Norfolk, Va. Aluminum grain scoop for most snow removal. Flat/square long handle shovel for ice/wet slush removal. I buy the latter used at yard sales because I’m going to wear them out breaking up sidewalk ice then grinding them down to get a new straight edge.

Does anyone know who manufactures hand held snow plows? I am not talking shovels. A plow has an angled blade that moves snow to the side as you push it. A shovel you have to lift as it fills.

Toro PowerCurve. It's electric. You can get either corded or now with battery. Totally fuggin' Beasts!

I'm up here in south-central PA. My dad bought one in 1993. That thing lasted thru the St. Patty's Day blizzard of '93, the Blizzard of 96', and I had it for 25+ years, thru the hard winters, especially 2010. I gave it to my cousin who's still using it, only because I bought a brand new one, exact same model.

Just don't wait for the snow to be done. If they call for 12", don't let it get above 6-8". Get out there and do it, then do it again at the end. Throws snow 20' depending on snow consistency. (powdery)

Wait until the day after the first snow storm and grab a snowblower or two off the side of the road. 95% of the time you can diagnose and repair then with a smartphone, a basic tool kit, and 0 dollars in parts

My last winter in Illinois, I figured out a really nice process. When the weatherman was predicting snow for the following day, I would toss salt (ice melt) on the driveway, stoops and sidewalks. The same way you would if there was snow and ice all over it. By next morning, we had an accumulation of 4" of snow. The driveway, stoops, and sidewalks were perfectly clear. Everyone else around us was shoveling snow, trying to break up the ice on their driveways and sidewalks. Not me. When I left for work, I didn't have snow and slush all over my shoes. I did that about 20 times I think that winter. Never had to touch a shovel.

It was a pretty ingenious idea I thought. That whole winter, I don't think we even touched a shovel. We did go through a little more driveway salt though that year. but my back was happy.

I unfortunately need one of these tools.

Oh snow you didn’t!

r/specializedtools would love this

As a canadian I find this very relatable

Not sure what you’re asking? You have all the stuff for a wax kit. If you need edge tools buy them but that isn’t necessarily part of a wax kit

Yeah there's a stupid amount of edge tools. Waxing snowboards is similar to cross country, but is less ridiculous.

Anyways, I would get a diamond stone and a gummy stone. Diamond stones clean up the edges real nice, after riding you'll likely get some burrs(little craters on the edge you can feel) so this will remove em mostly. These burrs also scratch your iron. Gummy stones will smooth it out a bit extra. If there's anything bad(rounded, huge burrs you can't get out that are building up, a huge gouge) or it has been a while, I'd go to a shop and have them run it over the edger.

Don't run the tools at 45 unless you want to round or detune the edge. Run it flat on the side and base edge. Good luck!!

Tuning your edges definitely takes a bit more of a learning curve than waxing. You need a guide for side angle (potentially multiple if you use fixed angle guides) and different guide for base angle. And stones to go with the guides to grind against the actual edge. Maybe a file for initial edge cutting and a gummi stone to remove burrs since they will be work hardened. Here's an example of a high quality kit https://www.racewax.com/racewax-pro-edge-kit-with-steel-plated-side-angle-tools-base-bevel/

Alright so waxing a board starting with a very old alpine kit. Go ahead and grab a wide scrapper if you'll be waxing a board. The ski scrappers are too narrow and make it quite a bit more work. The biodegradable wax available now is way better for the environment, worth grabbing a block. Wide vises are a nice luxury and you can swap from tuning the edge to waxing super quickly, but making your own fixed stand might be cheaper. You need some sort of scheme/stand to keep the board in place and flat while you apply a good amount of force scraping.

I use one of these to clear snow at our cabin. It's quite quick and came in handy this winter with so much snowfall https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSU86WtuPyk

I live in New England, when the snow really piles up it can cause damage to your home. Ice dams are the primary reason for raking your roof. If the snow is wet and heavy it can cause your roof to sag or in extreme cases collapse. Clearing your roof is a good way to reduce the risk of all of these. Some people use rock salt to melt the snow, there are heated cords and tapes your can put on your roof to melt it too. You may have noticed wires in a zig-zag pattern along the bottom of someone’s roof that’s an example of the heated cords (tape?). My roof is old and will need to be replaced next year so I want to minimize my risk of damage this winter as much as I can.

