After our latest over hyped nor easter, was wondering what snowblowers y'all like. My Toro single stage has been good, but struggles with heavy and wind packed snow which is what we usually get here on the coast.
After ramming that thing into the snow for a foot at a time, I realized I'm too old to fight with it....Been looking at a Ariens 2 stage a commercial friend of mine recommended, 24" width is plenty...

any and all suggestion, ideas, or opinions welcomed..Thanks

Ariens are nice machines. Honda is top notch, but very expensive. The rest I believe are MTD's. Depending on how much use it gets, a well maintained MTD can last a person a lifetime if it only sees 5 hours a year. It just depends on how much cash you want to put out. Used is also a great option.

I fought blowing snow with a walk behind for years. I would not get one bigger than a 24" the become hard to handle if they are too big. I got tired of it and bought a skidsteer and a 87" blower for it. I clean out a large area and it is the only way to move snow. If I had a smaller area I would look at a blower for on a riding mower. If all you have id a fifty foot drive way and a sidewalk a walk behind will work. I would ware a walk behind out in a year. It was a pain at best.

MY new blower is a Columbia which is apparently the Canadian name for troy built which is basically a premium MTD

my neighbor has an older MTD from Menards 8hp 24 inch

My dad had an Ariens , and now has a Johndeere which I also think is a rebranded premium MTD



as PRN mentioned

most are MTD , decide what you want for features , 8hp 24 inch two stage is about the smallest I would go , they don't do HP any more but CC most are 243cc that I have seen

My new blower is 277cc 26 inch cut with a higher auger shroud also to cut deeper snow

I sometimes wonder if I should have just repowered my old blower with a Predator motor from Harbor freight but it was a heavy old beast from 1975 and the new one is very nice to run


mostof the time if you take care of them put good fuel in them and use a fuel stabilizer all the time will go 20-25 years easy enough
put some penetratingly oil on any of the cables , and connections , a coupel times a year , use a good fuel stabilizer. I use Startron
change the oil come spring , hose it off to get rid of the salt , oil your cables and pivot points and such and store , start it up about thanksgiving and run it even if it doesn't snow much start it up and run it for 15 minutes a month through he snow season and you should get many years.

my dads areins he bough in 1985 about 2005 he had surgery and mom had to run it , she had difficulty starting it so he bought a new one easier to start for her I ran hos old one another 5 years before breaking a part and finding another blower for less than the part cost.

I used a lot of snowblowers working on the RR.350 cc(around 10 HP) is the best size to get.It is powerful enough to move snow without overworking the engine.
We had 420 cc engines in some and they were hard on belts-too powerful.
The Troybilt or MTD are good machines,we also had husqvarnas-all the same as far as performance and mtc requirements.
They all seen rough use on the RR.

I have a Cub Cadet and a Husky. 2 stage is a must. I have JD tractor with a 59 in front blower for doing a long driveway.

Get more power than you think you need, and one with tracks.