We've also had a really strange winter. Over the matter of a couple of weeks we went from a low of -35*C (-31*F) to a high of +10*C (+50*F). From beautiful fluffy snow to wet slop and heavy rains. Crazy weather!We had -20* F the last two mornings with highs of -5. Tomorrow they say will get up to +40 with snow and/or rain. Somewhere between 1 and 12 inches. They don't know. I've never seen such a winter.
gg
Now you have to decide what kind of snowblower to get: standard rear facing, inverted or front mount. I would say inverted is no good because of the drifting snow you mentioned. So it's either rear facing (the cheapest option) or front mount. Front mount also has several options. You may want to do some reading on this forum. There are a LOT of opinions regarding what is the best system. Good luck.This is my first winter in north central Washington, so I really wasn't prepared for the snow. The first few were 1-2 inches, no big deal. Then another 4 and a few days later a full blown blizzard starting Christmas night and through the next few day with temps on either side of Zero and winds steady 20-25 with gusts to 43 . I don't know how much snow we got, but my tractor was down with a bad starter so we ended up hiring a bulldozer to clear the road that was drifted over with 3-4 feet for nearly half a mile. During the first week of January we got about 7.5 inches followed by over a foot with some drifting 2 days later. Tractor was fixed, but it took me three days to get my half mile of driveway cleared wide enough to allow Fed-Ex and UPS to make deliveries. We are now in a cycle of highs in the mid 30s lows in the upper 20s for the last 5 days and forecast for the next 10 days with no more new snow in sight
Next winter will be different, I will have a cab tractor, a snow blower, clothing suitable for the near zero temps and of course we wont see more than 2 inches of snow at a time and the temps and wind chills won't drop below 10 degrees.
Price is going to be the deciding factor, so standard rear mount is what we will end up with. Priced a factory front mount that runs of a mid PTO and it was three times the price of a generic rear mount. We don't get enough snow here to justify that price. We just want a blower for those rare years like this one (according to statistics) when annual snowfall can get to be too much to just plow. Average snow is about 48" during the snow season. we have already had that amount and still have a month and a half to go.Now you have to decide what kind of snowblower to get: standard rear facing, inverted or front mount. I would say inverted is no good because of the drifting snow you mentioned. So it's either rear facing (the cheapest option) or front mount. Front mount also has several options. You may want to do some reading on this forum. There are a LOT of opinions regarding what is the best system. Good luck.
I think that's the reason most people go that route. Plus the standard blower is more versatile than an inverted blower and you can still have the FEL available for bucket work or plowing.Price is going to be the deciding factor, so standard rear mount is what we will end up with. Priced a factory front mount that runs of a mid PTO and it was three times the price of a generic rear mount. We don't get enough snow here to justify that price. We just want a blower for those rare years like this one (according to statistics) when annual snowfall can get to be too much to just plow. Average snow is about 48" during the snow season. we have already had that amount and still have a month and a half to go.