Looking for a good snow blower...
 

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. Prefer a Honda GX
engine. Any recommendations? Prices?

Thanks!

Dean

Looking for a good snow blower...
 

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.

--
JerryD(upstateNY)

Looking for a good snow blower...
 

Well you like the Honda commercial engines, so you can
go for a honda 2 stage snowblower. They all seem to have
gx series motors on them.

An Ariens, Deere etc might do you just as well without
costing twice as much a new Honda.

Remember they are great machines, but you really pay for it!

If you are working on a gravel driveway, make sure NOT to
point that snow at anything important (cars, house etc)
Rocks can and WILL get in that snow mix. Only thing I would
say with any two stage unit is to make sure you jack those
skids out on the auger a little more than normal. That might help
you with shooting too many rocks out.

If you want throwing power, make sure to get a decent horsepower
motor. Something in the 8hp range is a good start. Smaller ones are
ok, but may not have the throwing power you desire.

Once you get that blower in, make sure to buy an extra few sets of
shear pins. Nothing like breaking one of those and not having any
extras. A cotter pin or screw/nut combo can be used temporarily,
but if you get something jammed in that auger, say bye bye to that
differential.

Tom

Looking for a good snow blower...
 

Dont even consider a single stage as the impellor pulls it along throwig
alot of rocks, Set a 2 stage to not scrape the gravel so you leave
snow, gravel will remove the backed on finish causing rust.

Looking for a good snow blower...
 

Ditto that, Jerry, I'm somewhere between Binghamton and Syracuse
myself.

I'd add to that raising the skids fairly high to avoid scooping up
gravel as much as possible.

Speaking of the skids:
My 'gravel' is walnut-sized crushed stone, and when it gets frozen in
place and one of the skids hits it, that side of the 'blower would
literally stop dead, causing the whole thing to turn, or to jump up in
the air.

I brazed some extensions to the skids to help them climb the walnuts,
as opposed to stopping dead. Now if we'd get some more snow, I could
try it out...


Dave