Snowblowing techniques?

[Korean_redneck]

My driveway is pretty big and I have a Single stage snow blower. I want to throw the snow with the wind.. problem is that the snow builds up on the driveway because the snow is not reaching the grass area.. so its harder to throw snow the further i get.

Theres another way mentioned in my Murray instruction book, you start in the middle and use a circular patter, but if you throw snow against the wind.. then its a problem.

anybody have a good techiques?

 

[ToyotaNSaturn]

Outside of owning that V-8 powered snowblower...
I found no special techniques worked other than double or triple passes on many parts of the walkways/driveways.

 

[michaelc80]

Before I bought the big tractor, I had a snow blower for my John Deere tractor. I was able to adjust the snout so it would either throw the snow up in an arc or down low. Even in a stout wind I could throw it 20 feet or so if it was adjusted correctly. With no wind I could easily throw it 30+ feet.

You might play with the adjustments on the snout to see if it helps some.

 

[Kestas]

You live in Holland, MI, and you bought only a single stage snowblower? I've used single-stage snowblowers before... I was even offered one for free by my neighbor who moved away (I refused it). My experience was the same as yours - they just don't throw the snow far enough. They save little work and are almost as hard to use as a shovel.

If I had to deal with the amount of snow you do from lake effect, I wouldn't buy anything less than the auger-type snowthrower.

 

[Gary Allan]

You just start at the far edge and take narrower and narrower slices as you start to encounter your own thrown snow. That's the only way if you've got too short a range and a prevailing wind that drifts the stuff you just moved back where it came from.

I have a two stage something or other with a John Deer label on it.

 

[methusaleh]

I start in the middle of my driveway (two car widths wide), and throw to one side for one side of the drive, and to the other side when clearing the other side. That way if the snow is too heavy to fly all the way across the driveway from the middle, I will pick it up by the time I work my way out to the edges where it fell.

 

[nobadges]

Up here in Canada, eh,

we just give the wife a big shovel, eh, and boot her out the front door, eh.
Then we get us a cold beer, eh,

and we sit by the front window, eh, and yell encouraging words at her, eh.

 

[JohnnyO]

Work from the middle out and turn the chute 180* each pass. I agree though, in MI you need a two-stage. Even in PA a single-stage is too hard on the ab muscles. I quit borrowing my neighbor's and swipe my dad's two-stage, he's in FL now anyway.

 

[Korean_redneck]

methusaleh: ^^^ yeah but, how about the wind? You don't want to go against the wind.

Gary Allan: Narrow slices , aye!