New Snowblower Skids

[Cfrazer]

I have a gravel driveway and since getting my snowblower have had issues with it digging in causing gravel to go through my snowblower. The original skids that came on my BX5450 wouldn't get the snowblower high enough and always felt they were kind of small.

i've found a lot of threads on how people have dealt with this, but not knowing how to weld or fabricate some of the great ideas I went to putting a pipe on the bottom of blower, which actually has worked pretty good up until this year with all the rain we had leaving the ground really soggy, the gravel was just coming up and over the pipe and right through the blower.

i then found a business offering snowblower skids that mainly advertised their skids for going over cracks in pavement and good for gravel as well. Originally found this last year but never tried them, but this year I noticed they now were offering skids meant for Tractor mounted snowblowers, so i went ahead and ordered them and all I can say is WOW - THESE THINGS ARE SERIOUS SKIDS.

I couldn't wait to try them so even though we don't have much snow, I put them and on and ran over the driveway a few times. I can adjust these 3/4 to 3 3/4 inch from the cutting edge which gives me lots of adjustability. I didn't have any issue with them digging in, probably due to their large profile.

Anyway I haven't seen these talked about anywhere so wanted to let people know of a new option available. The site I got them from is www.snowblowerskids.com

 

[SidecarFlip]

If I were you, I'd run a couple beads of Lincoln Abras-O-Weld hard rod down the bottom side of each. They will last a lot longer that way. Looks good though. The bigger the skid (in surface area), the better the float.

Why I sold my blower. I too have a gravel drive and the blower can become a machine gun rather quickly and do thousands of dollars in damage to siding, windows or someone nearby.

I bought a used retired county plow on a 2 pin bobcat style quick detach plate, 8 1/2 feet wide with power angle. No more machine gun affect for me.

 

[rjcorazza]

I do like those shoes. They have more adjustability than the ones I got for mine, but 99% of my use is pavement.
I have no idea why oem shoes always seem to be WAY undersized. The oem shoes for my heavy duty blower are like 4” long by 1” wide.


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[War Eagle]

I built a sno pusher adaptation for my bucket on my B3000 and used those very shoes. Their size and adjustability is what sold me on them. This will be my 2nd season on them and I have been very happy with them.

 

[Cfrazer]

I do like those shoes. They have more adjustability than the ones I got for mine, but 99% of my use is pavement.
I have no idea why oem shoes always seem to be WAY undersized. The oem shoes for my heavy duty blower are like 4” long by 1” wide.


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My thoughts on OEM exactly, I looked everywhere and could not find anything suitable for larger snowblowers. Some of the solutions people have come up with to solve the problem is pretty ingenious though.

 

[Cfrazer]

I built a sno pusher adaptation for my bucket on my B3000 and used those very shoes. Their size and adjustability is what sold me on them. This will be my 2nd season on them and I have been very happy with them.

Now that snow pusher is interesting, are those just bolted onto the bucket? So far I have only used my blower and rear blade. I have a stall mat wrapped around the blade which makes it act like a squeegee which works good in the slush, but looking backwards gets old quick.