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Best use of a snowcat?

J5 Bombardier

Well-known member
Mostly used for work , but sometimes for play.
J5 Bombardier
 

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Snowy Rivers

Well-known member
It works good, for me, but I remember when I was a kid we had a Pete with a 318 Detroit. Cabbage hill is 7 miles of 7%, and it took me 1 hour to get from the bottom to the top. Everything is an improvement from there right?

It's the 6.7, F350, drw, auto trans and grossing, I'm guessing about 32,000# this day, it still can maintain 50 on most hills, 70 freeway. Of course more weight is not your friend uphill or downhill on slick roads, but with some caution, experience, and chains if needed, it's ok. DRW are only good if you need that for weight, but having that on the tow rig makes it easier to opt for that on a trailer because your already cutting that track. I have to move both cats up to the front, fold the ramps up and then move the rear cat back to onto the ramps a bit to distribute weight correctly. Pump the air bags on the truck up to about 85 psi. and that levels it out pretty good.

It looked like you had about the same set up for hauling the Tin Cup Tucker, is it?
Good old Cabbage hill....
Back in my trucking days I hauled a lot of materials over Cabbage.
Loaded up at 105,500 lbs makes for a good workout, even with a 500 cat up front calling the shots.
I can relate to the 318 Detroit...My first rig had a jimmy in it....

The big Kitty was pretty nice on the big hills. Butttttttttttttt...still a grind...
Big boys up North with their V12 cats pumping out a bazillion HP know how to flatten the hills for sure.
 

1boringguy

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Been keeping nose to the grindstone and making jack a dull boy so far this winter, so got the Patrol in and ready for some adventure today.
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Thinking about going to scout out a couple of trail possibilities for SV2022 around Fairfield (that's the Camas prairie) tomorrow. Checked the weather and came up with this though.
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It's one thing if I have lil capt and we have troubles on the trail when it's 10 to 20°, but -35 is a whole different thing. There's that Discretion - Valor thing ... or as I seem to relate more to, "Momma said, stupid is as stupid does". I try not to be stupid.

See how it's looking by morning. Might have to be like one of the Colorado boys who was expecting 90 mph wind ....... shop weekend .......... again. ☹
 

1boringguy

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Yes that is dangerous. Tonight's forecast for central North Dakota is -35°F with -55°F wind chills. Brrrr!!
Things can definitely get desperate in short order under those conditions. I'm far from an expert here, but I would think with a loss of heat source, as in a none running engine, satellite SAR capability and a snow cave might be the best hope.
 
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1boringguy

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Love the pictures.......
How wide is the cat ????? Permit load?? or just need the warning banner ??
If I recall it's 9'7" wide. Yes annual permit, but Idaho is pretty good to move in. Under 10' can move most roads even after dark, a big thing for the short daylight hours of winter snowcating, if you light the extremities. Banners flags and beacon of course. Shut down in extreme conditions, I take that as chains required, but mostly in Idaho, roads are either open or closed. It's not like Donner, Snoqualmie, or the Blues where chain requirements are common. All in all I get by in Idaho, in some states it would be much more of just a cabin cat.
 

Snowy Rivers

Well-known member
YESSSS...
Idaho is far more agreeable.

My 2100 ...even with the tracks cut down to 43" width (Single width of one grouser)..Cat is still going to sit at 135" wide. (11'-3")
The factory tracks at 57" wide put it at 149" wide

I can get a permit in Oregon to move it....but the restriction are many...
Taking the tracks off is the cheap easy way.....but a royal pain to reassemble without a hoist on the trailer to handle the 1200 + pound beasts.

This machine will be a "House cat" (Relegated to here at the ranch as a toy....

The county roads are plenty wide enough to navigate......and once there is snow enough to get out and play....there will not be too many rigs moving about.
4"- 6" of snow pretty well stops all the local yuppies and there AWD town cars for sure.

Back in winter of 08 we had nearly 3 feet in here....and drifts much much deeper.
 

FrancSevin

Proudly Deplorable
GOLD Site Supporter
Rubberized mounts?
I put a 12v elec winch on this cat. Ran 2/0 cables from the pos and neg of just one of the two batteries in series that make up the 24v. This is bad? Risks to the 24v electronics? The 12v winch? Charging system?
I believe that would work until something it he 24Vlt system was turned on. That would complete the loop for 24vlts.
To prevent a catastrophic event, I believe you must isolate the battery used for the 12Vlt system from the other harness.
A switch on the positive terminal of the second battery would do it. It needs to energize either the 24vlt or the 12vlt , but isolate one from the other
 

1boringguy

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
lil capt is getting pretty big

soon he will slide into the pilots seat of the great snow cruiser

great photos, so jealous !!!

And gosh, where's my manners. No need to be jealous, if you're short of a cat and a trailer ....... you have a standing invitation to come take mine up and crush snowflakes to your hearts content 😊
 

1boringguy

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Yea, pretty far north at the moment I'm afraid.

Really just took it down to Petersons in Utah. At 70 hours it's about past the break-in hours and time to check pressures and recalibrate pumps, ect. Busy time of year in the cat business, might have it back by Thanksgiving.
 

1boringguy

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Don't have the snowcat themed collectables as some here, and I'm not likely to catch up to the likes of Track Addict, PP, or sno-drifter, ect, but Lil Capt and I did create a piece for our Apres Snowcat repertoire. Looking forward to much use of.
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Gave it a test run while watching Jupiter and the full moon rising last night. The moon was kind of Tucker orange as it rose through the smoke in the valley, if that helps tie it in to snowcats 😉
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Blackfoot Tucker

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1BG,

It's always great to see pics of Lil Capt. That looks like a fantastic father-son project, and memories you both will treasure.

Sometimes it's interesting to see what else is in the picture beyond the foreground....

While you may never have the collection of snowcat (or Tucker) collectibles of PP, Sno-Drffter, or Track Addict, I did note the presence of a steel track Tucker surreptitiously hidden behind a forklift.

Nice addition to your growing collection. My congratulations!
 

Thefatsquatch

Active member
Took these guys a couple hours to get over the summit yesterday, drifts, so I went up today, because I couldn't let them have all the fun you know.View attachment 135186View attachment 135187
Just a little wide.
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Headed for higher ground.
Where are you headed in this picture? So much of Washington is closed for cats, and my son says I have to build him a ski jump and shuttle it with the cat. This looks perfect.
 

1boringguy

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Where are you headed in this picture? So much of Washington is closed for cats, and my son says I have to build him a ski jump and shuttle it with the cat. This looks perfect.
This is going up to Silver City, Idaho. Yea it's pretty wide open to use up there, mostly BLM I think. You can stop in the old mining town or go on up to the summits where the radio towers are.
 

1boringguy

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Lil Capt and I snuck away yesterday to find some snow. Saturday evening avalanche danger was at 4, ok with that if I know the area, but by Sunday morning it's was 5 in the whole Soldier-Sawtooth area. So we decided to just bust some drifts in the meadows, and save the summits for another day.

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