# Skid shoes and ice scrapper adjustment?



## KaRLiToS (Nov 21, 2014)

Yesterday I installed my front skid shoes and had to adjust the others because they were not adjusted correctly. 

I now have a total of 4 skids shoes.

*My ice scrapper is around 1/8" - 1/4" from the ground? Is that okay? *

I don't want to scratch the pavement. I also know myself and that after the snowblower job, I'll remove the rest with a shovel.


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## Big Ed (Feb 10, 2013)

It looks to be on the lowest setting you can go?
Can you even set it lower?

Is there a scraper bar on those too?
Like on my Craftsman the scraper bar adjusts.

Sure looks purrrtie all brand'ee new. 
I can see you now, crying when the first oops scratch is embedded into the bucket.


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## KaRLiToS (Nov 21, 2014)

Big Ed said:


> It looks to be on the lowest setting you can go?
> Can you even set it lower?
> 
> Is there a scraper bar on those too?
> Like on my Craftsman the scraper bar adjusts.


Yes there is a scraper bar. And no it is not set to the lowest, I still have some room.




> Sure looks purrrtie all brand'ee new.
> *I can see you now, crying when the first oops scratch is embedded into the bucket*.


Oh man, you seem to know me well. HAahah


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## pwm (Jun 12, 2014)

I've got smooth concrete. I run my scraper bar touching the surface so that I don't leave any snow behind the blower. I've always done this and it *does ware the scraper down over time*. I gave my my old machine, which is almost 40 years old, to my son this summer. The scraper bar was quite worn down on the bottom side so as part of a general overhaul and repair job, I just rotated it 180 degrees and now a new side is facing the ground. It should last for another 20 years or so. 

In my opinion, I would rather do a clean job, leaving no snow behind, and accept the wear on the scraper bar. The scrapers can be rotated, or if not they are cheap and easy to replace with new ones.


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## KaRLiToS (Nov 21, 2014)

pwm said:


> I've got smooth concrete. I run my scraper bar touching the surface so that I don't leave any snow behind the blower. I've always done this and it *does ware the scraper down over time*. I gave my my old machine, which is almost 40 years old, to my son this summer. The scraper bar was quite worn down on the bottom side so as part of a general overhaul and repair job, I just rotated it 180 degrees and now a new side is facing the ground. It should last for another 20 years or so.
> 
> In my opinion, I would rather do a clean job, leaving no snow behind, and accept the wear on the scraper bar. The scrapers can be rotated, or if not they are cheap and easy to replace with new ones.


That is some valuable opinion, thank you.

Do you notive any sign of scratching on the concrete?


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## pwm (Jun 12, 2014)

The scraper does not leave marks. The steel skids might. I prefer the poly skids over steel. They slide better over concrete, wear as well as steel, and are cheaper to replace.


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## Normex (Feb 21, 2014)

Karlitos first did you set up your skids with the snowblower on medium setting? if yes then to set it at exactly 1/8" take 2 toonys and place one of each under the scraper bar at each end. At this point you should see equal distance the whole length of scraper bar and just lower your skids to the concrete and tighten them and you're done. When you do something like this just ensure the surface is even and Good Luck.


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## KaRLiToS (Nov 21, 2014)

Normex said:


> Karlitos first did you set up your skids with the snowblower on medium setting? if yes then to set it at exactly 1/8" take 2 toonys and place one of each under the scraper bar at each end. At this point you should see equal distance the whole length of scraper bar and just lower your skids to the concrete and tighten them and you're done. When you do something like this just ensure the surface is even and Good Luck.


Yes I did that on medium. Thanks for all those tips. I havent adjust the scraper bar, I left it as it was by the dealer, I just reseated the back skid shoes because one was set higher than the other. I also paid attention if the floor was even. 

As usual, thanks Normex


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## tinter (Apr 20, 2014)

Looks so shiny and new.


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## Normex (Feb 21, 2014)

KaRLiToS said:


> Yes I did that on medium. Thanks for all those tips. I havent adjust the scraper bar, I left it as it was by the dealer, I just reseated the back skid shoes because one was set higher than the other. I also paid attention if the floor was even.


 If it is difficult to adjust all 4 skids then maybe you should just use the front side skids and raise the back ones to keep them as spares.


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## KaRLiToS (Nov 21, 2014)

Normex said:


> If it is difficult to adjust all 4 skids then maybe you should just use the front side skids and raise the back ones to keep them as spares.


