5hp is all you need.
Written: Jan 02 '04 (Updated Jan 17 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Works great. Survived a year of non-use with no problems.
Cons: Needs a couple of extra tugs to start after long storage.
The Bottom Line: Don't skimp when it snows. Just throw in the towel and buy a blower. This one will see you right and has a good brand behind it.
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| chrisell's Full Review: Toro Ccr 2450 Gts Snow Blower |
Let me preface this review by telling you that a month ago I bought a YardMachines Snow Fox Electric Snow Blower. I reviewed it here [http://www.epinions.com/content_124880195204] and I found it to be great. The area of Salt Lake City I live in typically doesn't get more than a couple of inches snow in any 24 hour period.
Skip to one week ago. The worst snow storm in 32 years. 24 inches of snow overnight, and the power went out. The observant readers amongst you will realise that an 'occasional use' electric snow blower simply doesn't cut it in 24 inches of powder when the electric's out.
So we borrowed our neighbour's Toro 3650GTS, and three of us shovelled and blew our way out of my 50ft long driveway. Phew!
Next night, still no power, another 14 inches of snow!
Of course by this time, every snow blower in Utah had vanished. So we ordered one up from a local dealer, and carried on shovelling.
Two days ago, my Toro 2450GTS arrived. We paid the 'idiot premium' (didn't buy one when it first started to snow) hence the somewhat high price. And wouldn't you know it, it stopped snowing. Son of a...!
This morning however, a fresh 4 inches of powder in the driveway, so off I went.
The GTS in the name means "Guaranteed To Start". The Toro has a primer button, a choke lever and a recoil starter. With correct use, the blower starts on the first tug. With incorrect use, it takes two or three tugs.
The engine is a 5hp Torotek 2-stroke engine. For those of you who grew up in Europe, hearing and smelling the exhaust from this thing will bring back great memories. For those of you who are paranoid about your health, the Californians consider two-stroke engines to be murderous cancer-inducing creations of the Devil himself. Go figure. The downside to two-stroke engines is that they require you to premix the oil into the gasoline before using it. Do yourself a favour : buy a 2 gallon and 1 gallon gas containers. Use the 2 gallon container to keep the gas in, and use the 1 gallon container to mix up the fuel for the blower. Most 2-stroke oil bottles are either pre-measured for 1 gallon of gas, or have a measuring cup for the correct amount.
A quick guide for you :
2-stroke engine : spins faster, throws further, requires oil to be pre-mixed with fuel
4-stroke engine : spins slower but has more torque for chomping through wet snow. Needs oil changes like a car.
The cut width is 20 inches and it is semi-self-propelled. ie. the further forwards you tip it, the more the blades drag it along through the snow. It can deal with a good 18 inches of snow depth at a time, and the blades are these new power-curve type. This brings me to a good point. This is a single-stage thrower. Ie. the same paddles drag it along the ground, scoop up the snow and propel it into the discharge chute. For all but the most serious enthusiast, this ought to be fine. Double the price and you can get two-wheel-drive two-stage throwers which have a scooping blade and a discharge paddle. On those, the blade feeds snow to the paddle, and it chucks the snow out of the chute. Frankly, the change-of-direction of snow in these models seems to me to be a design flaw - I prefer the one-stage, one-direction, chew-it-up-and-chuck-it-out design of one-stage blowers.
The discharge chute is totally manual. The rotation is notched at about 30 degree increments so you click it around and it locks in place. The vertical adjust is just friction but it stays well in place.
There is a larger 6.5hp model - the Toro 3560GTS. The basic mechanism and body of the blower are the same as the 2450GTS but the engine is larger and the horizontal adjust for the discharge chuteis operated by a remote twist handle up near the operator. I've found this to be problematic on that model (remember I used my neighbour's) because the chute doesn't have the notched positions. The vibration of the engine will slowly spin the discharge chute around so you have to keep adjusting it.
As far as throwing snow, my neighbour's 6.5hp 3650GTS throws just as far as my 5hp 2450GTS. Because of the price difference and the quirkiness of the horizontal chute adjuster on the larger model, I actually prefer my smaller Toro. Both models advertise a throw distance of 30ft. This is in ideal conditions, no doubt, with a tailwind, light snow, aimed downhill. In reality, both models propel the snow a good 20ft or so with no trouble.
One point when you're picking up your blower from the store. Make sure you have a pickup truck, or a friend that does. You cannot get these things into a trunk, on to a back seat, or on to a roofrack. They may look small in the brochure, but they're pretty chunky and weigh in at 36kg which is a fair weight to attempt to heft on to the roof of a car (are your roof bars rated for 32kg? I doubt it).
January '05 update
The snow has come again, and I dusted off the Toro from the back of the garage. I primed the engine, opened the choke and gave the starter a couple of tugs. Because the 2-stroke oil mix that I used last year has fuel stabiliser in it, the petrol hadn't gummed up, and after three or four tugs it started up in a cloud of blue 2-stroke oil. It sounded a little rough so I left it running for a few minutes to settle down, and refreshed the petrol with some new petrol-2stroke mix. After that, it ran perfectly. It's since been pressed into service three more times, starting without any problem and performing its duties perfectly.
Recommended:
Yes
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