A few questions...

Hey everybody,

A little introduction (I haven't done one here yet). My name is Matt and I'm 19. I live up in the Mt. Washington Valley area in New Hampshire. Technically I live right across the border in Maine but more people tend to recognize North Conway/MWV. Anyway, I'm a big outdoors person. In the winter I ski, snowboard, XC ski, ice climb, and do a bit of light hiking to access some of my playgrounds. Living on the East Coast means living (for the most part) without powder to ski in which is unfortunate. I still make the best of it and get out in the storms as often as I can but I've always wanted to go west and try my hand at some REAL powder skiing. I tossed the idea around with a few friends and we've got plans to head out west next winter to either Colorado, Wyoming, or British Columbia depending on snow conditions when we start driving west. This spring I'll be purchasing a school bus and outfitting it for the trip over the summer (that'll be fun).

The original plan was to purchase at least one more snowmobile, maybe two or three more and load the bus up with a few and head west. But after thinking it over I realized that skiing via snowmobile access is well...not great. Loading up a mountain sled with two people, two pairs of skis, backpacks full of avalanche gear and other supplies, fuel jugs etc... and then riding 20 miles into the powderlands isn't a great way to spend a trip. Riding 2up on a mountain sled can be tedious enough on groomers where you can both sit but riding 2up to the top of a hill with one rider on either side of the sled holding on for dear life can be quite a pain.

So while doing some research I came across this forum (lucky me!) and started looking around a bit. There are some really near machines out there that I had no idea even existed! Anywho, here are my questions.

I live in New Hampshire and want to use the cat in Maine, and either Colorado, Wyoming, British Columbia or Quebec (or an assortment of those states/provinces). I looked in NH and I can't register as a snowmobile (cats are too wide) and in Maine I can't register as a groomer since I'm not actually grooming anything...how do people register these things?

There are two ways to get to snowmobile trails from my house. Option one is to drive 3 miles on a paved road, option two is to drive 1 mile on the same paved road then 3 miles on a dirt road, there may be a gate (I'm not really sure) so this may not be an option, but hypothetically...what's better for the tracks and how much damage does driving 3 miles on pavement do? If it helps I'm looking at something like a thiokol 201/spryte...I'd love a snow-trac but it's not in my budget and they're hard to find.

In regards to a thiokol 201 type snowcat...how steep of a grade can these things travel on packed snow and powder? Do these rigs get stuck often? There's a road I'd like to drive the machine on but it's a 17% grade for 1.5 miles. There's a snowmobile trail to the top from one side but they don't groom the other side or the land that you can get to down this road...but if I can't make it back up this hill I don't want to be stuck down there. The snow wouldn't be very deep and probably has some ice in it most of the year (east coast, bleh).

I'm sure I'm forgetting some questions I've got...but that's all I can think of right now, thanks very much!

Those machines you didn't know existed are mechanical snow cats. Most all today are hydrosatic cats, too heavy and to wide for trailering. They don't make the mechanical types any more so you are confined to what has been already made. They are out there, but it takes time and effort to find the right one, and work to get it up to speed. Trying to do this on a schedule is hard to do. My suggestion is to keep looking for the right machine and expect it to take as much time as it ends up taking to find the right one. I know this does little for your trip west next year, but who knows you may get lucky...

Many snow cat owners have issues with licencing them. Some don't bother if on private ground. I do think that lots of reflective DOT tape, strobe lights and the all important slow moving vehical sign go along ways.... Here it may be registered as an ATV I think. With the SMV triagle on the back, you could be consider a farm impliment if you had a farm anyway...

Paved roads are hard on things, any ditches beside the roadway? Any chance you could get permission to run on private land adjacent to the road?

Snowmobiles are very fun, but a snow cat is soo much more in many ways. Especially as you get older!

Regards, Kirk

WI has some provisions for antique snowmobiles.
Explore that option.
Snowmobile clubs are great ways to get access to getting on the trails with a purpose.
In respect for that purpose, I need to drag something to be on the trails with my larger machines. (the interpretation of something is open to me)

I can't help with registration issues as we have none for the state of Alaska. I live in a wind blown area in the bush I run my snow trac on all surfaces, the metal grousers slide like skates on asphalt. I try to limit driving on bare asphalt I do some times have to travel miles of frozen dirt ,which can be about as damaging, I just have to slow down. your best bet is to trailer to the snow or run the ditches. rubber track machines are the best for all surface running, like the tucker terra or bv 206. these are big bucks to purchase and maintain good luck.

300 H and H said:

Those machines you didn't know existed are mechanical snow cats. Most all today are hydrosatic cats, too heavy and to wide for trailering. They don't make the mechanical types any more so you are confined to what has been already made. They are out there, but it takes time and effort to find the right one, and work to get it up to speed. Trying to do this on a schedule is hard to do. My suggestion is to keep looking for the right machine and expect it to take as much time as it ends up taking to find the right one. I know this does little for your trip west next year, but who knows you may get lucky...

