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442 Refurbishment Project

Snowtrac Nome

member formerly known as dds
GOLD Site Supporter
here's a question for you steel track tucker guys can you line the bottoms of your pontoons wih uhmw hdpe like the airboat guys do to reduge friction and give you a replacable wear surface i would think 1/4 or 3/8 inch would work well
 

DAVENET

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
It may work, but I would be worried that it would catch a rock or stick and come free. If it got rotated back thru the track it's possible the tension would get so high that it would break the track before you got it stopped.

That being said, it sounds like an interesting experiment for an old pontoon. If you could get it anchored well enough at the front and roughly 4 - 5 inches up from the regular contact point so it had little chance of getting hooked by debris, it should work fine.
 

Snowtrac Nome

member formerly known as dds
GOLD Site Supporter
!/4 inch counter sunk screws is what they use on air boats and they run them across gravel bars you would have to anchor good like a screw every inch or 2
 

DAVENET

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
Moisture between the HDPE and the bottom of the pontoon would also create some problems that would need to be resolved. Accelerated rust would be one problem, but thaw freeze cycles would be working to create a ever increasing gap that would eventually cause the sheet to separate from the pontoon.

I guess if you had an old unit to test it on there is probably some sort of epoxy that would completely seal and bond the two together forever?:unsure:
 

Snowtrac Nome

member formerly known as dds
GOLD Site Supporter
there is an adhisive called seca flex that would seal it well but it would be tough to replace i thk i would use silicone like the airboat guys if you wanted to sea the steel from rust i suppose you could use rhino lining i think it would be a cool idea to explore as your pontoons sitt so close to the ground having a replacable wear surface would be cool.
 

DAVENET

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
Mini update. Still plugging away at the second track and rollers as time allows. Fortunately my #1 helper is into the project as well.
 

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DAVENET

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
And on a side note we went skiing at Pat's Peak a couple of weeks ago during their 50th birthday party. They had a giant cake that had pictures from over the years (including the groomers), and a slide reel with even more pics, including the Tuckers. After the presentation I happened to be next to the director of marketing and asked if it would be possible to get copies of the Tuckers from the slides. After the curious look, I told her that I owned their old #6 and was restoring it.

She sent me to the two pictures that were in the slide presentation and was going to have her assistant gather the other ones (a lot I guess) that weren't shown. Pretty cool:
 

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meanjean

New member
Man, you will have an awesome machine when you are done!!! Good luck with your project too. Great! There's a small ski hill nearby my home, and the guy who owns it has a Tucker in his back lot just sitting there. I went to see him last summer to find out if he wanted to sell it. No luck. His machine, although an earlier version like yours, had full groomer rubber tracks instead of metal cleats, as in your pictures. I thought that it would floats very well in deep snow. Anyway, have fun with your machine. Looks like a wonderful project. My new cat is a Thiokol 2100C.. Very wide track.
 

undy

New member
Cool photos.

Those chairlift chairs are exactly the style they had at our local hill, Tyrol Basin, in the early 60's. They had the strange swing-around safety gates, and the truss-style towers just like in your picture. I've never seen that lift at any other ski area. They used to have this funny little guy (from Switzerland, IIRC) who'd come around every summer to service the lift.
 

Laurentian

New member
Cool photos.

Those chairlift chairs are exactly the style they had at our local hill, Tyrol Basin, in the early 60's. They had the strange swing-around safety gates, and the truss-style towers just like in your picture. I've never seen that lift at any other ski area. They used to have this funny little guy (from Switzerland, IIRC) who'd come around every summer to service the lift.

Exact same chairs we had at our local ski hill in the Québec Laurentians, Mt-Gabriel, even had same towers. Was an eye opener when the swing gate would suddenly fly open while resting your skis on them ! ( worn catch ) Hehe. They removed them in the mid eighties. All triples and quads now.
 

DAVENET

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
The cool thing is the chairs have been changed, but the towers are still being used for a small double chair.
 

Blackfoot Tucker

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
The pictures of the chairs and Hugh's comments led me to do some research on chair lifts as I remember the center pole, double chair lifts from growing up in Vermont.

Anyway, in my research I ran across this video. It will get your attention and it's definitely worth a look: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwPP4i7ENvQ"]Chairlift Rollback Test - YouTube[/ame]
 

undy

New member
Wow! That's quite some footage. No wonder all those guys at the base are seen running.

I've always wondered what such a breakdown would look like, and what the results would be. That's really sobering. I'd hate to have been a concrete block. Should I be giving second thoughts to riding all those chairlifts? (NAH!)

Most amazing though, is the idea that they could have resurrected that lift overnight!
 

WhiteMtnTucker

New member
Heres some pics of inside and outside front corners..
 

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DAVENET

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
Awesome- thanks. The frame looks exactly like mine (thought it was going to be a little higher).

Looks like there's no way around fabing a filler panel to go from the A pillar to the new roof since everything in that area would be unnecessarily complex if made as one piece. Complex for me anyway. But it at least gives me some ideas on what's needed.
 

DAVENET

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
PS wonder if the one on wheels in the picture is my donor?

No side window over the tank (behind the doors) in the parade picture. That's not saying they didn't get cut in later for visibility though.

edit- That one also has a metal roof, not fiberglass. But I'm betting the one with the ladder in the back is one of ours.
 

DAVENET

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
What's the status? Had to go back a ways to find this. Any progress?

Funny timing. Now that field hockey & fall baseball ended last weekend, I'm starting to stir the pot again.

I just called my buddy this morning to see if he had any sand blasting jobs coming up so he could take the four original pontoons down to steel before snow flies, then do work on them at his leisure when his guys are slow in the body shop. I'll have him put two back to as close as new / perfect to match up with my two NOS pieces. I'll have him take care of any issues on the other two and sell them off at some point.

Another set of track is already in the garage ready to be rehabbed. Just need to clear motorcycles out of the way, pull in two cord of wood, finish building a rustic hutch for the cabin in NY this weekend, try to kill a deer or two, etc. etc. etc. :hammer:

That's where being on here looking at your progress helps. I have to find a longer day and start moving my ass or the kids will be gone and won't have the adventure with them!!! :w00t2:
 

DAVENET

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
lol- I just rolled the other section of track out a couple of nights ago to straighten some links before moving on to the others. A few more Lacrosse games / tourneys and it will free up a lot of summer work time. The thing I need help with most is the one thing I can't make more of. Time!
 

Track Addict

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
I'm officially dangling your grill as the carrot! Will probably be hanging in the garage for some time with a note: "Dave's Grill"
 

DAVENET

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
None the past 6 months. :neutral: Just covered up with every other kid activity in the world that can't / shouldn't be missed. You'll see soon enough . . .:smile:
 

Track Addict

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
Was up in Hillsborough NH today delivering a lot of vintage snowmobile parts. Of course Tuckers came up. One of the guys use to drive the Pat's Peak groomers and commented how much dope he smoked in those grooming. I told him the cats were still alive and somewhat well. Then I asked who put the wall to wall carpeting in my donor cat. He took the credit for the cat scratching post upgrade.

He also mentioned that one of the cats the service guys welded a lock out for 4th gear because they were driving too fast causing roller issues. He also took personal responsibility for rolling one of them over. When they righted it they bent the frame the way they hooked it and pulled it over. He believes it was sold for after that.

Small world!
 
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