Wear strips or Hard-Facing beads to extend the life of snowblower skid shoes

[Captain Dirty]

My 78" Lorenz snowblower was fitted with "inverted mushroom" skid shoes. The disks are 6mm (1/4") thick, 8" in diameter with approx 1/2" of concavity welded to 1-3/4" pipe shafts. In 9 winters I wore them out. As the upturned edges remained full thickness, I hadn't given them a thought until I saw a disk lying in the snow. The center had worn thin enough to tear where welded to the pipe. As the replacement cost (with shipping) was about $100, I had no problem ordering another pair of skid shoes.

I am considering 1) welding strips of 1" x 3/16" mild steel in 6 rays (like an oversized grade 8 bolt) as wear strips that also act as wear indicators, or 2) laying beads of hard facing weld (Airco 388 -5/32 rod is what I have) in a star pattern, or 3) both. What has been your experience and is your recommendation?

 

[Egon]

There should be welding rods available for hardsurfacing.
You should also be able to find a pattern that suits your needs.

 

[Doof]

I have used 1/4" Stainless steel in a pinch wears better than mild steel Hardface rods are available and used with a checkered pattern will wear well. Don't expect a nice looking bead, the stuff runs like crap. Dosen't need to look pretty anyway.

 

[CalG]

I recently purchased a set of wear shoes in the mushroom pattern from the local NAPA parts outlet.
They were not expensive at all . less than $50 a pair with spacers and pins. The wear shoes are cast iron.

 

[5030]

Have the same style inverted mushroom shoes on my Lucknow (I added them) and I hard rod the bottoms with Lincoln earth contact hard rod. Problem is, it's expensive at 15 bucks a pound so just buy what you need. I run it at 150 amps reverse polarity.

 

[Raul-02]

What has been your experience and is your recommendation?

I noticed that I'd worn out my shoes on my Honda blower. thing is it didn't take long.
So I rebelled. I installed half-inch steel shoes. Rounded the lead edges put in slots for adjustment and now they don't wear out so easy

 

[PILOON]

I was lucky in that I had a cut off piece from a dozer cutting edge stock. (T1?)
I cut and shaped me a pair of 10 X 2 inch skids* for my 60 inch blower and guess they'll outlast the blower and for sure outlast me.
I had a look at them after some 6 seasons and still like new.

*I started with 12" and 1/2 cut and folded 1 inch at both ends followed by welding the insides of the cuts to shape a 'ski like' skid.

 

[ruffdog]

My Lorenz 5' blower is an early model with smaller shoes (5"?) and were half wore out. I did run some weld beads on the shoes as a test. The beads will leave distinct scrape marks on the concrete that will fade by late summer. I would rather have the large flat shoes as they glide better.