My Snowblower Had a Baby!

I had no idea she was expecting!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Actually, I needed a smaller machine to do my front yard, lower yard for the dogs, a path down to the chicken coop, and around the chicken coop after I rake the snow off the roof. When I first moved out here from a more urban neighborhood, I had a great little Snapper 5HP 22" wide machine that was great in my old driveway and getting around the parked vehicles. But it quickly became obvious that it was way too small to do my current driveway. In 2006 I bought the ginormous 30" 10HP Cub Cadet on the right. Depending on the amount or type of snow, it only takes 6 or 7 passes and an hour or so to clear my 330' gravel driveway. After having the little Snapper sitting in storage for a few years, I sold it to my co-worker's son for $100. I recently kicked myself for doing that after the big storm on February 1st and 2nd, and struggling once again to use the giant machine down in the lower yard and by the chicken coop. Getting down there is not bad with gravity on my side, but getting back up the hill is a bitch. I decided no more, I would try to score a smaller new machine on my day off today. It turned out my local Home Depot had three identical Cub Cadet machines for sale on display. 24" intake chute and a 208cc engine for $1059. I spent a few minutes looking it over and decided to go for it. I actually got it for $953.10 plus tax with my 10% military discount which was cheaper than the Snapper I bought back in 1996. It came fully assembled with oil in the engine that requires changing after the initial 5 hours of run. I filled the tank with gas and fired it up. The engine has compression release which makes pull starting easy, but on the initial start I used the electric starter. I was pleasantly surprised to find the auger/impeller and wheel drive controls were all properly adjusted by whomever assembled that machine. I lowered the skid shoes in order to raise the shave plate for going over grass and gravel and did a short test run in the yard and was pleased with the results. You'll notice the large machine has chains over the Sno-Hawg tires. We get a lot of icy conditions, so when it snows on top of the ice I want the extra traction to push forward on ice through the snow in the driveway. The smaller machine probably won't get them or even need them in the yard.

So what this means is we'll probably not have any more snow for the rest of the season, meaning my wife will complain about me spending the money. In my defense though, I am the one that does ALL the snow clearing on our property allowing her to come and go with ease, and the dogs to be able to go outside after a heavy snowfall.