Skid shoes on a scrape blade

[decableguy2000]

I have a standard 7' scrape blade I use for snow removal. Have about a quarte rmile gravel drive plus neighborss drive. No matter what I do I end up pulling gravel down the the road. I'm thinking of adding skid shoes.

 

[JJZ 109]

Probably not a bad idea. You can get plow shoes in several places from Amazon.com to Mill Supply to Northern Tool or any of the plow makers.

 

[s219]

I have a standard 7' scrape blade I use for snow removal. Have about a quarte rmile gravel drive plus neighborss drive. No matter what I do I end up pulling gravel down the the road. I'm thinking of adding skid shoes.

Do a search here -- there are a lot of threads with solutions. The two popular ones are replacing the steel cutting edge with a piece of stiff rubber (horse stall mat, conveyor belt, etc) or putting a pipe over the cutting edge. I have tried both, and like the pipe the best. Here's my most recent version:



In my experience, skid shoes will also help but will be much less effective if the ground is still soft and unfrozen (they will dig in and leave ruts). For that situation, something along the entire edge is preferable, like the pipe or rubber edge.

 

[s219]

By the way, the pipe trick works best if you have a way to put a slit in the pipe so that it can slide over the edge, rather than use brackets as I did. However, that is not easy with metal pipe unless you have access to a plasma cutter. Last winter I used PVC pipe, which was easy to slit on a table saw. It worked well, but wore out quickly -- basically a one time use. I made 3-4 of them to get through the winter. I am hoping the metal pipe will last longer.

 

[RichardGD]

I do 2 things to help with your situation. First I turn the blade around so it arc's the opposite way. This keeps it from digging in. second, I have a manual 4-way blade that allows me to tip the blade left/right as well as angle it. I angle it at around 30 degrees but I just pull the other pin and allow the blade to follow the contours of the road. This eliminates any high pressure spots. Have no problem with pulling gravel now.

 

[decableguy2000]

last week the grood was froze solid and had a 1/2 inch of ice and bounced this week we had wet snow and the ground was very soft. Also is there any thing to coat or paint the blade with to keep the snow from sticking to it. I only use this blade for snow. box blade for everything else.

Jeremy

 

[arrow]

last week the grood was froze solid and had a 1/2 inch of ice and bounced this week we had wet snow and the ground was very soft. Also is there any thing to coat or paint the blade with to keep the snow from sticking to it. I only use this blade for snow. box blade for everything else.

Jeremy

This has had several discussions. It seems some wax their blades, spray cooking oil spray on it and some put a strip or sheet of plastic on it made for snow plows. It seems nothing works all the time or for long unless reapplied and snow type, changes.

 

[DKCDKC]

I have a full mile of gravel drive to plow with a standard pull blade. I have tried several things already cited, but now just use the blade angled slightly to minimize digging in... And I go slow and carefully. It helps that I deliberately made my drive a little wider so that I can pick up some gravel when I scrape and then, when the snow melts, scrape it back into position and crown a bit.But really every snow is different and you simply learn techniques to handle the differences. The snow here last week was very dry on solidly frozen ground and it was delightfully easy. The snow pushed easily and the blade never dug into the frozen drive gravel. Other times it's tougher.

But it doesn't snow all that much here and I'll spend some time plowing a half-dozen or so days in the winter to have the beautiful drive and location the rest of the year.

 

[candoarms]

A few tricks that might help when using the blade for snow removal........

As mentioned earlier, turn the blade around so that the cutting edge doesn't dig in.

Raise the blade above the driveway just a bit, using your three-point control lever. There's no need to remove every last bit of snow. Leaving an inch or so of snow on the driveway is just fine. I actually prefer to leave a bit of snow on top, as it will get packed down and then prevent the blade from moving any gravel off to the side.

There's a silicone spray that's made for snowblower chutes. It will allow the snow to slip right off, preventing the chute from plugging. Spray it on your blade to help the snow slide off easily. It has to be reapplied often, but the stuff works great.

I don't like the skid shoe idea for my blade. I prefer to have the ability to dig deep and hard when working on asphalt and concrete. I like being able to move snow over the lawns when using the backside of the blade as the leading edge. This is the best setup I've ever used. Back up to remove snow from concrete and asphalt. Drive ahead to move snow across lawns and gravel.

Joel

 

[ustobefarmer]

I do several gravel driveways and I added two caster wheels to the ends of my blade. I have a 7ft bush hog and with the casters I have no problem with the gravel. I can adjust the top link to cut down on concrete or leave and inch of snow. With the caster wheels I can reverse the blade or angle it. I'm not having any luck posting a picture. I'll keep trying.