# NVa w/long driveway - recommendations?



## dvorak (Jan 22, 2014)

I recently moved from a townhouse to a single family home. At the townhouse my driveway was pretty short and a single car wide so it was pretty manageable with just a shovel. The house I'm in now has about a 100' long 2 car wide driveway that ends at a 100' long pipestem that isn't plowed by the HOA or county. I live in the northern part of Virginia, so we don't get serious snow very often, but given the area I have to clear, I'm thinking a snowblower would be a wise investment.

A neighbor much further down the street let me borrrow his Toro CCR 3650 single stage blower today. It's a 20" wide single stage blower and it was *way* better than shoveling, but it took quite a while to clear 2-4" of snow a single car width 200' long. I did like that in most of the area I was able to clear right down to the pavement. I appreciated that he let me borrow it, but given that I have about 10x the area to clear that does, I wouldn't feel ok borrowing it very often.

It seems like from what I've seen so far that I'm not going to be able to expect much in the way of help from my other neighbors that live off of the pipestem, since their idea of how to deal with snow is to (maybe) clear their driveway then drive over the snow on the pipestem and pack it down. The biggest problem I had with the Toro today was clearing the areas where the snow had been driven over and packed down. The end of driveway area was also a big challenge, I know from the light snow we've had before that it tends to just turn into a big ice pit.

Anyway, I'm looking for recommendations or thoughts on what would be a reasonable choice for a snowblower. I'm thinking a two stage would probably make sense, but my concern is how much snow it'll leave on the pavement, especially with some of it being packed hard. I did like how easy the single stage toro was to move around. Storage isn't a huge problem, I have a two car garage that I've already given up on parking cars in.


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## Shryp (Jan 1, 2011)

A 2 stage is probably going to do worse on scraping the packed snow off the driveway. A single stage actually rubs the ground while a 2 stage just glides over it. If you set the skids low enough though you can have the scraper bar right on the ground and not leave snow behind.

First thing to do is check your local craigslists and look for a good deal on a used one. Ariens, Toro and Honda are the 3 most popular makers right now. Some of the older ones like Simplicity were good too.


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## detdrbuzzard (Jan 20, 2012)

both toro and ariens have older 20 / 21" inch two stage snowblowers. they are not very big or heavy, they don't clear down to the pavement. if your drive is paved you could adjust the skids to less than 1/4 of an inch. cost wise i paid $175 for my 3650 plus $40 for paddles while i paid $85 for my toro 521E and $22 for a carb. generally i see 3650" for $175 - $300 and i see toro 521" going for $150 - $250


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## Kiss4aFrog (Nov 3, 2013)

My drive is 375 to the city plowed street.
You mentioned the time it took. I would try to get a 22", 24", 26 or even bigger. You don't need a huge engine on it but width is the only thing that's going to cut down on your time. I notice a huge difference in time between my Troys 24" and the Craftsman 32". Three passes with the Craftsman is four with the Troy.
The other thing to think about is are you up for doing your own maintenance/repairs on it. If so an older blower would be a cheaper purchase and most are fairly easy to maintain. The more you maintain it the more reliable. Shryp's recommendations of Ariens, Toro and Honda are good and depending on how old others as they were made better and hold up well. If in doubt post the make and year and you'll get info on it from someone here 
The pack snow is a problem in that a two stage would need to be properly adjusted and in your case you might even need to add some weight to the auger housing to help hold down the scraper to the ground so it wouldn't ride up as easily and you personally wouldn't have to muscle up the handles when operating it to keep that auger down. On a single you don't really have that option as lifting on the handles just puts more weight on the paddles and it goes forward faster and doesn't spend as much time on the packed area. For added weight you can go trailer park and hang old brake rotors up there, a chunk of railroad rail or they make weight kits to mount there for people with handle mounted cabs as they pull the front end up. You are only limited by your imagination.
I personally would go for the self propelled 2 stage as the few bad storms you have you'll be happy you have more machine. I had a nice 4hp 21 single stage and loved it for a city driveway until I hit the pile at the end of drive. Sometimes it wasn't bad, other times it just laughed at me shoving that blower into the pile, couple inches at a time.

Toro weight kit. Just a big red metal bar with mounting bolts


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## cdestuck (Jan 20, 2013)

What is nice about a single stage is that for up to 3 or 4 inches, they scoot along as fast as you can walk. I have a toro single stage and a toro 824 two stage here in central pa. We do get more snow than you and some deeper snows. I think for Va, I would go for a good size single stage. One bad thing about the single stages is that they run a bit high for maintenance. The rubbers and scraper run about 60 bucks or so. And with some use, they can wear down in a year or two.


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## Koenig041 (Dec 18, 2013)

For the time savings I would go 2 stage, 7hp, min 26 inch cut. I would not sweat getting down to the black top completely. How many days of consecutive below freezing days do you have? 200 ft of driveway would be a pita with anything less than a 26 inch cut. I'm sure most of your snow is on the heavy side also, hence the min. 7hp. My drive is 1000 ft. When we first moved in I had a 5hp with a 24inch cut. The drive is also a car and a half wide. I had to go up and down 3 to 4 times to get it clean with that 24 inch cut. Remember you have overlap, you don't get a true 24 inches. Also the heavier the snow the slower you have to go. 5hp is working at its max with any snow that fell above 27 degrees. Forget any freezing rain that may have fallen on top of the snow. 5hp is also not conducive to cutting into plow packed snow. My son is now old enough to operate his own machine. He uses the 30 inch cut and I use the 32 inch cut. Down and back twice and its a wrap. Find a late 70's early 80's Ariens, Toro or Honda for $250 like the others have said and you are in good shape. I personally like having a machine that is more than I need, then having one that is not enough machine. Good luck and let us know what you decide.


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## dvorak (Jan 22, 2014)

I picked up a Toro CCR 3650 off of Craigslist this evening for $150. The guy I bought it off of said he bought it and only used it twice before realizing it wasn't going to cut it for the area he had to clear (way more than I have). It looks pretty much new and seems to run fine. Since this is the machine I used the other day I at least know what I'm in for in terms of clearing something like the 6-7" of snow we got recently. 

I realize this might not be the best choice long term, but it's an inexpensive way to deal with the problem in the short term. I figure the worst case is that the Toro will end up being a backup, if I end up getting a 2 stage later down the road and I can use it for the few areas like sidewalks and such where I really care about clearing down to the pavement.


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## detdrbuzzard (Jan 20, 2012)

the 3650 is a very capeable machine, it may take a bit longer in the deep or wet stuff but it beats shoveling. check the paddles and scraper bar for wear and congrats


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## db9938 (Nov 17, 2013)

And in a year or two, you could probably list it back on CL, for nearly the same that you paid. That is, a long as you maintain it.


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## Koenig041 (Dec 18, 2013)

Thanks for the update. Interesting choice. Seems like you know what you are in for and have an exit strategy. Good luck with your new machine.


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## merrybrovo (Feb 21, 2014)

*Good*

I used 1-toro2450E-38419. 1-craftsman-536887251 in mu house at Saratoga springs. It works well and fast.


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## JRHAWK9 (Jan 6, 2013)

I have both a big Pro 32 and a Path-Pro SS. My driveway is ~3,700 SF in area and I used my Path-Pro recently on a 4.5" snowfall event. It did a great job (see the -VIDEO- )and it could probably handle up to 6-8" if you had to.


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