Quick and dirty mod to my Pronovost snowblower

[PHPaul]

I have one driveway I keep cleared out that has that nasty crushed stone on it. I tried to keep the blower up high enough with the 3 point hitch to stay out of the stone but my success rate was...ummmmm...variable. The owners were a tad miffed with the amount of stone they had to rake out of the grass.

So this year I decided to do something I hope will be a little more effective:

I built a pair of these brackets out of 1-1/2" square tubing

and slipped them over the existing skids, marked and drilled some mounting holes and

bolted them to the sides of the blower with spacers between the mounting ears and the blower sides to keep things squared up.

Then I welded some 3" strap stock to the bottom of the square tubing with the front edge turned up to act as the actual skids.

 

[coldsteelva]

For stone/gravel driveways it's best to let the first couple inches become a base to lock the stone in place and then shorten your 3-point to tilt the blower back and keep it from cutting down into the base/stone. Your extended skid shoes are nice though. I have had a lot of luck using galvanized rubber hockey pucks for various projects and may work well as skid show extenders as well.

 

[adventure bob]

PH, I cant see any of your pics... I have a pronovost and a stone drive. Would like to see what you did.

 

[PHPaul]

PH, I cant see any of your pics... I have a pronovost and a stone drive. Would like to see what you did.

Odd. Check the post at my personal website: Shopbuilt

 

[Fallon]

Quick & dirty my ***... Those skids look better than the blower they are attached to. ;-p They just need a coat of paint.

May want to cap and/or bevel the ends so they don't pack up with dirt & rot out or catch on anything.

 

[Pillager]

Just trying to be helpful here, I don't think the bottom strap stock portion of the skid is heavy enough, especially when you get a little wear at the bend. From experience with blower skids I would add a gusset or something similar on top between the turned up portion and the bottom portion now while it's an easy thing to do, otherwise I think you'll end up folding that turned up portion straight up. Better yet would be to double up that strap stock the entire length. The last skids I rebuilt for my blower I used 1/2" material, even the previous rebuild with 3/8" wore thin at the bend and folded up after 2 seasons, that material looks to be less than 1/4". Everyone's use is different but I doubt you'll have good results with that light material.

 

[PHPaul]

Pillager, I appreciate the input. I thought about gusseting the "toe" and got side-tracked.

I thought the shoe was gonna be thin too, but that's all I could get my hands on without driving 50 miles to the nearest steel supply place.

I'm waiting on parts for another project which will require a trip to the supplier and I'll pick up some thicker strap stock and laminate it to the existing shoe then.

I'll whack a couple of gussets out of the leftover strap tomorrow.

 

[leonz]

Hello PHPaul,

The skid upgrade is a very good idea to save stone and reduce wear. do you have more washers to add to the back of the skid to reduce the metal bending? If you have any blue Loctite you should add it to keep the skids from vibrating loose on you:thumbsup:

 

[PILOON]

Yep, that's the way to go.
Made mine 2.5" X about 10"and results are excellent, very rare broken pins now and gravel free lawn.
In my case I was fortunate to have on hand some leftover cutting edge stock that refuses to wear out.

 

[Dave M7040]

Have you see the latest from your friends at Pronovost?
Hydraulically controlled trailer size wheels to keep the blower above soft surfaces
The ones in the photo are shown on an inverted blower but someone who can fabricate and weld like you can could take the idea and run with it.
My only thought is that the wheels need to be running where the blower has already cleared and not ahead where they could climb up on the snow.

Dave M7040