Skid shoes on a back blade for snow removal.

   / Skid shoes on a back blade for snow removal. #1  

jdom84

Gold Member
Joined
Jul 11, 2017
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344
Location
Montana - the frozen north
Tractor
LS xj2025h
I don't have paved driveways and I was tired spreading all my gravel all over my yard with my back blade. I got a free set of skid shoes and thought I would hook them up to my back blade but also make it so I can remove it all when not needed.


Here is what I did, for anyone who is interested in doing something similar. I only had enough time yesterday to briefly test before it was to dark, but they seem to work great!
3 Point Back Blade Skid shoes for Snow removal - YouTube
 
   / Skid shoes on a back blade for snow removal.
  • Thread Starter
#2  
IMG_20180114_111013_Bokeh.jpg
IMG_20180114_111030.jpg


went out and hooked them back up to the backblade
 
   / Skid shoes on a back blade for snow removal. #3  
Nice job, looks like they work fine.
 
   / Skid shoes on a back blade for snow removal. #4  
Nice job on the shoes. Before installing them did you ever try spinning the blade 180 so the cutting edge doesn't dig in. That worked great on my gravel drive before I built my QA FEL plow. Even with shoes my plow leaves two grooves when the driveway isn't frozen.
 
   / Skid shoes on a back blade for snow removal.
  • Thread Starter
#5  
Thanks. Normally I would use the blade backwards and it worked good on the small amounts of fresh loose stuff, but when you need to get heavier wet/refrozen snow, it would just bonce over. Also when moving large amounts of snow it would start to raise up on itself.

Non-frozen gravel is a problem, but that seems to be for almost for plows.
 
   / Skid shoes on a back blade for snow removal. #6  
jdom, I can't tell from the video: what size blade do you have and what does it weigh?

I noticed you use it running backwards or in reverse. Is this the normal way to clear roads using a back blade? I hope not 'cause my driveway is one mile!
 
   / Skid shoes on a back blade for snow removal.
  • Thread Starter
#7  
jdom, I can't tell from the video: what size blade do you have and what does it weigh?

I noticed you use it running backwards or in reverse. Is this the normal way to clear roads using a back blade? I hope not 'cause my driveway is one mile!

haha.. 1 mile would be pretty extreme in reverse. The blade is 6 ft wide. I mainly did it for the video because I had already plowed the part of my driveway I drive on, but my driveway is 200 feet long. In the 10 years I've lived in this house, I can count on 1 hand the number of times I've plowed... Normally our snow blows away in hurricane force winds we get. But last winter and this winter have been different, lots of snow that sticks around all winter... I actually started building a front mount plow, still working on it...

The skid shoes are something my brother found in a house he cleaned out, so... right there gave me a reason to build a plow and/or add skid shoes to the back blade. I will probably mainly use it for pulling snow away from the front of the garage because I cannot get it with a front mounted plow
 
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   / Skid shoes on a back blade for snow removal. #8  
Similar situation. Back blade was never used for snow if the past, so skid shoes seemed unimportant. But in use this year, obtained different style (ski profile, turn up edges) from Jacks Small Engines. Set them at 1/2 in and they work fine with the included shims. ONE important point, the pitch of the three point, coupled with the height, can negate the blade clearance, and allow it to scrape into the drive. I have a hydraulic top link so it is very easy to adjust to pitch.
 
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   / Skid shoes on a back blade for snow removal.
  • Thread Starter
#9  
Similar situation. Back blade was never used for snow if the past, so skid shoes seemed unimportant. But in use this year, obtained different style (ski profile, turn up edges) from Jacks Small Engines. Set them at 1/2 in and they work fine with the included shims. ONE important point, the pitch of the three point, coupled with the height, can negate the blade clearance, and allow it scrape into the drive. I have a hydraulic top link so it is very easy to adjust to pitch.

When I first moved to this house, I thought I needed to go out and plow the couple inches of snow that would stick around so I welded tubes to the sides of the back blade and made some little ski style shoes that slide into the tubes. They were not very adjustable but they kinda worked. I then decided it was going to be much easier to just go buy all wheel / 4x4 drive vehicles instead of plowing that little bit of snow all the time.

When I got the free skid shoes, I just had to use them and this was the first thought! :thumbsup:

I really "NEED" a hydraulic top link... its on the list! :D
 
   / Skid shoes on a back blade for snow removal. #10  
This is what i did. 20180118_125335.jpg20180118_125330.jpg
 
 
 
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