Actually, on medium setting, all 4 skids are touching the ground. On high settings only the back ones will barely touch. And on low, with all the weight at the front, only the front ones are touching. 

I will only use low settings on the thoughest heavy snow anyway.

Is that okay?


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## Normex (Feb 21, 2014)

I would think twice using the low setting as it may damage your augers. It seems many Honda owners don't use that setting but probably would chime in to elucidate on this subject.


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## KaRLiToS (Nov 21, 2014)

Normex said:


> I would think twice using the low setting as it may damage your augers. It seems many Honda owners don't use that setting but probably would chime in to elucidate on this subject.


Don't worry, I checked the low settings and the auger and the ice scrapper are not even touching the ground.

Took me like 2 hours to adjust everything. 

The low setting only helps to put ton of weight in the front.


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## Normex (Feb 21, 2014)

KaRLiToS said:


> Don't worry, I checked the low settings and the auger and the ice scrapper are not even touching the ground.
> 
> Took me like 2 hours to adjust everything.
> 
> The low setting only helps to put ton of weight in the front.


Which doesn't make sense as the skids especially the front ones will stop either to touch before but at the low setting doesn't it put the skids at a front angle instead of lying flat? I would presume then the low setting is irrelevant in its function but use the front part of the skid and scratch the asphalt as it was meant for the back skids hence the danger for the augers and housing.


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## KaRLiToS (Nov 21, 2014)

Normex said:


> Which doesn't make sense as the skids especially the front ones will stop either to touch before but at the low setting doesn't it put the skids at a front angle instead of lying flat? I would presume then the low setting is irrelevant in its function but use the front part of the skid and scratch the asphalt as it was meant for the back skids hence the danger for the augers and housing.



Ok, I'll check into that.

What do you recommend then? Sparring the back skids and raise them?


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## Normex (Feb 21, 2014)

It is entirely up to you if you want to use all 4 but then if you operate on an uneven surface such as your lawn from your shed the back or front might nick the uneven parts so if it was me I would use the front ones at medium setting and raise the back ones for future use or as spare.


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## RoyP (Oct 16, 2014)

With mine I have to put the auger height adjustment in the highest position. This way my tracks are flat on the ground. Neither my shoes or scraper bar are rubbing on the blacktop driveway. I'm leaving about 1/8" of snow behind. I get that cleaned up with a shovel.


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## Spectrum (Jan 6, 2013)

If you have pristine pavement and don't mind blade wear then scrape away. If you find the machine snagging and bucking for heavens sake drop the skids to accomodate your surfaces. You and the machine will less abused for doing so.


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## Normex (Feb 21, 2014)

RoyP said:


> With mine I have to put the auger height adjustment in the highest position. This way my tracks are flat on the ground. Neither my shoes or scraper bar are rubbing on the blacktop driveway. I'm leaving about 1/8" of snow behind. I get that cleaned up with a shovel.


 Roy surely you could get some assistance from here and or Honda to get your unit properly adjusted though I realize it may be not the proper time to tackle this as you have found a setting for the time being.
What year is your unit? There must be a manual or volume to adjust the adjustments. Just saying.


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## KaRLiToS (Nov 21, 2014)

RoyP said:


> With mine I have to put the auger height adjustment in the highest position. This way my tracks are flat on the ground. Neither my shoes or scraper bar are rubbing on the blacktop driveway. I'm leaving about 1/8" of snow behind. I get that cleaned up with a shovel.


I also want to shovel after. Even if there is 1/32" of snow after, I will still do the shovel.


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## Shredsled (Nov 17, 2014)

I would set everything up in the medium setting, but make sure that in the low scraper setting that those side skids (part of the benefit of adding them) don't allow the augur teeth to contact flat surface. There is always a risk they may contact on uneven surface, but that is up to the user when and where to apply low scrape setting! 


I may change it as I go along and experiment more, but I have mine set-up currently so the sides are slightly higher than the rear at the medium setting. This way the sides are more of a fail safe for lowest setting, but rears are ideal for med. setting like it was before even adding sides. 
I may very well reverse that though, since the rears seem to cause more "walking" than the sides. Seems a lot of people mention the sides will track straighter, but I haven't had snow again to try this out.



And Roy, unless your auger teeth themselves are hitting your asphalt, then just give the med. setting a try! Don't be afraid if the skids contact the ground, they are meant to! They are there to keep your scraper and auger from hitting and balance load. Imagine if you had a wheeled machine, those skids would always be on the ground unless you were holding it up balancing only the wheels the whole time. There is no need to ride high unless you are doing your yard or rough gravel, IMO. (or if your asphalt is cracked and extremely uneven...)


