Darxus

In two days I will own a monstrous snow blower.

darxus

12/9/09 04:15 pm

This is a well timed and effective happy thought. I am optimistic that it will significantly reduce my hatred of snow. Which is good. There is a lot of it in my driveway.

Last year by the time I got around to trying to buy one, they were all gone. I didn't get one before then because I had great difficulty picking one, and whether to get a farming tractor with a blower attachment, or standalone blower. In the end, I made my dad pick. Fortunately we have similar tastes.

The people who refill my gas and installed my heaters can't look at them until tomorrow, and then they would have to order parts. Hence the temporary wall power heaters to keep pipes from freezing.

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• feng_huang

  12/9/09 09:23 pm (UTC)

  

  Ah, very cool. What kind did you decide to go with—the standalone, or the tractor + attachment?

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  • darxus

    12/9/09 10:40 pm (UTC)

    

    Cub Cadet 528 swe - stand alone.

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• milktree

  12/9/09 09:24 pm (UTC)

  

  leave the water running just a tiny bit, it'll keep it from freezing. There's a lot of stored up heat energy in liquid water, so it doesn't take much to keep it liquid.
  
  

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• fluffy2097

  12/9/09 10:32 pm (UTC)

  

  I've used a snow blower before. I don't think you will hate snow less with one, but you will hate machines more and have a greater likelyhood of losing an arm.
  
  The snow blowers only saving grace is that lifting 3 tons of snow with a red toy plastic shovel is so much worse, that you'll put up wrestling with a loud, dangerous machine to avoid the damn shovel.
  
  Protip: do not let a car drive over the area you'll be blowing. The tires pack down the snow making it almost impossible to get the packed snow off the ground with the blower. You'll need to go back with a metal shovel and scrape it up if you do.

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• perspicuity

  12/10/09 12:12 am (UTC)

  

  buy a box of extra shear pins :> don't ask me how i know ;)
  
  and a stick. never stick your hand in the machine. use the stick. even when it's off. fortunately, i know from other people's accidents on that one.
  
  but you probably knew that ;>
  
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  • darxus

    12/11/09 07:19 pm (UTC)

    

    Heh, mine came with a stick, nicely mounted.
    
    I was wondering about the "even when it's off" bit. But I know a guy who recently managed to shoot his finger off, so that's a rule I can appreciate.
    
    Do you know of a case where somebody got injured when they thought their machine was off?

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    • perspicuity

      12/11/09 07:39 pm (UTC)

      

      hah.
      
      indeed... i've seen several nasty pictures of people shooting themselves, including a cop, through his own hand, while cleaning his "empty" gun. embarrassing.
      
      yes. basically, the augers or some other part is jammed under tension. springy metal (esp spirals) store energy, say due to a rock jammed in there, you remove the rock, the spring unwinds. your finger, or hand, or arm is not as tough as a rock, usually. snip.
      
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