An Honest Review Of The Nissan Juke

 Last year, I had to say goodbye to my Scion tC.  I was pretty upset by the whole situation, as the car was owned, it was solid, never had a single problem with it, and it was a 2 door! They don't make cars, let alone 2-door cars, at all anymore. Sure, I know high end sports cars, or the such, but nothing in the price bracket, and reliability bracket, I'm looking at.

The 2016 Nissan Juke I purchased with the Insurance Money I got from the write-off didn't even come close to comparing to the Scion tC.

Let's go over some very key differences between the two vehicles, and some of the issues I've had with the Juke, vs the tC.

Problems with the tC

• Oil Sending Unit (Pressure sensor) started leaking, which is a common issue. It took me a whole of 2 seconds to diagnose, and just required the replacement of the sensor, although I probably could have tefloned the threads and it likely would have solved the issue.
• Front brake caliper had failed, so I had to replace that.
  
• Front wheel bearings had failed, so I replaced those
  
• Front sway bar links failed, so I replaced those too. Even made a video which did terrible on my channel, but that's okay.
• Battery failed
• Input Shaft Bearing was very noisy, which was a very common thing on these old tCs
• Air Conditioning Refrigerant was under filled

Everything, honestly, that failed on the tC was basically just wear and tear items, ones you do expect to fail, especially considering that everything was still original on the car, save for the tires, and the brakes.  I had flushed all the fluids, from brakes, coolant, even my transmission oil was changed. Upgraded the headlights from dim, dull, Halogen, to Ultra Clear HID LED bulbs, which lit up the night so much better.  
Nothing failed until well after 200,000KM on it (or 125,000 miles), and the first thing to fail on it, well, was the sway bar links. They made a little bit of noise going over bumps, so I replaced them. It was a very simple job, but holy hell Rust kicked my arse on it!

Now let's see, what about the Juke?  Honestly, this first thing should have been a red flag.

The day I bought it, the intake runner sensor had failed, and threw a CEL.  In fact, that happened during the test drive on it, which was interesting... BUT I ignored it, considering I am a mechanic that doesn't mind getting my hands dirty. 
But I did force the dealership to replace it at THEIR cost. There's no reason that shouldn't have been fixed under SAFETY considering IT'S THE ENGINE FFS! I guess if the car doesn't drive, it's perfectly safe hahaha!
Nonetheless, they fixed it, and problems never occurred again, right?

Wrong.... One I blame on myself for it, which was a big mistake.

Let's start off the top; What failed

• Intake Runner - Requiring replacement of the ENTIRE INTAKE MANIFOLD
• Front Main Seal (Leaking)
  
• Timing Cover (Leaking)
  
• Left Front Axle Seal (Leaking)
• Oil Plug Drain Plug (Leaking)
• Rear Brakes (Wear Item)

Those are not wear and tear items (save for the brakes), and the car has less than 72,000 miles on it (115,000KM).  Those things started failing around 110,000km (68,000mi).  The drain plug I entirely blame on myself for not doing my own oil, just once. That's all it took. I didn't do it because the weather was absolutely terrible (a foot of snow was just more than I thought I should be working in on my car) so I had it taken in for me.
They replaced the oil drain bolt, likely because they fucked it up, and sure enough... The car leaks. I wish I had sooner than I did so I could go after them, but it's too late now.  Hopefully it doesn't mean I'm replacing my oil pan, because that'll suck!

It's amazing how one vehicle literally had zero problems for more than 200,000km before the first non-wear and tear item failed (Oil Pressure Sensor) is a real testament to Toyota build quality, at least back when they built good cars, vs Nissan, who can't seem to make a good car at all anymore.  
The only advantage to the Juke I owned, vs the average Run of the Mill Juke, was the Manual Gear Box. Having a manual transmission means that the Juke *IS* capable or racking up hundreds of thousands of KMs without too much of a hiccup, unlike the CVT, which WILL blow up and fail. Not "may" fail, but *WILL* fail. They're horrible transmissions.
Aside from the Manual gear box, let me get into a proper dialogue with it.

