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Skid Shoes Made From Truck Leaf Spring?


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I have fashioned a set of skid shoes for a snow blower from the original shoes. I employed one ton pickup truck leaf spring. Bent the ends up at a 40° angle and welded them onto the original shoes which are low carbon and very narrow/short. Now I have 3" wide shoes and 6" long.

I'd like to harden them. Can I essentially heat them to non-magnetic and quench in oil? I would imagine the mild steel angle iron original shoe plate will not harden but the spring steel will. Correct? I guess I am concerned about the mig weld holding the angle iron to the spring steel. I don't want the difference in material to cool at a different rate and split/crack from the spring steel.

When I welded the angle iron onto the spring steel I preheated the spring steel. So It is ok now, but when I heat it and cool it in oil. . . . . . .is that going to cause a possible crack?

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Just off the top of my head I'd say leave well enough alone.   Hardening the spring steel will not really make much difference in the application.  You may pop your welds trying to  heat and harden.  You might want to think about using standard hard facing rods designed for abrasion resistance if you find wear is a problem in a few years.

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How big a blower we talking about here? Almost anything that won't catch is fine for a walk behind like Deb's 30" John Deere.

The ones on the Oshkosh or Rolba blowers when I worked highway maint are Vascowear and weigh in at around 75lbs. each. The Oshkosh would load a 20 yard end dump in about 20 seconds. They're not your average home or hobby machine.

The skid shoes on my pickup plow are maybe medium carbon but I wouldn't bet on it.

Frosty The Lucky.

 

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I wouldn't bother with anything special, I'd make it easy to replace. If you put the shoes on a pivot so they "weather vane" in  the direction of travel then a little bit of a slipper front is all they need. Think small ski.

If you use rd. stock for the attachment the weather vane is taken care of and it's easy to adjust the blower height with washers. You want your ribbon higher off bare ground than good pavement.

Frosty The Lucky.

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