Snow Attachments single stage snow blower worth it?

[hazmat]

Anybody got one? How well do they work? There is a used one advertised a couple hours away for $300. 54" Int. (International?) brand.

The engineer in me says 2 stage is better, but the price is right.

I'm thinking of checking it out next weekend.

 

[art]

Dfferent machines for different purposes. The single stage does just fine for fresh fallen snow. It is not meant to grind up old frozen banks like the older heavy duty two stage. Many of the new two stage blowers fliteing is lighter duty then blowers of yester year.

 

[hazmat]

Sounds like it is worth a visit at least.

 

[art]

54" leaves me wondering what it fit or if it is a different width as they used 36" 42" two designs one made to fit the older cadets and one made by Haban and a 48" that was also made by Haban. The later two where the best. At least that is what they used on the garden tractors.

 

[hazmat]

This one is supposed to be 3 point hitch mount /540 PTO. I have seen a few brands that offer that size. Perfect for the smaller compacts (like mine). 4' doesn't quite cover your tracks & the machine doesn't really have enough HP to run a 5'

 

[Wildman1]

I've used a single stage on my 20hp Craftsman garden tractor for 5 years and it worked supberly. Even in packed or wet snow it punched through..albeit: I had to gear down and go slow. Wet stuff blew out to about 5' but the fresh stuff blew out to 40'.

 

[RichNJKubota]

I have a single stage blower and most of the time it's fine. The FEL gets the rest.
Rich

 

[duane]

Hazmat,

I have a two stage walk behind (for walkways out back), and a tractor mounted single stage(for the driveway). Both are Toro's. My experience is that the single stage with enough horsepower does better in all types of snow, especially the really wet stuff. The chute velocity (5,000 fpm vs 4,000 fpm in the two stage) is higher in my single stage, so it does not clog up plus it is faster.

Duane

 

[PineRidge]

Hazmat heck for $300.00 you really can't go wrong. Even if the worst happened and you didn't think the blower did a good job you could easily sell it and make a few bucks on the deal. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[rbarker]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Anybody got one? How well do they work? )</font>

I used a single stage 40" front blower on my first Wheel Horse tractor with 18 Hp. It worked fine for the most part but it did tend to clog in snow that had been rained on heavily after falling. For $300 I would certainly consider it.