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Adventures in Snowcatting

Nope! Grabbed te wrong camera when I went out...........tried taking a couple but they didn't turn out. That camera takes crappy pics in the dark!
 
What a long day! Left at 7am this morning with both machines to go break open a trail we haven't been able to use in 3 years due to lack of snow. Allot of cutting, snowbridging was involved. I ran the BR160 today. We left the drags at home to break this trail open. We covered roughly 60-70 miles today.

Here's a quick video of what allot of my day was like.

http://s162.photobucket.com/albums/t265/bcdlavis/?action=view&current=100_0333.flv
 
Here's the machine I was running.
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Following the Lamtrac.....operator just finished cutting a tree down that was across the trail.
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Lamtrac pushing snow to make a snowbridge across a creek.
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Glad to see you CanUKs finally got your Lametrac running (that refugee from Lameque, that basket case from New Brunswick, that tin can from Canada). Meanwhile, a reliable cat was out doing real work today. SnoOps brought his Super Imp out to New Castle, CO to help get me out to one of my seismic stations that was in need of a service call. After we took care of business, we took a few minutes to zip around in the local powder.

Here's a short video...
http://www.forumsforums.com/pp53/data/571/Imp_2.wmv
 
bobpierce said:
Glad to see you CanUKs finally got your Lametrac running (that refugee from Lameque, that basket case from New Brunswick, that tin can from Canada). Meanwhile, a reliable cat was out doing real work today. SnoOps brought his Super Imp out to New Castle, CO to help get me out to one of my seismic stations that was in need of a service call. After we took care of business, we took a few minutes to zip around in the local powder.

Here's a short video...
http://www.forumsforums.com/pp53/data/571/Imp_2.wmv
Click to expand...


Looks kinda like a kid in a toy store trying out the toys. :yum: so how fast was that quarter mile. looked like just before he almost wiped out the microwave he hit the nitrous:)
 
To be fair to BOB the One side does brake a bit harder. I need to fine tune the brakes a bit still. I did the same thing a few times just not on video. She sure is a blast to operate!
 
Here are a few photos of the trip to the cabin this past weekend.
I would love to see some of these want a be snow cats in snow like this.
In the photo gallery you see one going DOWN a small snow bank. But you do not see the ramp on the other side that it used to get there. In a different post someone posted a tucker on four tires. Well a tucker on tires will still out do a want a be.
We had three feet of new snow on top of a six foot base. What a blast.
Lets here it for the good old tuckers. And let it snooooooooooooow
 

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We are cattin is a small town called Powell River, B.C. the cabin is at the 4 thousand foot level of the Knuckleheads. Last year there was about 15 feet of snow, So far this year we have about 9 feet. it took about a hour and a half to get to the cabin.
 
ALLEN PARSONS said:
We are cattin is a small town called Powell River, B.C. the cabin is at the 4 thousand foot level of the Knuckleheads. Last year there was about 15 feet of snow, So far this year we have about 9 feet. it took about a hour and a half to get to the cabin.
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That is just awesome!!! If only we all had snow like that! Unbelievable... I love an environment where people MUST adopt, care for, and cherish their cats!!!! Otherwise... certain and utter starvation will ensue! ;)
 
O.K. I'll bite. What is a "want a be" snowcat and who made them? Did they come in different colors?
 
I hear ya! I have just over 7' and almost a mile of my road to the cabin which is switch-backed and numerous 40-50% grades! The Tucker keeps going where the snowmobile buries itself and one can barely snowshoe. My neighbor won't even try my hills in his Thiokol Spryte.
 
ALLEN PARSONS said:
Here are a few photos of the trip to the cabin this past weekend.
I would love to see some of these want a be snow cats in snow like this.
In the photo gallery you see one going DOWN a small snow bank. But you do not see the ramp on the other side that it used to get there. In a different post someone posted a tucker on four tires. Well a tucker on tires will still out do a want a be.
We had three feet of new snow on top of a six foot base. What a blast.
Lets here it for the good old tuckers. And let it snooooooooooooow
Click to expand...

Nice photos. Never played with a tucker with tracks like that. I would assume that they were a high maintance item, how do they compare to the Tuckers with the rubber tracks with snow cleats.

What is your ground clearance on that unit, looks more like it is walking though the snow, verses over it...

I would love to take my wide track Imp to play in snow like that. Here for the last few years we haven't gotton much snow to play in... A friend of mine has the wide track Imp also and in '92 we had about 12 feet of snow, and his broke trails for the snowmachines where they couldn't get though it.
 