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## RoyP (Oct 16, 2014)

Normex said:


> Roy surely you could get some assistance from here and or Honda to get your unit properly adjusted though I realize it may be not the proper time to tackle this as you have found a setting for the time being.
> What year is your unit? There must be a manual or volume to adjust the adjustments. Just saying.


Normex: We have had some discussion on my machine. I have tipped it on it's nose, pulled to bottom cover off of the drive assembly. There are NO bent parts. Everything under there is as it's suppose to be. I'm happy that my tracks are flat on the surface, my shoes or scraper bar do not touch anything, unless I elect to pull up on the handles, which I don't do very often. I can run the blower without it catching and throwing me around. I like this, I would not want my shoes or scraper bar to make contact during the operation of this machine. 

Why Honda would design a snow blower that would operate with it's Auger housing below it's wheel or track level, is beyond me. We have seen many others that have had their augers hitting the driveway concrete or blacktop. 

I'm a mechanical guy, between now and next winter I will alter this machine to suit my needs. When this happens I will post pictures.

As we prepare for the next storm.


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## KaRLiToS (Nov 21, 2014)

I found something interesting today while reading my user manual.

This is the 2001-2007 user manual but I can't find the one I own.


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## RoyP (Oct 16, 2014)

KaRLiToS said:


> I found something interesting today while reading my user manual.
> 
> This is the 2001-2007 user manual but I can't find the one I own.


Gentlemen: I have said this before, but I will repost it again. When I have removed the shoes and the scraper bar......leaving only the auger housing. Then put the height adjustment peddle in the middle position, eyeballing that it is in fact in the middle slot. The auger housing is digging into the blacktop. 
Now with the shoes and the scraper bar back on the machine. I must have the shoes scraping very hard on the blacktop. With this set up, it's consistently pulling me either to the left or right. I'm not willing to fight with it in this manner. 
I have it at the highest position, with the shoes about 1/4" off of the blacktop. NO scraping, NO pulling me left or right. The tracks are flat on the surface.....the scraper bar is maybe 1/4" off of the blacktop as well.


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## Shredsled (Nov 17, 2014)

RoyP said:


> Gentlemen: I have said this before, but I will repost it again. When I have removed the shoes and the scraper bar......leaving only the auger housing. Then put the height adjustment peddle in the middle position, eyeballing that it is in fact in the middle slot. The auger housing is digging into the blacktop.
> Now with the shoes and the scraper bar back on the machine. I must have the shoes scraping very hard on the blacktop. With this set up, it's consistently pulling me either to the left or right. I'm not willing to fight with it in this manner.
> I have it at the highest position, with the shoes about 1/4" off of the blacktop. NO scraping, NO pulling me left or right. The tracks are flat on the surface.....the scraper bar is maybe 1/4" off of the blacktop as well.



I still don't understand why you don't want any weight on your front, nor for your skids to touch? Many people actually add weight to their hoods to keep it on the ground.
Maybe you'd be better off with the side skids and ditch the rear skids. It seems many people report back that this alone will reduce the walking movement side to side and track straighter. I have mine set up waiting for snow just to try that same theory.

I'm also starting to think that there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with your machine...


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## KaRLiToS (Nov 21, 2014)

RoyP said:


> Gentlemen: I have said this before, but I will repost it again. When I have removed the shoes and the scraper bar......leaving only the auger housing. Then put the height adjustment peddle in the middle position, eyeballing that it is in fact in the middle slot. The auger housing is digging into the blacktop.
> Now with the shoes and the scraper bar back on the machine. I must have the shoes scraping very hard on the blacktop. With this set up, it's consistently pulling me either to the left or right. I'm not willing to fight with it in this manner.
> I have it at the highest position, with the shoes about 1/4" off of the blacktop. NO scraping, NO pulling me left or right. The tracks are flat on the surface.....the scraper bar is maybe 1/4" off of the blacktop as well.


Actually, I didn't post this to argue with you. I posted it because I just saw the information.




Shredsled said:


> I'm also starting to think that there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with your machine...


There is nothing wrong with his machine, that's how he rolls.

I'm on mid position and the scrapper bar is at 1/4" front the ground and all four skids touching. I will probably leave it like that.


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## Normex (Feb 21, 2014)

KaRLiToS said:


> I'm on mid position and the scrapper bar is at 1/4" front the ground and all four skids touching. I will probably leave it like that.


