We took a trip out to the cabin this weekend in the Imp. The snow has been pretty sparse this season, but there was still 8" or so on the ground and it was soft enough that the ride wasn't too rough. There was a full moon at night and a dusting of new snow in the morning, so it made for some pretty scenery.
When we loaded the cat on the trailer for the trip home I noticed that one of the grousers was broken. Don't know if it just happened this trip or has been broken for some time -- it hadn't occurred to me to check for this before now. Yes, I've read about broken grousers on the Forum, but that was something that happened to *other* people....
Fortunately, I have a few spare grousers at home so the replacement was a 20 minute job. I inspected the rest of the grousers and found another one that is cracked, but I'll fix it another day (I marked it with red spray paint).
As I was thinking how handy it was to have spare grousers I began to think kind thoughts about Bill Guthrie at SnoTrans. I purchased the Imp from him a little over a year ago, and almost as an afterthought I asked about some spare track in case I had to patch a broken belt. He wandered back into a back corner of his lot and hacked off a 2' section of track for me -- belts & grousers. It didn't occur to me at the time that the grousers would be used before the belts.
And on the subject of Bill, I'm pretty happy doing business with him. I don't think I got the cheapest price in town, but he sold me a solid machine for a fair price that was configured just the way I wanted it. Further, it looks like he installed a new battery, changed the oil & filter, and gave it a general cleaning. As a newbie to the whole snow cat world it was a great way to get started. If anyone else is looking for an easy way to "dive in" then I'd encourage you to check out SnoTrans.
As long as I had the cat in the shop (so to speak) I went ahead and opened up the rear end to check on the brakes I installed last spring. They are working fine, but I wanted to tighten them up a tad so that I don't have to pull the sticks quite as far to turn. I was able to go through the whole process from start to finish in less than two hours, whereas it took me close to two days to do this the first time around -- I guess there's no substitute for experience!
Finally, earlier this month we invited some friends out to the cabin for a snow day. We were a little light on snow and it rained in the latter part of the day (sigh), but everyone seemed to have a good time. I have a game camera on the road to keep an eye on who comes and goes, and it caught a few photos of the goings on.
Happy trails
Ron
When we loaded the cat on the trailer for the trip home I noticed that one of the grousers was broken. Don't know if it just happened this trip or has been broken for some time -- it hadn't occurred to me to check for this before now. Yes, I've read about broken grousers on the Forum, but that was something that happened to *other* people....
Fortunately, I have a few spare grousers at home so the replacement was a 20 minute job. I inspected the rest of the grousers and found another one that is cracked, but I'll fix it another day (I marked it with red spray paint).
As I was thinking how handy it was to have spare grousers I began to think kind thoughts about Bill Guthrie at SnoTrans. I purchased the Imp from him a little over a year ago, and almost as an afterthought I asked about some spare track in case I had to patch a broken belt. He wandered back into a back corner of his lot and hacked off a 2' section of track for me -- belts & grousers. It didn't occur to me at the time that the grousers would be used before the belts.
And on the subject of Bill, I'm pretty happy doing business with him. I don't think I got the cheapest price in town, but he sold me a solid machine for a fair price that was configured just the way I wanted it. Further, it looks like he installed a new battery, changed the oil & filter, and gave it a general cleaning. As a newbie to the whole snow cat world it was a great way to get started. If anyone else is looking for an easy way to "dive in" then I'd encourage you to check out SnoTrans.
As long as I had the cat in the shop (so to speak) I went ahead and opened up the rear end to check on the brakes I installed last spring. They are working fine, but I wanted to tighten them up a tad so that I don't have to pull the sticks quite as far to turn. I was able to go through the whole process from start to finish in less than two hours, whereas it took me close to two days to do this the first time around -- I guess there's no substitute for experience!
Finally, earlier this month we invited some friends out to the cabin for a snow day. We were a little light on snow and it rained in the latter part of the day (sigh), but everyone seemed to have a good time. I have a game camera on the road to keep an eye on who comes and goes, and it caught a few photos of the goings on.
Happy trails
Ron
