Been stuck in the same spot at 404/401 for 30 mins | Page 9 | GTAMotorcycle.com

Been stuck in the same spot at 404/401 for 30 mins

Jayv said:
Is there a rule for what time starting a snowblower in the morning is considered bad form? I kinda felt guilty firing mine up at 6am this morning, the whole street are either retired or WFH's.
Click to expand...
I think 6am is way too early. For me…7:30am is my early start.

I try and cut it off by 8pm but obviously yesterday and today are special cases.
 
Jayv said:
Is there a rule for what time starting a snowblower in the morning is considered bad form? I kinda felt guilty firing mine up at 6am this morning, the whole street are either retired or WFH's.
Click to expand...
I aim for 7:00 to 20:00 but most people are understanding (especially with such a large dump). You've got to clear before you can get to work. If I have to do it before 7, I often clear one path for the car and a few feet at the bottom to make space for the plow windrow and will deal with the rest later. The commercial driveway clearing in our neighbourhood is tractors with snowblowers. They run 24 hours a day. Many people complain about the noise and flashing lights. The people that pay for the service love it as they can leave at any time.

I was watching someone with a battery powered blower yesterday. Damn was it ever quiet. With the fresh powder in between you could barely hear it across the street. Not excessively powerful but I would have no issue with them using it at 3am if they wanted to.
 
FullMotoJacket said:
(Almost) everyone has that one neighbour.
Click to expand...
I have a dozen or so with snowblowers, but not all of them will offer. Will possibly get one next year, if we can find the room for it in the garage.

There's also one with a pick up truck, that tows people back to their driveways, when the plows don't come, and people get stuck.

It's a happy little neighborhood.
 
mimico_polak said:
Spent the late evening trying to help neighbours get their snowblowers started up.

Both have the same issue....crank crank crank die...crank crank crank die...crank crank crank sputter die....I assume it's bad gas (one hasn't used his in 3+ years), and the other one for over a year.
Click to expand...
Had the same issue i.e. crank, crank, crank.
Put in fresh gas and heated up the spark plug (on the cook top), after that it fired up on the second crank.
Then the non-driven wheel became detached, but that is another story.
 
All else being equal, what I've found with starting something with old gas is all I need to do is drain the carb(s) and then fire it up (unless the carbs were drained and the remaining film evaporated and gummed or crusted up, which is why I no longer drain them for long term storage). The float cuts off the fuel line, so the gas in the tank is usually in much better condition than that in the carbs.
 
Interesting...need to see how to cut off the fuel line to the carb and try that for the next season.
 
Jayv said:
Is there a rule for what time starting a snowblower in the morning is considered bad form? I kinda felt guilty firing mine up at 6am this morning, the whole street are either retired or WFH's.
Click to expand...

I had a similar dilemma one night.

Wife works the night shift sometimes and on one evening, the snow started pretty late and was forecast to keep coming down heavy till the morning.

She was due to return around 1 in the morning and if I had shoveled at 9PM, there'd be 20cm more snow by the time she came back.

I ended up shoveling at 1AM anyway, just one side of the driveway and tried to make it quick and noiseless.

Whadayagonnado?
 
Jayv said:
Is there a rule for what time starting a snowblower in the morning is considered bad form? I kinda felt guilty firing mine up at 6am this morning, the whole street are either retired or WFH's.
Click to expand...

Each municipality has noise by-laws, but I wouldn't consider a snowblower to be loud enough to warrant that. You'd have to have a pretty unreasonable neighbor that gave you crap for digging yourself out of your driveway to go to work.
 
mimico_polak said:
Interesting...need to see how to cut off the fuel line to the carb and try that for the next season.
Click to expand...

The carb float's purpose is to cut off the fuel line when it reaches a certain height so as to not overflow the bowl. The purpose of the fuel line cutoff, petcock, etc., is for long term storage in case the float fails.
 
mimico_polak said:
Damn I miss snowboarding. Next year I’m taking the kids to learn.
Click to expand...

Would you start them out on a board or on skis?

Very rare to see kids start out on a board. If they're young, their balance isn't that good to begin with so two planks of wood is better than one to get them used to sliding around on snow.

They say skiing is easier to learn and harder to master, and snowboarding is completely the opposite. For me, it didn't click till my second day on the slopes and I think for kids, they need the short-term win to stay motivated.
 
Lightcycle said:
Would you start them out on a board or on skis?

Very rare to see kids start out on a board. If they're young, their balance isn't that good to begin with so two planks of wood is better than one to get them used to sliding around on snow.

They say skiing is easier to learn and harder to master, and snowboarding is completely the opposite. For me, it didn't click till my second day on the slopes and I think for kids, they need the short-term win to stay motivated.
Click to expand...
I board, wife skis. I think I'd start them off on skis just to check it out. I haven't skied in years since I took up boarding, but I have a set after my FIL that's just sitting around and needs to be refreshed.

I was able to salvage the skis, unlike the fishing equipment, that his widow sent off to Poland to an ungrateful ass of an uncle (he sold it all anyway....bastard).
 
Jayv said:
Is there a rule for what time starting a snowblower in the morning is considered bad form? I kinda felt guilty firing mine up at 6am this morning, the whole street are either retired or WFH's.
Click to expand...
May want to look into the noise by-laws especially in Toronto as they have specific times for stuff like that.

But honestly with this being a 1 off event it shouldn't matter, unless you do this like every week.
 
mimico_polak said:
I board, wife skis. I think I'd start them off on skis just to check it out. I haven't skied in years since I took up boarding, but I have a set after my FIL that's just sitting around and needs to be refreshed.

I was able to salvage the skis, unlike the fishing equipment, that his widow sent off to Poland to an ungrateful ass of an uncle (he sold it all anyway....bastard).
Click to expand...
Drop the skis off and I will get them ready for you.

I started the kids on skis. There are a few tiny kids (<5) on boards. My logic was skiing is both easier and crashes don't really hurt. It is easy to crash hard enough on a board that you temporarily question your desire to live (catching a downhill edge). A kid does that a few times on a board and they may refuse to try again. Skis get them used to sliding and the feel and teaches them how to crash (don't put your arms out). Once they are competent on skis, if they want to board they can add that.

EDIT:
Back on track. An acquaintance waited 1.5 hours for a TTC bus yesterday and then walked home. Saw the bus on the way home sideways blocking all four lanes of the road.
 
Start them on skiis , no sitting in the snow getting the second boot in , can shuffle to a lift, they stand up faster, less chance of randomly just tipping over.
And they wont turn into greasy punks listening to rap / hip hop music and wearing baggy pants .
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom