Sure wish we were going to be there for this one!
-
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California mountain madness, feb 16-19, 2023
- Thread starter TalleyHo
- Start date
I can not say enough wonderful things for our hosts, Nancy and Ken Talley,
first, I had the privilege to meet their three kids, and without doubt, the marine and the twins are what every parent dreams their own children would be, they are truly good young people.
the Talley's went so far beyond what anyone could have hoped for when attending a snow cat gathering, the mountains just go on forever, endless trails, mountains, lakes, no pictures can even come close to doing justice to this part of the world
wonderful wonderful wonderful and then the Talley's hospitality, absolutely unmatched, I felt like a queen even though I am only a princess
thank you Nancy and Ken
first, I had the privilege to meet their three kids, and without doubt, the marine and the twins are what every parent dreams their own children would be, they are truly good young people.
the Talley's went so far beyond what anyone could have hoped for when attending a snow cat gathering, the mountains just go on forever, endless trails, mountains, lakes, no pictures can even come close to doing justice to this part of the world
wonderful wonderful wonderful and then the Talley's hospitality, absolutely unmatched, I felt like a queen even though I am only a princess
thank you Nancy and Ken
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Travler,
Thanks.
We did have a lot of fun snowcatting with great people in another beautiful area. Big thanks to the Talleys for hosting us here. It's never an easy thing organizing an event.
Here's some of the fun and beauty to share 🙂
The long lost Fukowee tribe here perhaps? 😉
Big thank you.
Beer thirty.
Thanks.
We did have a lot of fun snowcatting with great people in another beautiful area. Big thanks to the Talleys for hosting us here. It's never an easy thing organizing an event.
Here's some of the fun and beauty to share 🙂
The long lost Fukowee tribe here perhaps? 😉
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I will fill in on the gum post I made. one cat had to abort enroute due to trailer issues. One lost a coupling on the oil filter line and dumped said contents everywhere. One had a big winch break into two pieces, One pickup required the operator to crawl under and start it with a piece of wire. One broke at least one grouser.
As far as Ken's hosting ability it was great . At both dinners, he had everyone talking to everyone. He really knows how to break the ice at an event like this.
As far as Ken's hosting ability it was great . At both dinners, he had everyone talking to everyone. He really knows how to break the ice at an event like this.
lol lol lol lol lol sir cider, tom, that was to much " he really knows how to break the ice at an event like this" dang you are so good, nice word play... very smart twist of words
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Being a H8er of pretty much anything CHRYSLER, I'll spill the beans.
It was a Dodge pickup - with only 37,000 miles. Maybe Dodge (oops, now they're called "Ram") should include a jumper wire and instructions in the owner's manual on how to bypass a bunch of circuitry to start the truck when it otherwise won't. Yeah... laying on your back and wriggling under your super high-dollar truck to start it is part of the Dodge ownership experience. (I'll stick with my "vintage" (as WBJ1 calls it) Ford, thank you very much!
BTW, that jumper wire that saved the day...was provided by Cider Tom!
California Mountain Madness is now in the books, and it was an epically good time! Before the event kicked off Kenny (Talley HO) got his big Tucker, the one he and Mrs. Talley Ho (Nancy) use to pull the ultimate snowcat tow behind, known as The Cat House, stuck. “Stuck” though isn’t a very good word. It was actually partially submerged, and frozen in the ice. We had a mission: to recover the stranded Tucker! There were six snowcats available to help, and one would think that would be more than sufficient. They key word in that sentence is “think”. Before I get into any details, I’ll say that due to the sensitive nature of the situation, there will be no pictures of the stuck machine in this thread. Kenny requested that, I completely understand, and will absolutely abide by that request.