Home Depot, Lowe’s, and Menards sell standard snow rakes around my area (MI). Not sure if they have this type. I’m totally checking when I go to Lowe’s later.

I’m not sure to be honest, I live in Sweden. There seems to be something similar called the avalanche snow rake sold in the US but I dont know anything about the quality. Costs about 150 bucks.

https://www.amazon.com/Snow-Rakes/b?ie=UTF8&node=3043491

What if the snow was a few inches higher?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073FXWZG1/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_6tZ1Bb0YAT8PG

You want this one. I've used the other, cheaper one, and tossed it after a few tries. You need something that can cut through crusty snow and the other one couldn't do it.

Cats are incredible easy to drive. However, it takes many, many years to master actually operating it in all conditions and being good at actually laying down a nice pass.

But to actually get in and make it move, it's pretty easy! There's a steering wheel with a toggle switch to make it go forward/neutral/reverse, operated with your left hand mostly. You basically just set the track speed (which is a little wheel in the steering wheel which allows you go make the pedal more or less responsive), step on the pedal, and point it where you want to go!

Your right hand will be a joystick that control the front blade, with a bunch of buttons on it to control the tiller out back. The tiller has a ton of options for if it's just trailing behind you, if it's locked in position, you can manually move it from side to side, there's up and down pressure to set depending on snow type, the angle of cut (like tilting the tiller up and down). You also have dumbo ears that you can flop down to hopefully catch all the little bits on the edge (and lift them up to turn sharp / get close to objects).

Then you have winch cats, which are cats with a big turret and drum of cable, for runs that are steep (or when you need to move a lot of snow uphill).

The other hard part is just knowing the mountain and the runs. Is that a big ass pile of snow from a snow gun or is it a hill under there? If you don't cut into that pile of snow making snow you're just wasting time/energy/money but if it's a pile of dirt you're gonna cause a shit streak through the snow which can actually significantly fuck up a run for the entire season (dirt mixed into snow will cause the snow to melt significantly faster).

Then there's the entire order of operations to groom a mountain. Many times you have intersecting runs, so they need to be groomed in a certain order to keep everything looking neat and tidy and to hide the marks caused by a cat turning around.

You generally also have core runs that have to be groomed, and then bonus runs that would be nice to be groomed, so time management is key. You can spend a huge amount of time rebuilding a run, completely ripping it up, pushing snow back into the center, pushing snow back uphill, covering thin spots and etc, or you can basically just drive over it with a bit of blade work and lay down some chord and call it a day.

It's harder than it looks. They're always trying to slide into trees and hydrants. It's pretty easy to make a mess. Certain mountains are harder than others. It takes a lot of focus to do a good job. Driving around a mountain in the middle of the night can be pretty wild.

Modern machines have hydrostatic transmissions.

Source: waiting for my machine to warm up and ski patrol to clear the mountain.

Way way way harder than most folks realize. It’s a craft that takes years to perfect.

Source: I have a friend who is a professional mech for these and several who groom full time. I’ve ridden in and been given the privilege to drive them. I’m good at sports and games and feel.

It’s super hard. Very much a feel thing. Snow changes all the time. A few millimeters of moving the control stick the wrong way leaves a leg breaking divot in the slope. You also slide sometimes, which is terrifying. You sometimes hook up cables and go down things advanced skiers will pause on. 

It isn’t rocket science, but it does take an immense amount of practice. 

It is relaxing too and beautiful. 

But it ain’t easy. 

I like to stick a rake up my ass so it grooms behind me as I ski down

They asked about grooming, not plowing

They aren't difficult to drive but they aren't very easy to operate. Things can go wrong fairly quickly, such as, sliding off a trail.

They literally make a tool called a sidewalk scraper. It's a long handle with a narrow flat end so you can slam it down and break up the ice or get under the ice and snow and scrap.

You'll just bend the tines on the roofer spade trying to use it with ice scraping.

I like it...always struggle with this. I only tore off one roof in my life but I think this may be genious!!!

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I haven't seen it mentioned yet, but, magnet wrist band

Goes around your wrist, holds screws and other fasteners while you're working. First thing I put on when I'm in "lets get this done" mode.

Oscillating tool.

Shoulder Dolly, basically turns any human body into a lifting stuff god.

