Blade skid pad shoes?

[mblair441]

When I bought my 350B the seller said he used to have some plates that bolted on the bottom of the blade corners, but he did not know what they were for, so they went into the scrap pile and disappeared. There is a 2 hole bracket on the back of the blade, at each bottom corner, which is where they were supposed to be attached. I don’t know the correct name for them but I told him that they were probably a guide shoe that kept the blade from digging in and allowed it to to skim across the surface, as a scraper or snowplow or something like that. Does anyone know what he was talking about? Was I right? Do they work? Does anyone know where I can get some? I’m going to be using this girl to scrape lots of prickly pear on flat ground and I think they would be handy to scrape pear without constantly working my blade height or pushing more dirt than I need to.

[Jim B]

Oops, got my reply to this tagged on to your other thread.

Edit: Here is a copy of it.

You can use the online parts catalogs at

https://partscatalog.deere.com/jdrc/

Enter 350B to get the parts catalog for your crawler. Your blade may be a 6305 (inside the tracks mounting or a 6310 for a blade mounted outside the tracks. Use the blade model number to get that parts catalog. You will find the shoes and related parts on the page with the blade.

I don't know if they are available from JD anymore. Again, I suggest you start by giving Lavoy a call, he may have a source.

[B Town]

Good morning. Most Deere dozers have a float function with the blade and valve. You may want to review the operator’s manual. This function would fill your need IMHO.

[Jim B]

Sorry but the shoes are not a "set it and forget it" control. Even with the shoes on the blade you are going to have to work the blade control. About the only place I have seen the shoes do much is on frozen ground. On frozen ground the blade will generally skim along, and the shoes only help prevent it from catching in a hole, and even that help is limited. In soft ground I always found if the cutting edge is good, it is going to try to cut in and pull the blade down if the blade is in float, so it is up to the dozer operator to feather the blade control to control the cut. If you are trying to clear a lot of brush, a root rake attachment for the blade helps minimize the dirt you push to get the brush urooted. Just my experience, others may vary.

[Stan Disbrow]

Hi,

My dad had a set for his 420C. I had a set for my JD350. Same exact item. Used for snow plowing, where they prevent removing the stone off to the sides where (a) it does you no good in the winter -needed for traction- and (b) you don't have to move the stone *back* on to the road in the spring.

Otherwise, as noted, not much use. We would put them on once the ground froze and we knew we were going to shortly switch from the tractor and backblade to the crawler for snow plowing. We would take them off once we saw the Spring Thaw was upon us and revert to the tractor again.

Stan