Kenny had purchased all kinds of top-notch gear for us to use to get the machine out. Several long lengths of serious chain, numerous snatch blocks, and a number of heavy duty straps, not to mention a bunch of shackles.There was also a spill kit (I think that’s the correct name) to soak up any leaking fluids from the disabled Tucker. We had the right gear, and lots of it. One of the machines at CMM 2023 was a huge Tucker groomer. I think I heard this machine weighed something like16,000 pounds, and it had wide tracks as well as a 15,000 lb front winch. Thundercat has a rear hydraulic winch, but it’s smaller at 10,500 pounds.
One item I haven’t mentioned was a big Stihl chainsaw with a 36” bar. It was a 661 C-M Magnum. I own its predecessor, the 660 Magnum, and it was Stihl's second most powerful saw. Of course big and powerful, also means heavy. The powerhead weighs over 16 pounds, so adding a bar, chain, gas and bar oil and its several pounds more. Pointy Chops (Aaron) wielded that saw like a lightweight scalpel, and I was hugely impressed by his strength, endurance, and skill. Hugely!!! With a sharp chain, those saws are a wood chip producing machine, and it was no different in ice. However, with the ice chips - there was almost always water as well. Aaron couldn’t avoid getting wet, but he was all about the mission as he cut chunks of ice all around the stuck Tucker trying to break the ice’s stranglehold. I told Mrs. Blackfoot (Lisa) I thought he should thereafter be known as "Aaron the Animal”, but she thought that was derogatory. And all the while I meant it as a compliment….
I should point out that Huntington Lake is man-made and is one of several in a chain of lakes used for hydroelectric power generation. The lake level is managed by the power company and of course with the phenomenal snowfall that part of California has received this winter, melting snow will easily fill the lake. But at present the lake is down a lot. It’s not empty, but not all that far from it. There is also work being done on other dams in the system, and that requires the power company to carefully manage lake levels.
There was a lot of preparation and rigging of machines: straps, chains, snatch blocks, etc. In addition to the ones Kenny provided, Cider Tom brought his “Rescue kit” which had three (IIRC) snatch blocks, other rigging gear, and (I think) 150’ of seriously strong line which allowed multiple snatch blocks in series to significantly increase the effective pull. Though his Snow Trac had a mechanical issue, that didn’t stop CT from joining in the fun of trying to recover the stuck Tucker. Now, it was time to pull, and with two cats winching and two pulling, the stuck Tucker kind of budged… a bit. Uh-Oh, this challenge is going to be tough! More cutting of ice, more brain-storming of ideas to rescue the machine, and a few more attempts at pulling still didn’t result in significant progress. One problem was we didn’t know what was below the ice. There are quite a number of tree stumps protruding through the ice, and one theory was that the right front track was at an odd angle because it was trying to climb over a stump. But we really couldn’t tell. We had shovels and one could poke through the areas where the ice had been removed, but even so you really weren’t sure what the shovel was contacting. Pontoon Princess (Jinn) suggested maybe it was a large chunk of ice? More ice cutting by Aaron with the full length of the bar in the water to reach as far down as possible. After a lot of work a big chunk of ice popped up. By this time Kenny had gone and cut a good sized log. A section of the log was positioned on top of some sheets of 1 1/8” plywood laid on top of the ice. Chains were attached to the Tucker and run under the front blade and over the log. The idea being as tension is applied to the chains, it will lift the front of the machine as forward pull is applied. Thanks to The Gorilla (Scott) we had brought a “recovery rope”, also called a kinetic energy rope. That was attached to Kenny and Nancy’s smaller Tucker, a late eighties 1344. A close friend of the Talley’s, Austin drove that machine. Now we had two winching, one pulling (1BG’s White Lightning) and one ready to apply a serious jolt, the 1344.
