How to maintain wooded walking trails

[yankeerider]

Wondering about how folks maintain walking trails through the woods in winter. Our trails are not so flat and smooth that they seem to lend themselves to plowing. Maybe pulling some type of grooming device behind a snowmobile?

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[Midniteoyl]

I dont walk the woods in winter.. Im such a wimp to cold..

 

[dave1949]

For walking, just the snowmobile will pack them enough to support people. No need to pull anything unless you are trying for cross country skiing trails.

If you like winter exercise, snowshoes will cut a trail but not pack the snow enough to walk without them. Of course, after every snow you need to open the trail again but you will form a firm base in a trench eventually.

 

[thenorth]

I drag a tractor tire behind the atv...

 

[Phil48]

If you google "homemade trail grooming for snowmobile" you will find very interesting stuff!
https://www.google.ca/search?q=home...&espv=210&q=homemade+snowmobile+trail+groomer
From the sophisticated or the wood pallet. I tried a lot of ways back at the camps, but grooming sled have being the best solution, you can add weight for a solid pack (walk over) or opt for ski track.
http://z1.ifrm.com/1500/199/0/p1003645/New_drag__ready_to_weld_.II__DL_.jpg

 

[yankeerider]

Thanks, all, for the ideas so far. We don't have a snowmobile in our "fleet", but I can likely test concepts using my neighbor's. I was also thinking maybe clear some of the snow with the v-blade plow raised on the Gator, while pulling some type of groomer behind to compact the snow and fill the tire tracks. In 4WD the Gator penetrates shallow snow quite well.

 

[VitaBene]

Wondering about how folks maintain walking trails through the woods in winter. Our trails are not so flat and smooth that they seem to lend themselves to plowing. Maybe pulling some type of grooming device behind a snowmobile?

Sent from my iPad using TractorByNet

I am president of our local snowmobile club here in NH. We use Tucker Sno-Cats with 8'X16 drags for the bigger trails, but use snowmobile pulled 4X8 drags for the smaller trails. before the modern (mogul master type) drag was invented, we used pipe drags. A pipe drag uses a couple of fence posts with a piece of chain link fence in between. I probably still have one at the barn and will see if I can take a pic for you.

One thing to note is that depending on how much snow you are dragging, it puts added stress on your snowmobile's belt. We use Skandic work sleds (Skidoo) as they have a 2 speed gear box.

 

[Dan W]

Jerry,
Interesting topic,
We have 4 atv and maybe a mile of trails on our spread. I tried everything including front plow, rear blower, front blower... I found what works best in a box scraper, once you load up the box, you just drag it around and it mashes down the snow really well... Until it rains, then you're in a mess again. You need to keep up to the snow falls, but we're out there every day running around drifting corners... And we have the grandkids to blame for that

Dan

 

[KofAlberta]

New member here.

At our cabin we have walking trails which get packed by snowmobilers and eventually pack hard enough to walk on but I’ve found that after fresh snows walking can be very difficult. Additionally, I’d like to make walking easier for some of our full-time retired neighbours who walk our trails.

So I’ve been thinking about low cost snow packer ideas. I think some kind of roller or set of rollers would do the best job of compressing/packing snow for walking trails.

The vast majority of trail groomers I’ve seen have been geared towards skiers or snowmobilers where one’s weight is very distributed compared to walking.

 

[grsthegreat]

I use snow blower thru 1.2 miles of wooded trails. Occasionally drive sleigh thru them, and walk dog thur them.

 

[bcp]

Try a snow roller.

horse snow roller at DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo. Privacy, Simplified.

duckduckgo.com

Bruce

 

[oosik]

If I want to open or pack my trails - a pass or two with my ATV. If I wanted to get fancy - reverse my rear blade and pack the snow down.

 

[SuperiorLakeEffect]

Snowshoes.

 

[ArlyA]

Just a data point; Sport sleds are not made for work and go slow. They use a tunnel heat exchanger which do not get enough snow on them when you go slow and pull implements.

 

[Rockbadchild]

Just a data point; Sport sleds are not made for work and go slow. They use a tunnel heat exchanger which do not get enought snow on them if you go slow eought to pull things.

agree at 100% but if there is 3 to 4 inch powder then it will be ok and for short distance it is fine even on snow pack but yes you need to keep a eye on the temperature.

 

[Bronco82]

I pull a pallet behind my Ski-Doo Tundra. It does a decent enough job of flattening out the trails.

 

[ArlyA]

Some of us are quite serious about grooming trails and done it for many, many years.

This is our personally owned machine.

A trail Bully 400

Various sleds over the years I've used.

 

[JohnnyMX]

I have tried with an RTV900 (no tracks) and you'd have to be out there before it got really deep. I would set the plow up a bit and go, but often get stuck as I'll drive up on a drift and not know it until I sink in. With the tractor I have done it using 3 skidsteer tires bolted together in a V with an eye-bolt to hook it to the tractor.

 

[KofAlberta]

I’d guess that a roller of some kind might do the best job of packing the snow hard enough that it doesnt just form a crust that collapses under weight of someone.

 

[ArlyA]

I’d guess that a roller of some kind might do the best job of packing the snow hard enough that it doesnt just form a crust that collapses under weight of someone.

Yes, a roller thats a bit wider than your tow machine and does not stick to snow. That would be HDPE plastic. It would look like this.