Property line trail/ track

J F · Mar 4, 2015

Congrats Aaron. Ours decided to arrive 3 1/2 weeks early and was just over 5 lbs when she and Momma came home. 6 month clothing stuff still dwarfs her.

GolfAddict · Mar 4, 2015

aczlan said:
Sounds like you have better luck than us, our 4 month old is still waking up every 2-3 hours (but he is in 12 month clothes)

Aaron Z

Good lord man, what are you feeding him?? :shocked: He's gonna be a big boy!

aczlan · Mar 4, 2015

GolfAddict said:
Good lord man, what are you feeding him?? :shocked: He's gonna be a big boy!

Milk (every 2-4 hours)...

Aaron Z

NS Gearhead · Mar 7, 2015

Took some vid today!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5vXM5vo1s0

Larro Darro · Mar 7, 2015

Nice. But I'm cold after watching it. When does Spring come to your neck of the woods?

Depmandog · Mar 7, 2015

Was interested to watch your tracked ATV, having never seen one in operation. Looks like it just floats over the snow, nice...the turning part would take me some getting used to. How does it behave on dry ground?

Liked your spin out, was that unintentional? Fun regardless I am sure! Love your property!

NS Gearhead · Mar 8, 2015

Spring should start any time. Most of the snow should be gone by April. May & June are really nice here. Snow's gone, and flies haven't started yet.

Yeah, the steering is kind of a pain. I compare tracks vrs tires to sports car vrs pick up truck. Not as quick or comfortable, but 10X more capable. They are 4 season tracks, but I don't plan to use them once the snow's gone... maybe just to grade the driveway for the traction & gear reduction.

LOL, no the spin out was not intentional... maybe a little slide, but not that much. The driveway's all ice. Here we get alot of thaw and freeze cycles.

PAGUY · Mar 8, 2015

Nice toy you have there. I would think a track machine would be a necessity where you live.

Question - Are there any signs of wildlife on your property?

NS Gearhead · Mar 8, 2015

PAGUY said:
Question - Are there any signs of wildlife on your property?

Lots. Mostly rabbit & deer, but some coyote, bear, and one guy tells me he's been seeing bobcat tracks. I saw that one nice pine's been stripped of it's bark... probably a porcupine... we have lots in the summer.

NS Gearhead · Apr 9, 2015

Well I've been saving for almost a year, and I've finally booked this for a week at the end of jun/ start of july!

Mine just won't have the tooth bar, and I believe it's got an 84" bucket, but I'll have to check.

So, some numbers to throw out there; 10km/hr max speed, 21 cubic foot bucket, .5km gravel pile to house, .5km trail length. So the average trip will be .75km, or 1.5km round trip. 9min or roughly 6 trips per hour... let's round down to 5. 5 trips per hour times 40 hours (other work to do that should take a day)= 200 trips X 21 cubic feet= 4200 cubic feet or 155.5 yards or around 10 tandem loads.

I'll be smoothing trail as I go, so should be able to travel at a good speed, although maybe not full speed, and I'll be compacting as I go too. I asked if they had a bigger bucket, but they don't. What are your thoughts of me getting some 6X1/4" flat bar and tacking that around the bucket so it holds more/ trip? Then just grind off before bringing back?

NS Gearhead · Apr 9, 2015

I went though the trail and it looks like I'll have to take down 2 trees at least and maybe a couple more to fit... I'll also be renting the jackhammer for another weekend before the skidsteer just to make sure it won't have a hard time traveling the trail.

Man, I am STOKED!

fordmantpw · Apr 9, 2015

NS Gearhead said:
Well I've been saving for almost a year, and I've finally booked this for a week at the end of jun/ start of july!

Mine just won't have the tooth bar, and I believe it's got an 84" bucket, but I'll have to check.

