snow shoes

[hjls3]

snowshoes? to be or not to be....first year plowing. i am only doing ,my personal properties. do you guys like snowshoes or not. they dont cost much and i am considering or is it a waste of time. not real sure of advantages or disadvantages. thanks for your input....currently snowing in angelfire new mexico for the forth time this season. total of about 45 inches so far you skiiers will appreciate that.

[snowjoker]

The only advantage would be you would not have to worry about peeling up as many stones, I personally dont use them because I just bump the blade up a little when plowing gravel drives and also do blacktop and the shoes would not allow you to get all the snow up off it.

[Adams Plowing]

there pretty much a waste of money run the blade w/o the shoes it'll scrape cleaner on asfalt and concrete and if ya have to plow gravel/dirt before the ground freezes all ya gotta do is raise the blade slightly off the ground and ya wont pick up all the gravel.

[hjls3]

thanks for the info. i think i wioll use the monry and invest in some good heavy duty floor mats...plow safe you guys should check out family pic thread its pretty cool

[JohnnyU]

I run shoes omg

I run them so that the edge and the shoes are both touching the ground. The edge still scrapes clean, but since the feet are also touching, the edge lasts much longer than if there were no feet.

I wore out an edge last year w/out the shoes, the year before that, I ran the shoes flush with the edge, and noticed very minimal wear. Both winters were comparable in snowfall amounts. At the risk of being the odd man out, I suggest you use them. I still scrape clean, and what doesn't get picked up, gets melted when I spread.

When you plow without the shoes, the snow has a tendency to get packed hard, and make an ice rink, if you are salting, this is not a problem, but if you are not going to salt the lot, it would pose a SERIOUS problem.

[aleksei]

My school hires some scrub to plow their (gravel) lot, and within a few weeks of the first snow, it's a perfect ice rink :mad:
Of course, any type of salt costs too much for them, so when everything melts in the spring, we literally have half an inch of sand covering everything -- walks, some of the grass, the gravel lot....
Oh yeah -- the scrub scrapes the gravel into a berm at the far end of the lot without fail every year.

[KenP]

I run mine on gravel lots nothing else

[BWhite]

You will get better scraping without them . I used them last year nobody complained . I believe running shoes keeps the my base angle/cutting edge from wearing on the ends prematurely

[Honest Mike]

I dont use mine, never have. It just seems to me if the shoes are touching the ground, then the cutting edge cant be touching fully on all areas across the bottom, and that would cause a light coating of snow to possibly still be left behind. My feeling is, if you wanna plow down to the surface, dont use the shoes. Everyone has their own preferences though, so if I were you, Id try it both ways and see what you like. Run the shoes all through a snowstorm and see how you make out. The next storm, take them off completely and see how you make out. Compare the results, and then come back here and give us a lesson on why we should or shouldnt use them and we will be all ears. :D Mike :)

[W-n-K Landscaping]

As a personal preference I do not run shoes. I tried it last year and did not like the results I got while plowing, even after adjusting the depth several times. Last year I ran a Western and I ran the shoes to try and keep it from tripping to much- no luck.
This year on my Fisher I'm not running the shoes since I have a few more commercial accounts, plus whenever I ran a Fisher or Diamond in the past I just raised the blade a little when plowing gravel driveways. My driveway is 250' long, all gravel and my house is downhill from the road. Last year was the toughest year we had for ice- but we also had quite a bit of snowfall last year. I'll be a little more prepared this year since I am also offering salting to my customers- I'll be all set up and able to run my own driveway on the way out to keep it passable.

I would say to give it a shot, and adjust them a few times before making your decision, you will find a happy medium for yourself.

Let us know how you make out though!

Bill

[CNY Joe]

I do not use the shoes on any of my plows. There are just a waste of money IMO

[BWhite]

If one had the shoes adjusted to be in same plane as the base angle/cutting edge , one could scrape pretty close ( in theory ). The added steel surface may help contol both ends from wearing quicker than the middle . With or without the shoes I can rarely plow drives to asphalt , that happens once the sun comes out .And even with no shoes north facing or shaded drives are a season long problem .

[Honest Mike]

BWhite, I agree with what your saying also. I think the edge would infact wear evenly and prevent the edge from getting that "smiling" look over time. I also believe it would give longer life to the cutting edge, but my original edge lasted about 10 seasons of snowplowing without ever using shoes, of course though, I dont do as much plowing as some of you guys do! :) Mike :shades

[JohnnyU]

If you guys scrape so clean as to not have any snow left, you are better than I am. Even with the edge on the ground I leave snow, I just use salt to melt it off, In fact it helps sell the salt, and helps with traction immediately after plowing, before the salt dissolves and melts the snow.

Just my $.02. Do as you wish, But I strongly urge you to try plowing with them on.

[BWhite]

A benefit to leaving shoes off , the plow will wear faster . So it will be easier to justfy the shiny brand new one :D

[UpstateDieselGuy]

I mix it up a little myself. I do a lot of gravel areas and in the begining using the pads helps to save the driveway. After a few storms there is a good base and I pull them and let the blade float. On paved areas I do not use them at all. I generally put them on before I drop the blade so the blade doesn't freeze to the ground and simply pull them when I mount. Chris

[cat320]

I used to run with the shoes the same height as the cutting edge but this year I flipped the edge and took them off .

