I have developed some snow blowing "rules of thumb" over the years that some of you newbies to snow blowing may want to consider. I figure that I have moved about 5400 inches of snow with my three snow blowing rigs. Feel free to add to my list, I am always looking for new techniques:
RULE 1. This is an obvious one - don't put your hand in the moving augers.
RULE 2. Always clean all of the snow off of your equipment. I learned this the hard way the second time that I snow blowed. The snow blower was making a **** of a racket when I started, and then I noticed smoke coming from the drive belts in the back. So I shut it down and called the dealer. "Didn't you clean out the augers after you finished. When the snow melts it freezes on the bottom of the impeller assembly such that the impeller won't turn."
Now I clean off everything, but especially anything which if frozen could make it difficult to start the machine. With my new rig, I wipe all of the water off of the cab, clean off the wipers and pull them away from the wind shield. Of course, it helps if you have a garage.
RULE 3. Never put the blower on the ground on a gravel driveway the first time you use it, unless you enjoy changing sheer bolts. This way the ground will freeze better for future use. As a matter of fact I generally run my SUV up-and-down the driveway a few times in the snow to pack it into the gravel before I snow blow for the first time.
RULE 4. When the snow is deep, take smaller cuts of snow. My first run in the snow is very very slow, usually painfully slow. For a guy who used to race motorcycles professionally, this is very hard to do. My next cut might be a third of the width of the blower or less. I would rather make more runs and use a little more fuel, then be replacing belts as I did with my old snowblower. The guy who wrote the Kubota snowblower manual obviously has never snow blown before. It says in deep snow take the top layer off and work your way down. To me this is nonsensical. You're going to be driving a tractor in the deep snow and making a general mess. How about just taking a narrower cut of the snowblower potential? Anyway I have been doing this and it has saved many a belt on my old snowblower.