leonz
Super Member
A hover craft would work but it would have limited seasonal use and would only allow for 2-5 passengers if a non commercial unit is used.
The other issue is control of the hovercraft. They work very well
on the open water of the english channel because of the wide open area.
With the snow it it becomes an issue of sinking as the hovercraft would be continually blowing air and snow out from under the rubber skirt and it would cause it to tip and or sink as there would be less snow due to the airblast under the curtain.
The hovercraft launches on both sides of the channel are made of huge concrete
aprons that slope into the channel to permit them to launch and recover quickly
with the vehicle and pasenger traffic.
The smaller hydraulic and mechanical drive snow blowers the the V8 unit which is all hydraulic and the Hanson Snowblower which is no longer manufactured have problems with the lack of torque.
The other issue which is paramount is the open auger system which should be a closed auger to prevent flooding the impeller and reducing its efficiency where a metered amount of snow will be thrown much father with less fuel using a solid auger.
If they wanted to do it they could purchase a diesel powered two stage snow caster that can be mounted on a rubber tired back hoe bucket with a 4 ton capacity for $80,000 plus the cost of the back hoe.
A front mounted three point atachment kit for a large two stage snow blower using the front crank shaft is about $18000 USD these days. It can be done but the rear mounted snow blower will work better simply because of the amountof torque available where a front mounted PTO with a crank shaft mounted PTO will be limited in torque where it would be good for mowing, raking and windrowing hay or shredding brush.
The Sicard unit in the video is a small snow caster in the scheme of things and they are made much larger but the issue will be money unfortunately.
The other issue is control of the hovercraft. They work very well
on the open water of the english channel because of the wide open area.
With the snow it it becomes an issue of sinking as the hovercraft would be continually blowing air and snow out from under the rubber skirt and it would cause it to tip and or sink as there would be less snow due to the airblast under the curtain.
The hovercraft launches on both sides of the channel are made of huge concrete
aprons that slope into the channel to permit them to launch and recover quickly
with the vehicle and pasenger traffic.
The smaller hydraulic and mechanical drive snow blowers the the V8 unit which is all hydraulic and the Hanson Snowblower which is no longer manufactured have problems with the lack of torque.
The other issue which is paramount is the open auger system which should be a closed auger to prevent flooding the impeller and reducing its efficiency where a metered amount of snow will be thrown much father with less fuel using a solid auger.
If they wanted to do it they could purchase a diesel powered two stage snow caster that can be mounted on a rubber tired back hoe bucket with a 4 ton capacity for $80,000 plus the cost of the back hoe.
A front mounted three point atachment kit for a large two stage snow blower using the front crank shaft is about $18000 USD these days. It can be done but the rear mounted snow blower will work better simply because of the amountof torque available where a front mounted PTO with a crank shaft mounted PTO will be limited in torque where it would be good for mowing, raking and windrowing hay or shredding brush.
The Sicard unit in the video is a small snow caster in the scheme of things and they are made much larger but the issue will be money unfortunately.
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