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Adventures in Snowcatting

Ya know, you seemed to be having so much trouble I was gonna leave you alone. But now you force me to introduce K.R.I.S.T.A.L. - Kristis Rescuing Impotent Snow-Tracs And Lametracs. Unfortunately, we are currently too busy in the lower 48 picking up scrap aluminum from the circus tent in SnoOps back yard.
 
groomerguyNWO said:
mtntopper.........
That's the beauty part about the Lamtrac or tucker 4 track setup. All I have to do is keep it in 4x4 and it'll keep chugging along unlike those THIO-thingy's, krusti mobile's, and snot tracs. I'd like to see any other two tracked machine try to move more than 50 ft with a sprocket that looked liked that. Would end up looking like a dog chaising its tail in the parking lot going round and round in circles while I just went crusing on by! Hell, I could probably take both back tracks right off and still outperform a Krusti in the snow! :2gunsfiri :2gunsfiri :2gunsfiri

I agree though that the sprocket's gotta come off very soon as the track cleets keep slipping and jumping the teeth on the sprocket.
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Haven't you ever watched a 3 legged dog run? He looks real good until he finally just trips over one of his good legs and stumbles nose first to the ground and then you got to feel sorry for him....:yum: I wonder if that is what will happen to your lametrack?

The two tracks machines just need to make 3 turns one way and then we are headed where we need to go ...:pat: or so we hope....:4_11_9:
 
mkntrakes said:
So i'm guessing that you have lots of volunteers to ride the trails you groom but no one can take the time to pull maintenance on the machine?so im curious how far you groom from a road where some could pick you up? i hate to walk and figure every hour of run time creates a half hour of maintenance time
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Pretty much sums it up right there.......everyone wants to run the groomer but no-one wants to fix it when it breaks. AH well, always been like that! That's the life of a volunteer! Put in 40hrs at my regular job and between 20-30 hrs running the groomer and other club things while trying to find time for the family.........lotsa fun! We've got 3 guys including myself right now to maintain over 200 miles of trail.(that includes signing, brushing, grooming, groomer maintenance etc...)

As for the distance from the road, the farthest the trail gets from the travelled portion of the road is roughly 40 miles. Quite a bit of the trails we maintain are either on the side of the highway, hydrolines, or pipelines. Even though it may seem at first that that type of terrain would be a walk in the park, it does present its challenges. It just means that there's less trees for us to cut.

For example, when I'm doing the side to the highway, there are a few creeks that we don't cross with the groomer just for safety reasons. So I have to climb a steep 10 ft bank to get up onto the shoulder of the highway and go around the creek. A small bank like that might not seem like much for a snowcat but throw in a blind corner in the road on each side of where I have to jump out on the highway, so right there, visibility is an issue. The machine makes it up the bank without flinching. Now,throw a drag on the back of the machine. Even with the rear wheels on the drag lowered and the front of the blade raised as high as it goes, the knives on the drag often catch the frozen shoulder of the road bringing the groomer to a complete stop while blocking both lanes of traffic in a blind corner with transport trucks coming from each direction. Oh, and the highway's usually glare ice and all you do is spin cause the drag's still hung up on the shoulder.

We also have quite a bit of muskeg swamp that we go through which is hard on a machine as well when breaking trail due to the amount of flexing the machine takes. Now, throw in a couple of sharp rocks sticking out of the muskeg in the middle of the trail that you can't see due to snow drifting over them. Picture coming along breaking trail with a ten ft drag on behind, you're constantly looking in the mirrors to see what the drag is doing when all of a sudden you go over a sharp rock you didn't know was there. That's how things like cleets and idler wheels get broke.
 
bobpierce said:
Ya know, you seemed to be having so much trouble I was gonna leave you alone. But now you force me to introduce K.R.I.S.T.A.L. - Kristis Rescuing Impotent Snow-Tracs And Lametracs. Unfortunately, we are currently too busy in the lower 48 picking up scrap aluminum from the circus tent in SnoOps back yard.
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1. K.R.I.S.T.A.L. ---isin't that the same FRAGILE stuff that WOMEN get all googly over then if you even attempt to look at it, it breaks!:yum:

2. Scrap alluminum for the circus tent in Sno Ops back yard ---so that's where he stored your fragile Krusti-mobile.:poke:

:moon: :moon: :moon:









He shoots..............he scores!!!!!

:beer: :beer:
 
Yes, women get googly over us Kristi men.
No, there is no aluminum in a Kristi.

He shoots..............he scores!!!!!
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Gee, you playin hoops with 12yr olds in the playground again?
 
Groomerguy. Never mind BobP. He is still dillusional about having a KRISTI he thinks he can get running in the snow like all of us have done so far this year! BUT word is that he may try soon. Good Luck BOB. We will all be standing by with a helping hand and running snowcat IF you need help. IF you can get it running! Good luck.
 
