Go BottomWill rear blade damage asphalt or exposed aggregate drive
 | Brent B
Join Date: Posts: 1 
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2000-09-26 20091
The colder weather has me thinking about snow! I have a Deere 45 blade on a 4200, and will be clearing a 1500 ft asphalt drive this winter. I may also be cleaning my neighbors exposed agregate drive. Will the steel cutting edge of a blade damage either surface? Is a rubber or UHMW cutting edge necessary?thanks,Brent
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| Jim Youtz
Join Date: Posts: 1
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2000-09-26 20099
Asphalt could be damaged. The easiest fix is to buy a pair of skidshoes for the blade. That way you can adjust the blade to ride about 1 or 2 inches above the surface. I bought a pair for my Landpride blade for $100 and consider it money well spent. ....
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| TomG
Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 5406 Upper Ottawa Valley 
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2000-09-27 20101
Yes, a blade will damage either surface. Gravel is pretty durable after it is frozen, but before freeze up there's a chance of making a good gravel pile at the end of the drive. Most skids are fairly narrow and may just sink into the gravel. Then, there's a gravel pile at the end of the drive and a couple of grooves along the way.
Be real careful with gravel before it's frozen. Before freeze up, I remove snow by curling my loader bucket up and floating the bucket so it rides on the bucket bottom. I think I'll make some wider skids for my blower and see how well that works.
I think the sort of composite type blade edge that are on pickup truck snow blades are available for some tractor blades that have replaceable edges. The composite edges won't damage asphalt.
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| Jim
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2000-09-27 20124
I've been cleaning a 1/4 mile of drive w/ a rear blade for 15 years various blades, various tractors. no problem, garvel or pavement. the biggest trick is between the seat & the steering wheel. the operator needs to be careful how aggressive he/she sets the pitch of the blade. if you tip the blade forward it will tend to "drag scrape" as opposed to tipping the blade back which will "dig in" more when you drive forward. I have sold over 1000 blades and no one has complained about their drive getting ripped up once they get accustomed to using a blade. of course the first snows of October & November when the ground is still warm are the toughest to tackle ....
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| Roger L.
Join Date: Jun 1999 Posts: 0
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2000-09-27 20129
When I first started using my tractor I was surprised to find that back blading was a much more active process than I had imagined. My original thought was that I could just lower the bade and concentrate on driving forward while all the work happened behind me. The truth is that I quickly learned to spend most of my time looking back over my shoulder while continuously adjusting the three point lever. Every once in a while I snap a glance to the front just to make sure I'm still on the road and not about to run into or off of something.
I still tear up the occasional piece of asphalt, or cut a divot, or pile up some gravel.....but not so much as I used to do. This only took about 20 years.
One thing I never realized until I got a larger Ag tractor is how much help that a long wheelbase gives you when blading. A short wheel base compact tractor is a real handy machine and I like mine, but it does make long smooth blade runs more challenging.
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| Jim Youtz
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2000-09-27 20133
Skid plates do sink a little into the gravel, but they make it much easier to prevent picking up and grading off gravel, if you're careful. If the snow depth is 12" or less, I like to plow with the blade in the reverse position. that way it floats across the top of the gravel or asphalt and doesn't dig in. This doen't work well however for deeper snow. ....
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