The car itself isn't terrible. It really isn't. It's fairly sporty, it's fun to drive, it's comfortable, for such a cheap car, has a good smooth drive, has some nice road feedback thru the wheel, and is pretty nimble, for a vehicle with as much ground clearance as it has.

It's sort of like a oversized Nissan Versa (which I think it pretty much is a Versa on stilts).

The 1.6TGDi engine is underpowered for the vehicle, and it would do a lot better with a 2.5L Naturally aspirated i4 instead of the Turbo-Charged 1.6L Gasoline Direct Injection.  Port injection, granted yes, it does provide slightly less power, and slightly less fuel economy, but it delivers better performance, by requiring significantly less maintenance, as there'll be less carbon buildup on the valves, and a lot less carbon deposits in the tailpipe.  Seems like GDI engines, especially Turbocharged ones, like to dump a fair amount of carbon deposits on the tailpipe.  And that's usually indicative that it's likely burning a little bit of oil. NOT a good thing to be doing.  If you're unsure and looking at a car that you want to know if it's burning oil, just run your finger on the inside of the tailpipe, and see what colour it comes back. If it is all sooty, with really thick dark, charcoal like material, or even feels a bit slippery, it's burning oil. Stay away from it! Maybe buy a nice old used Volvo?

The other issue I have with the car is cargo room. It has none.
If I do not fold the seats down, I basically have absolutely no cargo room, save for a handful of groceries. I think the Smart Car had a similar amount of cargo room.  The Juke has about 10.5 CuFt of cargo room with the rear seats up.
Meanwhile the Smart Car Fortwo has 7.8CuFt of cargo space to the top of the seats, or 12CuFt when filled to the roof of the car, making it have MORE cargo space.

However, yes, with the seats folded, the Juke has triple the amount of room as the Smart Fortwo.  That said, you can now no longer carry any passengers, save for one, with the Juke. It was made for 5 (four sort of comfortably) people, and the Fortwo was literally made FOR TWO.

The Scion tC have 14.7CuFt of cargo room with the rear seats up, and roughly the same as the Juke with the Rear Seats down, meaning you had a fair amount more room in the Coupe vs the CUV.

BUT There are some silver linings here, such as the amount of visibility in the car. It has good visibility, big windows, and even easy to see out the rear window.  The car has buttons, switches, and dials, without any touch screens, comes with heated seats, and the Air Conditioning was working out of the box, unlike the 3 year older Scion tC, however the AC on the tC was refilled and never had an issue for the almost 4 years I had the vehicle, which is normal, as the refrigerant on all cars slowly leaks out at the compressor seals.

The car is pretty comfortable, even on long drives, as I've spent many hours in that car, including an entire day of driving around South Central Ontario. It was a lot of fun!
The sound system isn't terrible at all, it is OKAY, but you'd expect on a vehicle named "JUKE" it would at least have a great sound system, which it simply doesn't. But it is okay. The Bluetooth sucks, as it has a .5s-1s delay on all audio, which is annoying, as it even does that with phone calls.
Plus allowing it access to your Text messages means that every time you get one, it would auto-Reply "I'm Driving!"
It was extremely annoying, as some spam texts that came thru it would respond showing that it's an active number.. Blah!  I had to disable that.

Would I recommend a Juke?

No.  I honestly would not recomment a Juke. There's no reason that there should be an axle seal failing at less than 100,000 miles. The Timing cover should not be leaking, and the front crank seal should DEFINITELY not be leaking.  
Even the Rear Brakes shouldn't be as low as they are at 100,000km, as the rear brakes honestly don't do much braking at all. They should last about 2 to 3 times longer than your front brakes, unless they're dragging, as the front brakes do about 75% of the braking for your car.

