I've never really used one, and I think I will have to break down and get one next winter.

The owner's manual, too, has a pretty good guide in it. That's how I learned. The rest is just using it. The single trick that helps the most is to always let the machine do the work, instead of doing it yourself. Once you can turn it and blow snow, you're pretty much all set. The rest is planning the best approach to your particular situation. I don't like messing with the chute adjustment, so I try to clear the snow in a route that lets me leave it alone most of the time.

I'm an old man of 72. I don't want to work too hard, so I'm always looking for ways to let the machine do the work. If you use it the way it was designed, really all you have to do is walk around behind it. I bought my first one shortly after moving to Minnesota. I wore it out in 10 years, and bought another one. I paid about $600 for the first one, so it cost me just $60 a year. That's the cost of one driveway plowing if I hired someone. It's a real bargain. The second one cost $700. I figure it will more than pay for itself as I move into my 80s.

I do suggest buying a brand new one, though. Used ones are usually pretty worn out by the time you get them. New ones work great!

People are independent that way. I offered earlier, but she just wasn't ready. I don't like to push. Anyhow, she's a very nice person and my wife and I like her a lot. I'm glad she asked. Now, I won't have to watch her struggle with her old manual machine.

When she needed help. I know our neighbors across from us to very independent sisters both in their late 70s and always try pay me if I shovel or use snow blower.

The first time I saw her outside with a snow shovel, I went over there. I told her that there was no way I was going to be able to watch her clear her own snow, and that I'd be glad to do it. She wanted to pay me, of course, but I told her that a plate of cookies was the most I'd accept. I cleared her driveway and walks every time it snowed for three years, until she moved into an assisted living place. She always came over with a plate of cookies the next day. That was more than enough payment.

Offer to help.
Remind them of the offer with no judgment.
Provide the help with no judgment.

It's exhausting and takes forever!

Helping people learn to do things is interesting. It takes patience not to rush the process. You really have to let them try things and only help when they have a problem. On the other hand, safety issues need to be stressed without waiting for the person to do something dangerous.

But, helping someone learn to do something for themselves is always worthwhile. Everyone feels good in the end.

Full of snow she can use for more practice...

Knowing her, if you were close by, she'd probably offer to do it. She's a very nice person. A little too much pride, but she finally let me help get her started.

It's been sitting in the garage for two seasons. I used it a lot when we lived in the mountains, but now it just sits. Your OP has me yearning to use it again. But that feeling will pass....

I tried to teach my wife to use it. I don't think I was as good or patient a teacher as you, though.

She stopped about halfway down one pass on the driveway. "That's enough," she said. I didn't try to teach her. It's my job, anyhow. Maybe when I get close to 80, I'll teach her. She's 11 years younger than I am. She could do it, but didn't really have any reason to learn that first time.

I discovered it's also wise to pay attention to which way the wind is blowing.

There wasn't much wind. Sometime, I'll explain how to manage that by choosing your paths carefully. I hate having icicles hanging from my beard. My wife snapped a picture of me one time when I came in the house looking like Old Man Winter. I'm better at avoiding that problem these days. Still, sometimes, it's better to just wait until the wind dies down.

The best thing, though, is that I won't have to watch her struggle with that little ring-ding-ding blue smoke-spewing single stage machine again. I hated that. She would never let me help, although I did clear the plow mound at the end of her driveway every time it came by. I won't have to do that any more, either.

I'd swear the plow driver can sense when I'm finished so he can pile it all up at the end of the driveway.

The plow goes by, and there's that windrow of icy, lumpy snow at the end of the driveway.

I do have a trick, though, that minimizes it. As the last step in my snowblowing, I do the street in front of my house. I make four passes, clearing an 8' wide path out from the curb in front of my house up the street. I do the entire width of my lot that way. The snowblower's already out, so it's no big deal, usually.

When the plow comes by, the blade encounters no snow in that cleared area, so there's a minimum windrow at the end of my driveway. The blade runs out of excess snow before getting to the driveway. It works wonderfully well. I've shown that trick to several neighbors who own snowblowers. Some of them use it.

Try it after the next storm. You'll be glad you did.

You know folks can improve upper body strength by raising their arms above their head 200 times a day - while watching TV or sitting around. Start with thirty and add ten every other day. I actually do it on our morning walk but I do several more while sitting around. Walking regularly and a stationary bike do wonders for lower body strength.

be her personal trainer, though. Really, those snowblowers need you to do the side-step turn anyhow. It will wear anyone out if they try to muscle the machine around with their arms. I learned that right away, myself.

My neighbor is actually pretty fit. She's just thin and small, so a 250-pound machine is a struggle, if she doesn't let it do the work it's designed to do. I watch a lot of people use snowblowers around here, and most of them are doing it incorrectly. I don't volunteer advice, though, especially to other men. That never works.

You did a great job with the blower.

He'd tell me next to nothing about what I was doing, and then say "now you do it". As a result, I never learned much from him growing up. Now that I'm in my fifties, I'm learning how to do everthing for the first time. It's not fun, and it would be better to have a good teacher, but no teacher at all is better than a bad one.

I've always tried to teach people the simplest, clearest way to think about things, and the easiest way to get the job done with the least risk of unfixable mistakes. It just never occurred to me to try any other way. I guess I really didn't learn from my dad.

He worked as an auto mechanic, and was quite handy at almost everything. As a boy, I'd follow him around as he did stuff. He always took the time to show me stuff. I remember one time asking him how he know how tight was tight enough when tightening fasteners like nuts and bolts. He thought for a few seconds and explained that each hand wrench was a certain length, and was designed to provide the correct torque to a fastener with the same amount of force. I sort of got it, but was still unsure. It's a learned thing, really.

