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| Anyone have experiance w/ this drag? | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jan 12 2008, 10:26 PM (975 Views) | |
| Mrplow | Jan 12 2008, 10:26 PM Post #1 |
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Our club has what I am starting to think is a bit of a odd drag. I think it is called a "Trail Blade". The way we use it now is behind a tractor, so you have a three point hitch to raise the front up and down. It has three other hydralics to run, the wheels, pan, and blade. I have run lots of drags and really this drag does an exellant job! Its really good at working with very little snow, bringing it in from the side and packing the snow. Notice the rollers that carry all the weight and do the packing, there is a pan behind the rollers that strikes it off nicely. My question is, what options do we have if we want to get away from the tractor and into a newer two track machine for lifting the front for road crossings/travel? We have had trouble with the tractor in deep snow and ditches(road crossings) and also desire a comfortable two seater. Would it be feasable to use the stinger lift and bracketry to hook a drag to or is this not strong enough? I am not familiar with these setups and am wondering if we found a two track machine from a ski slope if this would make for a easy conversion? Any suggestions or info on this topic would be great, thanks. Sorry about the pic, its seems to be the only view I took of it. |
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| snoplane | Jan 13 2008, 02:35 PM Post #2 |
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Adding a hitch on a two track power unit is not going to hold your drag. only four track systems can hold your hitch from bobbing. look at a Soucy track system for your tractor and the best of both worlds.
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| Mrplow | Jan 13 2008, 08:34 PM Post #3 |
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Ya, I know a track system would do great with tractor. But, we don't own the tractor that we pull the drag with so I am not sure what the leaseing company would think of us putting the tracks on it. Plus the cost of the tracks (not sure what the Saucy tracks run) it seems like we could put that money towards the purchase of a new purpose built grooming machine. The other problem with the tractor is that it seems hard to find one with the jump seat for two people. A few years ago we used a New Holland Ts125 with the instructor seat and that worked great, just not available to the club anymore. Really we need to figure out a way to run our drag on a Pisten Bully, LMC, ect. |
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| groomerbob | Jan 13 2008, 10:07 PM Post #4 |
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I used to pull one with an LMC. I didn't like the drag much, but the LMC pulled it just fine. |
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| Mrplow | Jan 15 2008, 09:37 PM Post #5 |
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Hey Groomerbob, Did the LMC that you pulled it with have a hitch that raised the front of the drag like a three point on a tractor or not. We have been looking into this quite a bit. How did you raise the front "skis" off the ground on the trail blade behind a two track machine. Thanks for any help.
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| groomerbob | Jan 16 2008, 12:52 AM Post #6 |
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It must have been at least 15 years ago. I don't remember exactly how it worked, but I remember it lifted in such a way that the roller was the only thing left on the ground. Our hitch was a fixed pintle hitch. No vertical movement. |
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| RJ85MSP | Jan 16 2008, 11:42 PM Post #7 |
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It's pretty funny how this year most everyone has snow and the talk around the business is "Why doesn't our tractor work very well" I won't go into why it doesn't but I think we all know what a tractor was meant to do! As for two track machines, if you run a lot of ditches which have road crossings or field approaches why would you want a two track? Do you like being on a teetor-totter? As for the drag issue: Any drag with a roller is less of a drag then one with a pan. It will not do as good a job as the pan style. Our club used to have the roller style (home made) but have since gone with the pan. Here's why. 1) If you don't get the complete mogul out of the trail, and I mean complete mogul, all the way down to the base layers of snow, the roller will come along and pack it right back into a mogul basically. The contact area of a roller is very small and while it puts a good amount of weight on the snow it also pack things right back into a hole if it wasn't completely removed in the first place. Lots of areas in the midwest don't have the snow pack to always remove the whole mogul so the roller style is not effective at making smooth trails. It would be great for packing swamps in the fall to mow down the weeds but that's about it. 2) When grooming wet/slushy areas the roller becomes the best snowman making tool around. It will create such huge lumps on the roller (which doesn't do the trail any good) that you will need to go back and clean it all off with a shovel or ice breaker/hammer everytime you go through those areas. 3) Most have bearings that go out on the ends where the roller attaches. That is something a drag does not need to have considering the enviorment it's in and the lack of maintenance most drags receive. |
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| groomerbob | Jan 17 2008, 02:32 PM Post #8 |
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I'm guessing is basicly the same drag I demoed because you mentioned it had rollers AND a pan. I'm guessing RJ85MSP missed that. The roller did a good job of breaking up the snow and eliminating the air before it went into the pan. The drag did an excellent job, but there were too many moving parts for my liking and it had trouble on our rough terrain. |
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| snoplane | Jan 17 2008, 05:31 PM Post #9 |
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After all is said and done just get a up to date grooming drag.With hyd lift hitch and packing pan.Skrap steel at 200 a ton the snow blade my be a good investment.
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| RJ85MSP | Jan 21 2008, 08:29 PM Post #10 |
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Yup I did miss the pan but in all practical purposes what would be the sense for the both? Your pan is sitting behind packing something that has already been packed by a roller? I would have to see it in action but from "my expierence" with rollers it's not the way to go IMO. Like sno-plane says. Simply time to update or upgrade. |
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