The winches were straining (and each had a double snatch block setup which tripled the pulling power) White Lightning was pulling, and Austin put the gas pedal to the floor and…. The stuck Tucker moved about two feet! This was hugely encouraging as all previous efforts had resulted in, at best, small progress. Of course the forward progress meant we were now in a new area, and the ice cutting and chunk removal process had to resume. Kenny and Nancy’s children, Charlie, Kenny, Jr. and Catherine were on hand, and they of course were helping wherever they could. Charlie became the ice chunk removal specialist. At one point he insisted PP give him her shovel... and she actually complied! (Truly an OMG moment.) He really set out to remove all the chunks Aaron was cutting and he did a great job. You might think it’s not a big deal, but ice is heavy when the pieces get big. One cubic foot of ice weighs almost 60 lbs, and of course it is super slippery, so it’s not just the physical lifting, but trying to balance the ice on the shovel, while maintaining your own balance, that adds greatly to the difficulty. Often too, you’re unable to get the best positioning to remove the ice. But Charlie was a man on a mission, and he did an awesome job. Charlie’s younger brother Kenny, Jr. helped Charlie, and they worked as a team to wrestle ice chunks out of the way. Catherine meanwhile was keeping Lil’ Capn busy, which allowed 1BG (Jack) to devote his attention to getting the big Tucker out of the ice. (As an aside, I later spoke with Nancy about how impressed I was with Charlie. It turns out he's a Marine home on leave, and is now back at his assigned duty station in Hawaii. Charlie had recently applied for, and was accepted into MARSOC; US Marine Special Operations Command). Charlie is a very impressive young man, and Kenny and Nancy can be justifiably proud!)
Somewhere along in here Nancy had disappeared and returned with a bunch of sandwiches, assorted chips, energy bars, drinks and cookies. They were devoured…and greatly appreciated!
Another pull and jolt attempt was made... and again a significant move forward. (I have to confess to some sheer buffoonery on my part. When we installed the winch on Thundercat, we thought a wireless winch remote would be nice to have. Well, they are, however the remote needs…batteries, and when the batteries die, it’s no help at all. Of course one should have spare batteries and the wired remote on hand as a back up… but nope.)
With the winching and jolting process, one downside was that the winches were slow - while the pulling cats weren’t. So once that jolt hit, and the imprisoned Tucker started to move, the winches were contributing... nothing. My recollection is we abandoned the winches and changed the method to add Aaron and Anna's Tucker to the mix and we now had five Tuckers pulling. That third pull also had excellent forward movement. But now we were back dealing with ice that needed to be cut, and the sun was getting low in the sky. We attempted two “Hail Mary” pulls, but the ice again showed its dominance over Tucker Sno-Cats.
The original plan for the event was that Kenny and Nancy would host the group for dinner at a local restaurant on Saturday evening, but Kenny very generously said “Let me make a phone call and we’ll do it tonight, too”. It was a really fun and memorable evening, as some of the pics already posted show!
This next section is titled “A Case Study in Excellence”.
My understanding is Huntington Lake is “owned” by Southern California Edison and their permission is required for pretty much anything out of the ordinary. But California Fish and Game and the US Forest Service also have jurisdiction. I’m not a Californian, but my impression as an outsider is that those three organizations would have some seriously entrenched bureaucracies. Dealing with them would be an absolute nightmare of red tape, hassles, intransigence, etc. Local officials would have to defer to corporate (SCE) or Sacramento headquarters (Fish and Game) or the regional office (US Forest Service) for approvals.
But that wasn’t the case, and my perception is the sole reason for the cooperation of the various agencies was due to Kenny’s approach to the situation with the stuck cat. He was absolutely open and honest in dealing with them, and very proactive as well. What I think came through was a man who was trying to do the right thing thoroughly, quickly, honestly and with complete sincerity. One of my favorite quotes is from retired Senator Alan Simpson of Wyoming “If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don’t have integrity, nothing else matters”. I believe the folks Kenny was talking with quickly realized they were working with a man of substance; a man of integrity, and Kenny had gained their trust through his words and actions. I titled this A Case Study In Excellence, because I think it is illustrative of the power of what Alan Simpson was speaking to. Incidentally, Warren Buffet uses different words, but he too believes in the same concept.
