Robert Sayre
Active Member
$30/set of 2 heavy duty skids
Tired of having your snowblower banging into each uneven section of sidewalk, catching on every crack in the driveway? This replacement set of 2 skids allow you to avoid damage and keep smooth control over cracks and other uneven surfaces. The stock skids for MTD snowblowers are stamped from thin gage "metal', which bends easily and frequently wear out in less than a single heavy snow season. In addition they are poorly designed, and cause the snowblower to react violently to each and every bump. While looking at the broken snowblower skid once again on my bench, I decided it was time for a real solution. I reached past the broken 'metal' and grabbed the solution: Heavy flat bars of hot-rolled A36 American Made Steel.
These replacement snowblower skids are made from 1/4 flat bar, more than twice as thick as the stock skids, which are 1 gage under 1/8 inch. They are twice as wide and more than twice as long as the original skid as well, a fact I'll get back to in a moment. The steel is much better at taking a beating than the 'metal' of the stock skids.
The stock bracket is under 5 inches long, and with only about 3 inches actually touching the pavement. Because the bracket is so short, they need to bend the bracket up at a sharp 45+ degree angle to make the nose of the skids. This means that for every bump you hit, you'll get a sharp jolt as the snowblower skid climbs up the bump. Once you've hit a few bumps with the stock skids, they bend back further making them almost vertical in nature. My design makes a much longer bracket, over 12 inches long. This allows me to make the angle of the skids much less, at 22 degrees its half that of the original skid. This means that every bump the skid encounters, it has twice the distance to lift the snowblower up over the bump as a stock skid. My replacement skid has the ends of each skid turned up slightly steeper to handle bumps up to almost 2 inches. You may have bent the stock brackets but you're not going to bend these.
If for any reason the skids ever do wear out, they can easily be rebuilt by any local welding shop.
These brackets are made for any snowblower with the mounting bolts 2 3/4 inches apart measured from center of bolt to center of bolt. measure your mounting bolt distance, if you need another width just let me know. $30 gets you a set of 2 skids.
--Bob
Tired of having your snowblower banging into each uneven section of sidewalk, catching on every crack in the driveway? This replacement set of 2 skids allow you to avoid damage and keep smooth control over cracks and other uneven surfaces. The stock skids for MTD snowblowers are stamped from thin gage "metal', which bends easily and frequently wear out in less than a single heavy snow season. In addition they are poorly designed, and cause the snowblower to react violently to each and every bump. While looking at the broken snowblower skid once again on my bench, I decided it was time for a real solution. I reached past the broken 'metal' and grabbed the solution: Heavy flat bars of hot-rolled A36 American Made Steel.
These replacement snowblower skids are made from 1/4 flat bar, more than twice as thick as the stock skids, which are 1 gage under 1/8 inch. They are twice as wide and more than twice as long as the original skid as well, a fact I'll get back to in a moment. The steel is much better at taking a beating than the 'metal' of the stock skids.
The stock bracket is under 5 inches long, and with only about 3 inches actually touching the pavement. Because the bracket is so short, they need to bend the bracket up at a sharp 45+ degree angle to make the nose of the skids. This means that for every bump you hit, you'll get a sharp jolt as the snowblower skid climbs up the bump. Once you've hit a few bumps with the stock skids, they bend back further making them almost vertical in nature. My design makes a much longer bracket, over 12 inches long. This allows me to make the angle of the skids much less, at 22 degrees its half that of the original skid. This means that every bump the skid encounters, it has twice the distance to lift the snowblower up over the bump as a stock skid. My replacement skid has the ends of each skid turned up slightly steeper to handle bumps up to almost 2 inches. You may have bent the stock brackets but you're not going to bend these.
If for any reason the skids ever do wear out, they can easily be rebuilt by any local welding shop.
These brackets are made for any snowblower with the mounting bolts 2 3/4 inches apart measured from center of bolt to center of bolt. measure your mounting bolt distance, if you need another width just let me know. $30 gets you a set of 2 skids.
--Bob
