Rain on the Snow...Stuck Thiokol

[srexecmark]

We got 3 days of what we call around here, the Pineapple Express. At my place we got over 8" of rain in 24 hrs on top of 60" of snow. What a mess! Here are some pictures of what happens when a Thiokol gets high centered. I had to pull him out with my Tucker.

 

[Melensdad]

That looks like a mess. Now deep is that water?

Did any water get into the Thiokol's engine or did it just lose traction when it high centered?

 

[srexecmark]

It was about 24-30" deep in spots. It got stuck before it quit. The water got into the starter motor and caused it to quit so it would not re-start. The water drained after it quit raining and the started worked again. That is when we drug it out.

 

[NorthernRedneck]

Looks like you've been having fun too. We kinda went through that the other night. No rain but broke through a swamp nonetheless. NO, I did'nt take pictures. I only take pics of my screw ups. This was done by another operator. He was breaking trail for the first time this season heading north for a 30 mile stretch. I have an old picture here of the first problem area he encountered. He safely crossed a creek at the bottom of a steep hill. Well, the machine got across ok and started climbing the bank on the other side. As soon as he started climbing, he dropped the back wheels on the drag while it was still on the ice. All the weight of the drag was directed right onto the back wheels causing a metal tab to tear off. The back of the drag dropped so fast that it crashed through the ice into water about four ft deep and hung up on the edge of the ice. So, the operator had to unhook the drag right there and preceed on up the hill without the drag in tow. He then went another 7 miles out to a road that leads back to the highway. He then walked the lamtrac back down the shoulder of the road for 7 miles to join back onto the trail and proceed on his way back to town. About 5 miles out of town, there is a small creek that must be filled with snow. He filled it on the way out and on the way back, the back end of the machine broke through and got hung up in some muskeg swamp. I was on my way out there to check on his progress when it happened. So, we headed back to the garage, fired up the BR160 and proceeded out to haul it out of the swamp.

It came out right away with the assistance of the BR160. The next day, the operator went back out to retrieve the drag which was now frozen into the ice in the creek. He broke up the ice, hooked a long chain from the Lamtrac to the back of the drag and pulled it back across the creek to the low side shore.

Ahhhhhhhhh! The joys of opening the trails for the season. Always something interesting.

first picture is of the hill where the drag broke through at the bottom of the hill in a creek.
second picture is of the creek where the Lamtrac broke through and got hung up on the way back.

 

[J5 Bombardier]

It's another bad winter in the swamps and beaver lakes,early snow really messed up the freeze up. A long cable,snatch blocks and a tree in the right spot can hopefully get you out of a mess ! It worked for me today,gotta love that beaver water smell !
J5 Bombardier

 

[Deerlope]

I like that roller assembly up top for running the winch cable over and out the front.

 

[ve3otk]

Tomorrow we deal with putting one set of tracks back on the BR-160 out in the bush. Track got a little too loose.

Middle picture the BR-160 is pulling the Tucker out of some mud.

The last picture was a nasty one from what I was told. The back of the BR-160 is high centered on an old beaver dam. Blade is stuck in the ground. Tucker came behind to give the BR-160 a push, and it got into it's own jam with at least one set of tracks in the air. Took the guys over two hours to get out of this mess.

This was all on the D110A trail north of Marathon.

Better pictures up at the clubs Photo Gallery

 

[mtntopper]

Beware of spring water hazards. This happened last spring to my neighbor. I had just warned him we had water running next to the road where we run the snow cats. He found out the hard way that LMC's can not swim. We used a D-6 Cat dozer to pull the snow cat out of the water hazard. Water never made it into the engine as he left the engine run while the exhaust was underwater but no water made it to the air intake. That prevented water from entering the engine through the exhaust.

 

[NorthernRedneck]

Well now...........now I don't feel so bad. Looks like you guys got yourselves into your own mess. Glad to see the old tucker still going! Spent quite a few hours running that machine in the mid to late 90's.

 

[fogtender]

Started my Imp today and took it for a ride. The weather went from -50's to +40's in one day, that is almost a hundred degrees differance between the highs and lows over the last few weeks.

The snow is really melting fast, we don't have the rain to deal with, but the snow has turned into a real slush. Drove about a mile just poking around to get it warm and see how everything was doing, went pretty well except for the heavy wet snow... Not to mention that I wouldn't want to follow my trail on a snow machine tomorrow if it freezes tonite...

Suppose to head out to the cabin this next week on snowmachines with Roughwoods, may not have enough snow to go out on, may end up using the plane on skis instead. Can hydroplane on the water up to the lakes edge since it will be a few feet of ice with a foot of water on top of that..... Pretty rough ride on the Imp with no snow and frozen tundra....

 

[Alaska Snow Cat]

I groom the trails in the Petersville and Trapper Creek areas with a PB 200D and this week mother nature decided to bring Hawaii up to Alaska for a visit. We went from -33 to +33 in about 48hrs. We had one day of temps in the 20s with steady snow and the grooming went beautifully, then it started to rain and rain and rain. For three days. I switched from the mogal master drag to the tiller as the snow turned into a mashed potatoe consistancy. Switching over took the better part of a day since every thing was buried under 3' of snow and hadn't been used in about 3 years. Yesterday I managed to groom about 30 miles of trail and the tiller put down a trail as smooth as pavement and hoped to do another 50 miles today. Unfortunately it continued raining hard all night and now all the creeks have ugly brown water flowing over the top of the ice as do most of the swamps so I decided to play it safe and wait for the cooler temps to come next week, don't want to end up taking pictures like others in this post.

 

[srexecmark]

Seems that everyone on the West Coast is getting a turn at the Pineapple Express. Nothing worse.

Mark

 

[socal4t12]

Seems that everyone on the West Coast is getting a turn at the Pineapple Express. Nothing worse.

Mark

down in southern cali,,,its been 80 degrees for the last 2 weeks. we are gearing up for fire season 2 months early! it was 89 degrees in san diego 3 days in a row last week.
some hope is on the way,,rain is expected in 4-5 days. we are all hoping for more snow, but its not coming. all the weather reports are telling so-cal that summer is here.

all of you lucky enough to have snow,,,enjoy it!