Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

Gentlemen,
I haven't posted here since last winter but I would like to thank Borat and the other regulars for their guidance and excellent advice. After much research I purchased a new Simplicity 24" 9 HP (B&S) snowblower. We had quite a lot of snow here in the Chicago area last winter and the Simplicity handled it flawlessly. I have an 80' concrete driveway with a mild slope. But, I live on a relatively busy street so when the city plow passes by I am left with a small mountain of snow at the end of my driveway. I learned NOT to plow the two feet or so closest to the street because small concrete chips and pebbles are dug up by the city plow and hidden in the plowed snow at the end of the driveway, and as a result my impeller and chute interior became very scratched. So I shovel the remainder of snow by hand.

Two things...a headlight was optional for my snowblower but none were in stock at the time I bought it. Sears has a universal kit for $59 which I though was rather expensive. So I purchased a "tractor auxiliary light" at Wal-Mart for about $15 and easily connected it to the snowblower's alternator lead. It works perfectly and looks factory original.

Here's my question...my Simplicity is equipped with Skid Shoes. I removed the shoes in the spring and sanded and repainted them. But after another season of use I will have to repeat the process as the shoes take a beating on the concrete. Wouldn't it make sense to install small, thin wheels instead of skid shoes? The wheels would roll smoothly along the surface as opposed to the friction and grinding of the skid shoes. Does anyone know if Simplicity makes wheels for this blower or could something be fabricated? Your suggestions?

Good points longboat, I had similar concerns.  However, I'm not doubting Thomas and would give it a fair shake before coming to any conclusions.

For my application, the Honda snowblower bucket puts a lot of weight on the skids.  This is as much as 2x the weight of a regular wheeled snowblower.  The skids go through hell, taking abuse from side forces when turning, salt, sand, rocks, and pavement cracks.  Those little stainless steel pins and rollers may or may not hold up, but my real concern was the 1/4" or less molded polymer (plastic for the weak hearted) thickness that the pins are pressed into.  The videos showed the snowblower going through 1-2 inch of snow, on smooth blacktop pavement

Anyways, I hope the maker/designer have taken diligent steps to do long term test to smooth out the reliability wrinkles before putting this stuff on the market.  At the present, there is not a roller skid made to fit the Honda.   I'm not comfortable with drilling my bucket to fit it and become a beta tester for this product.  I don't mind dropping $30 to try it out, but I do mind drilling unnecessary holes into a $3000 snowblower.

longboat wrote:

Ironically this was a desired effect that I wanted. I use my snowblower at my cabin but still need to maintain ice trails for my sleds during the winter. The metal skids that came with my blower kept digging into ice when I didn't want them too. The poly's addressed this for me.