# Are You a Snow Blower Pilot?



## r2730 (Jan 1, 2012)

Snow blower pilots keep up with the storms - Metro - The Boston Globe


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## UNDERTAKER (Dec 30, 2013)

Does he really need the helmet also.


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## Ariens1976 (Jan 1, 2013)

I love to play in the snow!


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## detdrbuzzard (Jan 20, 2012)

so which one of those guys are you r2730


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## Sid (Jan 31, 2014)

ALL
Sid


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## Hanky (Nov 14, 2014)

Ariens1976 said:


> I love to play in the snow!


It is a great feeling when your snow goes higher and further than your neighbours, we all are watching every one else.


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## micah68kj (Oct 8, 2011)

Hanky said:


> It is a great feeling when your snow goes higher and further than your neighbours, we all we are watching every one else.


Not me a'tall. I could care less. I'm not very fond of blowing snow and the last thing I care about is who has the biggest, most powerful machine. Just get 'er done and get back inside.


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## detdrbuzzard (Jan 20, 2012)

micah68kj said:


> Not me a'tall. I could care less. I'm not very fond of blowing snow and the last thing I care about is who has the biggest, most powerful machine. Just get 'er done and get back inside.


party pooper


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## micah68kj (Oct 8, 2011)

d[B said:


> [/B]etdrbuzzard;531762]party pooper


Yeh, but,...... Well, no use for me to sugarcoat it. It's only the truth. 
I *did *notice some guy out last afternoon. He was running an *old* Ariens. Wasn't throwing snow very far but it was running at least. Beyond that I didn't see nor care who was running what. Just the way it is. 
*But I really like those skids I made for the Toro. So smooth! Wasn't concerned that I might hit a high sidewalk or anything else. Just ran along so smooth.*


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## time2time (Jan 8, 2015)

Hanky said:


> It is a great feeling when your snow goes higher and further than your neighbours


 Nice to be the recipient of 'Rooster Tail Envy'?

Sometimes it is rewarding to see that unpleasant jackass of a neighbor struggling with the snow, when it is much easier for me. Or to help that neighbor who it nice to everyone, or the older folks who can't easily fend for themselves in the bad weather. 

It is of course petty to want to help the people that we choose, and to do so on our own terms, but to some degree it is human nature..


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## Hanky (Nov 14, 2014)

I wish some one (Ariens) would make a limited edition Blower close to Geno's 15 hp or so . Kind of like a muscle car of snow blowers. I would be first in line for one. My dream would be to be able to blow snow over the top of my house and land in the vacant lot 50 ft away.


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## rosco61 (Dec 8, 2014)

*V8 snowblower*


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## Kiss4aFrog (Nov 3, 2013)

I love Geno's 20 horse Ariens. Lot's of effort putting it together and very detailed work. I can see a lot of us wanting one.

The V8, IMHO . . . just too much everything. Too much weight, uses too much gas, WAY to much noise and you'd never get any benefit out of the extra power.


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## greatwhitebuffalo (Feb 11, 2014)

POWERSHIFT93 said:


> Does he really need the helmet also.


 
I have a friend up in New Hampshire, he lived there his entire life. The amount of snow they get there, he simply devotes one older 4x4 truck or suv type vehicle, to strictly snow plow service. Puts chains all around, and snow tires, and a plow, and it never leaves the driveway- is only used for snow plowing. Often times he'd be emailing me in April, still plowing 12" of snow they got that month.

once it gets that deep, it's time to hang up the snowblower, and move to bigger equipment. let sanity prevail.


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## PixMan (Feb 14, 2015)

Hanky said:


> It is a great feeling when your snow goes higher and further than your neighbours, we all we are watching every one else.


I was out there with my new-to-me Ariens Platinum 30 and my neighbor with his brandy new Craftsman 208cc with the plastic chute. 

Mine was throwing the somewhat heavy (though not deep) snow clear across the street, his was tossing a limp-looking stream, barely.

He came over and just stopped a looked at me with a blank stare, so I stopped for a moment. He said "That thing is a BEAST! I wish this new one had the same power as my dead one", an unknown brand (MTD?) with a 10HP motor. I told him I'd help him fix the old one in the spring so he'd be "back in the game."


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## classiccat (Mar 1, 2014)

Thats a great article! 

I help my neighbors with their machines so when I hear their old tecs chompin at the EOD and see their 40' plumes of snow...I get all tingly inside


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## Ken05 (Feb 13, 2015)

POWERSHIFT93 said:


> Does he really need the helmet also.


 I live in a really windy spot so when I have to go out when it is really blowing to run the snowblower I too have put on my snowmobile helmet (along with the rest of my snowmobile gear) to run the blower. Its kinda nice!


