Scott and I like to test snowcats in “real world conditions”, which for us means at higher elevations and in deep snow. That last part, the “deep snow”, can be problematic as we are at Mother Nature’s mercy, and sometimes she’s downright stingy in the snow department.
The western US has a network of what are called SNOTEL sites (SNOTEL = snow telemetry). The sites transmit data and that's reported daily. The measurement used is called “Snow Water Equivalent” and that is the depth of the water (in inches) if the snow was in liquid form. We all know sometimes snow is “dry”, meaning very low moisture content, and other times it’s wet. Well, snow water equivalent adjusts for the snow’s moisture content. Utah is having a pretty good winter. The SNOTEL sites where we will be testing are at roughly 114% of normal snowfall, and with a snow water equivalent of 14-15”.
Though we’ve gone to the Uinta Mountains before with only one machine for testing, we prefer to take two - just in case, and fortunately both CHUGSzilla and the 1544 are ready for testing. Another benefit is you can do head-to-head testing in identical conditions, and that’s much better than just subjective seat-of-the-pants feel. Two machines, great conditions, we’ll see just how well they perform. Expectations are high.
- The 1544 has seemed to be on the cusp of being a pretty darn nice machine - cosmetics excepted. For us, the downfall has been the engine. It has never started particularly well and while power-wise it’s okay, but not great, the biggest limitation has been the carburetor. We are itching to see if the Edelbrock ProFlo 4 fuel injection system is the key that unlocks the handcuffs imposed by the carburetor.
- CHUGSzilla will finally see snow after a multi-year hiatus and a ridiculous amount of work making modifications and improvements. The GM LS engine should make the machine a great performer, but sometimes what looks great on paper doesn’t pan out in the steep and deep. While the machine has been fully assembled with the front six-way blade, we’ll leave the blade at the shop.
We’ve used three different locations:
- Cedar Hollow is the least crowded. But the big downside is you can’t get to the better areas without using trails whose brush has grown in appreciably. That translates into Rocky Mountain pinstripes… scratches in the paint from branches. It wouldn’t be right to hand the machine over to The Infamous WBJ1 with the paint covered in scratches.
- Mirror Lake Highway gets us to the highest elevation and the deepest snow, but it’s 14 mile slog along the road to get to the testing grounds.
- Soapstone has big testing areas closer in, though we expect it would be the most crowded. There is a fair amount of snowmobile traffic on the trails, and the last time we were there some clown was going way too fast on his sled and almost met the 1544 up close and personal. It would not have been pretty.
So… stay tuned and we’ll report the results.
The western US has a network of what are called SNOTEL sites (SNOTEL = snow telemetry). The sites transmit data and that's reported daily. The measurement used is called “Snow Water Equivalent” and that is the depth of the water (in inches) if the snow was in liquid form. We all know sometimes snow is “dry”, meaning very low moisture content, and other times it’s wet. Well, snow water equivalent adjusts for the snow’s moisture content. Utah is having a pretty good winter. The SNOTEL sites where we will be testing are at roughly 114% of normal snowfall, and with a snow water equivalent of 14-15”.
Though we’ve gone to the Uinta Mountains before with only one machine for testing, we prefer to take two - just in case, and fortunately both CHUGSzilla and the 1544 are ready for testing. Another benefit is you can do head-to-head testing in identical conditions, and that’s much better than just subjective seat-of-the-pants feel. Two machines, great conditions, we’ll see just how well they perform. Expectations are high.
- The 1544 has seemed to be on the cusp of being a pretty darn nice machine - cosmetics excepted. For us, the downfall has been the engine. It has never started particularly well and while power-wise it’s okay, but not great, the biggest limitation has been the carburetor. We are itching to see if the Edelbrock ProFlo 4 fuel injection system is the key that unlocks the handcuffs imposed by the carburetor.
- CHUGSzilla will finally see snow after a multi-year hiatus and a ridiculous amount of work making modifications and improvements. The GM LS engine should make the machine a great performer, but sometimes what looks great on paper doesn’t pan out in the steep and deep. While the machine has been fully assembled with the front six-way blade, we’ll leave the blade at the shop.
We’ve used three different locations:
- Cedar Hollow is the least crowded. But the big downside is you can’t get to the better areas without using trails whose brush has grown in appreciably. That translates into Rocky Mountain pinstripes… scratches in the paint from branches. It wouldn’t be right to hand the machine over to The Infamous WBJ1 with the paint covered in scratches.
- Mirror Lake Highway gets us to the highest elevation and the deepest snow, but it’s 14 mile slog along the road to get to the testing grounds.
- Soapstone has big testing areas closer in, though we expect it would be the most crowded. There is a fair amount of snowmobile traffic on the trails, and the last time we were there some clown was going way too fast on his sled and almost met the 1544 up close and personal. It would not have been pretty.
So… stay tuned and we’ll report the results.