Many snow cat owners have issues with licencing them. Some don't bother if on private ground. I do think that lots of reflective DOT tape, strobe lights and the all important slow moving vehical sign go along ways.... Here it may be registered as an ATV I think. With the SMV triagle on the back, you could be consider a farm impliment if you had a farm anyway...

Paved roads are hard on things, any ditches beside the roadway? Any chance you could get permission to run on private land adjacent to the road?

Snowmobiles are very fun, but a snow cat is soo much more in many ways. Especially as you get older!

Regards, Kirk

Click to expand...

Hi Kirk,

Thanks for the information, I knew there were older snowcats but I wasn't aware there were so many and that they were still used today as much as they are. I know the new cats are quite a bit more complicated, expensive and larger too (which are all reasons to stick to the old stuff). The schedule is kind of a game plan, doesn't need to be followed but would be nice. During the same time I have to finish my teams racecar build (it's staying at my house and about to get a roll cage welded in this spring), convert a school bus to a 6 person RV and hopefully find a snowcat. So yeah, it's rather hectic and probably not going to happen but that's okay, I'm young!

I'm definitely going to try and license/register mine. I'm fine with putting some reflective tape, lights, and a SMV sign on it too. As for getting the cat to and from trails...I may have a plan that will work out a bit better than driving it down the road every day but we'll see. I know some people who live closer and I could probably convince the guy who lives directly next door to let me store the cat on his land (he has quite a bit and he's an old fellow that my dad seems to know). Then all I would have to do is drive my car down, warm her up and head up the trail! The ditches aren't an option really. There are rocks, trees, telephone poles and lots of other obstacles to get around. There is however a "private" community across the road from my house that has a beach that goes to a lake. I checked it out last night and I can't make it through that gate but there may be another way onto the lake at which point I think there's a sled trail that crosses the lake that I could get onto (there are sled tracks going out on the lake but it may just be for ice fishing, I don't know). This would make the pavement driving a lot less too.

Thanks for the reply

redsqwrl said:

WI has some provisions for antique snowmobiles.
Explore that option.
Snowmobile clubs are great ways to get access to getting on the trails with a purpose.
In respect for that purpose, I need to drag something to be on the trails with my larger machines. (the interpretation of something is open to me)

Click to expand...

I'll look into that, thanks.
I'll also talk to my local clubs, there's probably 15 of them around here and they've all got groomers. Seriously on my morning drive I see a minimum of 2-3 groomers...it's crazy.

Snowtrac Nome said:

I can't help with registration issues as we have none for the state of Alaska. I live in a wind blown area in the bush I run my snow trac on all surfaces, the metal grousers slide like skates on asphalt. I try to limit driving on bare asphalt I do some times have to travel miles of frozen dirt ,which can be about as damaging, I just have to slow down. your best bet is to trailer to the snow or run the ditches. rubber track machines are the best for all surface running, like the tucker terra or bv 206. these are big bucks to purchase and maintain good luck.

Click to expand...

Trailering every time would be an issue. My dad has a new Tundra which could tow the rig easily...but we don't have a big enough trailer (stupid side rails) yet and he uses the truck for work so it would be sort of a pain. I would absolutely LOVE to have a snow-trac but they're slightly out of the price range. They're the perfect rig for my uses from the looks of it (besides maybe not having plows but that's not a big deal for me).

Thanks for the replies guys!

tracked vehicles make terrible snow plows with a few exceptions. for operating on steep slopes the snow master would be a better choice than a snow trac ,except they are 8-6 wide requiring an oversize permit. the good part about and imp or snow trac is they fit on a standard drop deck car hauler. you are going to be looking at a deck over trailer or some creative mods to your drop deck trailer to accommodate a 201 , 601 or a sprite I believe some of the 1300 tuckers will also fit a drop deck trailer.

Snowtrac Nome said:

tracked vehicles make terrible snow plows with a few exceptions. for operating on steep slopes the snow master would be a better choice than a snow trac ,except they are 8-6 wide requiring an oversize permit. the good part about and imp or snow trac is they fit on a standard drop deck car hauler. you are going to be looking at a deck over trailer or some creative mods to your drop deck trailer to accommodate a 201 , 601 or a sprite I believe some of the 1300 tuckers will also fit a drop deck trailer.

Click to expand...

Yeah, we don't want to haul anything across the country with wide load permits. That would be a huge pain!

I am not too worried about the plow. The only reason it would be nice to have one is for building jumps in the backcountry. It could potentially save hours of snow piling efforts and pack the snow pretty well.

As for the trailer...I'm aware the 201/601/sprite/etc won't fit on a regular car hauler. We're going to be investing in a flat trailer at some point but we don't have it now.