On the morning of day two, Dan, the force behind the behemoth Tucker groomer was sick and they had decided to head home. That left us down some serious grunt and Kenny decided to get some other equipment in to extricate the now refrozen Tucker. I think all of us were disappointed. The ice had defeated us on Day One, and we wanted a rematch. We had developed a solid game plan, and all that was left was to execute it. But no.
Instead we hopped into our snowcats and Austin led us on a nice trail to Mushroom Rock. It was a bluebird day and the views and temperature were fantastic. Then back to a cabin rented from one of Kenny and Nancy’s neighbors for a great lunch. That cabin had a pool table upstairs and The Gorilla defeated Pontoon Princess. Then 1BG took on The Gorilla and became the undisputed champion! Fun times!
After that we moseyed back around the lake to the saloon for dinner and drinks. Kenny and Nancy had coordinated to reserve half the saloon and everyone had a really fun evening. Kenny’s father and stepmom were there, and they too are really nice folks. !Lil’ Capn continued to refine his Party Animal act, while PP and I plotted strategy to deal with The Green Tucker Mafia, the only member in attendance at CMM 2023 being Aaron.
So... having been to five snowcat events I can say it doesn’t matter if the location is a luxury resort with great views and weather (Sun Valley). Or, if it’s in a minimalist setting with genuinely crappy weather (Cloudcap). Or even a great location with an unfortunate happening. What really makes these events special are the people. Yes, we share a common bond in our passion with snowcats, but the camaraderie, conversations and overall experience increase the bonding and cohesiveness of the group.
Kenny and Nancy set an incredible standard of hospitality, and all in attendance had a genuinely great time! Kenny said he wanted to do this again in 2025! If you missed this one, DON”T MISS OUT ON CMM 2025.
(I’ll try and get some postable pics together for a separate post.)
Kenny had purchased all kinds of top-notch gear for us to use to get the machine out. Several long lengths of serious chain, numerous snatch blocks, and a number of heavy duty straps, not to mention a bunch of shackles.There was also a spill kit (I think that’s the correct name) to soak up any leaking fluids from the disabled Tucker. We had the right gear, and lots of it. One of the machines at CMM 2023 was a huge Tucker groomer. I think I heard this machine weighed something like16,000 pounds, and it had wide tracks as well as a 15,000 lb front winch. Thundercat has a rear hydraulic winch, but it’s smaller at 10,500 pounds.
One item I haven’t mentioned was a big Stihl chainsaw with a 36” bar. It was a 661 C-M Magnum. I own its predecessor, the 660 Magnum, and it was Stihl's second most powerful saw. Of course big and powerful, also means heavy. The powerhead weighs over 16 pounds, so adding a bar, chain, gas and bar oil and its several pounds more. Pointy Chops (Aaron) wielded that saw like a lightweight scalpel, and I was hugely impressed by his strength, endurance, and skill. Hugely!!! With a sharp chain, those saws are a wood chip producing machine, and it was no different in ice. However, with the ice chips - there was almost always water as well. Aaron couldn’t avoid getting wet, but he was all about the mission as he cut chunks of ice all around the stuck Tucker trying to break the ice’s stranglehold. I told Mrs. Blackfoot (Lisa) I thought he should thereafter be known as "Aaron the Animal”, but she thought that was derogatory. And all the while I meant it as a compliment….
I should point out that Huntington Lake is man-made and is one of several in a chain of lakes used for hydroelectric power generation. The lake level is managed by the power company and of course with the phenomenal snowfall that part of California has received this winter, melting snow will easily fill the lake. But at present the lake is down a lot. It’s not empty, but not all that far from it. There is also work being done on other dams in the system, and that requires the power company to carefully manage lake levels.
