sassafraspete
Platinum Member
- Joined
- Dec 14, 2003
- Messages
- 782
- Tractor
- Branson (kukje) 4020, 40hp turbo
Just curious....are any of your snow cats running Cummins engines?
Snow tractors
- Thread starter longway5
- Start date
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GaryM
Veteran Member
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( That is a BR350 with a winch. . .Winch cats are amazing. You can take full advantage of the cat's operating limits, climbing up and down really steep slopes. It is quite the sight to see a winch cat pushing a full blade of snow (with snow spilling over the top) up a slope you might have trouble walking up.)</font>
Great photos, but not being a skier can you explain the winch deal? What do you do, hook the cable to something at the top of the slope and use the winch, and tracks, to power up the hill? And maybe use the cable to provide an anchor point if working across the hill?
Great photos, but not being a skier can you explain the winch deal? What do you do, hook the cable to something at the top of the slope and use the winch, and tracks, to power up the hill? And maybe use the cable to provide an anchor point if working across the hill?
You hit it right on....well, there might be another reason but being a skier, there are some double black diamond runs (the most challenging) that apparently need grooming. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif They're the kind that if not groomed every once in a while I'd imagine they can become very dangerous because of how the snow piles up and settles etc. They are definately something you don't want to walk down either.
Blake
WA
Blake
WA
Dutch445
Elite Member
Locally there was an accident with a ski hill groomer this past weekend... don't know all of the details of how it happened, but here is the article:
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Toggenburg Ski Center worker hurt on equipment
A Toggenburg Ski Center employee was injured Friday night when he fell from a piece of snow-grooming equipment, state police said.
Eric L. Waite, 25, of 1245 Mill St., Fabius, was riding up the mountain in a groomer with a tiller attachment about midnight.
He apparently lost his balance and landed on the ground, where he became entangled in the tiller.
The Fabius Fire Department responded and freed Waite. He was in fair condition Saturday night at University Hospital.
)</font>
Rumors said he was in pretty bad shape after being run thru the machine..
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Toggenburg Ski Center worker hurt on equipment
A Toggenburg Ski Center employee was injured Friday night when he fell from a piece of snow-grooming equipment, state police said.
Eric L. Waite, 25, of 1245 Mill St., Fabius, was riding up the mountain in a groomer with a tiller attachment about midnight.
He apparently lost his balance and landed on the ground, where he became entangled in the tiller.
The Fabius Fire Department responded and freed Waite. He was in fair condition Saturday night at University Hospital.
)</font>
Rumors said he was in pretty bad shape after being run thru the machine..
Varmintmist
Platinum Member
You get to go to Vail, ski for free, run 300+hp equipment,....
They dont actually pay you, do they???
They dont actually pay you, do they???
Yep, you've got the idea. The snow condidtions change all the time on the mountain, so some days the snowcats may not be able to climb even moderate slopes. Somedays we can get traction on even the steepest. A winch cat can almost always make it up a trail.
Gravity is a big deal on a ski slope. All day people push snow downhill, and when we drive snowcats down, we also move a lot of snow between the tracks and the tiller. Half my job involves pushing snow back up with the front blade (thus why its a 12-way, I need all the control to match the slope). The steeper the slope, the less snow I will be able to push up, but it's the steeper slopes that need the most pushing, so we use the winch cats to push the snow up. Some trails get winched all the time (to steep to get with normal cats), others just once and a while when it gets too thin at the top.
Some slopes may be too steep or too soft for us to get good traction and we end up sliding down. It's hard to make a good pass with the tiller when the cat is sliding, so usually a winch cat will come in after and clean up the mess.
As a side note, the winches are all computer controlled. You can actually dial in how much pull you want on the winch cable. As for what the winch hooks up to, usually it's a steel post set in the ground up top, sometimes its a large tree, other times its another snowcat parked at the top.
Gravity is a big deal on a ski slope. All day people push snow downhill, and when we drive snowcats down, we also move a lot of snow between the tracks and the tiller. Half my job involves pushing snow back up with the front blade (thus why its a 12-way, I need all the control to match the slope). The steeper the slope, the less snow I will be able to push up, but it's the steeper slopes that need the most pushing, so we use the winch cats to push the snow up. Some trails get winched all the time (to steep to get with normal cats), others just once and a while when it gets too thin at the top.
Some slopes may be too steep or too soft for us to get good traction and we end up sliding down. It's hard to make a good pass with the tiller when the cat is sliding, so usually a winch cat will come in after and clean up the mess.
As a side note, the winches are all computer controlled. You can actually dial in how much pull you want on the winch cable. As for what the winch hooks up to, usually it's a steel post set in the ground up top, sometimes its a large tree, other times its another snowcat parked at the top.
That's some bad news. It's not a good idea to be rinding on a snowcat. The only place anyone should be while a snowcat is moving is inside the cab. The tiller will do some serious damage, if the tracks don't get you first.
I don't know why anyone would want to ride on the back of a groomer anyway. You should see the cloud of snow when we are running. It'd be a cold, wet ride up.
I don't know why anyone would want to ride on the back of a groomer anyway. You should see the cloud of snow when we are running. It'd be a cold, wet ride up.
JimMorrissey
Veteran Member
Rat,
Take a look at Jay Peak's seasonal snowfall in prior years ('01-'02 link below). They sometimes receive over 450" a year. Some years it will snow every night for weeks. This is a particularly poor winter in Vermont.
http://www.jaypeakresort.com/page.asp?intNodeID=16135
Take a look at Jay Peak's seasonal snowfall in prior years ('01-'02 link below). They sometimes receive over 450" a year. Some years it will snow every night for weeks. This is a particularly poor winter in Vermont.
http://www.jaypeakresort.com/page.asp?intNodeID=16135
