# Shoes on snow thrower leaving scrapes!



## LarsonLawnCare (Oct 27, 2008)

I have a toro 2 stage snow thrower. I bought it new and used it twice last winter, and once this winter. When I tested it out before use this winter, I noticed it left scratch marks on the driveway. I adjusted the shoes, but still the same issue. Then I flipped the shoes over to the new side and still scrape marks. I was thinking that it was because the driveways were somewhat dirty and it was just scratching into the dirt, but after using a broom and plenty of rain, the scratches are still there. I use this machine on some fairly new driveways/walkways, I don't want to do any damage. Is there any way to prevent this? Is there something to replace the shoes with instead of metal?


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## LarsonLawnCare (Oct 27, 2008)

I will be using this machine two days from now, so any advice would be great.


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## iamhere (Jan 16, 2009)

Take 'em off unless you have some gravel surfaces to clear. If you are running it on surfaces without snow then obviously it will scratch the driveway which I think is your problem. Even if you are getting a clean "scrape" there is still that little bit of snow to act as a lubricant between the shoes and the pavement.

The only other thing that I can think of that you could do would be to somehow mount some wheels to the sides of the blower


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## lumps (Sep 3, 2005)

I noticed that Lowe's now carries poly shoes for snowblowers, designed to not leave any marks. I think they were like $30 for a set? No clue on the durability of them.


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## leon (Nov 18, 2008)

*Toro snow blower*

Good morning,

My first thoughts are the tires and if the pressures are set for the maximum on these tires.

If the tires are low on air one side or both sides they may be dragging more on the auger 
housing and or the tire with more air pressure is gaining more traction and creating drag 
on the opposite auger housing and skid shoe- If you have some side walk chalk coat the
bottom of the shoes and the wear edge under the auger housing and run it at low speed 
with no snow in an area where the visibity is good to check it.

If you look at the rear of the blower does it appear to sag in the center or to one side ?
The axle drive shaft(s) may be pulling out and need to be reset in the transmission.
The sides and rear of the cross auger housing may be dragging causing the scraping.

There should be no missing paint or very little on the bottom edge of the side panels of the 
auger housing behind the gauge shoe.

Is it possiblle the shoes are on backwards and digging in?

Is the diagonal measurement of the cross auger housing the same length?

Is the cross auger housing level from side to side? Use a long bubble level to check for this.

The only other option is possibly grinding a bevel on each shoe.

The other thing is any driveway with a new asphualt mat or seal coating will be subject to
scrapes form chains, flail mowers, edges of mower decks, side discharge mower blades,
discharge chute guards as the original emulsion was hot and mixed in with the stone 
and the cold seal coating stays on the surface of the asphault mat.

:waving:


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## LarsonLawnCare (Oct 27, 2008)

I guess with the little bit of snow to lubricate, it has and should prevent scrapes, I haven't been able to check any of the driveways after snow has cleared. I will check them asap. I haven't had any complaints so maybe it hasn't caused any damage, I am just a little skeptical about using this machine. I don't want to damage any of my customers driveways.

It is definitely the shoes that are causing the damage when I run it on dry concrete though. I will check the tire pressure but I think they are both about the same.


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## Mark Witcher (Feb 21, 2004)

When we were doing alot of sidewalks the shoes were wearing out really fast. So I took them and modified them by adding a set of inline skate wheels . Really worked great. Machine didnt dig into the concrete and was much easier to operate. The wheels lasted for ever.


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## BUFF (Dec 24, 2009)

A set of swivel caster will take care of the marks left by the shoes. I have a Gravely with a blower that came with them on it. There are provisions to adjust the caster height on the blower to allow for getting the cutting edge close to the surface.


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## LarsonLawnCare (Oct 27, 2008)

Mark Witcher;991521 said:


> When we were doing alot of sidewalks the shoes were wearing out really fast. So I took them and modified them by adding a set of inline skate wheels . Really worked great. Machine didnt dig into the concrete and was much easier to operate. The wheels lasted for ever.


I thought about doing that but have no clue where to start. how did you do it?


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## PR Fect (Oct 22, 2003)

Larson, did you ever find out what was making the marks in your driveway? Was it the auger plates, or something else dragging? If it was the shoes Robalon does make poly shoes that may help you out. My local True Value Hardware store sells them. They also make them for large tractor mounted snow blowers. Here is one link. http://www.sepw.com/robalon.aspx PR


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