 What?? this set up is all wrong! just kidding but you may want to adjust to 1/8" or a toony thick but then after all I won't be going to shovel after you guys or is it for the exercise.


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## KaRLiToS (Nov 21, 2014)

Sorry I meant 1/8"


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## RoyP (Oct 16, 2014)

Shredsled said:


> I still don't understand why you don't want any weight on your front, nor for your skids to touch? Many people actually add weight to their hoods to keep it on the ground.
> Maybe you'd be better off with the side skids and ditch the rear skids. It seems many people report back that this alone will reduce the walking movement side to side and track straighter. I have mine set up waiting for snow just to try that same theory.
> 
> I'm also starting to think that there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with your machine...



Sorry Shredsled: I don't have any side skids.....only the originals in front of the tracks.


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## Shredsled (Nov 17, 2014)

RoyP said:


> Sorry Shredsled: I don't have any side skids.....only the originals in front of the tracks.


No need at all to apologize, but I just think they may serve you better.


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## Normex (Feb 21, 2014)

KaRLiToS said:


> Sorry I meant 1/8"


 Oh I get it, it's easier to adjust the post than the skids on the snow blower.


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## Shredsled (Nov 17, 2014)

It's metric on a Honda; 1/4 of a centimeter, right?


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## KaRLiToS (Nov 21, 2014)

Tomorrow I'm heading at my dealer. 

It doesn't make any sense to be charged 64$ CAD (and tax) for two normal skids part number : 76153-736-010 when the commercial kit, that comes with all accessories is only 51$ CAD (or 59$ with tax). 04700-768-e100

I'm really mad. Whether he did a mistake or he did it on purpose. 

The bad thing is he didn't give me an invoice, just the debit card receipt.


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## KaRLiToS (Nov 21, 2014)

Normex said:


> Oh I get it, it's easier to adjust the post than the skids on the snow blower.


Lollll.


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## Normex (Feb 21, 2014)

Shredsled said:


> It's metric on a Honda; 1/4 of a centimeter, right?


If you want to be dazzled with the metric system it's closer to 3 or 4 millimeters or .3 or .4 centimeters and or .1578 inches so you were close but not quite.


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## Shredsled (Nov 17, 2014)

Normex said:


> If you want to be dazzled with the metric system it's closer to 3 or 4 millimeters or .3 or .4 centimeters and or .1578 inches so you were close but not quite.


It was a joke referring to his first answer, not the answer to a mathematic conversion... Lol, just laugh a little.


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## dbert (Aug 25, 2013)

Depends on whether or not the toonie was made before 2012.


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## KaRLiToS (Nov 21, 2014)

The dealer will exchange my skids. Nice.


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## KaRLiToS (Nov 21, 2014)

Hi everyone, I just did my first snowblowing session. It was quite fun.

I notice some paint went away from some of the auger teeth, but not all teeth and it is nothing dramatic, is this normal? The Auger wasn't touching the ground and even on the lowest position, there was still like 1/8" of snow remaining or little less. The driveway is flat.


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## Coby7 (Nov 6, 2014)

Yup all normal, for some reason they don't put primer on the auger.


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## KaRLiToS (Nov 21, 2014)

If I set my skids on the front, will the low setting still work or I'll be stuck with two medium position?

Because if I put the blower in mid position, then set the skids in the front, will I still be able to set the housing in the low position? 

Logically the scrapper bar will not lower? In fact, it will raise ?


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## KaRLiToS (Nov 21, 2014)

Did a video of what I did.

I bought the commercial grade skids that I placed on the rear position and the stock one were set on the front.

*Mid position:*

Scrapper: 4mm
Auger: ±8mm

*Low Position*

Scrapper: 2mm
Auger ± 5mm


Check the vid on how I set both set of skids. And tell me what do you think.


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## KaRLiToS (Nov 21, 2014)

So, good or bad idea?


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## Normex (Feb 21, 2014)

Karlitos if it was my machine I would put the ones you bought on the sides and use only the medium setting and or high setting. Forget about the low setting since it is meant only to scratch ice and could harm your auger but in your case it would be moot because your side skids would prevent that.
As for the back skids I would just raise them as high it could go and leave them as spare. This done with with 2 to 4 mm or 1/8" scraper bar height from asphalt. Good Luck


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## KaRLiToS (Nov 21, 2014)

Ok thank you very much Normex. But since my driveway is flat, I really love the low settings and my auger never touched the ground.

I'll think about it again this week end.


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