How big of a snow blower do I need?

[volk06]

So I need some help in regards to sizing how big of a snow blower I need. 25x25 slab in front of the garage with a 80x10 driveway. This gives me a little over 1400sqft. I've been looking at ariens since I have a great dealer near by and they have better features for the price vs toros. I'm torn between getting a deluxe 28+ (model 921035) or a platinum 30" (921035). I want the auto steer system in case it snows while I'm gone and the other half needs to use that's why it'd have to be the platinum version in the 30". The 28+ would have a 250cc polar force while the 30" would have a ariens ax 414 made by LCT. Are the extra features, bigger engine, and extra 2" worth the extra $500? Would I be disappointed with the performance of the 250cc? How are LCT engines? TIA

You can go to http://www.snowblowersdirect.com/quick_search.php to compare.

 

[NHGUY]

Sure was a lot easier to decide when they rated them by HP.An 8hp ST824 was the very minimum limit for a lot of New Englanders for years.

 

[simple_gifts]

My opinion on S.B? Buy HP. No sense owning a machine that can't cut it on a job you explicitly bought a S.B. for. One storm in SW CT last winter dumped 30-40"

 

[volk06]

Yea they're all rated by torque. The 414 has 20.0 and the 250 has 11.5. Maybe this answered me question. Last winter we got dumped on 2 times with 13" and numerous 4-6" snow falls with drifts.

 

[dparm]

Obviously wider is better, and more HP is better. However, the extra width doesn't help if the motor isn't powerful enough to push through the snow. So yes, buy HP, as simple_gifts said. Those few extra HP will make all the difference during that once-a-year massive snowfall.

I'd rather have a narrow one with HP to spare than a wide one that takes forever to make one pass.

 

[Donald]

I do not think you need a 30" snow blower. The 28" should do it.

I was doing my 800' drive with a 28" for awhile. Now I have a 36".

In my opinion, 2" is not all that noticeable. Its probably not going to cut down the number of passes needed.

 

[volk06]

I wish they had a platinum 28". Would the platinum 24" with the 291cc LCT be more useable than the deluxe 28 with a 250/254cc engine?

 

[steveh]

The only thing I don't like about my 30" 305cc 13.5 is that it don't fit through my side garage door.

 

[GrtArtiste]

I do a 25x40 parking area and a 160 ft single lane driveway with a Toro 726. It's hard for me to imagine that you'd need a 30" machine. Do you get multiple 18-24" snows to deal with?

 

[simple_gifts]

this looks promising.

http://www.e-fujii.co.jp/eng/personal/snowblower/detail/sf.html

Quote:

Hugely Destructive Auger

 

[volk06]

Originally Posted By: GrtArtiste
I do a 25x40 parking area and a 160 ft single lane driveway with a Toro 726. It's hard for me to imagine that you'd need a 30" machine. Do you get multiple 18-24" snows to deal with?


No but at the same time I'd rather be prepared and excess capacity then have one too small.

 

[cchase]

Something to consider. The wider the blower, the harder it is to store and to retrieve, especially if you're taking it out of a garage that may have vehicles in it.

We have an 8 hp 24" blower and about 2500 sq ft of paved space. I've never needed more power and it doesn't take that long to clear the driveway, provided you go out during the 2 to 3 foot storms a few times to keep it clear, which isn't a bad idea anyway.

You'll never regret having too much power. And a 32" blower might seem appealing but it's ability to ingest snow isn't going to be that much better than a 28" blower, so you're trading fewer passes for slower speeds in heavy snow.

 

[Boomer]

Buy the bigger unit. One or two blizzards and you will never look back. I have a Lawn Boy 8 HP that is almost thirty years old. I bought it new. It is 30" and has the power to go through a LOT of snow. I have never wished I bought a smaller unit. BTW, I live in PA.

 

[fdcg27]

It's really a matter of how much time you want to spend clearing snow.
Even a small unit will work well.
It'll just take you longer.
I recall years ago using a tiny two-stroke Toro that belonged to my elderly neighbors to clear a good foot of snow from our 100' X 9' driveway.
It was cold enough that I had to use either to get it running, but after that it was fine and it actually worked more quickly than you would think.
My big old blower with plug in electric start was located badly in the garage (great planning on my part) and they offered to let me use their little machine if I could get it running for them.
A shot of either is like a miracle drug to a small engine reluctant to start and a small unit will work better than you might think.
It's all a matter of how quickly you want to get finished and how much you're willing to spend.

