Skid shoes on BX5450 snoblower wore out; can I turn them around?

[homehank]

Both my skid shoes on my snowblower have worn out at the leading edge. The manual shows how to orient these skids; the lower curved end faces forward; but after only 3 seasons of asphalt drive snowblowing, these front ends have completely worn away, but the remainder of the shoes are fine. I found that they can be turned around and use the back trailing edge as the front leading edge, thus saving me the costs of new skids, which are quite expensive from the dealer; over 32$ each!
Any suggestions on either turning them around a wearing out the back edge before buying new skids?
Do theses skids normally wear out so quickly?
Can I get skids that mount on this blower from an aftermarket supplier?
I am not interested in fashioning my own skids as I have seen some posts suggests; ie. from polyetlylene or wood....
Thanks

 

[mikester]

Its hard to say without any pics but you probably can flip/reverse them.

Shoes are a wear item and asphalt is an excellent abrasive.

If you weld some 1/2 inch flat bar to the base of the shoes it will give you more wear life. Easy to do yourself or take to a fab shop.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Nope not reversible:
Do yourself a favor and make or have made a set of nylon or teflon shoe faces made for it.

It will not scuff up the asphalt and it will not wear anywhere near as fast.

Or at least do like Mike said and have some 1/2" AR steel welded to your existing shoes, that would probably outlast the snowblower.

 

[eserv]

Nope not reversible:
Do yourself a favor and make or have made a set of nylon or teflon shoe faces made for it.

It will not scuff up the asphalt and it will not wear anywhere near as fast.

Or at least do like Mike said and have some 1/2" AR steel welded to your existing shoes, that would probably outlast the snowblower.

A piece from an old lawnmower blade works well welded onto the shoes and wears much longer than the original. Everyone has a lawnmower blade hanging around don't they?

 

[chim]

When you repair or replace the shoes, it sounds like you need to adjust the toplink so the blower sits more level.

 

[mikester]

Nope not reversible:
Do yourself a favor and make or have made a set of nylon or teflon shoe faces made for it.

It will not scuff up the asphalt and it will not wear anywhere near as fast.

Or at least do like Mike said and have some 1/2" AR steel welded to your existing shoes, that would probably outlast the snowblower.

The plastic idea sounds good...you can also try UHMW or HDPE as they are used as bearings and dump truck bed liner materials and have pretty good shock and wear resistance.

I just looked at some photos of the shoes. Too bad Kubota went with the one way orientation design. Can you weld a tang on the mount so you can flip and drill new mount holes? Id probably try that first, then weld a wear plate on the bottoms after the wear down more evenly.

 

[RCW]

The plastic idea sounds good...you can also try UHMW or HDPE as they are used as bearings and dump truck bed liner materials and have pretty good shock and wear resistance.

I did UHMW on mine, different style shoe. Made them reversible in case of front wear over my stone driveway.

Just been 1 season, maybe 20 hours, but they look like new.

OP is looking for another solution; I like the mower blade or other steel wear plate idea. I have a few blades/pieces I could weld on for the job.

 

[D2Cat]

I've use stainless steel plate to weld on plow shoes. Worked fine. I used it because that is what I had.