??Quad Trac Advice??

OK: Who has a Quad Track? I need advice.
Which ones work best in snow?
Do any models fall under 48" wide so that they would fit in the back of a Pick Up?
What's your take?
Here's the deal: My buddy who is storing his ST4 at my place, won't run it becauuse he's afraid it will break down. It's got: Dual batteries, a Hand Crank, a healthy Rebuilt 1600, a totally rebuilt variator, a complete spare variator, complete spares, little tires, big tires, spindles, bogie assemblies, grousers, guides..... enough spares to keep it going forever! So whats the big deal? the Big deal is that he doesn't Ski or Snow Shoe. He's had a knee replacement and a Hip replacement, all from riding too much on Motorcycles, but he still does it anyway.
The "FIX" is a Quad Track or a Snow Mobile that we can take along. He likes Quads, so I think we should opt for that solution.
So what machine? Bombardier? , Honda?, Suziki? New? Used?

Lyndon, None that I know of will fit under your 48" spec. I have installed quite a few of the camoplast kits, on Yamaha, Honda, Polaris, and Kawasaki. None of these were under 48". What snow conditions are you planning on using them in? I have first hand experience with an Bombardier with tracks, Yamaha rhino with tracks, Yamaha 700 ATV with tracks, And a Polaris Ranger with tracks. In 3-4ft of sugary snow Bombardier and Yamaha ATV struggled. Rhino did not get stuck it was close. Polaris Ranger was dead 6ft from groomed trail. My opinion these work well on packed trails or 1-2ft of snow anything deeper you are going to kill the machine..... I would recommend a small snowmobile lighter then an ATV with tracks ALOT easier to get it out when it gets stuck. No the winch on an ATV will NOT get you unstuck if you are stuck bad, alot of digging will be needed with the winch.

The Snow Cat is 12 Ft. Long. It gets hauled on a car trailer that is 18 Feet long and just over 6'5" wide, so it may be possible to load a quad on sideways in fron of the snow cat. We were thinking about dragging, or actually towing it behind on a sled made just for that application. If the Snow Cat breaks down he would be riding it back down on the already packed trail made by the ST4, and I would be Skiing! I suppose the Snowmobile would be cheaper and less hassel to trailer/tow.
It's really more 'Psychological Insureance' as his ST4 is very healthy, and having put hundreds of miles on a fleet of ST4's I've never had to walk out yet. I have had to Ski out, bring another machine up, to get one that was stuck and had detracked, re-tracked and dug out,.. but that's just a technicality. The other option is to get another even bigger snow cat, and put the little one on a trailer/sled and use IT as the 'Back-up' unit.

Lyndon,

A couple of years ago I was at the Utah Winter Sports Park (where the 90 and 120 meter ski jumps are). They had a Polaris Ranger on tracks and I thought it was really cool. I called the local Polaris dealership (where I spent way too much money on snowmobiles) and was told they work pretty well on groomed stuff, but in more than a couple of feet of powder they don't work well at all.

They are also spendy. Assuming you bought new, by the time you buy the Ranger the windshield, the cab, the heater for the cab and the tracks you'll be over $20K.

That conversation with the Polaris dealer is what prompted me to get a Sno-Cat.