In fact, I'd go as far as telling people to stay far away from the Juke, or any Nissan in general. The engines are French engines, which are not known for their reliability or longevity, and if you get an Automatic CVT transmission, you're guaranteed to have the transmission fail. Nissans are really terrible vehicles, probably easily on par, if not even worse, than Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep, Kia/Hyundai, Tesla.

They are truly shitty bad vehicles. 

So I'm actively trying to sell my Juke to be rid of it, and I'll be moving to something a little more reliable, and something a little bit bigger.
Heck, I'd even prefer a Ford Taurus Wagon over the Juke!

Until next time guys,

Stay Tuned.....

A Two Stroke Tecumseh

My Brother-In-Law dropped off his parents' snowblower, as they had recently purchased it, but it was not running properly at all.  
Not sure what the issue was, and no way to recreate the problem as the pull recoil rope had

nearly broken, and there was no way I'd be able to use it to start the engine.
Only thing to do was to crack into the case, and start monkeying around inside and see what I can learn.
A few bits of hardware were missing, but nothing major, considering it was all just outer casing bolts. Sure, they're pretty useful to have it all, but I'd be more concerned if the hardware on the engine was missing.

The first big reveal when I took off the top plastic case was the big "TECUMSEH" logo on the Pull Recoil. Imagine my surprise, and delight, when I saw that.
Even tho they may have a reputation for being junky engines, they really aren't that bad. They're fairly well constructed, they are... kinda eccentric? Or... something along those lines... But overall they are decent engines. 
The carburetor was really easy to access too, with its own little door.
A pair of 3/8" bolts is all that holds it on, and you have easy access to the bowl nut, so you can drop the bowl.

However, as it was pointed out, I think I may have not read the label as literal as I should have.
Misinterpreting the label as "ON/CHOKE/OFF" instead of "CHOKE ON/OFF"
My bad, but I still kept the operation correct, any way you look at it.

I mean, could I have reversed it back? yeah, but I didn't really think about it, until "AFTER" it was picked up, and I had explained it to him.

After cleaning up the carb, and the struggle to reinstall it, the snowblower came back to life, I also replaced the pull rope. Not that it was really bad, but I figure it was the right thing to do with the service.

When reassembled, I even gave it a little bit of a test with some leftover.. uh.. snow

IF you want to call it that, but the snowblower did a good job blowing it, even tho it's not really intended to be moving heavy snow like this.

And because the on/off switch fell apart, I changed it to a normal on/off switch, instead of a key switch.
I mean, the key is kind of pointless, but I understand it's for safety to prevent kids from playing with it, and getting hurt.

I would say this was a successful repair!

Anyway guys, until next time.

Stay tuned....

Trying Something Different

Decided to try to integrate two different, lives?, I think is the right word, together. Such as Photography, and Small Engine repair.

Taking out my camera, I've decided to try to do some photos of the lawnmowers around that I've worked on that I haven't sold, as of yet.

Murray 22" Cut Mower w/Briggs Quantum Engine

Honda HRS216 w/Honda GCV160

Honda HRS216 w/Honda GCV160

Canadiana Elite Self Propelled Lawnmower w/Briggs Engine

Craftsman Tiller w/Tecumseh Engine

I think it made for a different take on them.  Adding additional drama. An old technology, captured on an old technology, and it really managed to catch the grit and age of the equipment.

Expect more of this, as I actually enjoyed making these. Maybe making these into prints, and selling them.
Might be something to do on the page.

"Mikeanic in the Darkroom" hahaha!

Uh... maybe, we'll see

Until next time..
Stay tuned..

A Year On YouTube

 So it's been a year now, since I started my YouTube channel, and what have I learned?
Well, that's hard to summarize in a simple sentence, or as a singular question to that kind of question, so I'll have to break it down as best as I can.

What has been the most challenging thing about YouTube so far?

That's easy, honestly. The YouTube Algorithm. Hahaha, no all jokes aside, it's actually finding enough to do for content around Winter, as sometimes you have to find the smaller projects, and to make them into new videos, just to get a view or three, or YouTube punishes you for not having your channel active, and changing your rhythm. 