There was a lot of preparation and rigging of machines: straps, chains, snatch blocks, etc. In addition to the ones Kenny provided, Cider Tom brought his “Rescue kit” which had three (IIRC) snatch blocks, other rigging gear, and (I think) 150’ of seriously strong line which allowed multiple snatch blocks in series to significantly increase the effective pull. Though his Snow Trac had a mechanical issue, that didn’t stop CT from joining in the fun of trying to recover the stuck Tucker. Now, it was time to pull, and with two cats winching and two pulling, the stuck Tucker kind of budged… a bit. Uh-Oh, this challenge is going to be tough! More cutting of ice, more brain-storming of ideas to rescue the machine, and a few more attempts at pulling still didn’t result in significant progress. One problem was we didn’t know what was below the ice. There are quite a number of tree stumps protruding through the ice, and one theory was that the right front track was at an odd angle because it was trying to climb over a stump. But we really couldn’t tell. We had shovels and one could poke through the areas where the ice had been removed, but even so you really weren’t sure what the shovel was contacting. Pontoon Princess (Jinn) suggested maybe it was a large chunk of ice? More ice cutting by Aaron with the full length of the bar in the water to reach as far down as possible. After a lot of work a big chunk of ice popped up. By this time Kenny had gone and cut a good sized log. A section of the log was positioned on top of some sheets of 1 1/8” plywood laid on top of the ice. Chains were attached to the Tucker and run under the front blade and over the log. The idea being as tension is applied to the chains, it will lift the front of the machine as forward pull is applied. Thanks to The Gorilla (Scott) we had brought a “recovery rope”, also called a kinetic energy rope. That was attached to Kenny and Nancy’s smaller Tucker, a late eighties 1344. A close friend of the Talley’s, Austin drove that machine. Now we had two winching, one pulling (1BG’s White Lightning) and one ready to apply a serious jolt, the 1344.
The winches were straining (and each had a double snatch block setup which tripled the pulling power) White Lightning was pulling, and Austin put the gas pedal to the floor and…. The stuck Tucker moved about two feet! This was hugely encouraging as all previous efforts had resulted in, at best, small progress. Of course the forward progress meant we were now in a new area, and the ice cutting and chunk removal process had to resume. Kenny and Nancy’s children, Charlie, Kenny, Jr. and Catherine were on hand, and they of course were helping wherever they could. Charlie became the ice chunk removal specialist. At one point he insisted PP give him her shovel... and she actually complied! (Truly an OMG moment.) He really set out to remove all the chunks Aaron was cutting and he did a great job. You might think it’s not a big deal, but ice is heavy when the pieces get big. One cubic foot of ice weighs almost 60 lbs, and of course it is super slippery, so it’s not just the physical lifting, but trying to balance the ice on the shovel, while maintaining your own balance, that adds greatly to the difficulty. Often too, you’re unable to get the best positioning to remove the ice. But Charlie was a man on a mission, and he did an awesome job. Charlie’s younger brother Kenny, Jr. helped Charlie, and they worked as a team to wrestle ice chunks out of the way. Catherine meanwhile was keeping Lil’ Capn busy, which allowed 1BG (Jack) to devote his attention to getting the big Tucker out of the ice. (As an aside, I later spoke with Nancy about how impressed I was with Charlie. It turns out he's a Marine home on leave, and is now back at his assigned duty station in Hawaii. Charlie had recently applied for, and was accepted into MARSOC; US Marine Special Operations Command). Charlie is a very impressive young man, and Kenny and Nancy can be justifiably proud!)
Somewhere along in here Nancy had disappeared and returned with a bunch of sandwiches, assorted chips, energy bars, drinks and cookies. They were devoured…and greatly appreciated!
Another pull and jolt attempt was made... and again a significant move forward. (I have to confess to some sheer buffoonery on my part. When we installed the winch on Thundercat, we thought a wireless winch remote would be nice to have. Well, they are, however the remote needs…batteries, and when the batteries die, it’s no help at all. Of course one should have spare batteries and the wired remote on hand as a back up… but nope.)
