When I was looking to buy a snowblower, I looked at what all the highway departments, schools, building maintenance crews, etc. used. 90% used Ariens. I now have a nice 2 stage Ariens in the garage that eats up anything Mother Nature dishes out in New England.

I live in Massachusetts and two years ago I purchased an Ariens 1128 Professional (Commercial Grade) with 12V Battery Powered, Electric Key Starting & Heated Hand Grips. Runs excellent and goes through anything!!!

I looked very seriously at the Hondas as they are about the same price (or more). Great Engine for sure but Ariens is built tougher (more heavy duty) all around. Also, Ariens offers a positive dual-wheel drive for heavy snow or differential drive for easy maneuverability in light snow (no tools needed to switch back and forth). This makes moving the Ariens with the engine off a breeze. Try moving a Honda with the motor off!!!

MJM

I just picked up the two-stage Ariens 7524E at Home Depot.

24" wide
7.5 HP OHV Tecumseh
Electric Start
Collapsable Handle
$759 - 10% competitor coupon (Lowes) ~ $680

I was told to avoid Craftsman and Toro two stage was too expensive.

I wouldn't recommend a track drive. I've never used one, but a friend of mine has one and he curses it constantly. It's very difficult to move the thing when it's not running. Alot of the newer machines have a mechanism on one of the wheels that allows the machine to operate in one-wheel drive mode instead of two. It allows it to turn much more easily and makes it very maneuverable. My machine has this feature and while I find that it's not very useful while snow-blowing (the machine pulls to one side too easily when it's under load), it's great when I just need to move it around.

BTW - as I'm typing this there is a raging snow storm happening right now - almost blizzard conditions with thunder and lightening. Pretty wild!

I have an Ariens 824e or something like that. It is 3 years old, runs like new, and is a beast of a machine. I would buy it again in a heartbeat. I need to get a set of chains for the tires though--my driveway is a pita.

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-'13 E93 M3 Cab, Interlagos Blue, Carbon Black leather, DCT, all options, and fun, endless fun!
-'13 X5 35i M-Sport, Carbon Black & Cinnamon, Dinan Stage 2!
-'15 Toyota Sienna Limited Premium AWD, Silver & Grey, Nav & BluRay, and less lame than the 2011 it replaced
-'07 Mini Cab S, Laser Blue, 6sp, endless fun that ended (sold)
-'04 X5 4.4i, loaded, loved, modded and sold