What are the unique challenges faced with building your channel?

Trying to stay motivated, it's a big one. But it's not really unique to my channel, in particular, but one that I'm sure many YouTubers get, whether they're big, long time YouTubers, or new channels, like mine, I sometimes find it hard to get motivated to get that video finalized, or the next segment set up right away.
Especially when one of my devices is full, and I have to empty the card, or device memory, to free up space.
Oh and forget having Hard Drive space! It's gone too!

Is there anything you'd change if you were to start over?

Yes, definitely. For one, I think I would have had done a bit more preparation into setting up a proper workshop/studio for it, instead of jumping headlong into it, however I think that's just what a lot of people do. It took me a bit to shake the nervousness from it, and sometimes I still get it when there are people nearby, or I perceive they are within earshot.  Not that they really care, they likely just think I'm nuts.

If someone was to start their own channel today, what would you suggest?

That's a really good question, and I have a couple things I would suggestion.

1. Make sure you have at least 3 to 5 videos ready to upload at the start.
   Make at least the first 3 visible right away, this way if someone watches one, they have a higher likelihood of watching more, and possibly subscribing if they do.
2. Don't be afraid to be yourself. You don't have to pretend to be some kind of different person, unless that's what your channel is all about.
3. Do not focus on subscribers. I know that's the most challenging one to get past, but views will bring the subscribers to you.
4. Do research into the niche you're looking at getting into. Check the competition, because it is a business after all, and see what you can do different. What you add to it, or maybe even a whole different breath of air on something.
5. Most of all, pace yourself. You do not want to burn out.
   Barely 1% of new YouTube channels get monetized, as most actually quit before their first 100 subscribers.

Also, check out channels like "VidIQ" for some help with your channel.

When posting a video, what has been the most frustrating part?

Oh that's an easy one. Getting it noticed by the YouTube Algorithm, and actually having it shared with people that are actually interested in that content.  One of the most frustrating things about the YouTube algorithm is that it has a habit of sharing the video with people that have a very low likelihood of clicking on it, however one thing that really does help.
A good, catchy title, and most of all, a very appealing thumbnail.  The thumbnail should summarize why the viewer should click on your video and watch it, with the title being a brief summary of what your video is about.

like "My Lawnmower Became A Tree Stump Grinder, No That's Bad News!"

or something like that, catchy, and could be about you repairing a lawnmower that hit a stump and bent the crankshaft, or damaged it in some other way.

What are your plans going forward in your channel?

Mainly, doing what I do best. Fixing lawnmowers, trimmers, and other small engines as best as I can.
It's a lot of fun, and I'll be documenting my journey along the way.
I've begun to roll out Memberships, and plan on even starting a merchandise line, like stickers, or hats, or even T-Shirts.
I wouldn't mind some button up Mechanic, or should I say, Mikeanic shirts, complete with the little YouTube ▶️button. I think that'll be nifty!
That way I can officially retire my old Mazda shirt. Very fond memories of that place. 

Thanks for tuning in guys!

Ever onward!

A Treat Find

There's nothing like getting old rolls of film developed. It's like a "Time Capsule" honestly. 
Sadly, the shop I was taking the film to, decided that they were going to be scumbags.  They refused to develop a roll of film, claiming "It's got some kind of chemicals, or fluids, on it"... When I do not do that kind of photography, and I even inspected the roll in complete darkness (pulled it out, and felt for any residues).  If anyone knows films that have accidentally been exposed to moisture, then dried, it's not coming out of the can. No matter how hard you try, it's not coming out, or it'll stick, and bind, and just be a complete mess.

Well, that was not the case. Was a clean roll of film.

Because of that, and I couldn't get into the city to collect the film back, it ended up being tossed into the garbage.

I don't usually call out places, but if you are thinking of visiting "GRAINATION" in Toronto, think again. There are better, more reputable shops, that will happily take your business.