What is a want a be. I will leave that to your own descretion. In the fear that Kristi owners will get mad at me. Do not get me wrong I love the looks of them.And they do have a far better steering set up then my 323. I just love to poke fun at them like every one else. I do carry a tow rope in case I run into one that needs a tug up the hill.
Maintance is a Never ending job on these old tuckers.
My ground clearance is almost two feet. They are made to slide over the snow on the pontoons with the track pulling it along. They do very well in the deep snow. I have had it loaded with six people and all our packs for a weekend stay at the cabin. It did very well, but it was a very slow ride.
Maybe one day I will have the ol Tucker painted so it looks as nice as kristi.
 
Great Pics Allan - My Dad has a place on Hornby Island looking over your way. I haven't been to Powell River in a long time. Is the mill still running there?
 
ALLEN PARSONS said:
What is a want a be. I will leave that to your own descretion. In the fear that Kristi owners will get mad at me. Do not get me wrong I love the looks of them.And they do have a far better steering set up then my 323. I just love to poke fun at them like every one else. I do carry a tow rope in case I run into one that needs a tug up the hill.
Maintance is a Never ending job on these old tuckers.
My ground clearance is almost two feet. They are made to slide over the snow on the pontoons with the track pulling it along. They do very well in the deep snow. I have had it loaded with six people and all our packs for a weekend stay at the cabin. It did very well, but it was a very slow ride.
Maybe one day I will have the ol Tucker painted so it looks as nice as kristi.
Click to expand...

With that kind of a track, do they wear out fairly fast and can you get the parts for them very easy? Seems like they would break and come apart fairly often...
 
Another long day for me! I had a new operator head out last night in the Lamtrac around 8pm to break open a 90 mile stretch of trail. We had already packed the worst part of this trail a few days ago. The original paln was that I would drive my truck over to meet him in the morning and we would switch off and I'd take it back. It's about a 12 hour run one way. Well, I got a phone call at 5am from the operator. They got themselves in a bit of a mess sometime during the night and were stuck in a creek. They could have backed out but the drag was hung up on the ice.

So, instead of heading out to meet them with my truck, I instead had to head out to the garage and fire up the BR160. I made good time though getting to them. Left town at 8am and got to them at noon. The creek they were crossing is normally safe to cross with only a foot of water. But what they didn't see in the middle of the night was that there was a beaver dam just downstream which made the water level rise and drop. the back of the machine was in water and broken ice over the tracks. Only the front passenger side had broken through the ice.

They had already unhooked the drag and had a chain attached to it. I pulled the BR up to it and hooked up the chain to my front blade mount. Gave a couple tugs to break it free from the ice.(It had already started to freeze into the ice) I pulled that back around 50' or so then turned the BR around and hooked up pintle hook to pintle hook and pulled it right out the first try. No damage to anything. Took me 5 hours to get to them and only 15 minutes to pull them out of the creek. It was a little slower coming back as we took the trail the whole way. I had taken a shortcut on the way there which saved me about 2 hours and 15 miles. Pictures will come later!
 
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I don't have any pictures of the recovery yet! The other operator took a few with his camera and is supposed to send them to me.
 
Oh sure... always pictures later.. always leave us in suspense..

Don't you know some of us are living vicariously through your posts?
 
This may be a silly question. But how do you bring up a quote on a post?
PBinWA Yes the mill is silll running and the town is growin to a point where it do's not rely solely on the mill. House prices have taken a biggggggg jump in the last couple of years. If you are ever in town, drop in, the door is allways open.

Fogender. Your qustion on the tracks> I wish that I had a penny for every pump of the grease gun. They take a lot of grease. I have never had a track come apart. And they can not come off the pontoon. The only trouble with them are the rollers. On the 323 they used the smaller rollers which you can not buy anymore. I am going to have some made with bearings that I can replace.
 
groomerguyNWO said:
Here ya go! Just a little something I just threw together to show why we all have been bitten by the snowcat bug...
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Pretty neat way to make a living.

Do you do the trails for a snowmachine club or gov't agency? I would assume that is it a pretty expensive deal for a club.

How many miles do you guys have for trails in your area. I don't think there is any "trail" grooming as such here in Alaska that I know of for snowmachines, some for cross country sking, buy they use snowmachines for pulling the groomers.

We groom our trail out to the cabins, but that is for making it easier on us when we are hauling freight out there. About an 80 Mile round trip.
 
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