Anyone tried this?

[mortalengines]

Just bought an HT5-R Combo Amp initially just for practice and recording. I like this little amp SO MUCH that I am thinking about ditching my OD and Distortion pedals that I use in front of my main rig (a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe III) and using the HT 5 as a pre-amp to drive instead. I have done stuff like this before (using a Pod), and I use effects so my signal chain would be something like:guitar to HT5... then using the HT5's effect send thru my vibrotrem, chorus, delay pedals, etc and THEN into the Power Amp input on the Hot Rod Deluxe (effectively bypassing the HRDLX's preamp section but, making a tiny low wattage amp sound REAL LOUD). I am just curious if anyone has tried stuff like this and how well it worked for them...How did you set the switch on the effects loop?....would it be the same as how you would normally set it (-10db) when you use effect pedals in the loop or what? Is this a pointless exercise? Did you have to tweak the HT5 differently from the way you would normally drive a speaker cabinet?