occurs.  I wouldn't feel right if I had the right machine for the job and not be a good neighbor and help them out.  So it's possible to get by with a single stage unit, provided that you have good relationship with your neighbors that have heavy equipment.  But if you are the self-sufficient kind of person, you're not going to wait around for a neighbor to help out.

With that said, I have both a single stage snowblower and a two stage snowblower.  For some unknown reasons, I got the OPE bug and decided that I need the proper tool for every task.  I don't believe compromises.  Even my shovels have specific duties.  I go for the best in class and never thought about what if I bought something else.  The cost of the machine hurts initially, but I never regret the purchase.  Buy it right the first time, it's still cheaper than buying multiple times until you are satisfied.

If EOD is your ONLY reason for needing a two-stage unit, you might consider another alternative.  Go to Amazon and search for snow scoop.  There is a large blue model (I think a Garant version and an Ames TruTemper version), the Ames is a lot cheaper (around 50usd) but I don't know how much they differ.  Anyway, I got a similar scoop at my local ACE Hardware last year for around 45usd and it works very well.  As long as your EOD hasn't frozen into solid ice, this scoop will cut into it and you can "sled" it over to your dumping pile with very little effort.    In fact, I can clear my 2500sf driveway just as fast with this scoop as I can with my 928 two-stage blower.  Oh, and you can hang it up to store it.

Would this consider as a zero stage snow machine?  Or n-stage machine, as many stages as it takes for the user to move snow from one place to another? 

I don't know, there's something special about seeing the snow being propelled 45' - 50' from the chute. No heavy lifting required....

One slight interesting observation.
This ONLY applies to the HS724 series. The 9 and 11 are the same.
On the tracks unit, the bucket height is 16.5" .
The wheeled version is 20"
The impeller is also smaller on the track unit.

I've yet to dig deeper but there are some Husq. models with really big engines ....in proportionate to the bucket width.
Their 27" 1827EXLT seems like a semi-compact monster

No heavy lifting using the snow scoop, either.  Hard to understand it until you use one.  It's all about sliding the snow/ice around, with zero lifting.  My petite wife can use it also, so she can clear the driveway if I'm out-of-town during a heavy snowstorm.

It does keep me warm, though.  I wear just regular street clothes plus a light sweatshirt, stocking cap, gloves and boots in anything above zero degrees Fahrenheit, and I still end up sweating.  I guess I could move slower...

longboat wrote:
Sounds good.

What if you have 5 foot snow banks built up on the sides of your driveway, where are you going to put the snow?

I had 3-4 feet of snow lining my driveway last year.  I just cut a swath through the side of the snowbank with the snowscoop and slid it away about 30 yards - that is where I deposited most of the snow from the driveway.  I cut several swaths along the length so I wouldn't have to sled it so far.  The end of my driveway meets the street, then there is a deep ditch on the other side, so the lower 1/3 of the drive, as well as EOD,  just got sledded down to the ditch.  I tried to put what I could on my lawn, though, for the free water and fertilizer (nitrogen) in the snow.

Don't get me wrong, I still like using my two-stage.  But it is nice to know that I have a good reliable backup if the two-stage ever breaks down.  For the lighter snows (inch or less), I use one of those 36-inch two-handled pusher shovels that works really well and fast.  My next blower will likely be a single-stage, with the scoop handling the snows over six inches.

longboat wrote:
Don't forget the pre-paid potassium chloride and sodium chloride (ice melter, salt) deposited by city plows.  That's partly why the my grass near the curb doesn't look as good as the rest of the lawn.

aa335 wrote:

Agreed.  The upper two-thirds of my driveway gets deposited on my lawn, and the lower one-third plus EOD goes across the street and into the wooded ditch.  That being said, I live in a somewhat rural area and the street is maintained by the county - they typically dump gravel over the snow/ice, but rarely use salts.

One thing I forgot to mention, the wind blows almost non-stop around here, especially after a good snowstorm.  Snowblowing in the wind is not much fun and makes a cab a welcome addition on the two-stage unit.  However, with the scoop, the wind is not much of an issue.