Has anyone tried the Moose Hardened blade skids instead of the standard new-style blade skids? That standard new-style skids are only $8.95 (Dennis Kirk) and the Hardened ones are $25.95. For that price they better last AT LEAST 3x as long as the standard ones. I just ordered the standard ones because I couldn't justify spending that much more. Anyone ever try them?

 

I dont' even run the skids on my plow. It didn't scrape down to the tar with them on. A few others I know have been doing this for a few years and have had no problems. So I decided to do the same with my 60" Moose Plow. IF the blad edge gets really banged up after a year, I'll just replace that. It will still be cheaper to replace than two of those hardened skids.


Koko

 

If you are plowing your skids shouldnt be touching the ground anyway,,, so go with the cheap ones. The skids are there to prevent the plow from digging in if you hit something and the plow "trips".. If you want to plow with the blade slight raised I would suggest using a short length of chain attached to the ATV frame/plow to prevent the plow from lowering too far.

 

Thud, I respectfully disagree. The skids are the bearing surface upon which the plow rides. With spacer washers the amount of space between the cutting edge and road surface can be adjusted. You can, and many certainly do, run without the skids, but for paved surfaces the skids are there for a reason, for the plow to ride upon rather than having the weight of the plow not supported by the push bars to be off the cutting edge.

Even tough we do not do it with the ATVS generally, picture a road plow going for miles and miles and miles with the cutting edge dragging ont he pavement - not such a good idea as the cutting edge would quickly need replacement, hence the skids as they are cheaper and easier to replace than the cutting edge.

 

If you have access to an stick type arc welder just run some hard surface on the wear face of the skids. Lot's cheaper than the high price skids and as the hard surface wears just add more.

 

You're welcome to disagree... but youre still going to be wrong LOL>. You're just going to have to trust me on this one. I plow 25,000KM PLUS every year... Ive got a contract to plow provincial roads roads here in Ontario. The MTO (Ministry of Transportion) has very strict guidelines for things like this.. as would any DOT in the US. The skids are there to prevent the plow from digging in.... when plowing the skids should not even be touching the ground.. the recommendation is for then to be running 1/2-1 inch ABOVE the road surface. Now realise that commericial quality blades are built heavier and last longer .. the concept of plowing remains the same. Just for information sake....... Ive plowed for 3 years now...... and am only on 2nd set of plow blades... so thats roughly 37500KM of high speed ( 50-70km/h) out of a single set of blades. Then again a set of blades ( with carbide inserts) will run you $800 or so :-]

 

The skids are there so the cutting edge doesn't dig into a soft surface such as grass or a gravel road. When plowing on paved surfaces, skids are not absolutely necessery. With that said, I do have them installed on my atv plow but with the cutting edge still in contact with the pavement. So my setup is this: cutting edge in contact and the skid shoes barely kissing the pavement. I however do not use skid shoes on the plow on my truck as I do not plow any lots or driveways that are not either asphalt or concrete.