I tried all sorts of the pipe tricks with all kinds of plastic piping. A real PIA.
I finally spent the money for the bucket attachment. It was several hundred dollars but it helps make a novice operator like me much more efficient without screwing up the driveway.
Of course I don't have a plow..... just the FEL.

 

They're nice and quiet for sure. They don't tend to work so well scraping up hardpack though. Is your driveway uneven or smooth?

 

Is your driveway uneven or smooth?

My driveway is brand-new, poured a little over year ago. It's very smooth, even and ultra-nice, which is why I'm so paranoid about it! I don't want to scar it up or pull the caulking out of the joints.

I was just out touching up the edge of the street in front of my house with my plow. There was mega-hard pack there from cars parking there. The steel edge sure does do a *dang* nice job of busting that stuff up.

 

I made one, used it a few seasons and it hardly shows any wear. I made it double edged so when one edge wear out I can flip it and use the other edge. I bolted the stock worn out steel one on top of the plastic one. It's super quiet, slides easily and cuts through hard pack snow like butter. I don't use any skid shoes. My asphalt driveway is 750' long. This is on my 345 w/ 48" plow. I will never use steel again.

I even bought some skid shoes made out of it for my snow blower.

 

I made one, used it a few seasons and it hardly shows any wear. I made it double edged so when one edge wear out I can flip it and use the other edge. I bolted the stock worn out steel one on top of the plastic one. It's super quiet, slides easily and cuts through hard pack snow like butter. I don't use any skid shoes. My asphalt driveway is 750' long. This is on my 345 w/ 48" plow. I will never use steel again.

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I even bought some skid shoes made out of it for my snow blower.

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I know this is an older thread but I'd like to know where you got your skid shoes for your snowblower? I've had my tractor, blade, blower, mower and power-flo bagger for less than 1 month but I want to get a head start on getting ready for winter. I already purchased the rubber cutting edge and wings from Artillian. I contemplated UHMW for the cutting edge and I will be ordering some UHMW stock and making an edge for my blade with UHMW.

By the way, has anyone used UHMW on the cutting edge of their snowblower? Our local JD dealer (where I bought my tractor) says that they have a "piece" that they use and sell on snowblowers. I assume it's a piece of UHMW but I'm not sure. The dealer did say that it is not "double bended" but that they do this all the time.

 

I had the uhmw on my 47 snowblower. It was really nice and quiet. As others have said, it didn't bust up the hard stuff well. I switched back to the steel edge as the uhmw did not last long at all. I have 4200 sq ft of new concrete with a lightly broomed finish(i also have a long gravel driveway). It wore down to the bolts after 4 uses. Maybe the blower is just too heavy for that application. It was 1" uhmw

Edit: for those confused, I flip up my skid shoes when snowblowing the concrete

 

I have a polyethylene channel on my 60" blower. I haven't noted much wear, but it's at least an inch wide.

 

Shortly after buying a new 54" plow last year, I purchased a 1/2"x3"x60" piece of virgin (white) UHMW from Piedmont Plastics for~$35. I cut it to length and used the steel scraper piece as a template to mark for holes. The material cuts & drills very smoothly.

I will never clear my driveway with a steel edge & skid shoes. The UHMW edge worked perfectly all Winter, clearing my driveway and various others. I flipped it once for a new edge.

Even if I installed a new wear bar every year, I'd happily pay that amount in order to eliminate the steel-on-pavement scraping sounds and associated damage.

No need to pay $70-$80 for a UHMW edge - just find a plastics supplier in your area.





Andreas

 

Also .... You pay $800. to get your blacktop coated and it's painful in the spring to see it's all full of scrapes.

 

Why would it be painful if you know that you're going to reseal the surface back to new in the spring anyway?

I've used a steel cutting edge on the FEL bucket and a steel cutting edge on the 5' back blade for 35 years on as many as 7 different driveways and have yet to leave a mark that lasts past the spring rains on frozen asphalt. Even the marks left by the chains of my neighbours LT/snow thrower spinning have mostly vanished by the spring rains, and are totally hidden after resealing.

The back blade edge gets worn pretty good, and the edge on the factory bucket of my 10 year old SCUT won't last another 10 years before it needs to be replaced, however the edge of the bucket that I made in 1982 that saw service for 22 years was only dressed once and still shows lots of edge left.

The SCUT bucket cutting edge.

The GT bucket cutting edge. That's the yellow bucket beside the black SCUT bucket for comparison. There's 2000 hours for the GT compared to 700 hours for the SCUT, and zero damage to asphalt.

Based on personal observations,I have to wonder about the quality of asphalt used in driveways that suffer damage from normal cutting edge abrasion. In this city, graders are used to carve down the accumulated hard packed snow to the asphalt when the weather permits. Sparks are flying off of the hardened cutting edges and there is no indication of scraping on the road surface at the end of the winter.

