Snowblower Skid Pads for Gravel

[Ideehoan]

Here’s my mod for my BX2750D for use on a new property with gravel driveway.
3/4” rebar was welded onto circular plates and heated with a torch to form a circle.
1” square tubing slides in receivers made of 1 1/2 angle iron welded together.
Three 1/4” holes 1/2” apart allow setting them 3/4” or 1 1/2” or 2 1/4 below the cutting edge.

I’ve also previously done a mod attaching 1/2 strips of rubber to the impeller blades which not only minimizes plugging in wet snow, increases throw distance but has the unexpected effect of eliminating the harsh grinding of the impeller on it’s housing when gravel is ingested.

The skids should get a test soon.

 

[CalG]

Looks fine!

I'm a fan of running Round pad shafts inside Square tubes. Keeps 'em from jambing up with rust etc.

 

[Ideehoan]

Looks fine!

I'm a fan of running Round pad shafts inside Square tubes. Keeps 'em from jambing up with rust etc.

That’s a great idea. I plan to keep oil or grease on them and take them off in the off season. If it’s an issue I’ll switch to round shafts.

Happy Thanksgiving

 

[rScotty]

I've thought about using something like those skids, but don't they cut gooves in the dirt?
No one seems to use tires instead of skids, but it seems to me they would work well - maybe better.
What am I missing??
rScotty

 

[alexinPA]

I use 8 inch wheels mounted in the hole for skids. Gives me about 1.5 in height adjustable using 3 point curl

 

[CH4Ohio]

I think those will just dig in and make grooves where you'd rather have a smooth surface behind you. Just tilt the blower back on its skids so it isn't digging in and catching the gravel.

 

[sd455dan]

I've thought about using something like those skids, but don't they cut gooves in the dirt?
No one seems to use tires instead of skids, but it seems to me they would work well - maybe better.
What am I missing??
rScotty

I think so, had round skids on a Western plow and rectangular on a Meyers, I always preferred the tapered rectangles, but the Western plow was built better than the Meyers imo.

The pull behind blower has rectangular but some more surface area would be helpful early and late in the season to reduce tracking. Any skid has got to be better than none, if trying not to scrape up the gravel in volume.

 

[Ideehoan]

These are common on blades. There’s a YouTube video of trying different setups on a similar snowblower and the guy was happiest with this.

There’s no tilt, just up and down on this front blower. I think wheels could work but not sure how they would handle tight turns without a swivel. I also have pavement so they have to come on and off quickly.

I’ll give this a try. It cost nothing but a couple hours of time.

 

[ruffdog]

The small shoes on my old Lorenz rear blower are not big enough to ride over a gravel surface. I always thought that I would check these guys out for bigger skids:

Kubota | ARMORskids®

 

[Cycledude]

Put Armor skids on my 72inch Meteor blower, they are nicely made but not really much help if the ground isn’t well frozen.
The past couple years the ground usually hasn’t been very well frozen so I been mostly using a pretty heavy duty 9 foot rear 3 point blade to plow my yard and driveway.