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Snow Removal

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glemon

glemon

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So in building the new garage we have poured a driveway that is about 40" long and starts about 30' wide, tapering to 20' by the time it reaches the street.

My whole life I have been rugged man or stupid man depending on your point of view, and just used a shovel (it is in the genes, my dad proudly believed in the benefits of a push mower, not gas mower which isn't self ptopelled, a reel mower powered by one teenager)

However, I am not getting any younger, and the new garage faces north, which means mother nature is of no help removing the snow, which turns to ice and lingers all winter if I drive over it and compact it.

Nebraska winters are highly variable, we may get a few inches of snow the whole winter, ora few feet. Last winter we had a dozen or more dustings of 1 or 2 inches, this winter we have already had two snows over half a foot.

So I am thinking middle range snowblower, $250-500 or so, but I really don't know much about them. They also have electric battery operated now, imagine those run through the juice pretty quickly.

Other option is a blade for my Cub Cadet XT1, which is more of a riding mower than a lawn tractor, I think it could do it, but I might fry the transmission prematurely.

Lastly, could just hire a service, I have no idea how much this costs, really not my way to do things.

Any thoughts or advice?
 
You are a lucky man! Having a poured driveway makes the whole snow removal problem a lot easier to solve. I can't put a solid surface over my 300 foot long gravel driveway, as it's too close to neighbor's septic field.

Just about any dual stage blower will take care of a few inches of fluffy snow. It's the heavy/wet stuff that many blowers can't handle; just "oozes" out of the chute.

So I do the 2-6 inches light snow with a hand shovel/scraper, pushing it to the sides. The heavy wet stuff, I actually can't shovel (too heavy for me, and there are *no* services here who want to do gravel driveways. A truck with a plow on the front inevitably wrecks the gravel surface. Edit: there are no young folks anywhere who want to do outside work. They'd rather play their video games. yeesh

My 5 hp Craftsman blower will handle up to a foot of light snow - but not the heavy wet "heart attack" stuff. So I have to live with it and wait for it to melt. I just go to the driveway threshold (asphalt) at the main road, and continually scrape it down with the shovel. It's the massive piles that the DOT plows leave at the driveway threshold that drive me nuts.

If you decide to get a blower, I've heard many negative stories about the "three stage" machines; they have "throw power" for light snow, but get even more clogged up with heavy wet stuff than the two stage machines. As I'm not getting any younger (!), I'll probably get an 8 hp blower when they go on sale this spring. If I live that long!

If you can get someone to use a truck and plow, go for it. But you'll still need a small blower for sidewalks, garage entrance area, etc, where the plow can't/won't go.

Hope this helps.
Tom M.
 
I lived in Milwaukee for 15 years, last house had a 3 car garage with an “L” driveway. Get the biggest snowblower you can afford. Mine was a 22”, but it’s not like mowing grass, you have to overlap a lot. So coverage per pass is only 1/2 to 2/3 of the width. I wanted a bigger one for the 15 years I owned that one.

If you want your wife to use it, get one with a differential for easier turns.
 
Thanks Tom, I did forget to mention that when I was younger we would almost always get a kid or two at the door who would shovel for a few bucks, haven't seen that for a long time.

I have a large corner lot, but no sidewalks, just a walkway to the house, which is pretty easy.

Thanks for the info on snow blowers, helpful
 
Last edited:
I'll just put this here:

oshkosh-front-630x390.jpg


https://wausau.craigslist.org/cto/d/rhinelander-1956-oshkosh-plow-truck/6797426696.html
 
For the first several years we lived in New Mexico had a rather small electric show blower that wasn't much good for snow more that about 6 inches. Then, after we had a couple really good, deep snow dumps I decided to upgrade. Ended up with a Troy-Built 26" that is self-propelled with 6 forward speeds and 2 reverse speeds. It also has electric start (plug-in, not battery) which I really love! So far we haven't had a snow that this thing couldn't handle.

me_snow.jpg
 
Mine faces north also, but 50' wide and 18' to the street. If the snow is dry, I sweep with broom. This last one was 12" and wet. Shoveled out an 18' wide to street. Next day did the 8' to street. Wife bought me one of those electric snow shovels, have had it over 10 yrs, used once, threw too many rocks.
 
Good luck with finding a solution. We were fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to remove ourselves from the snow. Too many winters spent fighting "fat rain" in my youth, always with a shovel.

Though Basil's photo has me wanting to grab a blanket and go crawl into a corner in a fetal position, that TroyBuilt looks to be the best bet.
 
I have for years removed central Illinois snow with a Cub Cadet and a blade. Ours is an older LT 2000 which is similar to the XT-2. I'm not sure a XT-1 would take a plow or be up to the job.
 
Great and as-expected responses from our Canadian and Florida representatives :smile: (Yes, I'm just a little jealous...)

Growing up in Chicago with a big driveway we had a Toro. Ran like a champ for 20-odd years till my parents sold the house and moved to a condo. Once a year we brought it to a dealer for a "tune-up" - i.e. replace a $5 plug and $5 worth of oil and charge $50, but it was worry-free for us! Snowblowers need to start intermittently, but reliably. To wit, an important element on the snowblower is the engine; most brands do not make their own. Ours had a Briggs and Stratton; not sure who makes today's "good" and "not so good" 5-10 hp engines. Make sure the engine is a good one that will start when needed.

(As an adult, our driveways have been stubby and a shovel suffices. In our current house I need to shovel 15' of front walk and 20' of two-car driveway. No sidewalk. If we decided to hibernate we can shovel it tomorrow - can't do that with public sidewalks.)
 
Wow - this thread sure came back from near-oblivion!

As I wrote earlier, It's the massive piles that the DOT plows leave at the driveway threshold that drive me nuts.

I can handle the 300 foot gravel driveway and sidewalks with my 5hp two-stage blower, but not that threshold area.

Winter2014-4.jpg

gak
 
Ditto - was not really paying attention to the date! (I think my wife would agree with that... )
 
glemon said:
So in building the new garage we have poured a driveway that is about 40" long
Click to expand...

I just happened into this thread again and realized that, at 40 inches, you must have set some kind of record for the world's shortest driveway.
 
I believe that since the good Lord put the snow there, he is responsible for removing it. And he does, every spring.
 
I have posted this before..... here's what I use to plow my snow :jester:

Snow Plow specialweb.jpg
 
One of the things I like about this forum is a more friendly, casual atmosphere. I have been on many other forums where members, or even moderators, will skewer you for drudging up an old thread, or asking a question that has been asked once before in the distant past. I still have three shovels and think I will just keep it that way. Last year I was working very hard on home projects, tired and sore. This year I am back to the more usual "better keep active so I don't have to buy a lot of new pants" mode. Also, have a gutter on the garage now, last year, middle of construction, no gutter yet, just dripped off the edge and froze all winter.
 
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