So, some numbers to throw out there; 10km/hr max speed, 21 cubic foot bucket, .5km gravel pile to house, .5km trail length. So the average trip will be .75km, or 1.5km round trip. 9min or roughly 6 trips per hour... let's round down to 5. 5 trips per hour times 40 hours (other work to do that should take a day)= 200 trips X 21 cubic feet= 4200 cubic feet or 155.5 yards or around 10 tandem loads.

I'll be smoothing trail as I go, so should be able to travel at a good speed, although maybe not full speed, and I'll be compacting as I go too. I asked if they had a bigger bucket, but they don't. What are your thoughts of me getting some 6X1/4" flat bar and tacking that around the bucket so it holds more/ trip? Then just grind off before bringing back?

I'm not sure how much that is going to cost you for a week, but I would think you would be money (and definitely time) ahead by finding someone with a dump truck (doesn't have to be tandem for that distance) that you can hire for a day to do the hauling, then just move it around with the skid steer once hauled to the location. I would think you could save at least 2, if not 3, days.

NS Gearhead · Apr 9, 2015

fordmantpw said:
I'm not sure how much that is going to cost you for a week, but I would think you would be money (and definitely time) ahead by finding someone with a dump truck (doesn't have to be tandem for that distance) that you can hire for a day to do the hauling, then just move it around with the skid steer once hauled to the location. I would think you could save at least 2, if not 3, days.

This is going on trails, not roads. Check it out;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5vXM5vo1s0

The rental is going to cost me aprox. $1,500. Rental, tax, insurance, drop off and pick up. Not sure how much fuel it will burn, but that's extra. After 4 days you get it for free by the week... as in renting it for 4 days= $1,500... 50 hours run time. I don't think we have offroad dumpers around here small enough... but even if we did, renting two machines surely wouldn't be any cheaper.

fordmantpw · Apr 9, 2015

NS Gearhead said:
This is going on trails, not roads. Check it out;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5vXM5vo1s0

The rental is going to cost me aprox. $1,500. Rental, tax, insurance, drop off and pick up. Not sure how much fuel it will burn, but that's extra. After 4 days you get it for free by the week... as in renting it for 4 days= $1,500... 50 hours run time. I don't think we have offroad dumpers around here small enough... but even if we did, renting two machines surely wouldn't be any cheaper.

I was thinking dump half at each end of the trail, then use the skid steer to haul it the rest of the way to the middle of the trail. I would think you could get those 10 loads hauled for $500 (it costs me $60/load to have it hauled 10 miles each way), figure two days rental of the skid steer at $750 for a total of $1250 and saves you 2-3 days of time. That doesn't include the fuel savings.

At any rate, it should be fun and it will sure beat the heck out of using a shovel!

NS Gearhead · Apr 9, 2015

Ok, I see what you mean. The gravel pile is not reachable by dump truck.

NS Gearhead · Apr 10, 2015

NS Gearhead said:
I asked if they had a bigger bucket, but they don't. What are your thoughts of me getting some 6X1/4" flat bar and tacking that around the bucket so it holds more/ trip? Then just grind off before bringing back?

Anyone? Heck, I may just ask if they have a problem with me doing this.. or I could make something that slides on and locks into place...or uses a couple existing bolt holes. Of course this would require more material and fab time.

Larro Darro · Apr 10, 2015

NS Gearhead said:
Anyone? Heck, I may just ask if they have a problem with me doing this.. or I could make something that slides on and locks into place...or uses a couple existing bolt holes. Of course this would require more material and fab time.

I would doubt they would be happy about you welding and cutting on their equipment. But it won't hurt to ask.

Larro

fordmantpw · Apr 10, 2015

NS Gearhead said:
Ok, I see what you mean. The gravel pile is not reachable by dump truck.

Well then, that throws my idea out the window.

rd_macgregor · Apr 10, 2015

I doubt a rental place would be enthusiastic about you welding on their equipment. You might ask around and see if anybody has a bigger bucket that you could borrow. I presume it attaches with standard skid-steer QA.