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Adventures in Snowcatting

NorthernRedneck

NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
I figured I'd start a thread for those of you who would like to share your stories/adventures while out having fun. I'll go first:

My day started out pretty good today. Went out to the garage to fire up the Lamtrac for its first run of the season. Fired right up with no problems. Let it warm up for a bit then pulled it out of the garage for its first taste of snow this season. Plowed out the parking lot with it just to get a feel for the ole girl again. Then I went to try to hook it up to the 10 ft drag with no luck as one of the hydraulic couplers on the drag was damaged. So I moved the machine over and hooked up to the 8 footer with no problems. This is when my day took an unexpected turn. When I hooked up the hydraulic lines to the back of the machine, one of the rubber o-rings inside the coupler(there are 6 couplers on our machine for drag controls) was leaking. I thought to myself...no big deal! They always leak a bit when I first hook them up until the rubber o-rings swell a bit from the oil. Well, I was wrong this time.:pat: I drove it the 7 or so miles to town along the highway(would have taken the trail but it needs quite a bit of snow before we can go there).

So I get to town and go pick up a new operator that I have to train. We get out on the first trail that I planned on grooming before stopping to give him a complete tour of the machine. I lift the engine hood to show him a few things when i discover that the guage on the hydraulic tank is reading empty. I know it's not a major deal as the tank reads empty after you have only lost one pail of oil and the tank holds 7. There's also a safety beeper that comes on in the cab to warn that the tank is now holding around 5 pails of oil(and it hadn't come on yet). Turns out a 12 cent rubber o-ring split in the coupler from sitting dry over the summer and leaked out a $120.00 pail of semi-synthetic. Just goes to show that even the cheapest of parts can be very costly in the long run if not replaced.

So we continue on our way gromming a 5 mile trail on an old road and then I decide that just to be safe, we better head to town and put in another pail of oil. Well, I soon discover that the 3 extra pails of oil we had for emergencies was used in the BR160 last week. So now, I start searching all over town for a *&^*&^ pail of semi-synthetic hydraulic oil with no luck.(of course everyone closes on Satudrays around here) Finally tracked down a pail of oil after wasting two hours looking around. So we go and unhook the drag at the groomer's winter parking spot in town.(I don't haul the drag around on the first pass of the season) We went out on one trail near my house and filled in a couple ditches and made a snow bridge over a small creek and also pushed about 20 trees off the trail with the blade then called it a day.

I didn't get many pictures as after I took this one, I put the camera on the seat of my truck and kinda forgot it there.
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There comes a time in every man's life when he has to choose..........did I go with my wife over to my my-in-laws house? or................do I go out playing with my snowcat???

Well, after plans fell through for us having friends over for supper tonight, I decided to take the second option. Went out around 4:30pm to finally start opening some trails around town for the snowmobilers. I was a little hesitant to go over one particular trail as we have very ilttle, if any, frost in the ground and there is one swamp area that I had to cross. Turns out the sleds have packed enough over the past week to drive some frost into the ground. All in all, I covered roughly for miles of trail tonight(most of it being the first pass of the season.

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Then, just when I was starting to make my way back the way I came on the first trail to make it two passes wide, I stopped to give the machine a break. It was then that I discovered the following.....

What normally looks like this....
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Now looks like this......
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:pat: :pat: :pat:

So, I decided to get the machine back to town the quickest way possible. Normally, we would change it on the trail but Without the proper tools for the job, I took it slow and made it back alright. Now I get to go look for that missing ice breaker idler on the trails in the morning. The shaft for the idler had apparently snapped off completely. It should be fun trying to find that idler in the morning as I have a hunch it got sucked into the snow in the drag and got packed into the trail somwhere. Oh well, time for a :1062:
 
I lost the complete top idler and shaft on a Piston Bully one night. The way it should of came out of the track, I should of derailed the complete track. As it happened I did not even know it was missing for a couple miles. Things just started to not feel right as the machine felt heavy on that side in the steering. GroomerguyNWO, did you feel anything different in the machine without the idler wheel assembly?
 
mtntopper said:
I lost the complete top idler and shaft on a Piston Bully one night. The way it should of came out of the track, I should of derailed the complete track. As it happened I did not even know it was missing for a couple miles. Things just started to not feel right as the machine felt heavy on that side in the steering. GroomerguyNWO, did you feel anything different in the machine without the idler wheel assembly?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I never noticed it at first when it broke. I did notice that the ride seemed a bit rougher for a 1/2 mile or so before I noticed it missing. The shaft had snapped off and there was about 2 inches of it left sticking out of the frame where it mounts. I noticed that it had been rubbing on the cleets for a bit. Good thing I stop about every mile or so to look over the machine. This is especially important when I'm breaking trail for the first time each season. We had a spell of rain for two days then it turned to freezing rain, then snow so The tracks were all iced up when I went out tonight. Usually, the ice breaks off within a mile or so of slow running. I did notice there was still quite a bit of ice built up on the cleets each time I stopped. I'm thinking that's probably what caused the shaft to snap.
 