With the winching and jolting process, one downside was that the winches were slow - while the pulling cats weren’t. So once that jolt hit, and the imprisoned Tucker started to move, the winches were contributing... nothing. My recollection is we abandoned the winches and changed the method to add Aaron and Anna's Tucker to the mix and we now had five Tuckers pulling. That third pull also had excellent forward movement. But now we were back dealing with ice that needed to be cut, and the sun was getting low in the sky. We attempted two “Hail Mary” pulls, but the ice again showed its dominance over Tucker Sno-Cats.
The original plan for the event was that Kenny and Nancy would host the group for dinner at a local restaurant on Saturday evening, but Kenny very generously said “Let me make a phone call and we’ll do it tonight, too”. It was a really fun and memorable evening, as some of the pics already posted show!
This next section is titled “A Case Study in Excellence”.
My understanding is Huntington Lake is “owned” by Southern California Edison and their permission is required for pretty much anything out of the ordinary. But California Fish and Game and the US Forest Service also have jurisdiction. I’m not a Californian, but my impression as an outsider is that those three organizations would have some seriously entrenched bureaucracies. Dealing with them would be an absolute nightmare of red tape, hassles, intransigence, etc. Local officials would have to defer to corporate (SCE) or Sacramento headquarters (Fish and Game) or the regional office (US Forest Service) for approvals.
But that wasn’t the case, and my perception is the sole reason for the cooperation of the various agencies was due to Kenny’s approach to the situation with the stuck cat. He was absolutely open and honest in dealing with them, and very proactive as well. What I think came through was a man who was trying to do the right thing thoroughly, quickly, honestly and with complete sincerity. One of my favorite quotes is from retired Senator Alan Simpson of Wyoming “If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don’t have integrity, nothing else matters”. I believe the folks Kenny was talking with quickly realized they were working with a man of substance; a man of integrity, and Kenny had gained their trust through his words and actions. I titled this A Case Study In Excellence, because I think it is illustrative of the power of what Alan Simpson was speaking to. Incidentally, Warren Buffet uses different words, but he too believes in the same concept.
On the morning of day two, Dan, the force behind the behemoth Tucker groomer was sick and they had decided to head home. That left us down some serious grunt and Kenny decided to get some other equipment in to extricate the now refrozen Tucker. I think all of us were disappointed. The ice had defeated us on Day One, and we wanted a rematch. We had developed a solid game plan, and all that was left was to execute it. But no.
Instead we hopped into our snowcats and Austin led us on a nice trail to Mushroom Rock. It was a bluebird day and the views and temperature were fantastic. Then back to a cabin rented from one of Kenny and Nancy’s neighbors for a great lunch. That cabin had a pool table upstairs and The Gorilla defeated Pontoon Princess. Then 1BG took on The Gorilla and became the undisputed champion! Fun times!
After that we moseyed back around the lake to the saloon for dinner and drinks. Kenny and Nancy had coordinated to reserve half the saloon and everyone had a really fun evening. Kenny’s father and stepmom were there, and they too are really nice folks. !Lil’ Capn continued to refine his Party Animal act, while PP and I plotted strategy to deal with The Green Tucker Mafia, the only member in attendance at CMM 2023 being Aaron.
So... having been to five snowcat events I can say it doesn’t matter if the location is a luxury resort with great views and weather (Sun Valley). Or, if it’s in a minimalist setting with genuinely crappy weather (Cloudcap). Or even a great location with an unfortunate happening. What really makes these events special are the people. Yes, we share a common bond in our passion with snowcats, but the camaraderie, conversations and overall experience increase the bonding and cohesiveness of the group.
Kenny and Nancy set an incredible standard of hospitality, and all in attendance had a genuinely great time! Kenny said he wanted to do this again in 2025! If you missed this one, DON”T MISS OUT ON CMM 2025.
(I’ll try and get some postable pics together for a separate post.)
chowderman
Well-known member
sh*t happens - owner manual instructions on how to bypass all the cr*p, get it running and get home is not something I would not personally complain about . . .
had a VW diesel - glow plug relay died . . . got it going with a roadside piece of metal strapping, shorting the battery straight to the glow plug bus bar . . . that was not in the manual.
had a VW diesel - glow plug relay died . . . got it going with a roadside piece of metal strapping, shorting the battery straight to the glow plug bus bar . . . that was not in the manual.
