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dooley_of_gw

Snow removal dilemma. Seeking advice/opinions.

dooley
12 years ago

Preamble:

Senior with a mild heart condition. Precludes a lot of heavy lifting, pushing.

Driveway : 900 feet gravel (1/4" road crush packed).

So far we've enjoyed the luxury of a neighbour clearing our driveway with his loader/grader/reciprocating tractor . However , it now sounds as if he's about to retire and we'll lose his services.

We can get the local MD to clear the driveway for a nominal fee but it's a hit and miss , get around to it when we can proposition. After a heavy snowfall , we might be snowed in for days. We do have an AWD SUV so unless the snowfall is extreme , we should at least be able to get in and out, but eventually the driveway will have to be cleared.

The MD will not clear parking areas though and our driveway is L shaped with an area we and the fuel truck use to back into to turn around. The total areas to be cleared here would be approximately the same as a two car driveway about 150' long and the turn around area is about 40' x 30'

My thoughts are a snow blower to clear the area in front of the house , the turn around area and possibly even the driveway. One thing worth pointing out about the driveway though is that unless there is a substantial amount of snow (6"-8") we have simply been driving in and out which results in a packed trail and the snow falls accumulate.

Thinking the blower for the area in front of the house and turn around area.

Using the MD to clear the driveway but in a pinch (real heavy snow fall) could make a couple of passes up and down so we could at least get out if we jacked to blower up to pass over the hard packed trail (if there is one).

I'm looking at a 420cc 45"(or something in that range) 2 stage blower.

Questions are:

1) Do you think it would do the job for the house and turn around areas.

2) What about the 900' driveway? Would something like that eat its way through a packed trail if there were one? (My understanding is that the augers would chew it up and suck it in.). That would do away with having to be dependent on the MD.

Opinions and comments appreciated.

Txs

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