It started out lovely with GRAINATION on Spadina Ave in Toronto, but then they showed their true colours, and I won't deal with them again, and put the word out, for anyone thinking about it, think again.
Downtown Camera is a fine choice of location to drop off your film, their kind, courteous, and knowledgeable staff (Yeah Stan, you may be a d1ck in store, but I know you're a softee outside of the store).

All that said, however, back to the film, it truly is remarkable how much of a time machine they can actually become.  What a treat!  This is Kodak Gold, run through my Spotmatic, with a SMC 50mm 1.4 Lens.

All the problems I had with this car, yet I really do miss driving it. The amount of space inside the
wagon was remarkable!  I'm definitely going to be replacing the current car (Nissan Juke) with another
wagon in the near future.

I just have to find a local shop that'll develop, and nicely scan, my film for a reasonable price, and hopefully I can get thru the small backlog I still have.

Until next time guys,

Keep those shutters firing!

What Exactly Is NET-ZERO?

That is a remarkable question, that I cannot overall answer, but I will take a shot at talking about the impossibility of it even working.

NET-ZERO is about the reduction of Carbon Dioxide emissions, to a zero-in zero-out emissions standard. It's sort of like the idea of a Ponzi Scheme, where you're offsetting carbon emissions thru carbon credits, which you can buy, or using "so called Green" technologies.

So let's say that you build a house, for it to be NET ZERO you would have to offset the costs of the carbon emissions while building it, use the most efficient windows, insulation, appliances, furnace, etc.  In fact the furnace would have to be Electric, likely a Heat-Pump, not a gas fired furnace, which honestly is the least expensive, and is far more efficient at creating heat than a heat pump, considering it's using fire. So already you're having to spend more money. The stupidity of saving the planet, simply by paying more money. It doesn't make sense.
It's all about "Offsetting Carbon Footprints" ... which begs the question, why are they building Wind and Solar?

How does Wind and Solar play into Net-ZERO?

Wind, and solar, are the two hot ticket items, with WIND being toted as the cheapest form of energy capture systems.  They are toted as "NET-ZERO" as they, supposedly, will offset their carbon emissions of manufacture, by their end of life, which is in approximately 10-20 years.  

The problem here is that the wind doesn't always blow, and there are times where the wind blows too much, and you're having to apply the brakes on the mill to prevent the turbines from ripping themselves apart. 
Not to mention, the insanity of the amount of resin used to create the huge fibreglass turbine blades, which is notoriously damaging to the environment.

On top of all this, they require large areas of land, and will provide a small percentage of the total power on the grid, with the main grunt work being done by the most reliable, cleanest, and most efficient energy production system that we have at our disposal, Nuclear.

Solar, being the other NET-ZERO hero, is also quite useless, as they are quite inefficient, lose efficiency, and require constant maintenance, and are prone to damage by the weather, and again, require huge amounts of land to be viable.  


When you say that Wind and Solar take a lot of land, what do you mean?

Wind and Solar are known as "FARMS" for a reason. A Wind Farm is a large area of land, often cleared of trees, as the trees would act as a windbreak, and the wind turbines need a constant flow of wind.

With SOLAR Farms, they HAVE to be clear of all trees, and other foliage, aside from grasses, as they require direct access to the sun, without any shade. These lands could also have been used for actual

agriculture/food production instead.

What you're ending up with, believe it or not, are trees being cut down, to make room for green energy?
Someone please make it make sense, because it baffles me. Forests are our natural carbon sinks. As trees grow, they absorb carbon from the atmosphere, and use that captured carbon to build up their branches, trunks, and root system.  They use it to produce leaves, which give us oxygen to breathe, give us shade, and actual cool the air around us, as the leaves actually evaporate water into the air, taking a bit of heat away with it.