We buy almost everything second hand, so no delivery, and the first few years of home ownership was a bunch of back stress. Now it's no problem to move a washing machine up to the third floor with my opposite sized spouse. I keep them in the car and it's ridiculous how handy they are.

An inflator (e.g. for car tyres) that's compatible with my tools battery system (Makita CXT).

Its the sort of thing you can pick up really cheaply as returns, because people buy them without realising that they will need a separate battery and charger, rip the box to pieces opening it, then send it back.

I thought it was a bit of a luxury that would save me the occasional trip to the garage, but I use it all the time. Not just for my tyres, but for footballs, paddling pools, space hoppers, and so on. I took a massive multi-day car journey recently and stuck it under the driver's seat just in case.

Own a few homes, while there's a huge list of "must have" tools, most are also pretty common. Here's my odd tools I can't do without:

Cat's Paw Prybar is amazing for pulling nails that are smaller, sit more flush, or are in harder to reach locations.

Gas Can Conversion Kit because the new gas cans spill all over and are a pain in the ass to use. I won't subject myself to that, and it's easy to convert most gas cans over to the standard spout/vent style.

For those with old homes with plaster/lathe walls, you can find studs by putting a hard drive magnet or other very strong magnet on a string. It'll find the nails where the lathe is nailed to the studs.

Wago 221 Lever Nuts while I do still like wire nuts for solid wire home wiring (be sure to pre-twist!), when doing light fixtures, dimmers, or other cases where you'd be connecting solid to stranded wire or stranded to stranded wire, these things are a HUGE game changer.

A small bin like this every dang time I find a leak from a kitchen faucet or go to work on the toilet and have to disconnect the water supply, my normal 5gal pails or other containers are either too tall, too small to hold the water, or have other issues. A bin that's shallow yet large like this can handle all your drips and spills when working on plumbing. You probably already have something like this, but designating one as a workhorse for toilet water or sink trap water is great.

If you have a dog, get a Lily Brush, this thing is MAGIC for getting hair off fabric, I use it all the time on my couch and in my car, helps make vacuuming up dog hair so much easier.

Every homeowner should own a pair of quality knee pads, but so many people don't. Find a pair that fits your needs well, don't cheap out and save your knees. Good for working low in the house, gardening, pulling weeds in the driveway, etc.

Pipe Dope toss that teflon tape in the garbage, get some pipe dope. Way easier to use, gives a more consistent seal, makes you worry less about water/gas connections. Costs a bit more than tape, worth it.

Re-usable hearing protection. I've got these, they're great for when I mow the grass, snowblow, leaf blow, or weed whack. There's cheaper options out there that are fine to have/use, but I like listening to music and such while I work. Love them, and my wife appreciates me taking care of my hearing!

Smart Garage Door Opener ever have a mini panic attack because you can't remember if you closed your garage door or not? Want your garage door to automagically shut every night so you never forget at night? Ever want to remotely let someone into your house when they come to grab a shovel? These things are shockingly cheap and are a game changer to have.

I'm old school and prefer to shovel. I'd shovel my whole neighborhood to avoid having a HOA

Well done!

Im house sitting and they have a snow blower here but I've never used one so I'm watching youtube videos 🤣🤣

Damn this reminds me of Woodland Ave. I miss Winchester

Couldn't agree more!

I'm dying inside. I have a snow blower, didn't get to use it at all last year. Now I can't use it because I had bicep repair surgery last week.

I have a set of winter tires and a set of summer tires... helps alot!

What about windshield wipers? Up or down? What’s the best for snowfall?

Not overkill at all! On my way to BJ's now to clean them out of toilet paper, bread, and bottled water. On the way back I plan to stop at Mavis for 4 new tires, new brakes, a full fluid topoff, new wipers, and snow chains. Then over to Home Depot to put together an emergency kit in case the 6 inches of snow barricades me in my house for the next 12 weeks. Last stop the mall, so I can pick up a change of clothes, rain gear, hand warmers, blanket, battery bank, snacks, hydration packets, deck of cards or book, and a personal first aid kit w/various OTC medications.

I have AAA.

But I’m considering keeping a blanket and bottle of Bulliet Bourbon in case things get apocalyptic

I actually like this list of 6 things you shouldn't leave in your car in freezing temperatures, particularly the last one.