Well, got the shaft and missing idler replaced yesterday. I'm surprised how easy it was.(I've never had to do one before) The shaft just slides through a collar built into the track frame then a bolt sliedes through the shaft on the inside of the frame. We assembled the idler and shaft before installing it to make it easier. I had another guy jack up on the track to give me enough clearance to slide it on. We heated up the old shaft first to make it easier to slide out then just tapped on it with a hammer and punch and it came right out. Then just slid the new shaft and idler in and we were all set.

I then went out and opened a 7 mile stretch out to our clubhouse on the hwy. It was slow going though. I managed to get spun out on one hill. It was a short steep hill so I just backed up, moved over a few feet then tried it again and made it up. Today, I plan on going the give the ole girl a quick grease job and fix a couple of electrical problems(had a wire going to the fuel guage sensor on the tank break and one of my to headlights keeps cutting out) before heading out to open up a 30 mile trail to the next town.
 
Never a dull moment when out there breaking trail for the first time each season! It's normally a 7 hour run to cover the 30 miles to the next town and return. I left around 4pm today and it was slow going right from the get go. Trees were down all over the trail. I had a chainsaw with me but I soon discovered that the last guy to use it this summer(not me) had apparently tried to cut through rocks with it making it very dull. And wouldn't you know it....no file in the machine for the saw. So, after a little creative persuation with the front blade of the groomer, we made it through. Things went great for the first 45 miles or so then the ole Lamtrac started chugging. THe engine was still running fine so I figured I better stop and check underneath the machine. Sure enough, found a busted hydraulic elbow going to a pump on the back track section. I had a spare elbow and they are fairly easy to change but I had lost about 3 pails of oil by the time I stopped it. Normally, there's a sensor beeper that goes off when the hydraulic level reaches a certain point but it never did this time so I had no indication that there was any problems until I stopped. So, I had to leave the machine on the side of the trail and call the wife to come and resuce me at midnight( she wasn't too impressed). Tomorrows task will be to track down some oil and replace that broken elbow then try to get it started to get it home.(deisels don't like the cold weather when they aren't plugged in)
 
Oh, sure, kick a guy while he's down. Isn't that just like a Slow Master owner? You could at least offer him the use of a Kristi till he gets that refugee from Lameque running again. :yum:



All content copyright K.R.I.S.T.I. - Kristis Rescuing Impotent Snow Tracs, International.
 
Oh, I'll have it running again..............would have had it running last night but someone used the 3 spare pails of hydraulic oil we had in that yellow Bumb-bar-deer thingy that's been bleeding its guts out all over the floor of our groomer garage with a cracked tank and din't replace it. Can't wait till that thing's gone.........not a big fan of it by any means! So, my task this morning is to track down about 3-4 pails of semi-synthetic hydraulic oil.
 
bobpierce said:
Oh, sure, kick a guy while he's down. Isn't that just like a Slow Master owner? You could at least offer him the use of a Kristi till he gets that refugee from Lameque running again. :yum:



All content copyright K.R.I.S.T.I. - Kristis Rescuing Impotent Snow Tracs, International.
Click to expand...



Bob! Your just use to us Snow Trac owners kicking you Kristi owners when your down. Its not are fault you guys are alway down! :yum:
 
Just when things can't get any worse this week.........first the busted idler, then the broken hydraulic fitting, now this............

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Pretty self explanitory how I spent my day! Was supposed to be opening a new 30 mile section of trail halfway to a small town north of us. The pi$$ off part is that on the other side of the highway, there is a nice clearing I could have gone through and have used in the past with no problems. Instead, we were told that we would have to push the trail through on the north shoulder of the road where there's only about 20 feet of slopping shoulder down to the tree line.
 
Here's where it was hauled out. About the only thing that went right today after that happenend was how it got hauled out. I made a few phone calls to try and get ahold of the other guys in the snowclub but couldn't get any of them on the phone. They were busy out at the clubhouse trying to get the BR160 going so they could bring it to town and change a leaking hydraulic tank for the drives. So, I called the wife up to come and get me so I could get things organised in town to get it out of the ditch. I got off the phone with her and this big railway service truck pulled up and asked if I needed some help. He turned his big truck around on the highway(this thing was bigger than the average highway transport out there) He had a 15,000lb winch on the front which I hooked up to my front blade frame. Then, he hauled the winch in and it sucked my right out of that whole I was in. I finally tracked down the other guys and the tank on the BR160 got put on hold. We tried of a few hours to get at least the front track back on with no luck( kinda hard to work on something like that on the side of the highway) At least if we could have gotten on track on the front, I could have walked it back to town slowly.

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It's a 2002 model with roughly 2400hrs. We'll get the tracks back on in the morning. It's thawing out in a local garage overnight to de-ice it. It doesn't take much to throw a track off when breaking open the trails. Break through one swamp and get a chunk of ice wedge itself into the track................all it takes!

Been doing this for quite a few years now and this is the worst start to the season I've ever seen for luck. Allot has to do with the fact that we barely got any frost in the ground this year before the snow hit. We have allot of muskeg swamp that we go through around here. Machines all around my area have been breaking through the swamps.
 
