I have a gravel driveway thats 200' long and 15' wide, opening up to a
fairly large area, so it has to throw quite far.

Here's a little tip for you.
I have a new house and last year the asphalt wasn't down so it was just
crushed stone.
The snowblower would pick up stones and throw them far enough and hard
enough to do damage.
Also sometimes a stone would get caught in the impellers and shear a
shearpin.
What I finally did to solve the problem was to wait until there was about 3"
of snow on the driveway and then drive the car up and down the driveway to
pack the snow down, moving from side to side to get the whole driveway
packed down.
This way the snowblower would ride along the top of the packed snow and stay
away from the stones.

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JerryD(upstateNY)