We're destroying natural carbon sinks for green energy production, then the governments claim that Carbon Emissions have risen dramatically over the years, instead of going down.
Well, ya, for one, India and China use large amounts of Coal Fired power generation, and we're cutting down forests to make room for "Green Energy"

What is a viable alternative to Petroleum Based Fuel Fired Plants and Coal Fired Plants?

The best non-petroleum based, or coal fired plants, is simple. Nuclear.
I know, it sounds like a really scary word, especially for those of us who remember Duck and Cover drills.  I'm not old enough to remember the Open Air Nuclear tests, but I'm old enough to remember Chernobyl, and the Space Shuttle Challenger explosions. I was quite leery of Nuclear for many years, until I actually learned the truth behind the lies.

For one, Chernobyl was a Soviet Disaster, there was no containment facility, and there were a lot of mistakes made in general in that scenario. Have there been mistakes made in the USA and Canada? Absolutely. 
But when you look at the Fukushima disaster in 2011, it had a containment vessel, which was breached thru a series of explosions due to lost cooling when the coast was slammed by a massive tsunami, which followed a huge earthquake, taking out the backup systems (diesel generators) which ran the cooling systems.  Even tho the reactor was shut down, the cooling systems were knocked offline. 
Again, many things were compounded by Human Errors, but it wasn't ultimately what actually triggered the event, as that was a magnitude 9 Earthquake that spawned the Tsunami.

However the overall amount of Nuclear Plants that are in use today, such as in France alone, or the plant in Zaporizhia, Ukraine, that is in the middle of a warzone, and had the dam destroyed, which provided fresh water to the cooling pools, and has taken direct hits from artillery, and missile strikes, yet has not breached, or exploded.
Nuclear Power has come a long way.

Okay, but what about Nuclear Waste?

That's been a big scary word for quite a while. When you consider what Nuclear Waste is, it is actually carbon rods, not some green goo. Those rods are stored in large drums, sealed, and contained on the Nuclear Plant grounds for containment, and cooling.
Once they have cooled sufficiently, they are then moved again to a contained storage area. You can track the fuel, and waste, from start to finish with Nuclear.
The amount of Nuclear Waste generated in North America would be the size of 1 football field, about 10 yards deep. As I said before, you can trace Nuclear waste from the place it was mined, to where it is stored. From start to finish, entirely traced. What other industry can do that?

How do EVs play into the NET-ZERO Agenda?

EVs are interesting, as they are straight out a way to 'offset' the carbon footprint, nothing more. It's just moving the carbon exhaust emissions from the tailpipe, to the manufacturer and power generation.  The

funny thing is that it's just greenwashing, and giving the consumer "feel good" vibes, because they aren't actively burning any kind of "FOSSIL" fuels themselves.  In truth, it's all a complete joke. 
If you start at the mining side of things, extracting the minerals for the batteries, and components of the vehicle require massive amounts of oil.  Sure, the mining equipment is mostly electric, as electric motors provide instant, and huge amounts of, torque, where as a gasoline, or diesel engine, has to rev up to provide the same torque.  Electric motors provide maximum torque at 0 RPM, and the band kind of goes downhill from there.. again, why they use Electric motors, because they only rotate when doing some kind of work, while a gasoline/diesel engine continues to operate, regardless of whether they're doing work or not..
Here's the thing, there are no grid hookups for those mines, as they're entirely powered by diesel fired generators.  In fact, this is where it gets interesting, as solar farms, and wind mills require a diesel generator as a backup.  IE, during times of low-wind, or low-solar, output, will require a diesel backup generator to provide enough power to the grid. Many EV chargers are powered by large diesel generators, especially semi-truck charging stations, which have to provide huge amounts of electricity for the giant batteries in these vehicles.
So the whole NET-ZERO with EVs is all, again, smoke and mirrors.
Trying to stop OIL seems to be some odd agenda by the green zealots, without realizing that everything, from your cell phone, to the food you eat, the electricity you utilize, computer products, etc, are all brought to you from oil. There is no way around it. Everything in existence today that has been made my human hands is thru the consumption of oil. Whether it's fresh lumber for a home, or bananas on your counter. Every last product has been because of oil.

