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Adventures in Snowcatting

I'm making good time. I had to push a few fallen trees out of the way with the blade. No big deal. Do it all the time. One tree had a branch buried under the snow that sprung up and hit the fan shroud bending it slightly. I didn't know it till the warning beeper inside the cab started going off. I quickly shut the machine off and discovered the fan was now hitting the shroud and would not turn. The engines overheating. Great. I'm now 20 miles down a trail in three feet of snow. I get out, raise the cab, grab a sledge and a peice of wood and have a few choice words with the fan shroud. I fire up the engine and the fans turning again. Awesome. I'm not stranded and only lost a half hour. I get going again and put a few more miles behind me. Things go great for a few hours till I go to lower the front blade to grab some snow to fill in a creek. WTF??? The blade doesn't go down all the way. I get out and discover a nice pool of hydraulic oil. One of the hoses blew going to the front blade. I check in the tool box. CRAP!!! I don't have the right hose. So using the blade the rest of the day is out. I can still keep going as long as I don't touch the blade control. I topped off the hydraulic oil to replace what was lost when the hose blew and got going again. It was slow going today pushing 3 ft of powder.
 
Things are going slow and I lost time with the blown hose and bent fan shroud. I finally make it out of the bush portion of the trail before heading 7 km's down an old unplowed bush road. I'm only halfway to my destination and I've been at it now for 8 hrs. I decide I'm gonna leave the machine at the end of this old road where it meets the highway and call for a ride to come get me so we can get a new hose for the blade. I get going. The wipers are going steady to clear the windsheild. All of a sudden, SNAP!!! The wiper on the drivers side flies off. I get out to check it out and find that the arms snapped off. So now I have no wipers. I only have one light on the roof working since the other one blew and I couldn't find a spare bulb in the machine. The lights on the bottom of the cab are working but are pretty much useless since the front blade is all the way up and I can't lower it. Snow is flying up on the windsheild. The inside of the windshield is fogging up. Can't see a friggin thing.:hammer: It's starting to get dark now. I only have one light that's actually pointing where I want it to. I can't see out of the windshield now. I spent the last few miles stopping every couple hundred feet to wipe both the inside and outside of the windshield so I could somewhat see.

Overall, not a great day. Not a bad day but not great either. The way I see it is that a bad day of snowcatting is better then a good day at work.:biggrin:
 

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A nearly 12 minute circle around my property and some of the neighbor's houses:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qfbMG8BkBo"]YouTube - Snow Trac ST4 in the fields of northern Indiana[/ame]

Oh, and I didn't run out of fuel.
 
You had an adventure, Brian !
Woohoo! Bob actually drove his Snowtrac !

Skidozer in some rare eastern powder.
Check out the pile of snow it's pushing with the tracks.
 

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pixie said:
Woohoo! Bob actually drove his Snowtrac !
Click to expand...

Hey . . . I actually drive it whenever I can . . . I was delayed this year by construction on my new garage expansion but I get it out frequently.
 
pixie said:
You had an adventure, Brian !
Woohoo! Bob actually drove his Snowtrac !

Skidozer in some rare eastern powder.
Check out the pile of snow it's pushing with the tracks.
Click to expand...

:clap: Nice picture!

Looks like about the same amount of snow I was pushing all day yesterday.
 
Thanks for the mile by mile story Groomerguy. I think a lot of us can relate to situations like yours from time to time (I know I can) frozen fingers & all.

Melensdad......Thanks for taking us for a ride in your snotrack, very nice:thumb: I felt very warm and comfortable....er....er...wait a minute...maybe that's because I'm sitting on my couch in my warm living room:whistling:
 
cool vid jim now get a take the ham tech test and get rid of that chicken band antenna and get a 2 meter radio installed than you can learn about the wonderful world of irlp
 
some pics of the ice shack out on the ice today the owner claimed it weighs about 5000 pounds.
 

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From wide open snotrac photos in Alaska to narrow wooded trails in the Northeast. With 7 storms in a row, real deep powder has finally settled down. This is a great snow year and great to have a running machine for once!!! I think my old snowmaster st4b would have a tough time in the woods!!! First picture is the driveway!!! Trail photos are on an old stagecoach road from the 1700's. We are actually in the Taconic Mtns on the NY/VT/MA border. Having a blast, thats for sure.
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Ok,we did it again ,this time we headed out with out lyndon. Actually we didn't even tell him what we planned. (Going to catch hell for that,I'm sure.)
Earl and I decided to just take mine and leave his in the shed. We met ron with his original red one at his cabin on the east side of white pass in washington state.
We got out late friday and at 5000ft we met this groomer. as you can see by the tracks I chickened out first.
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Some of the deepest I been it. The pintal hitch was the only part that dragged and it only hit off and on.
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Earl knee deep behind the trac looking for a firm spot to step.

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following day we drove up to some wilderness area that is off limits to us.
This is at the edge of it and Ron did a little hiding in the brush.

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Couple of Tucker Terra's getting some exercise this past weekend. Above Ski Cooper, near Leadville
 

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Time to change the oils and get those tracks good n tight folks! Winter is fast approaching. I have been a little lax the past couple years in my snowcatting adventures since I took a step back from the snowmobile club I was volunteering for. After a couple years break, I'm getting back into it this year. I will be exploring a whole new area this year with both a BR160 and BR180 at my disposal. I spent the evening out at the groomer barn meeting all the new people and looking over the new machines I will be running. Looking forward to it.
 
Let the adventure begin Snow cat Jamboree Leavenworth Washington Jan 25th ~ 30 2013 check out the fourms calander for more imformation .
 
I haven't run the ole girl in 3 years now but I still get updates on how she's doing. Looks like they had a bit of an adventure with her today after breaking through a swamp while opening the trail for the first time. I know exactly where that spot is. I've nearly had the machine break through a few times. It's a bad spot that doesn't really get stiffened up till the machines been over it a few times and the frost sets in good. Looks like they got er out with the use of a backhoe.

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Now that woud take any fun out of groooming trails..

It happens, just hope not too often. Bet there are some very cold hands and feet before they get it out. Lucky them....

Regards, Kirk
 
I was always very cautious at the beginning of the season around swamp areas after I broke through once. I always enjoyed seeing the finished product after running through with the drag for the first time and seeing that perfectly smooth ribbon behind.
 
Since I still get updates on how the ole lamtrac is doing, thought I'd share with you. The neighboring snowclub 30 miles away from ole lamtrac's home club has a 1998(I believe) Bombardier BR180. They had some problems with the machines electronics which fried the computer out on the trail. Not a cheap fix. The Lamtrac headed out yesterday to rescue the BR and haul it back to town Kristi style.

Guess things were going good till they blew a hydraulic line on the Lamtrac and had to walk 2 miles back to an access point so they could come to town and get a new hose made up.
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Always an adventure. Miss running the ole girl.
 
It's Big Al's fault he is sitting up there in the pearly gates drinking his DR rum and playing with his new found powers. I can here him now I will fix this lame track.
 
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