[Honest Mike]

SnowyBowtie, I understand what you are saying. No, it never scrapes perfectly clean. The only time you have a shot at it coming out perfectly down to pavement, is when it starts to melt underneath and you come along with the plow, it scrapes up nicely. I wish it always came up that good. The ground itself is never perfectly flat, so therefor there is always a spot somewhere along the plow where its not touching the ground and then you get snow left behind, packed snow. Either way I guess has its +'s and -'s. How about when you come out of someones driveway and the plow has to ride down the apron and follow the ground, if you have the shoes on, wont the shoes ride down the apron and the plow edge will be slightly off the ground and miss alot of the snow? Seems like thats what would happen anyway. Mike :)

[mac]

Never used them.
Don't even know where they are.

[JohnnyU]

I've never had any problems with driveways, it's something to think about, but at least on the ones I do, the plow rides perfectly along the drive. The only time there would be a real problem is if the plow has to drop way down, and the chain is adjusted so that the plow cannot drop very far (lifts real high though).

Mike, that's why I like to pretreat my parking lots.:D

[Honest Mike]

Yea, I know what you mean about the chain. I have my chain set perfectly I think. With the plow on the ground, the lift arm is parallel to the ground, and when I raise the plow fully, it touches the stops. If I had it one chain link looser, the stops wouldnt touch when raised fully, therefor when you drive down the street and hit a bump, the plow has room to jump around, so I think I have it at the perfect setting. If I had it one chain link tighter, it wouldnt have as much room to fall down when following the ground coming out of an uphill driveway where the apron goes down to the street. Does any of this make sense to anyone? LOL! I know what Im trying to say, hehe. :D Mike :)

[hjls3]

man, all of this info from you pros is great!!! at first i decided not to get skids. after reading your replys i decided it cant hurt especially considering most of what i plow is snow on gravel. unfortunately, i cant get shoes here quick enough. especially considering the fact it is snowing as we speak. so i used my very novice welding technique and made some. i will let you know how they work. i am sure, just like most of you said, i will find a happy medium that works for me. i tell ya this much i live at 9000 ft above sea level and when its not snowing the sun could not be brighter. i am going to try the leave a little snow save my blade and hope for meltdown...thanks again for the advice-john

[W-n-K Landscaping]

Good luck and let us know how you make out!! Post some pics of your work also- we'd love to see it, amature or not! We'd also love to see some pics of your rig in action!

Bill

[GMCHD4x4]

I plow with the shoes even with the blade on both the western and the boss.I don't like it when the blade trips.OUCH!,with out a problem. But I also don't want to rip up the black top :( plowing a 1,500ft drive. And 6 parking lots for the apts.No gravel! :grinz

[BWhite]

I also ran shoes last winter because I to was tearing up raised leading edges of freshly poorly paved drives. I will using a u edge this winter .

[hjls3]

what is a u edge?

[Adams Plowing]

Originally posted by hjls3
what is a u edge?

its a polyurathane cutting edge... works good for gravel and anything else your worried about scraping up such as pavers...

[BWhite]

Do a search to find out about urethane edges . I can post a photo of the slab I got later on

[Got Snow?]

pads or no pads that is the question......

i use pads on my gravel drives. at least until the ground freezes. lifting the blade up a small amount usually doesn't work good for me, because the plow is moving up and down with the front of the truck.(plow digs in) with the pads, the plow is able to follow the contour of the surface. (plow doesn't dig in)

as far as paved driveways, with or with out the pads, i find that they usually fall into the dips created by years of use (even shallow dips) so you wont "scrape" the driveway clean either way! (just the high spots)

[wyldman]

We never use them either.I find they just get bent up and ruined anyways.If you use a good carbide edge,it will last a long time,with or without shoes.

[JohnnyU]

Do you ever have problems shattering the carbide egdes? My dealer told me that the PW trucks use them, and shatter several every year, when they hit something, like a manhole cover, they take a large chunk out of the cutting edge, so I decided that a steel edge would work just fine for me :D

[wyldman]

I've never had any major problems with edges shattering.I'm not sure 100% of the exact type of carbide we get,but it's not quite as "hard" as some other i have seen.

I used to have a wing setup for one of our 5 tons,and it had a carbide which would chip vey easily.I replaced it and have had no problems with it after that.

[mikegamb]

well sons i found a great use for my plow shoes

[Got Snow?]

thats a very TALL edge you got there

[BWhite]

I like the setup you have Mike. What do you do at the jack end ?

[mikegamb]

i have two furniture dollies i got at home depot.there made to move heavy objects rated at 300 lbs each there in a Y dished center shape with 3 wheels on each

[Adams Plowing]

thats a nice setup mike i was thinking about doing something like that for my blade come spring...

[T-Zab]

No shoes here either. Tried mixin it up with the MVP and she scraped best with no shoes. Did one gravel drive last 2 years, and did like you guys said, one or to clicks up on the cab command and had no problems pushin gravel into piles.
T

[mikegamb]

my rear plow shoes lol

[mikegamb]

another

[Honest Mike]

Thats cheating Mike, something so heavy shouldnt be so easy to move around! :D Mike ;)

[mikegamb]

Mike 97 SS

its easier to move that than it is to move my workers butts lol