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trail grooming in the summer
Topic Started: Jan 13 2008, 10:17 AM (1,051 Views)
cabincat
Advanced Operator
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i know that this is way out of season, but we have a section of trail that gets totally pounded by atv's dureing the summer months, and without much snow, the trail is a tough one to groom in the winter. does anyone out there have experience grooming in the summer, and what is used to do this. most of the trail is dry (between rains), and we would be able to get a front wheel assist tractor through most of it. and we are on a tight budget. thanks <_< :letsnow: :cnflag:
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Deleted User
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For me a Dozer or a Grader are the fastest way to move dirt moguls.
A Ag tractor is hard to get everything smooth. It will work just takes more time
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trailboss77
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I have actually taken the same drag used for the trails and used it in the summer time. Most clubs have an old drag laying around that no one uses anymore that works quite well for summer use. Make sure you do this before the leaves start to fall in autumn because the leaves fill up the drag and then it doesn't work. Being on a tight budget, this is something that can be done with only the cost of fuel. No need to buy equipment!! :needsnow:
Have been grooming since 1978 have covered more than 100,000 miles of snowmobile trail.
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snoplane
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cabincat
Jan 13 2008, 09:17 AM
i know that this is way out of season, but we have a section of trail that gets totally pounded by atv's dureing the summer months, and without much snow, the trail is a tough one to groom in the winter. does anyone out there have experience grooming in the summer, and what is used to do this. most of the trail is dry (between rains), and we would be able to get a front wheel assist tractor through most of it. and we are on a tight budget. thanks <_< :letsnow: :cnflag:

get me your email and I can send info on grooming ATV trails.
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David Worel
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This last summer we purchased a landscape rake on a three point hitch to help level some of our trails. For a very modest investment the rake did a good job. It does take a number of passes to level thing out. Our trails are in sandy soils with only a few rocks I am not sure how well it would have worked in rocker ground. The landscape rake is sold in a number of widths so you can matched the rake to your tractor.
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couchsachraga
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Sounds like you need one of these:

Dura Grader or GradeMaster

(Grademaster, or equivalent). I haven't used one, but have heard good things about them. basically a drag for dirt roads instead of snow ones.

I like a good box or backblade myself, though if I could afford a grademaster or duragrader I'd be tempted to pick one up.
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groomerguyNWO
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Anyone actually use their groomer and an old drag to drag their trails during the summer time to smotth them out? We don't but I have suspision that that's what the club that we got our machine from was doing with it. I could be wrong but for a machine that only had around 1500 hrs on it, the cleets were worn right out where they ride on the sprockets and the tracks were stretched and worn big time. The machine looked good when we went to look at it but we discovered the wearing on the cleets once we got it and started giving it a good once-over.

This is the second Lamtrac that we bought. The first one had close to 3000hrs on it when it was sunk in a creek and written off but the insurance. The cleets on that machine still looked like new where they ride on the sprockets. This is what makes me think that the machine we've got now was used in the summertime on gravel roads to drag them smooth.

As for the question of dragging the trails in the summer, we don't have any experience doing this as most of the area we go through is muskeg swamp which is impossible to cross in the summertime.
.........takin it one mogul at a time

http://trailgrooming.wetpaint.com/

http://snowmobiling.greenstone.ca/

Brian
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GroomerGuyNWO,
Is that the old tasa machine?
If it is the tracks wear so bad because of all the sand that gets mixed into the snow. That area is hard on hyfax in low snow years. It is all blow sand or swamp. So it would take it's toll on tracks to.

As for using a groomer drag to grade dirt. Think of hooking a rock or stump? I would be afraid of bending the **** out of it.
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groomerguyNWO
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Yes, it's one of Tasa's old Lamtrac. They had 3 I beleive. That would explain why the tracks were in such bad shape. Oh well, got new ones sitting here ready to put on if it ever stops snowing long enough. :cnflag:
.........takin it one mogul at a time

http://trailgrooming.wetpaint.com/

http://snowmobiling.greenstone.ca/

Brian
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RJ85MSP
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Most the places I ride the atv the local areas use a small implement tractor with a simple drag with one or two straight cutter blades and a set of wheels behind that. No pan or anything and they do a pretty good job of it.

The biggest thing I see is the places that keep up with it all summer long don't have much of a problem, but the places that let it go till after deer hunting season seem to have their work cut out for them from the get go.

Northwest WI is a great example of how to do it and Central MN is a prime way of how not to do it.
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