Skid pads??? Needed? Necessary?

[bp fick]

Appreciate advice and experiences here. I bought the 60" Kubota front snow blade, fully hydraulic, with QC. Winter is coming soon, and we average around 100". My drive is gravel. Question. Would you or would you not rush out to get the skid pads? What is your experience? Grateful for the wisdom.

 

[20 20]

I put them on mine just for the begaining of winter, just so I don't dig up the gravel. After the 1st few snow falls and once the ground becomes froze they're useless, so they come off

 

[TheFlatlander]

I put them on mine just for the begaining of winter, just so I don't dig up the gravel. After the 1st few snow falls and once the ground becomes froze they're useless, so they come off

Same here, But I want to stress that they are really needed on gravel at the start of the season or during a mid winter thaw. They set up and remove easily.

 

[radioman]

I concur- Although I don't have a kubota blade, but used a truck plow. It really helps the blade NOT to scalp the lawn when pushing the snow back over the driveway and prevent scraping of blacktop. However, once the ground freezes up enough, I don't take them off, I just set it higher so blade is touching ground more and it helps in the icy, harden areas.

 

[Duffster]

I have found skid show on a plow are just dead weight. When the gravel is soft then the shoes will cut in too. But what we plow needs to be clean so it is hard to set them right, especially if the ground is the least bit uneven.

IMO a peice of slit pipe over the cutting edge works 10x better.

 

[LBrown59]

Appreciate advice and experiences here.
I bought the 60" Kubota front snow blade, fully hydraulic, with QC.
Winter is coming soon, and we average around 100". My drive is gravel. Question. Would you or would you not rush out to get the skid pads? What is your experience? Grateful for the wisdom.

I tried it with out them on my slag driveway .
Thought I would not need them if I just kept the blade hight at the level I wanted it with the lift lever.
Found out that was only a dream as the the blade was constantly dropping to low and plowing into the slag or riding to high and skipping over the snow.
Put the skid pads on and adjusted them for hight and it made all the difference in the world.
Haven't touched them since.
Wonder when Kubota started making a 60 '' Blade for the 1800 series.
I thought all they had was the 54'' for the 1500 and 1800 series.
The 60 '' was for the 2000 series only.

I put them on mine just for the begaining of winter, just so I don't dig up the gravel. After the 1st few snow falls and once the ground becomes froze they're useless, so they come off

Mine seem fine the way I have them adjusted.
Work great the year round.
The only time I can see where there might be a need to change them is in a situation where you are needing to apply down pressure when grading dirt or other hard surface such as ice or hard packed snow.

 

[20 20]

IMO a peice of slit pipe over the cutting edge works 10x better.

Now that's an idea

 

[20 20]

Mine seem fine the way I have them adjusted.
Work great the year round.
The only time I can see where there might be a need to change them is in a situation where you are needing to apply down pressure when grading dirt or other hard surface such as ice or hard packed snow.

I wonder if it has something to do with the style of the skid guards, blade weight, blade design......? My blade is an old junker off a truck, manual pivot. The skid pads are the straight flat piece of steel style. I was thinking of switching{building} the round style. Like I said though once the ground is solid the blade alone works great. I only use the blade for snow if I need to move dirt{or ice} the dozer comes out

 

[Firefighter Kubota]

I wonder if it has something to do with the style of the skid guards, blade weight, blade design......? My blade is an old junker off a truck, manual pivot. The skid pads are the straight flat piece of steel style. I was thinking of switching{building} the round style. Like I said though once the ground is solid the blade alone works great. I only use the blade for snow if I need to move dirt{or ice} the dozer comes out

I have them for my bucket mounted plow...they are like a thin slice of a grapefruit, not full hemisperes, but curved in all direction. $16 on ebay with adjustment washers...

 

[bp fick]

LBrown

I don't know when the 60" was first offered, but yes, it is now. Go to Kubota, Build My Kubota and then, implements, you can choose the 54 manual or 60 full hydraulic.

Appreciate all the input here. Might just try that slit piece of pipe first. That sound interesting. May as well pick up the skid shoes too, just in case.