Cub Cadet 3X (24") 277cc Three-Stage Snow Blower

The product is outstanding. Took on a ton of Western Pennsylvania snow, without a problem. I sprayed silicone spray on the unit before use, and it even, went through wet snow, with ease. The heated handle grips, we’re absolutely amazing.

No snow to try it in. Should work good,owned 3 other snowblowers over the years. 3 stage lookalike it should work well.

We bought this after a storm dumped 24 inches on us and after shoveling that I ordered this and what a life saver! A week later we got hit with snow again. The only issue we had was the light bulb came out of the light socket in the housing. It was a pain to get out when it was like 20 deg out. However Snowblowers Direct did a great job getting it to me with fast shipping.

The engine is great and it can throw wet snow pretty good. The levers that disengage each wheel make it easy to move in tight spaces when storing. Adjusting the chute is difficult, that is an engineering FAIL.

If I could have tried a few 24" models side by side in snow I would have probably bought one that was 1/2 the price and been totally happy.

both reverse gears too slow to be used, I'd rather pull the thing back. headlight shines into chute, not that great here in Massachusetts when it comes to the end of the driveway.

Barely spits it over the bank. 3 stage system leaves snow every time you stop you get a pile in front, shears pins like crazy, sometimes just from crusty chunky snow and if you shear the BACK auger pin, it's an utter nightmare to replace, you'll see.

I just got my old toro snowblower back and I'm going to get rid of this good running but poorly designed cub cadet. Sorry

Bought this last year to replace my 1984 Toro 524. Just had first snow fall, so I was able to test it out. Worked great, especially on the wall the plow makes across my driveway. First two forward speeds are slow, third forward is too fast. Otherwise, so far - so good.

This was my first snowblower, so I have no experience with a two stage; but this is impressive in deep snow. Easily plowed through 11 inches of moderately wet snow this morning (Jan 11) and cleaned my 30 x 100 foot driveway in about 30 minutes. My main complaint is the slow reverse. It takes forever to back it up.

There are portions of the driveway that I blow 15 feet and would make things go faster if it was faster in reverse. But it has never clogged. One thing - don't buy the shear pins as you'll get hosed double their worth just for postage. It also comes with spares that I didn't realize.

The snow blower works great and I like using it.

Delivered within one week. No problems.

First, let me say that I paid the $50.00 extra for a truck with a lift-gate to deliver the snow-thrower, since I had no one to help me lift it off the truck. The driver told me while he was at my house that they don't charge extra for a lift-gate it's part of the deal - I guess Snow Blowers Direct got to keep that money since it apparently didn't go to the delivery company. That's $50.00 down the toilet. It's a shame you don't know in advance who's going to deliver the equipment so you could find this out ahead of time if they provide a lift gate service as part of the delivery.

The snow-thrower arrived in one piece with no damage. Putting it together would have been easier if the instructions were clear, but unfortunately, they were not. I went online to see if there were how-tos on assembling the Cub Cadet unit but no luck. I called Snow Blowers Direct to see if they had any words of wisdom, but while the girl who answered the phone was very polite, she was clueless about the machines. She transferred me to Cub Cadet to see if they could help me maybe they could have, if they had ever taken me off hold, which they didn't - after more than half an hour I just hung up. It says a lot about a company when they won't even talk to their customers - hiding behind the hold service is a cheap trick. That's zero stars for help from both Snow Blowers direct and Cub Cadet for service, or lack there of.

After turning the directions every which way, getting out the magnifying glass to try and see what was in the tiny pictures to no avail, I finally just threw down the instructions and muscled through it. Here are a couple of tips that might save others some time, if they decide to buy the unit.

1) That silly cinch pin in the Control Box mount that looks like a Bow Tie and is impossible to remove? Just take a pair of needle-nose pliers and bend the top of the loop under the straight part of the pin forward a little bit and the pin will slip right out.
2) Even though the instructions show the blower attachment facing the front for mounting onto the unit this won't work - you'll only get 50% of the movement you should. Make sure the blower joystick is ALL the way to the left, and the blower output is to the left as well. Then attach the rod that connects the joystick to the control box assembly - you should now have 180% motion from left to right.

Also, when you unfold the handle and put it into position, the way it is supposed to lock into position is provided by a tab on each side of the lower section of the upper handle assembly that is supposed to fit into holes in the lower handle assembly, and then two bolts with wing nuts go in the upper holes. This setup sucks - they should have had four bolts to hold the upper handle to the lower handle the way the Arien's do - as it is the upper handle assembly is weak, and it wobbles when you wiggle the handle no matter how tight you make the wing nuts. I didn't trust it the way it was, so I went out and bought two 1-1/2 inch u-bolts to go over the lower part of the upper handle assembly and around the lower handle assembly to give it some strength. Another $10 down the toilet.

I filled the machine with gas, and the engine started right up and ran fine. I tested the auger setup as mentioned in to book to make sure it was adjusted correctly. I also tested the forward and reverse gears. Now I just have to wait for some snow to see if it really does what it is supposed to do - move snow.

If I had it to do over again, I would have just bought the Arien Snow Thrower from the local Home Depot. It would have been more convenient for me, and the service I got from them would have been no worse than what I received from both Snow Blowers Direct and Cub Cadet.