Except there were no instructions. So someone without the know how would have had to have their truck towed somewhere to get it fixed. And what are the chances a dealership would put someone on it right away?
To expand the story, I own a Diesel powered Jeep. It had starting problems and I took it to two dealerships, both of which were unable to fix the problem. The second consulted "Chrysler Engineers" for help. They were clueless and all their suggestions were for naught. Then they wanted to start replacing parts to find the problem, all at my expense.
Maybe that level of support is acceptable to you, but it isn't to me.
"He really knows how to break the ice!!!!" Perfect!
chowderman
Well-known member
bit of a misunderstanding here - I misread your post. included instructions would be good, but I see - those instructions were not included.... fortunately someone who knew how to jump A to B was handy . . . it does however help significantly if one knows jumping battery to glow plug bus bar will make them heat up "no matter what" . . . does everyone know that? perhaps not. same as jumping the battery directly to the starter - electronics shot? battery to starter works without solid state crap....
black-box-replace-until-it-works is pretty much state of the art today....
frankly, methinks it's all part of dealerships making money. they know, they play dumb, and recommend part after part....
curiously, our (independent) shop seems to be able to look at the computer codes and decipher all kinds of stuff.
most are unimportant, but some indicators of a real problem.
he's got a wall full of 'course completion' certificates - and that's why I stick with him - he know what to look for on my vehicle - and I really prefer preventative maintenance to road side tows....
he spotted a rotting/soft driveshaft rubber bushing/bearing - cheap fix in the shop....not so cheap on the turnpike....
he and I did a dance about batteries - OEM, nine years old, tested 'satisfactory' - which is perfectly okay in non-freezing land.
the car is garage kept, so it never sees < 30'F - but when you go out somewhere and it's suddenly in 10'F,,,,
I opted/directed to have both the primary and secondary battery replaced - and I don't expect any issues for the next 9-10 years....
I may have "wasted" 1-2 years of "battery life" - but that "waste" is dollar wise a whale of a lot cheaper than on-the-road failure.
As to the iced in Tucker- Where were the attaching points for pulling with that much force to keep all of the parts together at the end?
There was one extraction (I think it may have been on here, but it could have been FB) where a Tucker had punched thru a lake with all four pontoons. The 'fetch team' brought in 12 x 3 x 12' rough cut slabs. An opening was cut in front of the forward tracks to insert the boards at an angle. Then areas were cut around the tracks. When it was winched forward it eventually 'bumped' into the lumber which pivoted to allow everything to get back up on top for an easy pull to the bank.
There was one extraction (I think it may have been on here, but it could have been FB) where a Tucker had punched thru a lake with all four pontoons. The 'fetch team' brought in 12 x 3 x 12' rough cut slabs. An opening was cut in front of the forward tracks to insert the boards at an angle. Then areas were cut around the tracks. When it was winched forward it eventually 'bumped' into the lumber which pivoted to allow everything to get back up on top for an easy pull to the bank.
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Davenet,
There was one chain already attached when we got there, and I think that went through the front of the truss frame at the front lower left. I think another chain was installed at the same location on the right side. The Tucker had a receiver hitch in front (likely for a winch). I took the rear receiver mounted shackle from Thundercat and that went into the receiver location on the iced-in Tucker. That was where the third chain went. I'm not sure about the fourth....
I remember the machine, and the Uber-cool Cat House from SV2020. It's a BIG Tucker, a serious ex-groomer with heavy-duty everything, to include wide tracks. I suspect it pulls the Cat House without "breaking a sweat".
pointy chops
Member
As always our cat trip experience was great! We always enjoy the hang time with everyone and it makes the travel time totally worth it. Thanks everybody!
