New snow blower

[jteneyck]

I don't know if anyone makes aftermarket heated hand grips but they sure would be nice.  My hands always get cold using my 1970 something Wheel Horse snowblower, the one I spend as much time repairing as using.  

Yep, snow tires are the bomb.  I had snow tires on my first Subaru and drove it through 22" of fresh snow one Christmas.  You could have made a great commercial from that, snow coming up over the hood, and it looked like someone had drug a bathtub through the snow.  What a great combo that was.  I'm back to all season tires on my current Subaru and they are fine as long as I'm careful, but it's no where near as capable as the snows were.  Traction isn't a problem with the AWD but, as you said, stopping is no where near as good.  Regardless of what's on those wheels, what's between your ears is more important, so drive carefully.  The first vehicles that go off the road always seem be SUV's and a pickup trucks, people who think 4WD makes them invincible.  
John

[Bill Wilson]

I now wish I bought the model with the heated hand grips.  I was working in 4 degree cold and very windy conditions and my hands got very cold.


Does anyone make an accessory hand heater for snow blowers?

I considered heated grips when I bought mine, but figured it was just another thing to eventually go wrong.  Anyway, I've been lucky, because I haven't really missed them.  I don't have any trouble with my hands getting cold, but I haven't worked in that kind of cold much either.  One thing I do is change into dry gloves at least once.  I clear my driveway and my MIL's and total work time can be 1.5 -2 hrs.  Keeping dry gloves on seems to help a lot.

[packerguy®]

Does anyone make an accessory hand heater for snow blowers?

I got a pair of choppers that go to almost my elbow, that have thunsulate insulation, outside is made of waterproof material, and deerskin palms. 

Hands stay dry all day and stay very very warm.

[Cooler]

I got a pair of choppers that go to almost my elbow, that have thunsulate insulation, outside is made of waterproof material, and deerskin palms. 

Hands stay dry all day and stay very very warm.

I just ordered these from Amazon.com:



40 hand warmers--enough for 20 snow clearings--probably 2 to 5 seasons.  Most years I use the snow blower 3 or 4 times for the year.  I used mine for the first time this morning.

[jteneyck]

I just ordered these from Amazon.com:



40 hand warmers--enough for 20 snow clearings--probably 2 to 5 seasons.  Most years I use the snow blower 3 or 4 times for the year.  I used mine for the first time this morning.

Those are in my ski mittens every day I ski.  Electric boot heaters, too.  I love snow; just can't stay warm in it w/o help, unless I'm cross country skiing.  Then I can't stop sweating.  Never a happy medium.  

John

[Woodworm!]

anyone have one of those battery operation snow blowers, EGO or Snow Joe? How do they work?

[chips ahoy]

Got heated grips on my Husky,love them.Nothing like warm finners.

Mel

[Cecil]

I used the new Toro snow blower this morning and it worked fine.

Glad you like your Toro.  I had a Troy Build for ~18 years.  I bought it used.  It was somewhere between 23 & 27 years old.  I loved it.
Toro is also MTD, so I bought the Toro. I am on my 3rd season with it. I hate it.  The next one will be a husky, and that will happen before this one wears out!
I also bought an MTD mower, which I also dislike.  No more MTD for me.
I am told Alpaca glove are the way to go.  I just bought some Alpaca socks.  If they are as good as people say, I will follow with a pair of gloves.  The are not cheap!

[EdL]

You can buy aftermarket snowmobile grip heaters. They are a grid type, remove the grip, stick the heater on replace grip.

Put them on my Bobcat years ago.......wonderfull things.

Dennis Kirk sells them.

Snowblower handles are to big for the snowmobile factory built into the handgrip type.

Ed

[TDKPE]

I grabbed my Dad's snowblower last week, as he doesn't need it any more, figuring I could get it going and leave it, and use it, at my in-laws' house.  Anything but shoveling.  

Some of my siblings had tried and failed to start it, so I figured it was due to old fuel that dried out and is gumming up the works.  It hasn't run in probably 13 years, since he passed away.  

Opened it up, and of course there's dried fuel and some leaks, but when I pulled the flywheel cover I discovered the flywheel scrapes the magneto.  Turns out the main bearing is worn and the shaft actually moves enough that I can wiggle the flywheel.  So much for that.

At least I can salvage the 120V starter system and retrofit it onto mine.  Same 5 hp Tecumseh Snow King engine.  Probably not worth trying to replace the main bearings, especially since I don't know what else is wrong with it.  

It does make a spark, though.  So there's that . . .  


We average 100" per season, so shoveling their driveway gets old real quick.

Just by way of an update, though I doubt anyone cares (
 ), but I got the blasted thing running.  Rod knock is so bad it sounds like a diesel, but I was able to move the magneto slightly so the flywheel doesn't hit it.  I can't take the choke off beyond the second-most choked (total of 4 positions), but there may be an adjustment screw buried in a pocket on the side of the carb.  I just never looked that closely, as I know the later versions of that engine were not adjustable, and I just assumed this one wasn't.  But I digress.

It runs, I work it at half throttle to try to keep it from blowing up, and it's been fantastic at heart attack prevention, especially at my inlaws' house with nobody around to call 911.  I've been running Seafoam in it, but that doesn't seem to help.  Not yet, anyway.  When it warms up a bit, I may take the carb cover off and look again for a high speed jet needle valve.