I asked regular LoGro commenter John George to send me pictures of his fancy snow blower. He finally complied and wrote:
It takes a 30" swath and is powered by a 357 cc engine. That is about the same size as the old 11 1/2 HP engines. Someone checked an engine a couple years ago and discovered it didn’t quite put out the HP it claimed, so there was a big lawsuit. Now, the engines are just rated by cylinder displacement.
The picture of the wires going into the handle grip show how they are heated. That is the best invention since sliced bread. No more cold, numb hands. I don’t have a way to haul it, or I would bring it over to your place for a demonstration. Aw shucks!
For you clueless types, there is a difference between a snow thrower and a snow blower.
What IS that difference, Griff??? Inquiring minds and all. Also, what do you or John think of Sno Wovel–the snow shovel on a wheel???
Kathie- About 40 years ago, I had a similar type of thing in the little town in NW Iowa where we lived. It did not have a wheel on it, but it was like a large aluminum grain scoop with two handlebars attached to it. It took about a 3′ wide swath, A person could push it under the snow, push down on the handle bars to lift the front, then glide it over the snow to where you wanted to dump it. There was a release on the handle bars that allowed the scoop to tip forward and dump the snow. It worked pretty good until the snow piles rose. Then, it was pretty heavy to push up onto the top to dump it.
The blower I got will blow snow 25-30 feet. My past problem was getting the snow far enough from the edge of the driveway so that subsequent snows didn’t pile up too high. This blower has eliminated that problem. My whole front yard is as deep as the snow I am standing beside in the picture. The best difference between the Sno Wovel and my machine, though, is the heated handle grips! 🙂
ooooohhhhh….heated handle grips!!! I’m jealous. Thanks for the info, John!