snow throwers????

[phester]

I suppose that this "survey" is mostly for us northeast members.....although some of you southeast centeral guys have had your share of snow this year. Anyway, I upgraded my older craftsman 9hp 26" to a brand new Areins of the same size. I, at least IMO, did some pretty extensive reseach between Husqvarna, Troybilt, Toro ect. and decided on the Ariens. Just under 1100.00 shipped to my front door. I could not find one, new, for sale locally....they're all sold out. Other units seemed good, the Husq. was a 2nd runner up, most others had to much plastic on them or they appeared to be lightly spotwelded together. We've got about 2ft. of snow on the ground now, approx 10" of it was from the Christmas storm and we got nailed last week w/ an add'l 15"-18" and they're calling for another coastal storm by mid week.....just didn't know if the old Craftsman could handle any more.....so, I hope I made the right choice in the Ariens. What type of machine have you other members have and are you happy with it? BTW, you can bearly see the gunnels of my V, as the snow sheds off the cover it of course piles up right next to the trailer....the cover itself has no snow on it, it's all piled on the ground.....sigh.....