Need a better blade

My Spryte is great...but the blade is only 6 way.

While It will cut a sidehill road and level a camping spot out just fine...
Without pitch control and wings, I can't groom a bumpy snowmobile road. I just end up banging up and down the trail, forced to crawl at 2 mph.

Would be great to have a more functional , 10 or 12 way blade.

If you have one for sale or know of one please let me know.

Any ideas from more experienced cat guys would be welcome with open ears.

I'm not sure if it's worth trying to make this machine function like a groomer....

I may have to just accept the machine as is for next year, but if there is a reasonable solution I'd like to look at it.

Are you pulling a drag behind to smooth the trail or do you try to level the trail with the blade only? A blade will not produce a level trail as the machine will be moving up and down even with a multi way blade. A blade with wings can bring snow to the middle of the trail and knock down the big moguls somewhat but it will not leave a smooth trail by itself. A tiller on the back is another way to process the snow to leave a smooth trail. A good snow cat operator can do a fair job with a blade but the motion of the machine will eventually leave bumps and moguls in the trail. The easiest and best way is to process the snow behind you with a drag or a tiller. I have groomed many miles of trails and the blade is not designed to be a snow processor.

You could either modify your existing blade or find an old Pisten Bully 170/200 blade that would be more or less set up like you want. Your lift frame, angle frame and tilt frame are probably good as is, not as good as a more modern groomer but still the same basic thing.

What you want to do is add another "roll" cylinder that attaches to the cat right above the lift cylinder and attaches to the blade near the top and above the other end of the lift cylinder. I have seen older cats that use a manually adjusted cylinder like you see on a tractors three point hitch in this "roll" position and it is adjusted based on snow conditions. Hydraulically controlled is of course better but requires more modification$.
Also I would lower the attach point of the lift cylinder in the cat frame as the angle is too aggressive IMO.

I would also make the Blade a "U Blade" as that serves the function of bringing the snow in for processing through the blade and also stabilizes the pitch of the blade to reduce it from digging in to rapidly as it cuts. Also the entire bottom of the blade needs to have at least 8" of flat area or "foot" to also keep the blade from digging in. The cutting edge just ahead of the "foot" should only be 2" or so lower than the foot.

Once you start grooming, fill the blade with snow and set you roll to cut some but not too much and then use all the other functions to shape your trail. Even with a new cat designed to groom, the front blade is not a set and forget feature but requires continual input and adjusting. Adjustable wings (12 way) are nice but not necessary at all.

I had a Spryte with a factory six way blade and it was a handful to try and groom with the blade plus the controls were not of the joy stick type and were mounted high and forward by the windshield. Your set up looks possibly after market so it maybe better or worse. Go look at a big groomer sometime and you will see the the lift frame and cylinder arrangement is very similar to what you already have but have the added roll feature and most importantly a different blade construction.

A drag behind the cat will do as much if not more to groom the trail. You can easily haul gear on a drag so they can serve two purposes. I use both and they each do about 50% of the work.