Is there anything us, as consumers, can do to offset our carbon footprint?

Of course there is. Buying a new EV, or a new battery operated piece of equipment, is one way of increasing your carbon footprint, as you're putting a demand on these manufacturers to create a new

product, which entails the mining of raw materials, as well as the transportation of that product to your store where you purchase it. When it comes to a vehicle, having an older, well maintained vehicle is far more environmentally friendly, than purchasing a new vehicle, as again, it creates a demand on the market for a product.  
Consumerism, planned obsolescence , etc are the main driving factors behind CO2 emissions. 
EVs contain a lot of oil, and require the burning of a lot of oil. So keep that car you have for longer, keep it well maintained, and it will last for many more years to come.
If you have old gas powered equipment, such as a lawnmower, or a snowblower, maintain it. 
Those small engines can last for decades with proper maintenance, as they do not operate at all to the extent of the engine in your gasoline powered car, and that engine can last for hundreds of thousands of hours.

Write your member of parliament, write to congress, tell your friends, and family, and above all, do not vote for people who want to implement these damaging policies.

A proper green transition should not be forced, nor should it cost us our livelihood, and it definitely

shouldn't cost us our homes, but these policies are doing just that.
Driving the costs of goods up faster than inflation.

Anyway guys,

Comment below, follow for more.

Chat soon!

The SnowKing

 Built by Tecumseh Power Products, and used on a big MTD Snowflight 826 2-stage Snowblower, it's a monster of an engine!
The first time I heard it fire up and run, I said... "WOW! That thing is loud!"
Maybe because I'm standing right behind the muffler, but I'm pretty sure it's actually really bloody loud. I do like the sound of the engine, and I do like how loud it is... but I can't deny that it's likely at a hearing damage level. I mean, it sounds close to that of a motorcycle.. But not quite.

The 826 means it's a 8 Horsepower engine, with a 26" clearing path. So it's a pretty big snowblower, but I am thinking it might be a little too much snowblower at times! 

It was nice to have, when we got the big dumping of snow recently, and boy did it chew thru the snow! Made short work of the small mound the plow had dumped there.
It's not as bad as one year when we had a near 3 foot tall wall in front of our drive because of a plow.. That was a terrible snowfall! 

Could have done with the big snowblower then, it would have enjoyed that.  I had a single stage snowblower, but it was battery powered. Talk about useless! it would often cut out while clearing snow, and was useless in anything but powder. Add a bit of slush to the mix, nope... wouldn't do anything, just clog.  Add ice, and it would stop.  Heck, it would stop on powder too.  Terrible, was happy when I sold it, as I was done with the Battery Powered experiment, and found it to be lacking a lot.  The lawnmower was junk, and the snowblower could barely blow snow.

This Snowflight snowblower, well, it lives up to its name! It blows snow, and it makes the snow fly away!  

It's hard to believe that it was towards the end of summer that I thought to myself, it's time to get the snowblower ready... and not until October that I actually got around to it.
Sure enough, a quick carb clean and the Snowflight was back in action!

Now funny story.. I was out using it not too long ago, no before the large snowfall, just to get the hang of it, and understand how it works. WELL, the tire chain came off and got sucked up into the chute... Stalled the engine, as expected it would, and the chain got all tangled in the auger. Blah!  I was worried I had sheared the key, so I started it up, and it ran fine... Thank goodness! 
Shut it down, did my best to get the chain off, and out of the auger, but nope... Out came the grinder, and goodbye chain...
I decided to take the other tire chain off, don't need a repeat, and those chains were pretty toast.
Funny, because it has loads of traction! Enough that it does a wheelie when I engage the transmission.

It's a great snowblower, and one I would highly recommend to others.  Sure, it's a Tecumseh engine, but they are really good snowblower engines! The King of Snow, after all...

Alright guys,

Chat soon...