Ariens gets my vote too.
I had an old 8 HP Craftsman for a few years, I spent more time working on it and trying to get it started than cleaning snow with it. One time I borrowed my neighbors 5 hp Ariens and quickly realized this little machine out performed my old one. At the end of that same week I was a proud owner of an 9HP Ariens...30 minutes worth of snow cleaning with the new machine, the second stage stopped working. I took it back to the store where I bought it from. The store manager give me $100 credit for upgrating to a larger model a 13HP, 34 inch cut Ariens, which were $250 off. Unless the snow is wet, I never have to rev it up all the way even up to 12 inches of light snow, a little over iddling it's all it needs. Wet snow, heavy snow, slushy snow, snow banks, bring it on, this machine will chew it and spit it out...far away!
