Anybody with a ventrac in the Chicago area? How did it do in the chicago winter?

[ARMORskids]

Anybody have a Ventrac and live in or around chicago? How did it do? When did you use it, and when did you use something else? Considering a purchase and want to get a feel for how useful it is in our winters.
--Bob

 

[John Joseph McVeigh]

Anybody have a Ventrac and live in or around chicago? How did it do? When did you use it, and when did you use something else? Considering a purchase and want to get a feel for how useful it is in our winters.
--Bob

I live in the snow belt of Northern Maryland and have had a Model 4500Y since December of 2014. I have the snow blower and the rotary broom, and I have been able to handle 20-inch snowfalls with no problem at all. The one significant snowstorm that we got late this Winter was originally forecast to be all snow and about 19 inches in depth, but it changed over to sleet for a good part of the storm and then back to snow. The snowblower handled the heavy, dense snow/sleet mixture with no problems except down near the road where the county road trucks equipped with snowploughs threw the stuff up onto the apron of the driveway. There, I had to slow down so as not to jam up the snowblower's chute. I have not previously had the auxiliary auger, but I have talked to my dealer about acquiring one. I will not need it for several months but I am going to install it in the near future.n The Ventrac has made it much easier to deal with my 1,600-foot long driveway, and the blower cuts through the snow like a knife going through a piece of cake. And there are no unsightly piles as would occur when I used to pay someone to plough the driveway. After a few years of that, I got a Honda treaded walk-behind snow blower, which was a good machine, but it just took too long to clear the entire drive. It is much more enjoyable and faster using the Ventrac snow blower or, for lesser accumulations, the rotary broom. I have never regretted acquiring the Ventrac.