FEL Snow skid plates

[ku boo boo]

Just bought a kuborta BX24. Does any one make bolt on skid plates for the FEL so I don't dig in to ground while clearing snow on drive way. Also, do you think i'LL need tire chains. Small tractor w/ 4 wheel drive but is light weight?

 

[mboulais]

Not a bad idea. There was another thread recently about bucket / cutting edge mods to protect the driveway. Locally some cover the cutting edge with a piece of pipe split along the length, others bolt on a peice of plastic (UHMW polyethylene or teflon). Would you mount the skids outside the bucket at the front edge? Should they swivel?

 

[ToadHill]

I don't know of any skid plates but I've had success by setting the bucket to a level position, lowering it to the ground and then just giving the joystick a quick tap backward. This raises the cutting edge off the drive by about 1 inch b ut leaves the rest of the bucket in contact with the drive.

 

[LBrown59]

Just bought a kuborta BX24. Does any one make bolt on skid plates for the FEL so I don't dig in to ground while clearing snow on drive way. Also, do you think i'LL need tire chains. Small tractor w/ 4 wheel drive but is light weight?

I've never needed them on my BX23 and don't thik I will need them on the BX1500 either.
Now ice that may be a different matter.

 

[MikePA]

Just bought a kuborta BX24. Does any one make bolt on skid plates for the FEL so I don't dig in to ground while clearing snow on drive way.

After clearing snow for a while you get used to angling the bucket so you do not pick up stones. On paved surfaces, I angle the bucket slightly down to clear better. On stone driveways, it's angled slightly up.

Also, do you think i'LL need tire chains. Small tractor w/ 4 wheel drive but is light weight?

Depends on what surfaces you're clearing snow on and how much snow you get. Your profile doesn't indicate where you live, so it's a bit hard to help. I've never needed chains, but folks that live in heavy snow country, e.g., New England seem to use them as well as people who have steeply angled driveway where sliding off is a concern.

 

[NY_Yankees_Fan]

Check this thread out from a while ago. I bolted a 2 x4 to the side of the FEL and that worked well to prevent damage to the black top. The pictures and how I did it are at the end of the thread.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/19235-wearplate-fel.html

 

[MikePA]

Check this thread out from a while ago. I bolted a 2 x4 to the side of the FEL and that worked well to prevent damage to the black top.

I should have added, in all the years I've been using a FEL to clear snow, I have never damaged a paved driveway and I do not have any skid plate on the bucket. Note: I do not define damage as scrape marks on the driveway.

 

[pat32rf]

I don't know where you are, how much snow, frost or what kind of a driveway surface you have but my old 2300 was kinda lost without chains. I have a JD4300HST now, it also wears chain.We have a combination crushed stone(in places) and "a" gravel long(600') hilly driveway which is built on a wooded sidehill in most places.
I used to pack the first coupla small snowfalls down to give a solid frozen surface, then I could plow down to ice all winter (or until the a major thaw). This winter we didn't get those first small snowfalls but a quick 2ft of powder snow instead. This is the first thaw since mid-Nov so the ground, lawn and gravel still isn't frozen due to the insulation of the snow and the lack of moisture. My driveway has about 8" of packed snow on it, the lawn has over two feet of powder.( total snowfall over well over 36" but it settles and compacts somewhat).
I blade the fresh snow to the side with a back blade(in reverse), then when the driveway starts getting too narrow,I dump the snow piles over the edge of the hillside, onto the lawn and garden or out onto the lake with a snow bucket I made for the FEL.
In our area loaded tires and chain is the only way to get around. Patching lawn and picking crushed stone out of flowerbeds is inevitable to some degree. Practice will lessen it.
Have fun and dress warm....

 

[bigdad]

Tom,

Is the leading edge of the 2X4 tipped up or beveled a bit to prevent gouging? I can't see on your photo.

That is a GREAT idea! Kudos.

Big Dad

Check this thread out from a while ago. I bolted a 2 x4 to the side of the FEL and that worked well to prevent damage to the black top. The pictures and how I did it are at the end of the thread.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/19235-wearplate-fel.html

 

[Reg]

Practice.
Until you have enough practice, keep practicing.

Pushing snow around with the bucket angled up (cutting edge off the driveway) will eventually wear out the back and bottom of the bucket, keeping the wear to only the cutting edge will be a lot easier on repair/replacement costs.
Back dragging is a bit easier to learn and poses a lower risk of driveway damage; float the bucket with the cutting edge dipped down (dump direction) to whatever angle works for the amount of snow you have and however hard packed it is. Of course, you can get it so far angled back that it will dig in, though I doubt that such a lightweight tractor would develop enough pull/dig power to really cut up cold asphalt.
Start out with the bucket's bottom at about 45 degrees to horizontal (or vertical), try that and play with it for a while.

You will probably want to learn back dragging anyway so you can pull snow away from garage doors and other dead ends.

The extreme version of this is with down force on the bucket edge and the front wheels off the ground, I try to do that only when I need to chip ice (on the town's part of the road). The bucket's dump angle REALLY makes a difference when doing this.