Let me know the time and place and I'll be there with tow rope ready to haul him the 50 ft back to his trailer after he breaks down!
 
bobpierce said:
Yes, women get googly over us Kristi men.
No, there is no aluminum in a Kristi.


I must say, yes a Kristi is a neet looking cat. And womon do get all googly over a Kristi. Why BECAUSE IT IS A HOUSE CAT. IT DO'S NOT LIKE THE COLD
You are right there is no aluminum on a Kristi because it has all fallen off.
We Tucker owners are all ready to give you a pull if you need one. (IF) you get it out of the house

:poke:
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groomerguyNWO said:
Let me know the time and place and I'll be there with tow rope ready to haul him the 50 ft back to his trailer after he breaks down!
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50ft!!! I've never been 50ft from the trailer! Can't we work up to this slowly, starting with, say, 20ft? :moon: :whip:
 
bobpierce said:
Gee, you playin hoops with 12yr olds in the playground again?
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Brian - these f'in Americans! They just don't get it , eh!

Hey Bob - ever heard of a sport called Hockey? Probably not, it's played in places where there's snow! Of course, if you had a functioning snow cat then maybe you'd get out more often.
:flagcan: :moon: :beer: :1062:
 
Sir, you doth wound me. I 'grew up' with Bobby Orr (the Patron Saint of Boston), Phil Esposito, and Ken Hodge. A copy of 'The Goal' hangs in my bedroom with a candle burning on either side. I was probably playing hockey while you were learning what a maple leaf was. I lost my front tooth during a one-on-one game with my brother on the local pond. My father waited a couple more hours to get me to a hospital while he finished ice fishing. Now that's hockey!

Habs suck

Why the 'hoops' reference? Because basketball is for girly-men and groomer-guys. :wussie:
 
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bobpierce said:
Now that's hockey!
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That's Old Time Hockey! You'd be hard pressed to find a hockier town than Beantown, even in Canada. Bob, let's not forget Gerry Cheevers (a.k.a. Cheesie), a hero of mine when I was playing goalie as a kid. Like Gerry, I even painted little sutures on mask whenever it took a puck!
 
Yup, I remember Cheevers. A kid next door to my grandmothers house was a Cheevers nut and we'd go at it, me as Orr, him as Cheevers. I kicked his arse.
 
Cheevas and O-Ah. I miss the Gaaden. Use to paak ow-ah ca in the paakin luot and climb the stay-ahs of the fi-ah escape so a friend could let us in one of the fi-ah do-ahs.
 
Flonda, mackrel, and Cuod outta Seabrook/Hampton. A highschool friends dad had a charter service outta they-ah. Darn squids always givin ya their last squirt as you pull your line up!
 
Just a quick update on the status of the sprocket/track situation I posted earlier. We assembled a new track this week including new cleets and belts and spent a few hours this morning removing the old track. Well, no-one can accuse us of not getting every last bit out of a sprocket before changing it. When we took the old sprocket off, the metal cogs(if you would call them that) that are normally coated, had all gone missing. They were originally imbedded into each tooth on the sprocket for support. So basically, the only thing left to that sprocket was the metal that bolts to the hydraulic motor.

We put the new sprocket and track on and should be good for a while now.
 
SnoOps is currently having an 'adventure' south of Atlanta, ID. He went out with the Super Imp and my service guy early this morning, They found a route in that required catting only 40miles instead of the the 70miles through the standard route. They got to the town, but couldn't find the site in the mountains south of town that requires servicing. I got a call from him over the satphone asking for some hints to help find the site, but the connection was lost before we could finish. I suspect the satphone battery died.

If he tried to get back out tonight, it should still be a couple more hours before we hear from him again. Will post pictures and video when he gets out.
 
Speaking of Sat phones............anyone else using satellite phones have a problem with constantly losing reception. I mean, when I do go to use ours, it sometimes takes me a good 10 to 15 minutes to finally get a signal then, if I do make it through to who I'm calling, within 30 seconds, I lose signal again. I figure with the kind of $$$ we're payin for sat service up here, we should be able to hold a conversation on the thing without losing reception. The last time I used it, I was at the highest open area within 20 miles, got a signal, started talking, lost the signal, turned my head 3 inches to the side, got a signal again. Frustrating to say the least. We've already called our service provider about the $h-tty service and all they say is "It is what it is, it ain't gonna get any better any time soon!"
 
Yup, always expect no coverage for at least 10mins out of every hour, not necessarily all at once. The providers of the Globalstar service are upgrading their service to give full coverage, which is why they currently offer a 3yr/$1000/unlimited plan (to help you tolerate the current outage frustrations).

http://www.globalstarusa.com/en/

Details about the outages and upgrades...
http://www.globalstarusa.com/en/news/update.php
 
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We were talking to them(Globalstar) earlier this week and they said not to expect any improvements for at least two-three weeks. They have apparently put up a few new satellites and are in the rpocess of fine tunning them.
 
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