Experiences driving snow tracs?

[mtmogs]

As a hopefully soon-to-be owner of a snow trac (not snow master), I'm curious as to other folks' experience navigating these machines, specifically have you stuck your snow trac and if so under what circumstances (snow conditions,etc.). What general driving tips can you offer? Obviously experience is the best teacher but...

In general, I'll be driving in not more than 10 feet of total snow depth, and that will be a winter's worth and not fresh powder. I would expect to see 4 feet of new powder only ocassionaly at the most. I'll mostly be traveling on forest service roads to the cabin (not very steep) and don't forsee any serious side-hilling.

Thanks - Paul

 

[villi]

Hey Paul
It is not common to have deep powder snow in Iceland but you can always drive backward from it or drive in circel and stop on your track to take off again, the most danger is sludge if your machine start to slow down dont stop you must step on it and drive in circel and get out of it , if you stop you are stuck very bad.

 

[mtmogs]

Thanks for the valuable advice Villi. I'm not certain if I'll be able to circle too much on the narrow forest roads, but I guess I can drive backward for miles!

I guess the universal law of dealing with slush is to power through it then. I've got a 2.5 m snowblower mounted on a unimog truck and I find that the secret to blowing slush is to keep the blower "loaded" and the slush moving. Slow down and the chutes clog solid. Must be the same with tracks and bogies.

Hey Paul
It is not common to have deep powder snow in Iceland but you can always drive backward from it or drive in circel and stop on your track to take off again, the most danger is sludge if your machine start to slow down dont stop you must step on it and drive in circel and get out of it , if you stop you are stuck very bad.

 

[Arlow]

Hi Paul,
I live in central British Columbia, and we get a range of snow conditions. We have just started to get quite a bit of snow this season. It's been between -15C to -25C so the snow is fairly dry and powdery. I find in snow that is a little wetter and still deep the Snow Trac sinks down about 8 inches and it doesn't really matter where you go, it doesn't seem to change the imprint.
I went out today and the snow is quite powdery and about 3 - 4 feet deep and the Snow Trac sinks down about a foot. I was driving around in fresh snow, no other tracks and through some drifts and it didn't seem to change the amount that it sank down. At one point I stopped and hopped out and I sunk down over my knees, and when I went to leave there wasn't a problem starting off in that deep snow.
I find that you can notice that it takes more power the deeper the snow. If I'm on level open ground I can get into 3rd gear and if I encounter any hills or steep grades I make sure I shift into 2nd before I get there (my motor is 2100cc's so it doesn't seem to have a problem with power no matter how deep the snow is).
Here's a couple of pictures from today...

 

[mtmogs]

Thanks for the great photos Arlow! It looks like it was a perfect day to be out in the snow trac. That's a nice cabin, is it yours? Your snow conditions seem very similar to mine here in NW Montana close to the border w/ eastern BC.

Thanks for the downshifting tip. It must be nice to have a few hundred extra cc's to work with too! It doesn't even look like your undercarriage is sitting on the snow. A problem I've encountered with my 8-wheel argo (w/20" tracks) is that if the snow is so soft that it sinks to the point that the undercarriage is sitting on the snow, it's real close to stuck time. It'll just sit there on it's belly with the tracks spinning! So...it's good to hear your gettng through the fluffy stuff.

Thanks - Paul

 

[roughwoods]

Hi Paul I live in the interior of Alaska,this year we have about 2 foot of snow.I have a trac master with a toyota tc2 motor and can run in 3rd gear pulling a sled hauling a snowmobile .The steeper hills i have to run in 2nd gear. The deepist snow i have run in was 5 feet of soft stuff. I have never been stuck With it. I also have a st4 with a volkswagon motor ,I have to run in lower gears with it. My snowtracs sink in about a foot depending how much of a load i have on. I just brought my snow master in from Totec lake, pulled my snowmobile on the sled. I had some trouble with it not wanting to turn pulling up hill, had to back up a few times then about five miles from town we have a log bridge to cross a creek, made it across with the snow trac but the sled slid off,and we had to work a little to get it out.I have found that the deeper the snow the more power you need or run in a lower gear.I like more power for pulling loads or a trail drag.I will put some pic on here . HAVE FUN ! Larry

 

[mtmogs]

Awesome photos Larry! Thanks for posting and sharing your driving experiences. That's a great looking sled too, complete with a suspension it looks like. What are the skis made out of?

Did your sled part ways with the snow master when it slid off the logs? I bet you had fun yanking it back outta there!

Many Thanks - Paul.

 

[roughwoods]

Hi Paul,sorry for the slow come back,havn't had much time for this puter stuff.The slead runners are made with 1 in. plastic with angle iron sides.I cut a grove along the plastic for the angle iron to fit into then used square pipe for cross pieces.I used springs off a st4 snow trac.The slead stayed on when it slid off the logs but it sure stoped me dead in my tracks!!! I just unhooked from the slead and hooked up with a chain so i could get a run at it,about three runs at the chain and it came out,hooked up and drove on in to town. Just made for a long trip.Here is a pic of my snow trac pulling a trail drag.

 

[roughwoods]

having troble geting pic to up load .maybe it will work this time

 

[mtmogs]

Hi Larry,

Thanks for another great pic! That snow trac looks like it can kick up some snow.

The plastic runners on your sled are for sure pretty slippery material. I mad a small snowmobile sled a few years ago probably out of the same stuff. It is flexible, like polyethylene maybe. I found it at the landfill, it was from a discarded lighted gas station sign. I had to add lengthwise runners made from 3/8" rod along the skis because the plastic was so slippery that it fishtailed like crazy behind the snowmobile!

Happy Trails and stay out of the creek!