Bummer that it happened but most fortunate it was right next to the highway were you could load it and then work on it in a heated shop, I've thrown a track on our SV301 and had to work in zero degree weather ended up taking days to get it back on track and of course I had loaned out my track jack so had to relace it the hard way.

As they say let no good deed go unpunished! Good thread!

Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Good news, after 5 guys, 3 long pry bars, a couple of bottle jacks, a socket and ratchet, a cumalong, and three hours of lifting and tugging, both tracks are back on. The nice thing about our Lamtrac is that there's a hex-nut on each drive sprocket motor that, when removed, disengages the sprocket from turning. So we took three of the hex nuts out except for the one on the track were were working on, then jacked up the track making sure to put blocking in place so the track rises evenly when jacking up. We backed off the track tensioner.(on the Lamtrac, you adjust the track tension with a bolt on the inside of the front idler wheel) The front idler is mounted on a sliding box frame that sits inside the frame that holds the rest of the idlers. It works sort of like the way you would adjust the track on a snowmobile. Then, we lifted the track assembly over the top ice breaker idlers and over the back sprocket and bottom front idler. At this point, the track cleets/grousers were not yet lined up with the sprocket. Next, with the machine set in low range and in 4x4, we just gave it a bit of fuel with the machine in reverse and a couple guys prying with the pry bars and turned the track slowly and it walked itself right back on. That was for the back track that came completely off.

The front track went a little easier. Again, we backed off the track tension bolt. Jacking was easy for the front. We put a few bolcks under the front blade, then lowered the front blade all the way down. This lifted the whole front of the machine 2-3 feet in the air. Here's where the cumalong came in handy. With the track tensioners backed off al the way, there way a good 7-8 inches of space between the track and bottom idlers. So we hooked the cumalong from the front track to the back one, winched on it and got it started over the sprocket. We then removed the cumalong and chains, put the machine in reverse, and slowly walked it back on. The final step on each track was to re-tighten them(which was a pain as the adjuster bolts were all rusted)

After we got the Lamtrac out of the shop, we went to fire up the BR160 to get it in the shop to change the hydraulic tank for the rear drives. Whoever plugged it in last night forgot to plug the cord into the outlet outside so of course, that gave us a bit of work trying to get that cold deisel to start. A set of booster cables and can few shots of eather later, we got it going. I left the job of changing the tank to the other guys.

I'm beat! Taking a day off from grooming tomorrow.........well, not really.........heading out tomorrow night with Lamtrac with another guy to go pack the rest of the trail we were doing when everything happened yesterday. This time, I'll be going on the south side of the highway where I got stuck.....no problems there.

I hope this thread gives you guys a bit of an idea of how much work is involved in opening up a snowmobile trail system for the season, once the trails are open, keeping them open is allot easier. And remember, this is all done by volunteers. We've also got a few guys out there brushing the trails, putting up signs, etc...

Happy new year to everyone!!!!
 
I should add that we have determined the reason as to why the tracks jumped off in the first place. We had track problems last year so we got a complete set of new tracks and cleets in but they arrived too late this fall for us to have time to install them before the season started. The plan was to preassemble them then install them after the trails were open. Seemed like a good idea at the time. Our track adjustment bolts were maxed right out and we had already cut 6 inches off each belt last season and removed one cleet on each track but they were still very loose. I'm thinking that probably didn't help matters when I got down in that ditch.
 
Here's what I'll be doing by about 3 AM tonight. Heading out in an hour or so to finish off the trail I had started the other day when I got sucked down into that swamp and threw 2 tracks off. I'm staying clear of the swamp this time though and will be taking the other side of the highway. I'm hoping for the best tonight......don't need any more problems like the past week.

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Got it! Sat phone, first aid kit, tools, parts, etc...... Got all the stuff I need. I'll be along a highway most of the way. There's only a 10 mile stretch that heads down an old logging road where that hill is. My main concern is the creek at the bottom of the hill. It's only about 3 ft deep where we cross but I still don't want to break through. Which is why I'm also bringing an ice auger to check the ice thickness. Well, I'm off, if I dont report back in the next few days, come looking for me!
 
I should add that we've done some work to that hill this summer to get rid of the hump halfway up and cut down the grade a bit.
 
Finally! Nothing went wrong this trip! I was training another operator last night breaking trail through 3-4 feet of fresh snow. We had to make three snow bridges which took a little time as the small creeks we were crossing weren't frozen. It took an hour to push enough snow into one creek to make it across. We were only machine packing last night without the drag for 3/4's of the night as after my little episode with the swamp the other day, the towing truck that hauled me into town also hauled the drag up to the first open road along the highway and left it there. SO I packed a nice trail only to the bottom of the hill in the picture a few posts back. When we got there, I checked the ice in three spots with an auger and there was only about 12 inches of soft slush ice over 3-4 feet of water. So, after the week I've had, I opted to play it safe and not cross.

On our way back, we picked up the drag and got back to town around 5:30 am.
 
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