tundra trac trip from he!!

I spent 4 days last week moving a dredging operation from the end of the road, to a creek up by taylor .I had about a 30 mile trip over the cat trail across the soft tundra. I had a bad omen right off the bat with a flat tire in the first couple of miles. this necessitated a trip back to town for a spare. after that 4 hours later, and the wrong trail by my guide, we found the right trail to their camp. the running was good on the old taylor highway until a wheel bering on the trailer failed (note to self second bad omen next time stop now) instead the road seemed hard I removed the track on that side chained up one end of the walking beam and started in again. a half mile or so down the road the clay got soft. also the retainer for the track adjuster shaft nut had failed and some where along the way it had fallen off. thid didn't seem to be a big deal until the trailer sank out of sight on the side with no track. omen #3 stop now. hell no I droped it into a lower gear instead of forging the trailer from the mud I forced the track off the machine.at this point I had been awake for about 16 hours and had a 4 hour biker bitch ride to the truck .and another 4 hours to get home to get parts and the jeep.

my oldest boy came back out to help me out many thanks to him we used the winch on the jeep to get every thing on high ground and also to pull the track back into place on the snow trac. it took a double line pull with an 8k warn winch to get the trailer out of that clay.

after fixing damage caused by my impatience I wandered around looking for the trail in there was no marking so we went home again this time I got a much needed 4 hours of sleep I loaded up the quad and hit the road again ,picking up a $600.00 garman Montana gps .when I got back to the snow trac I found dan creek on the topo map made my way into camp. I than used the quad and gps to find a straight trail in brought tehe rest of the gear into camp and crashed over night. I un loaded the next morning and headed out again by my self for a 5 hour trip back to the truck along the way I took photos of the cat trail it's quite peaceful out there just you and the bugs the last tundra photo is of a 1000 foot rise at niva hill straight up and pics of loading and and a pic crossing the Cushman street bridge heading home

That looks like a hell job in a hell location. How were the mosquitos?

DAVENET said:

That looks like a hell job in a hell location. How were the mosquitos?

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they were some of the worst I have seen in a long time. at times while sleeping you just hear a constant buzz.

Well here is to running the wheels off....

Good times for sure.

Ouch...

Good to see you made it out.

I lost an idler wheel on Christmas Eve right next to the road. Whoa was me. You were the first to reply and help me out with a couple ideas on how to fix it. Now I know why you knew what to do. I'll take snow and cold working conditions over mud and mosquitoes any day. You are awesome.

don usually loads it up good. He could fill a book on his adventures. from helping icebreakers to 700lbs of moose piled on it.

I have the option of purchasing an m548. I'm thinking pretty serious about it for summer opps. 7.5 ton payload and a steel track for all surface operations. it's a bit heavy on the foot print at 3 psi but I believe it's a better option on tundra for reliability.

Snowtrac Nome said:

I have the option of purchasing an m548. I'm thinking pretty serious about it for summer opps. 7.5 ton payload and a steel track for all surface operations. it's a bit heavy on the foot print at 3 psi but I believe it's a better option on tundra for reliability.

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Are parts a problem up there?

boggie said:

Are parts a problem up there?

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Only when they break!!!



Sorry, I couldn't resist.

undy said:

Only when they break!!!



Sorry, I couldn't resist.

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there are a bunch of extra shoes likely I will have to send you some road wheels to re line as there are no good left overs. its a chunk of change but the best track I have seen is the soucey rubber track conversion.