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## time2time (Jan 8, 2015)

Kiss4aFrog said:


> The V8, IMHO . . . just too much everything. Too much weight, uses too much gas, WAY to much noise and you'd never get any benefit out of the extra power.


Question from the Wife: "Does that thing even blow snow?"
(My answer: actually blowing snow probably was probably not even the point of that exercise)


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## Kiss4aFrog (Nov 3, 2013)

That V8 is an exercise in "because I can". I had a 454 CID '83 RX7 so I understand crazy it's just that that much crazy is cool as a project but it just isn't as cool as something that is more user friendly. Geno's unit is way over the top but it's something most guys would not only want to own but it would be fun operating. That one just looks like work.

I so want to do something like this with my Ariens 32" !!
20 horse V twin Ariens


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## caddydaddy (Dec 10, 2014)

Ken05 said:


> I live in a really windy spot so when I have to go out when it is really blowing to run the snowblower I too have put on my snowmobile helmet (along with the rest of my snowmobile gear) to run the blower. Its kinda nice!


The last big storm here was very windy, and with the snow blowing back into my face and freezing my eyeballs, I seriously considered putting my motorcycle helmet on! 
I have a speaker system in it with Bluetooth, so I could have listened to my Ipod while blowing snow.


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## sscotsman (Dec 8, 2010)

I would say 80% of the time I'm psyched to fire up the snowblower and hit the driveway..
Exceptions:

When it snows 6" overnight on a weeknight and I have to get up at 5:30 to clear a path to the road, so we can get out to go to work..

When winter drags on and on and on and on and on like it has this year..snowblowing gets old when you have to do it ten times in 20 days..

But most of the time I do enjoy it..

A day like today was very nice!  Sunday morning, no hurry, an unusual warm spell up to a comfortable and pleasant 25 degrees (negative 4 C), fired up the '71Ariens and did a full cleanup of the driveway and walkways..nice! 

Scot


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## PixMan (Feb 14, 2015)

I can say that for today, I felt as you did.

Sunday is my "sit and read the Sunday paper" day, so I did that and _then_ went out to tackle the cleanup.

And I still got out there before my next door neighbor with the underpowered Craftsman machine. He's usually out there waking me up at 6:30AM after a snow, but today was weird. Perhaps he just didn't feel the urge to use his gifted machine, still in mourning over his 10HP machine being out of commission.

Got mine done, went over to my mom's (7-1/2 miles away) and did hers, plus shoveled out the fire hydrant because none of the lowlifes around here seem to care about fire safety. I have every hydrant within 500 feet of my home done every time it snows (there are 4.)


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## r2730 (Jan 1, 2012)

detdrbuzzard said:


> so which one of those guys are you r2730?


Have an 11 year old Toro single stage and a 4 year old Honda two stage. I consider them tools which work well for me. Nothing more or less. Each unit has its advantages and disadvantages. 

I perform all maintenance according to manufacturer specs and change wearable parts when required. 

I understand problems may come up occasionally, but I like to think the effort I have put into maintaining and properly operating my equipment has paid off.

So to answer your question, none of those guys. I guess I'm a pragmatist. I imagine many others on this forum are the same.


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## Pathfinder13 (Feb 28, 2014)

caddydaddy said:


> The last big storm here was very windy, and with the snow blowing back into my face and freezing my eyeballs, I seriously considered putting my motorcycle helmet on!
> I have a speaker system in it with Bluetooth, so I could have listened to my Ipod while blowing snow.


Last week when it was real cold and windy I went into my ski bag for the ski goggles  Nothin' like blasting through with both eyes wide open while the snow is blowing by your face at least I can keep a better watch where I am throwing.


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## nt40lanman (Dec 31, 2012)

Like Sscotsman, I usually enjoy it but I like about a foot and half. This winter has beat the fun out of it though. Storm after storm, trying to blow powder upwind, not as fun. I do enjoy watching my machine "process" snow. Powering through a foot and a half without stopping, or throwing a plow path 35 feet.


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## Hanky (Nov 14, 2014)

I thought I was a Snow Blower Pilot, but have lost my wings no snow for 4 weeks now. Just a Want a Be..


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## db9938 (Nov 17, 2013)

I run tracks, so I guess that makes me more of a: Schneepanzerkommandant (thanks google translate)


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## 1894 (Dec 16, 2014)

I'm a pilot , mother nature drops it and I pile it


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## micah68kj (Oct 8, 2011)

1894 said:


> I'm a pilot , mother nature drops it and I pile it


Good one. I like wordplay like this.


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## govenatorx (Jan 28, 2011)

POWERSHIFT93 said:


> Does he really need the helmet also.


He probably does.....


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