Question for you experts

[AzMike]

I am an Arizona desert dweller, but next year I will be going on a Moose hunt in central Alaska. How do you think a Thiokol IMP will navigate the swampy muskeg? I have a 40 mile ride into the cabin and then hunt with it for 10 days. Between hunters, gas, and gear it will be loaded out with about 800-1200lbs.

This looks like a much better solution than slugging it out on are quads but I am a little concerned with the 6" of ground clearance. Tell me what you think.

 

[Doc]

Have you been across the terrain before? If ATV's / quads could do it I would sure think a Thiokol IMP could do it.

Sure sounds like a fun trip. Would love to see some pics of your trip if you don't mind sharing.

 

[AzMike]

I have not been there yet. Quads are what the locals use to get in, but they say it can take 1-2 days to go the 40 miles. Nasty mud and swampy ground. We were thinking this would get us in faster and carry all of our gear and not have to hire a bush pilot to bring it in.

 

[Doc]

Boy that sure sounds like fun to me. I'm not the expert for sure. Let's see what the experts say.

 

[Melensdad]

I am an Arizona desert dweller, but next year I will be going on a Moose hunt in central Alaska. How do you think a Thiokol IMP will navigate the swampy muskeg? I have a 40 mile ride into the cabin and then hunt with it for 10 days. Between hunters, gas, and gear it will be loaded out with about 800-1200lbs.

This looks like a much better solution than slugging it out on are quads but I am a little concerned with the 6" of ground clearance. Tell me what you think.

I sure hope someone from Alaska jumps in on this thread, but I'll give you my impressions. My Snow Trac will travel on pretty much any sort of surface. While my tracks don't like short grass, they travel well over soupy clay, through mud, over sand, tall grass and obviously over snow.

I'd guess an IMP would do the same but I don't really have any clue what sort of terrain you may face and the one thing that could be a problem for a snowcat would likely be rocks.

 

[Snowtrac Nome]

tell me where you plan to go i live in nom now but grew up in south central . i hunt on the tundra with my snow trac i have some practical experiance i will be glad to share but i need to know the aere you are going to because the terrain vayyies so much. as a geeral rule stay away from rocks don't try to steer on side hills and try to push through rutted boggs in a streight line when crossing willow stands watch to make shure the willows don't tangle up in the track and you should be ok there are other terrain that require special attention up here we have niggerheads (sorry thts just what they are called ) and because there are uneven chunks of permafrost they can break things and down south they have floating bog that can support tracked vehicles but just like ice if it breaks through it can be a long way to the bottom. let me know where you are hunting and i can give you an idea of what to look out for if you are cautious as a general rule you should have no problems and a nice trip

 

[fogtender]

Well if the ground is rocky, they you may be in for some issues. But if it is just boggy tundra stuff and you don't have to cross lakes or rivers, then it would work fine as long as it is in good shape. I dragged a couple of moose with my Imp and the only issues we had is that they wanted to save the hide "After" the hair was gone...

It will go though stuff you can't walk on. Where in Alaska are you headed to? There is some restrictions to what you can drive into some areas... Like most track rigs have to be under 1,500 lbs, which was just fine, because my Imp was just at 1,495 lbs.... Before gas and oil of course...

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PjxRiYVknY"]YouTube - Going out to pick up a moose[/ame]

 

[AzMike]

I will be traveling parallel to a river south of the Alaska Range. The closest town I guess is Paxon. I will have to cross the river a time or two. I have seen videos on youtube of Sprytes on land but not much for IMPs. I have been told that 90%of the trail is muskeg and mud, but there is some hard ground and of course a river that runs about 14-24" that time of year. Is the concern for river crossings about rocks or flooding the drive trane?

 

[Snowtrac Nome]

the terrain up there is much like it is here in nome what they are calling muskeg is realy permafrost. once the vevitation is disturbed the ground starts to melt and you have a bottomless pit of mud. the concern about rocks is your tracks they are not intended to support weight on the ends rather accross the whole grouser too much time on the rocks = boken grousers= thrown track. river crossings should be good just don't try to drive up the rivers or dry draws as the rocks are pumpkin size and will break grousers also be carefull when climbing hills as the front pitches over an obstical like a bench, it can cause a dramatic change in incline and cause an endo other wise you picked a nice place good luck.

 

[AzMike]

Well We went and picked one up this week end. I am not sure if there is a nicer original Imp still out there. It only has 97.1 hours on the meter and that is after we played with it for a while.

We have modest plans to clean it up a bit before we head to Alaska.

 

[Melensdad]

The belting on your tracks looks good. The grousers look good. The sprockets look good. Now you have to do something about that interior. I'm thinking you need to PIMP YOUR RIDE and provide us with photos of the project!

If it was me, I'd consider spraying the floor with RHINOLINER (there are do it yourself 2 part epoxy sprays that are like Rhinoliner that come in various colors) and even spraying the walls with the same material. It will help dull some of the sound, will make clean up easier, and adds a little bit of insulation as well.

 

[Snowtrac Nome]

nice little unit i use a snow trac for the same thing and love it because it dosn't tear up the vegitation even in turns the imp will with it's break steer systemon the plus side it should ford more water and it's built like a tank so it should be a forgiving rig for the novis to operate.driving on the tundra is much different than snow you didn't state when you were comming up the niggerheads are srarting to freeze up now i had to slow way down in mine this weekend the once soft ground is now hardand it was like roling over endless bowling balls.