 

[Danno]

I would buy the smaller with the assumption it would in fact be easier for the SO to handle. SO still needs to move it around and the auto steer won't help with dead weight. Sounds like the 30" will be X 10's of lbs heavier.

Go 28" / 8 hp is my thought. I have used one for 3 decades and works quite fine up to and more than 12-15" snow storms.

 

[lars11]

30" does not give any excess capacity compared to a 28". Width can be compensated by speed, if you have a narrower blower with power, just increase speed if the snow is thin enough.
It's tougher to compensate power and auger height if the snow is deep, so I would rather have a large diameter auger with an efficient and quite tall housing if I expect thick snow. A blower is only efficient in snow up to just over the auger, if thicker you will slow down a lot and use your own muscles quite a bit...

So what do you expect? 10" powder every week or 20" of packed "clay" twice a year? If the latter applies, get a narrower heavyweight with a real engine and aggressive auger.

 

[eljefino]

I agree on the narrower idea. It's just me but once I get one swath down I like to use about 2/3 of the auger for the next swath, with the remaining 1/3 catching random dribbles in the clear zone. I compensate by using a higher forward drive speed. Hate walking at a slower-than-walking plodding speed. PS, more power is always useful, but I like to man handle turning the things around and all the wacky skid steering stuff is overkill for me.

 

[Dean85]

Originally Posted By: volk06
So I need some help in regards to sizing how big of a snow blower I need. 25x25 slab in front of the garage with a 80x10 driveway. This gives me a little over 1400sqft. I've been looking at ariens since I have a great dealer near by and they have better features for the price vs toros. I'm torn between getting a deluxe 28+ (model 921035) or a platinum 30" (921035). I want the auto steer system in case it snows while I'm gone and the other half needs to use that's why it'd have to be the platinum version in the 30". The 28+ would have a 250cc polar force while the 30" would have a ariens ax 414 made by LCT. Are the extra features, bigger engine, and extra 2" worth the extra $500? Would I be disappointed with the performance of the 250cc? How are LCT engines? TIA

I think it depends on if your other half needs the auto steer. Otherwise I do not think the extra $500 is worth it, especially for an extra 2". I have an MTD 8/26 trac drive for 15 years. It has seen alot of hard use and is still going strong. I do not think I will ever go back to a wheel drive. These tracs go through just about anything. It does have steering control which is really nice. The trac drives are getting harder to find. As already mentioned, you can compensate the smaller clearing path by increasing speed, depending on how deep/wet the snow is. I plow a 90 X 13 driveway and about 75ft of street parking.

 

[threeputtpar]

I agree with the other poster that mentioned auger size. I have a 30" 10.5hp machine that is ~3 years old, but it has a 12" auger and 12" impeller. In anything over 8" of snow, it is a slow go to get the driveway cleared. When I bought the machine, all I looked at was the hp rating. Now that I know better, I'd really prefer to have an old school Ariens from the late 70's that had the 16" auger and impeller with the 8hp Techumseh. Those things could really move the snow. Heck, even the Ariens ST824s that I found for my SIL and FIL are better machines.

My old Toro from the mid 70's had a larger auger and did much better than my current machine in heavy snow, but it was a beast to maneuver. I like the power steering on my new machine enough that I'll put up with having to go slower.

 

[hemitom]

I have the ariens deluxe 24 with the polar force 250cc, I know its not what your looking for but i will give you my opinion on the machine, All steel no plastic. The engine starts first pull and very easy to pull over, never use the electric start,it starts that easy, I only have a 24 swath on mine so power is almost endless with the 250cc engine, In third gear gear i can blow powered snow thats over top of the auger housing with now problems. wet snow 12 to 14 inches in first gear is a walk in the park. And what i like most i can blow snow over the top of my garage into the empty field, my old ten horse would never shoot the snow that high to clear the garage.

It has 14" auger and 14' impeller, so it really pulls in the snow and shots it out with bogging.