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Is there any snow cat trails in Mighigan

treeeman00

treeeman00

Member
Hey guys I am new to the snow cat world and I am currently looking into buying a tucker 1742. I live in ohio where some winters are bad but recently we have had very mild winters. Now I know that a machine this size would be overkill for be but I have always loved the tucker style and have wanted a tucker and I for some reason like to go big. My question is are there trails that are designated for snow cats around ohio, michigan, west virginia, pennsylvania..etc.
 
Hi Treeman00....I live in upper Michigan and I am into snowcats and snowmobiles. There is no law against running a snowcat on a groomed snowmobile trail in Michigan, however, I would not advise it. You will not be accepted with very much kindness from the local groomers and the snowmobilers. High speed sleds and big fat slow moving snow-cats on the same trail don't mix. There are far too many close call's and accidents involving sleds and groomers on Michigan snowmobile trails.

Now, if you want to run on "Non-Groomed" trails, that's a different story. The chance of a snowmobile running into you will be far less, but trying to fit a big cat down a non-maintained trail has a new set of problems, typically, you will find they are not wide enough, have too many downed trees. and have far to many low hanging branches.

I had a Thiokol 601 that I used for fun, but all my travels in it were done on the shores of lake Superior or down snow covered county roads. Trying to run it on non-groomed trails was just not fun because of them not being wide or clear enough for a 8' wide sno-cat. And the thought of running down a groomed trail and having a high speed sled hit me and all the legal matters that would follow, was not my cup of tea.

That Tucker that you are looking at does have the six wheel tracks, I looked at it years ago, I think it was in Greenly Mich at that time. it was used as a trail groomer.

That's a pic of my 601 on lake Superior. It now belongs to another Forum member.
 

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so basically there arent trails dedicated to cats. Do most people just run them on private property? Is it legal to run the shores of the great lakes on the cats? Thats a sweet looking cat! Were you in the air force?
 
There is no dedicated trails for (sno-cat only) in Mich. Most run them around on there own private property and county roads. Most of the "accessible" shore line on Superior is private, most of the state or federal shore line is most often quite rugged, rocky, and remote such as in this pic. There is only restrictions on wheeled vehicle on the sandy beaches.
 

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I live in the North Central part of the UP. I have a hunting camp near Big Bay Michigan. I use my 601 on the old logging roads around my area and to get in and out of camp in the winter. I avoid the groomed trails for fear of facing a drunken snowmobile going 90MPH.
 
I can definately understand staying off of the snowmobile trails. Law suit waiting to happen. We dont really have logging roads around here, just lots and lots of corn fields.
 
Hi Treeman

I second what Weatherby is saying about snomobile trails. I run my Tuckers away from the groomed snowmobile trails. The speed limit coming into our town (Red Cliff,CO) is 15 mph which translates 50 - 70 mph to the half drunk yahoos on sleds.

I'm lucky enough to have an ungroomed railroad grade running through town that the snowmobilers tend to avoid and I run on it.

When I was running on the snowmobile trails I did pick up a liabilty insurance policy from State Farm for my '63 443 - cost about $40 for the year and was great piece of mind.

Mark

PS - Just spent two weeks in Da UP - Looks like Keweenaw County has their act together on snowmobile trails!
 
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You have some nice vids on Youtube Mark.
How do you get your cats on hill at Vail ?
Trail to get there ? Anyhow nice job !
 

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oops clicked on the wrong pic
 

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here in the state of alaska if the snow cat dosn't exceed 4000 pounds no permit is required to cross public land when i aquire a thiokol 2100 i will have to get permits from all land owners both public and private also my understanding is even though the rivers are frozen i will also have to get a corps of engineers permit for crossing water.the larger cats do require alot more paper work to operate.
 
i definately understand the not running on groomed trails for the risk or liability of an accident. DDS, what does one do for work in alaska or in a remote village such as nome. Im very interested in moving to alaska one day and no roads seems like its right up my alley.
 
nome bethel and barrow are hubbs there is every kind of work possable from health care to admin work. the two big players are construction and administration as most of the local people lack the education oppertunitys out in the bush i'm a hd diesel mechanic and work for a local fuel company so i now also have tank farm experianceOne day i have always thaught about importing some local tallent and opening a repair facility of my own but i suspect that will be a large expence i won't be able to afford until i get rid of all the kids
 
Is there alot of work for heavy equipment operators? IS the pay pretty good? Its always been my dream to live in alaska. I want to be secluded by myself. The farther away from people I am the better off I am.
 
it's been a while but i think union scale for a heavy operator is about 60 bucks an hour.but you also have to remember most union work is short call and only for about 4 months out of the year.as a trial i could get you some contacts with our local gold mines that would get you out in the bush for a 90 day period or longer most of the gold mines usualy have some kind of preformance based pay which if they have a good year works out good other times it can be a bust.
 
I am new to the forum (or any forum for that matter) and I want to get involved in MI snowcat events. We manufacture LiteTrax snowmachines in UT, and they are a perfect alternative to either a large machine, or open air snowmobile. Although we admit to a zero cool factor when compared to old Tuckers, we think they are super cool to explore wintery backcountry.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Collier
 
Welcome to the forums.!

As a fairly new person myself I found out that there are threads and posts. Any member can start a thread. anyone can reply to it by creating a post. The thread will stay alive and continue to spread as the members read it think about it and contribute to it.

Advice. Start a thread and introduce yourself, product and intent to get involved. this Post is buried in a thread about trail riding in MI and you have a lot to share above that. Again welcome glad you found this.

I looked at (considered) Lite trax machines when I began this phase or way of life.
I live in that appendage of the UP called Wisconsin. I will becoming more involved with the recreational aspects of snow cats as the years wear on. I Have been kicking around the Idea of making a Midwest get together for recreational users. we have snow grooming conferences from the Snowmobile people but that is focused on a different aspect and there might be some funny looks between the two groups.

Collier Welcome and enjoy the stay.

Mike (this thread just drifted a little more away from cat trails in MI) 8-))))
 
LiteTrax said:
I am new to the forum (or any forum for that matter) and I want to get involved in MI snowcat events. We manufacture LiteTrax snowmachines in UT, and they are a perfect alternative to either a large machine, or open air snowmobile. Although we admit to a zero cool factor when compared to old Tuckers, we think they are super cool to explore wintery backcountry.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Collier
Click to expand...
I would like to see some photos of your lite trax . my slow dialup just isn't good for video.
 
DDS, that is crazy that union wage is that much! Im a a union operator and our scale is 29 an hour. Our seasons are short lived also. I have always thought gold mining would be awesome! What do people do for work in the winter time in Alaska besides the pipeline? I always thought it would be awesome to get on maintaing the Dalton Highway.
 
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