Today was my first time with the x540 and 48" blade. It really worked great on 5+ inches of wet heavy snow. I installed a home made squeegee ($7 strip from Tractor Supply) and that worked wonderfully. I don't have any weight on the back yet but will before the next snowfall. I couldn't believe how light the back end is w/o weight!! I was able to pick up the entire rear end of the tractor while the blade was up!!!
I was tinkering with squeegee length & height between the shoes and black wear bar. Any suggestions? I'm thinking about setting it up so the black metal wear bar is about 1/4" off the ground when the shoes are touching. The squeegee would be compressed. This way I might scrape any hardpack as the squeegee folders down...
I also took an old piece of plastic from work and wrapped it around the skids. The plastic was so stiff that I had to use bolts to tighten it. The width is about 3", which should reduce wear. So far, so good... but time will tell.