Opinions wanted: tucker kitten

I see there's a Tucker kitten listed on www.snotrans.com. How reliable are these machines. Are they harder to maintain? Would they be more costly then a snow trac or kristi type machine? Anyone have any expereince with these? How are they in the deeper snow?

Brian, I have some original factory movies from the Tucker family that shows a Kitten being used in DEEP powder snow. It looks like it works great. The operator steps out of the cab and drops down into the snow where he sinks about 4' into the powder. I don't know how hard the engine is working in that deep powder, but the Kitten doesn't seem to have problems with the snow.

The Kitten from what I am told is not as good as a snow master in deep snow. I hear it is a pretty good machine overall. LYNDON has owned one for years. He will know more than anyone else on this forum unless there are some Kitten owners? Anyway I would choose a snow trac / master though. Just my opinion.

The Kitten can really "Hold it's Own". It's super manuverable. It can handel any depth of any type of snow. It preforms well on really rough terraine, the kind of places that one might hesitate taking another make of snow cat, where only snow mobiles dare to go. I would venture to say that Bill Guthrie's wife Mary has more hours in one than me. She used to do Snow Depth Surveying for the Government in a Tucker Kitten.

LYNDON my only concern with the Kittens are the roller bearings needed to keep it rolling. Are they hard to reproduce or even find originals? I am sure you can still get parts for the motor.

Snowcat Operations said:

LYNDON my only concern with the Kittens are the roller bearings needed to keep it rolling. Are they hard to reproduce or even find originals? I am sure you can still get parts for the motor.

Click to expand...

From what is being said on the classic snow cat forum, production of new roller bearings is starting. The cost is going to be about $24.00 each. I copied the post below from the classic snow cat forum. Cook's equipment in Vermont has the 3/4" according to info on the forum. The 1" are the hardest to find.

Roller Bearings
Sun Mar 11, 2007 16:00

Good Morning,
We redesigned the bearings. Making a bearing that is not service able is a waste of time and money. The new bearings are completely rebuild able and can be greased they have a zerk fitting on the nut side that greases both bearings from the center. They can handle a heavier shock load of 3500lbs. So these old machines can be brought back to life and keep going into the future. The production run has started. The first run will be ready in 10 to 12 weeks. When the first bearing is done we will take pictures and display them.
We are now taking orders.
Spread the word.
Please email me or call with any questions, quantities and pricing.
Thank you.

If you need to contact me:
Welding shop # is 1-845-225-3983
E-mail address PlasmaTechnology@msn.com

Well that's a Steal Deal of a price! 10 Years ago I tried to contract with a local machine shop that had automated equipment to have them made and the price was going to be around 50$ Each. I also looked into having New Grousers Cast and the mold was prohibitively expensive. However that still doesn't mean I wouldn't consider owning and restoring an old 'Steel Trac Tucker'. They have an "Air " about them that is truely unique. A 443 is still one of my favorite machines. Fortunately, with proper care the rollers last a long time.
A Tucker Kitten is a very agressive machine. Of all the machines I've owned, operated and test driven I would rank it as one of the Top 2 in it's ability to navigate snow.

There was an article about how to rebuild these rollers for a few bucks each. I have not done it yet. McMaster Carr has some track rollers in their catalog but I have not checked the dimensions.

I am very pleased with my 1959 Kitten. Engine parts are very available.

All that said, I may be selling it at the end of the season. It will be hard to part with.

If you greese the rollers fairly frequently they last a long time. There's a guy in Delta Junction Alaska, who has an auto repair business and goes by the nickname of "Delta Shorts" ( he's about 4 foot tall). He extended his Kitten so that it's a Streched model. Anyway he located a catalog that had some almost identical rollers, that were rebuildable, at a very reasonable cost. I would try getting ahold of him. Delta Junction is such a small community that he should be fairly easy to locate.

Tucker kittens are pretty sweet! My next snowcat maybe.