 

It's not the blacktop but the seal coating that gets removed .... as demonstrated by the bottom of my synthetic wear edge that is now black from contact. Without the sacrificial edge I'm sure it would be much worse, especially with my lack of expertise with the FEL.

I get it recoated every other year.

 

I know it's not plastic, But I have the rubber squeegee for my 54 plow and use it on my new asphalt driveway and it works great. I use it without the skidshoes and so far holds up and wears nice. After a season or two, you can flip the blade and use the other side. It won't scrap up hard packed ice, but I like the fact that it's so gentle on the driveway surface that I don't mind. Other then hard ice, it cleans great.

 

I had a JD OEM rubber edge for my 48" plow and though it was great on the asphalt, it didn't have any cutting power on hard packed snow. After switching to a UHMW edge, I'll never use the rubber edge again, the UHMW is 10 times better than the rubber and doesn't scratch the asphalt at all.

Thanks everyone for the replies! Ya'll sold me, I'm going to try one!

I have a drill press, table saw and compound-mitre saw, so I can machine the plastic to my liking. Pungo: I like the idea of re-purposing the old wear bar to use it on top the plastic bar. I'm going to steal your idea!

I like the idea of making a flippable edge. To those who made their own UHMW edge:

How thick? 3/8"? 1/2"?

How wide? 3"? 4"?

Size / length of carriage bolts used?

Even though the UHMW is pretty hard, the small heads of the carriage bolt will sink into it some when tightened so that's why I used the old metal cutting edge. As well the old cutting edge had square holes to match the carriage bolts so you'll be able to easily take the bolts out when needed.

I used 1/2" x 4" for mine. I think 3/8" is to wimpy, and the 4" width will give you that much more to wear down.

I don't remember the length of the carriage bolts, but there were the ones what came with the rubber squeegee type edge.
I would say 1/8" steel edge + 1/2" UHMW + 1/4" plow + 1/2" nut + 1/8" extra = 1.5" ?
Just get cadmium plated so they don't rust

 

Thanks everyone for the replies! Ya'll sold me, I'm going to try one!

I have a drill press, table saw and compound-mitre saw, so I can machine the plastic to my liking. Pungo: I like the idea of re-purposing the old wear bar to use it on top the plastic bar. I'm going to steal your idea!

I like the idea of making a flippable edge. To those who made their own UHMW edge:

How thick? 3/8"? 1/2"?

How wide? 3"? 4"?

Size / length of carriage bolts used?

 

I believe the bolts are metric and I picked up slightly longer ones at Ace.

My edge is 1/2" thick and 3" wide. I drill my holes down the center, which allows both sides to be used.



Andreas

 

Where Ave you guys been getting your plastic from? I have only been able to find it 48" wide

 

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Andreas

 

I bought an UHMW version from HeavyHitch for my 54" blade this winter to replace the JD steel wear bar. I've only used it once on a couple inches of light snow. Was debating between the UHMW and steel versions and honestly not sure I made the right decision for my application. I have the skid shoes on the plow raised a little higher than the wear edge for maximum scraping and the new UHMW edge left a thin layer of snow on the drive, which is about 15 year old light broomed concrete. The steel always scraped it down to bare concrete pretty good but with the UHMW I would take a normal snow shovel and go back over the areas that were plowed and easily scrape off a layer of snow.

I have been using the steel edge on both mine and a couple neighbors concrete drives for years and periodically notice some light scrape marks here and there but they always disappear after a few weeks of normal weather, and have plowed another neighbors drive with seal coated asphalt many times and never notice any marks.

It is obvious the UHMW is gentler and slides over the surface much easier. In the past the steel edge would always dig in and tear up the grass if you got just part of the blade off the drive or tried to push a snow pile back, which required raising the blade up some. With the UHMW edge you can just leave it on float and take off across the yard with almost zero issues......doesn't even pick up grass blades.

 

I bought an UHMW version from HeavyHitch for my 54" blade this winter to replace the JD steel wear bar. I've only used it once on a couple inches of light snow. Was debating between the UHMW and steel versions and honestly not sure I made the right decision for my application. I have the skid shoes on the plow raised a little higher than the wear edge for maximum scraping and the new UHMW edge left a thin layer of snow on the drive, which is about 15 year old light broomed concrete. The steel always scraped it down to bare concrete pretty good but with the UHMW I would take a normal snow shovel and go back over the areas that were plowed and easily scrape off a layer of snow.

Was there a bevel cut on the edge to match the driveway surface when lowered all the way down. Mine, with the bevel I cut on it, scraps my driveway clean of snow, though it's asphalt, not concrete.

 

RUN! It's the mysterious levitating snowblower of doom!

 

Channel is 1x1x1, .25" thick. It's screwed to the bottom of the housing from the bottom up with sheet metal screws. I dunno if these pics will help but it's buried at the moment.

 

I just did the heavy hitch plastic wear bar last week. I noticed I need to wear it in a bit also. Other than that it's a nice piece with stainless hardware included.