Do you need a tracked snow blower?

Consumer Reports puts the case in one sentence: tracks suit hills and steep driveways because they boost traction significantly, but they tend to be harder to turn on level terrain. MovingSnow adds the other situation where they earn their keep — snow packed hard enough to walk on, including a sidewalk or drive end plowed full by the city — which is the same berm this guide treats as the real test of any machine. Cub Cadet describes its track drive as ideal for slopes, inclines and gravel, but that is a manufacturer selling the option. Gravel is a skid-shoe problem rather than a traction problem: what keeps stones out of the auger is a two-stage riding above the surface, which every two-stage in this report already does.

The premium depends on how closely the pair matches. Honda is the cleanest comparison: the wheeled, electric-start HSS928AWD lists at $3,399 and one dealer prices the tracked electric-start version at $3,599, so tracks cost about $200 on an otherwise similar hydrostatic machine. Cub Cadet asks $2,239 for the 2X 26 TRAC against $1,449 for the wheeled 2X 26, a $790 gap that also buys a 272cc engine in place of 243cc. At one dealer on 11 October, the Ariens Platinum RapidTrak 28 SHO was $3,099 against $2,499 for the wheeled Platinum 30 SHO, which is wider and has the bigger engine.

Turning is the price you pay every day. Tracks resist pivoting, so manufacturers sell fixes: Cub Cadet fits trigger-controlled power steering, and Ariens RapidTrak lifts the machine onto its wheels for maneuvering, with a separate dig-in position for deep snow. MovingSnow says Honda's tracked machines are considerably slower than designs with larger drive wheels. None of the picks in this report is tracked, because a flat or gently sloped paved or gravel drive does not need the traction and should not pay for it.