Togwotee trail grooming and marking, how is it this year?

[Snowizard]

I talked with the guys working on that stuck Tucker as I rode by, and It wasnt running for 2 days. They said they couldn't get it to start. Do you make this stuff up as you go or pull it out of your backside?

Well Spankie, maybe you just made up your post, or maybe you are the driver who told the people at the Tog front desk, that he just wasn't paying attention when the mistake happened.

I had four other people with me who witnessed it idling at 10:00a.m.Thurdsay morning, and about 10 from our group who went by it late Wednesday afternoon to retrieve a dead sled on "K", also reported it running.

Those are the facts.
Now back away from the keyboard and go back to spanking.

 

[safesnowrider]

Is that the snocat that burned up the motor? I heard they burnt one up

 

[Snowizard]

Is that the snocat that burned up the motor? I heard they burnt one up

I have no knowledge of that.
Oh, wait.!
The driver I was talking to did mention a "problem" with an engine in their 3rd machine. He didn't go into detail, but said it had been hauled away for repairs, some number of days before my visit.
Thats all I know about it.

Friday morning, as we were leaving for the airport, I noticed the stuck Tucker in question was sitting behind the "mechanic shop" along side the other new machine, so they got it un-stuck somehow. I'd be curious to know how they did it.

When I find the data cable for my camera, I'll post pics. It's in one of my gear bags from the trip.

 

[Swing2827]

with a little help of a chain and another tucker the stuck machine drove right out. and just for the record we finally got the machine running on wed afternoon and went to retrieve it thursday morning. so it was less than 24 hours total that the cat was idling.

 

[Snowizard]

with a little help of a chain and another tucker the stuck machine drove right out. and just for the record we finally got the machine running on wed afternoon and went to retrieve it thursday morning. so it was less than 24 hours total that the cat was idling.

Thanks for the clarification, Swing.

On a interesting related side note, the electronic engine control module in the Tucker can yield some interesting statistics to print out from a scan tool.
For example , I have seen a print out for the '02 Tucker Terra-2000 I operate here in MN.
It shows idle hours, operating under load hours, max engine RPM, max ground speed MPH, even down to how many hours the cab heater fan was on.
There's fuel consumption stats, and some others I can't remember right now.

 

[BigBlueEdge]

Pics??

 

[Snowizard]

Pics??

Here ya' go. I have to say I feel bad for the driver-operator. Just a simple mistake.

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[R J]

It sounds very little like me, thank you very much.

 

[R J]

Nice pics of the 2006 Tucker.

Here is what R J would say:


1) That isn't that bad, everyone at Togwotee in the grooming operation has seen worse if they have been there for more then a season, no question about that.

2) That model and all Tuckers will start with decent batteries easily at -10 to -15 below without so much has hesitation if it's running synthetic oil and the operator allows the grid heater to come on and let it do it's thing two or three times shutting off the key and recycling the system before turing the key to start. No need to leave it idle really.

3) A chain or snatch block and another cat would have pulled that out without too much hassle, especially when the stuck cat is driveable. The drag would almost certain need to be disconnected though and dealt with later.

4) The Terra snow tracks have MORE (proven) traction (when tested in all conditions) then it's comparable steel cleat brother when comparring apples to apples. Remember folks, Togwotee's steel cleat cats of years past were 38" wide tracks and the tracks you see in the photo's are 26" or 28" depending on the manufacture of the track (camoplast or Tayeruk respectively). It takes an entirely different approach to driving a Terra track then a steel track that is for certain.

5) As for not seeing the groomers going out? WTF, unless you ride from 5pm to 5am you more then likely won't see them out at all. There hasn't been a time that I have been out there that at least one of the cats wasn't filling up at the station at 430pm ready to go out for the evening. Trust me, I pay attention to these things. It has to be a very special occasion that something isn't at least attempted to be groomed nightly.

Since I'm not out at Togwotee day in and day out it's tough for me to say but why it always seem to leave a cat stuck in the back country for more then 24 hours is beyond me. Maybe it was weather (which it probably was) but anything else (mechanical aside) if they would have enough guys to do all the tasks around there it would be a simple daylight recovery and all would be well. Just seems a lot of the time is there is not enough people to do all the jobs out there.

 

[Swing2827]

nice pics