So, he had me tighten a 1/4" nut, using a socket wrench, which isn't set up to apply the right torque. I tightened it. He said, tighten it more, and then repeated that until I twisted the bolt off. "That's too tight," he said. "Over time, you'll get the feel of what's tight enough, but you'll probably twist a few more bolts off before you have it down. That's OK."

I did learn. He showed me, but let me discover things for myself by doing them. He'd offer tips, but didn't lose patience when I didn't get it right. He was a good teacher. I learned a helluva lot of stuff from him.

Seriously, no one would ever take me up on that. But it must be nice.

My Cub Cadet had a trigger on each handgrip, connected to a simple brake on the corresponding wheel. That worked really well - the snowblower basically turned itself.

The Simplicity has a single trigger that disengages power to the left(?) wheel. Not quite as easy as with the Cub, but much better than nothing.

Kudos on teaching your neighbor the tricks of the trade.

My first one had a removable pin on the left wheel that went through the live axle. I used it that way for a while, but it decreased traction, so I reinstalled the pin. Being able to let a wheel be non-driven from the handle would be cool.

For a lot of people in my neighborhood, 2-stage snowblower are just too expensive. Many have none at all. Shovels are cheap, so a lot of younger families do it manually.

Nice people rarely take credit for how nice they are.

and I commend you for your act of random kindness!!

And I learned stuff just from reading this.

and treated her with respect.

for the help. The respect was automatic. She's a neighbor and friend.

Women so often don't get to learn to operate things like snow blowers and lawn mowers, and it doesn't often even occur to them that there are simple tricks that make it much easier.

Condescension from men in such situations, and hesitate. Nobody automatically knows how to operate equipment. I've seen many men struggle with such things. Often some sort of pride keeps them from asking for help.

If I've learned something, I'm always glad to pass it on. That should be a given. I'm also glad to learn from someone else.

Most of us don't automatically know how to do very many things.

I think I'm helpful in the right circumstances, but I've never done anything quite as patient and good as what you did with your neighbor. If we would all only treat each other with this sort of kindness and respect, the world would be a vastly better place.

What you did for your neighbor is what makes the world go 'round. Ya did good man, take the compliment.

Thanks for letting us know once again.

I know many people who do that. My parents modeled that behavior. I try to do the same, that's all.

I just bought my first snow blower because I can't shovel snow so much any more and i can't risk being stuck at home.

My son taught me just like you did and I love my new power tool. It's a fine addition to the garage.

And the turning on that one was like turning a tank, because you could squeeze a lever that slowed one wheel down while the other went at normal speed and the thing went that way.

After many years i replaced it with a Toro single stage. I like it better and i found it actually gets down to the pavement better. Mine is self-propelled, though. You grab the auger rod and the blades help pull the thing. There is very little effort.

Now, we don't quite get the snow in Chicago that you get up in the Twin Cities, but this year was the first time ever where i had to go over the same spots twice, and that was where the street plows had piled up a pretty big mess in front of the driveway.

I suppose if i lived in Buffalo or somewhere like that, i'd have a different view.

corner lot bit of a hill so lots of sidewalks and some drifts....
best thing my dad ever bought

Heavier. Harder to use. I think the 5hp ones are just about right. Mine went through a recent 12" snow just fine. 2nd speed forward. I sort of love those deeper snows. The plume from the snowblower is really dramatic when you're clearing a foot of snow.

We did have a 17" storm here a few years ago. That was the only time I wished for a more powerful unit. It took forever to clear, and sometimes you'd have to go forward, stop to let the snow out and then go forward again.

I gave my previous blower away to a neighbor while it was still running and got a new one. After 10 years, the engine didn't have the power it once had. The neighbor, though, is still using it, three years later. So, it's still clearing snow. It took all of five minutes to give it away. I put it out on the curb with a sign that said: FREE! RUNS! A neighbor a few doors up the street showed up before I even got back in the house.

He said, "Does it really run?" I pulled the rope start and it fired right up. Then he asked how he was going to get it up the street to his house. I put it in the highest speed and ran it up the sidewalk and into his driveway. It was a little balky to start when cold, but I gave him the rundown on the best starting procedure. "Thanks, man!" he said. I told him, "My standard warranty on this thing runs out when I get back to my house. Enjoy." He still waves at me every time he sees me.

years later the buddy said he was still using the damn thing....

right after we got our 5 horse the guy in the house behind out got a bigger one....1 ups manship?

never saw anything that thing could do that ours could not.
don't think anything smaller than a 5 would have worked out, but the 5 was big enough to work and small enough to just flog around.

i understand you get more snow than we do in beer town but the 5 was just the right size for us

Another tip: Big box stores like Lowes and Home Depot always have a sale in August or September on snowblowers. That's when they get their first shipment of them. It's by far the best time to shop for one.

Homeowners can find a good 5hp 2-stage snowblower for around $600 during those sales. There's no real need to spend more. The brand is really irrelevant, except perhaps for Honda. Their blowers cost more, though. Most are made by the same actual manufacturer these days, and branded with one of the popular names. All have Chinese OHV engines, which are now extremely reliable, are sure-fire starters and have plenty of power.

Any of them will work just fine and last at least 10 years of average winters. All require regular maintenance and oil changes and should always be run until the gas tank is empty at the end of winter. The most common reason for non-starting is old gasoline left in the tank.
Fuel stabilizers are OK, but it's still better to run the engine dry before putting the thing into storage in the Spring. Before the first snow, owners should read the manual that comes with any new machine thoroughly and follow all instructions in it.