Rear blade shoes for next winter

[awesome]

Hi,

I have a gravel driveway (1" gravel) and every winter I end up scraping lots of it while plowing the driveway. I have a 60" read blade and I'm considering getting a pair of skid shoes to put on the blade.

I wanted to know if it's worth it. Does it really work at preventing scraping off gravel? does it still do a good job at plowing?

 

[dirtydeed]

Hi,

I have a gravel driveway (1" gravel) and every winter I end up scraping lots of it while plowing the driveway. I have a 60" read blade and I'm considering getting a pair of skid shoes to put on the blade.

I wanted to know if it's worth it. Does it really work at preventing scraping off gravel? does it still do a good job at plowing?

Can't answer your question directly, but have you tried plowing with the back side of the blade? That's what I do all the time on gravel. Either turn your rear blade 180 degrees and drive forward, or plow in reverse.

 

[awesome]

Can't answer your question directly, but have you tried plowing with the back side of the blade? That's what I do all the time on gravel. Either turn your rear blade 180 degrees and drive forward, or plow in reverse.

Yes, that was actually my solution last winter. Works great expects that you can't pull too much snow because the blade ends up lifting at some point.

I was wondering if the shoes would be a better solution than the reverse blade.

 

[jajiu]

Can't answer your question directly, but have you tried plowing with the back side of the blade? That's what I do all the time on gravel. Either turn your rear blade 180 degrees and drive forward, or plow in reverse.

I have had a gravel driveway for 30 years and use a snow blade on front and a grader blade on the rear. The worst storms are the first and last of the season because the ground has not yet frozen for the first or thawed out for the last. As dirtydeed said, use the back of the rear blade when the ground is soft or raise it a little. My front plow has shoes on it but they sink in when the ground is soft. Patience is the answer, moving slow and making adjustments as you go is the answer.

 

[OrangeKrush]

I purchased the 3/4" horse stall mat from TSC and mounted that on my rear blade to help preserve my concrete drive.. but it works great on my other gravel drive too. Sandwiched in between the blade and actual mounting plate.
You can see how it contours with the gravel drive but I had no problems with pulling the gravel with the snow.

 

[steveh]

I have an 84" blade on my Land Pride rear blade. It was a constant job to keep the blade at just the right height to prevent it gouging my dirt/gravel [snow in season] 450' drive. Last fall, I installed two skid shoes on the blade and they do help a lot. Dealer suggested I could get by with only one shoe, but my drive is in the mountains and uneven and etc. In my case, I definitely needed two shoes. Haven't used them on straight gravel alone.

As to your question regarding the actual snow plowing, the shoes have no negative effect on that.

 

[eipo]

Heres a little tip for plowing gravel drives...

Unless the snow is so deep you cant drive through it... Pack the first couple of events down into the gravel. This will allow the gravel to freeze and then you can run your plow as normal. I usually only have to clean up a couple areas along the drive that didn't quite freeze down.