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Hey brutus, I live in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia and I have a sears 17.5 hp lawn tractor with a 40 inch snow blower chains and the weights for traction. I have no problem at all with any type of snow, I've snow blown banks 5 feet or more without any problems, the chains and weights are a Must, there pricey but well worth the money. My driveway is close to 100 feet long and about 30 feet wide by my house and I'm also disabled so I don't want to have to get off of my tractor, once I'm on it, for any reason, I've never been stuck, caught in a snow bank, because of the snow blower or not enough weight, so far nothing has stopped my craftsman 17.5 hp lawn tractor but I cannot stress enough the weights and chains, without them your going to give yourself alot of grief, I went through that with my first snow blower and lawn tractor combination, and I saw the snow blower here on this site, it's a manual lift, which is fine, considering the electric lift ones are about $800 and up over the cost of the 40 inch snow blower I have on my tractor, so to me unless the snow blower is over 44 inces I can't see needing an electric lift. I paid around 1000 for the snow blower, weights were over 200 and the chains are over a 100 I think, so go ahead, get a snow blower, You won't regret it, I haven't ,and I've had sears lawn tractors and snow blowers for 26 years now. My 17.5 hp lawn tractor and snow blower is about eight (8) years old now and I can't say a bad word about the tractor snow blower weights or chains.
I also have had so many people, even a few ladies come in my yard wanting to know what I was using for snow blowing, I didn't have that with my first lawn tractor snow blower combo, an 11 hp craftsman, but this 17.5 will blow the snow into my neighbours yard if I want it to & he's about 75 feet from me lol, and I don't know if the 40 inch snow blower comes with the adjustable shute deflector because I had to buy mine seperatly a few years back. Total Cost for me was about 3500 and that was 8 years or more ago, believe me you won't be disappointed if that tractor works half as good as mine. Only thing different from my snow blower and that 21 hp is mine has a Kohler Engine & a spin on oil filter, but my first lawn tractor , the 11 hp one, had a briggs & straton engine in it and I sold that one for 500 before I bought the 17.5 because I knew I would need at least a 16hp to snow blow properly and I had that 11 hp for 17 years but not enough power plus the weights really sucked back then, the weights now a days are in 6 pieces or more with 5 or 6 being 25 lb cast iron blocks that fit on the frame of the lawn tractor with the weights adapter, which was and is a 100 % improvement over the old wheel weights the 11hp tractor had.
I hope this helps you brutus, I know I Pray for snow since I got my 17.5 tractor and snow blower with weights and chains, it's more playing out in the yard then work lol, good luck, I doubt if you will be disappointed.
