Show your 5 tons in the snow.

Motormd said:

And I may yet buy a deuce or a 5 ton! Are There any other surplus military vehicles I should look at?

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Take a look at one of these.

EVERYBODY in town will know who you are!

Motormd said:

Thanks for the replys I was hoping that a chained up military vehicle could be made to work. Guess I'm back to putting tracks on a conventional 1 ton and possibly adding a front diff locker. I've been reading thru posts and it sounds like you are all a great bunch of guys. And I may yet buy a deuce or a 5 ton! Are There any other surplus military vehicles I should look at?

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M1028 thru M1028a3, cant remember which had what, but at least some had traction aiding diffs, IIRC.

Hauling piled snow to edge of lot with M817ww.

Jbulach said:

Pure speculation but, I doubt it unless you can have some snow tracks made for the back. Virgin snow or thin packed snow maybe, thick light pack from snowmobiles, progress with tire chains probably wouldn’t be pretty. These things are HEAVY with not a lot of ground contact...

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I've driven my 5 ton in the snow. Its top heavy and with it's weight, if it slides and gets stuck you will have trouble getting it out, even with a winch you need a big anchor. It will make deep ruts that aren't good for a snowmobile trail. I run my Case 450 dozer on the snow and with it's tracks I can stay on top of deep snow. I've been on top of snow over 6 feet deep. I'd look for a dozer with wide tracks to groom trail. A 6 way blade on it will help keep snowdrifts from messing up a groomed trail.

JarheadMtn said:

I've driven my 5 ton in the snow. Its top heavy and with it's weight, if it slides and gets stuck you will have trouble getting it out, even with a winch you need a big anchor. .

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JarheadMtn!! Missed you much, Man! Ahab here.

If there is ANYBODY who knows snow, it's JarheadMtn.

Bet you even got a dusting over there today.

Thanks for all the replys. Do the military pu trucks generally have differential lockers in the front axle. Thinking of going back to original idea of putting tracks on a 3/4 or 1 ton and pulling a 3/4 scale drag.

Motormd said:

Thanks for all the replys. Do the military pu trucks generally have differential lockers in the front axle. Thinking of going back to original idea of putting tracks on a 3/4 or 1 ton and pulling a 3/4 scale drag.

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Have you priced tracks for pick ups? I know the smaller tracks for a Jeep are $16,000. You can get a used tracked Thikiol snow cat for not much more than that. I was a mountain warfare instructor in the Marines and we tested a lot of vehicles in the snow. Take a look at Extreme Hagglunds website. They sell BV206 military snow cats and its one of the best snow vehicles made. He has several videos that show them in action so it will give you an idea of what they are capable of doing in the snow. He is in Roscoe Montana near the Beartooth.

Watched quite a few videos of the haggs also found the sherps to be quite interesting.

I have seen some rubber tracks that go around the rear duals. I have also seen some that go over the super singles. Not quite sure if they are any good. Comments?

How would this do in snow.
I think I can make these tracks myself.

Interesting idea...

Seems workable, but not so sure the front axle won't just dive depending on how deep the snow gets, you know?

Would duallys on the front with a track wrapped around them solve the digging in on snow. Also weighting the very back should reduce front end weight. The truck of choice would be short. A semi or dump truck would be best I think. checking pricing on belt material. Waiting for estimates.

Motormd said:

Would duallys on the front with a track wrapped around them solve the digging in on snow. Also weighting the very back should reduce front end weight. The truck of choice would be short. A semi or dump truck would be best I think. checking pricing on belt material. Waiting for estimates.

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The people here who know snow are The FLU Farm (CO) and also jarheadmountain (MT), but I'm not sure that either is tracking the thread.

could copy skidsteer OTT tracks, most simple set ive seen uses two lengths of grade 80 chain welded to the [ shaped plates easily made in a press brake, heres the set on my bobcat i rebuilt when the bolts and links were hogged out and sloppy, the pic with the impact you can just see how the connecting bolts were about 50% worn though by the one above the impact, someone had subtracted a couple pads at one time to compensate for the worn bolts, i had to get some longer links to toss in every couple pads to get em to touch again

Motormd said:

How would this do in snow.
I think I can make these tracks myself.

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The 813 is hibernating this winter.



But while it's sleeping there I think it's dreaming like this:

im a mv user and snowcat operator I have 3 cats and the snow cat is the only way to groom. most dozers de clutch and brake one track to steer. the snow cats steer like the old m113 by running one track in overdrive and one in under drive at a fixed ratio this gives traction to both tracks when steering. This method is called a controlled steering differential a 3000 pound drag is pretty heave its going to take an alpine class cat to pull and control it think Thiokol 2100 or 3700 or a br 400 bombardier, in the high end market a pistion bully in the 300 hp or higher class there are some other rigs out there that articulate a set of 4 tracks to steer like a tucker or the bv206 I have 20 years of experience with the m973 series of bv206's and it would not be my first choice as it doesn't have the horse power or tractive force to pull a 3k drag loaded with snow. the one problem with the alpine machines is they are so wide they don't fit down the trails some clubs will cut off the out side bands but as your foot print gets smaller your ground pressure goes up. don't even consider trying to groom with wheels you wont have the tractive force to do so. some clubs are having success with track conversions on ag tractors, and up on the slope where cost isn't an obstruction they use quad trac ag rigs a Thiokol 2100 in good shape can be had for around 5 to 8 k on the east coast which is a lot less than pod tracks and you will have less ground pressure and better tractive force.

Some bud in NJ is building year-round indoor snow "mountains" using old shopping malls for the venue:

- The whole grooming problem just goes away I'm guessing...

Crazy, right?!

Another Ahab said:

Seems workable, but not so sure the front axle won't just dive depending on how deep the snow gets, you know?

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the problem where I live is the forestry roads are not plowed in the winter to access the lakes for ice fishing. Other roads may get plowed a few times a week or less. the roads get deep with snow and my front differential becomes a snow plow. Im in the process of building a "fixed V snow plow" that I can lower to about 12 inches or less above the road level and push the snow to both sides of the truck as I travel. I doubt that this will help grooming a snow mobile trail unless it was wide and the snow was not over 4 feet deep or less.