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Small Soucy tracks; Are you using them.
Topic Started: Jan 14 2008, 09:21 AM (5,541 Views)
roady
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Yannick
Jan 16 2008, 04:08 PM
snoplane
Jan 15 2008, 05:33 PM
roady
Jan 15 2008, 12:18 PM
Check with this club. Brantingham Snomads

The put a set on a Kubota L5740. They broke the rear axle housing on the tractor this year. Soucy had a fix for it. So check with them.

Word is a number Kubota casting broke with wheel tractors also.

That's rigth and it was the first out of about twelve 5740 that we made. Problems like this just showed how fast Soucy are to fix problems. Inside 4 days every thing was back in the trail.

So your saying Brantingham was back up and running in 4 days?
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xcspxlt
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Greggie
Jan 17 2008, 06:21 PM
Very interesting, I know for a fact that if there is a track stuck in a ditch or under ice, you bend or break it. So I can't understand how John Deere will warranty this.
Have enough experience with tracks on ATV's.  :wacko: Also not all groomer drivers are happy with a tractor with tracks. There are lots who want to go back to a "normal" groomer.
Thanks,

Greg

<_< Pretty general statement. <_<
My wife is not always happy with me either. Especially when it comes to grooming :ha:
I cant think of a groomer I have driven that was perfect. :myopinon:


What kind of complaints do your drivers have with tractors????

XCSPXLT
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Jbrinkjr
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Hi Marty,
Was nice to talk to you the other night on the phone. Here is a picture of our JD 5525 w/ Soucy tracks. We love the tracks, but it would be nice to have the owners manual and parts list though. It's only been a year now and no manual yet. Posted Image
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Jbrinkjr
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And a few more...
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couchsachraga
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Maybe it's just the cab heights, but the tractor units (of all types) always look top heavy to me. A lot of what I groom is NOT level, even side to side, until I've been able to build it up a bit with snow over the winter. A "normal" snow groomer's tracks are wide enough for this type of stability - are the Soucy units as stable, or are they best left to "level' (meaning side to side, not up and down) trails?

I'm thinking a smallish tractor (say, a JD4520) with tracks might make a really nice XC groomer and maintenance machine...if it's stable enough.
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trailboss77
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I think it's very interesting that years ago, everyone wanted to go with the tractor to get away from tracked machines because of the maintenance. Now everyone wants to put "tracks" on their tractors. :wtf:
Have been grooming since 1978 have covered more than 100,000 miles of snowmobile trail.
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e2spear
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How are the tractors going through creeks or waterbars that ar enot frozen yet. Do the tracks dig into the holes or pull right out?

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Greggie
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e2spear
Jan 18 2008, 08:46 AM
How are the tractors going through creeks or waterbars that ar enot frozen yet. Do the tracks dig into the holes or pull right out?

If you fall through the ice with your front wheels with a tractor with 4 tracks, say 2 feet, I think it will be a pain to get it out. If the tracks are stuck under the ice, it is "impossible" to get out. Correct me if I am wrong. I have the same problem with my ATV with tracks.
Thanks,

Greg
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snoplane
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Greggie
Jan 17 2008, 06:21 PM
Very interesting, I know for a fact that if there is a track stuck in a ditch or under ice, you bend or break it. So I can't understand how John Deere will warranty this.
Have enough experience with tracks on ATV's. :wacko: Also not all groomer drivers are happy with a tractor with tracks. There are lots who want to go back to a "normal" groomer.
Thanks,

Greg

You most be talking about surtrack total not a Soucy track System. yes if you go in to your neck that would be called abuse.
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Greggie
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Spoke to some groomer operators with tracks on tractors from Metal Plessis and Soucy and as I said thay are not all happy with the track system. But I agree also is there a perfect groomer? For maintenance, I think the Sur-track and Marcel track system are pretty good. The ram steering is the less good thing. The 4-track tractors have as positive point that you can lease a new tractor for $5000 a year, install the 4 tracks on it, groom the season and bring the tracktor back. Again it is all what do you prefer.

Our club had BR's, Tucker's, Lamtrack's, AFMI track systems and Sur-track systems. For maintenance for sure the Sur-track are the cheapest.

I would like to see a checklist with all different groomers and from all groomers what the average cost is for a hour grooming. Don't think I will ever see this.
Thanks,

Greg
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xcspxlt
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Jbrinkjr
Jan 17 2008, 09:25 PM
Hi Marty,
Was nice to talk to you the other night on the phone. Here is a picture of our JD 5525 w/ Soucy tracks. We love the tracks, but it would be nice to have the owners manual and parts list though. It's only been a year now and no manual yet.     

Jbrinkjr,
Thanks for posting the Pics. Looks nice. Is that new snow :jump: or from last year :mad: ???

:letsnow: :letsnow: :letsnow:
XCSPXLT
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Yannick
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snoplane,Jan 18 2008
04:05 PM
Greggie,Jan 17 2008
06:21 PM
Very interesting, I know for a fact that if there is a track stuck in a ditch or under ice, you bend or break it. So I can't understand how John Deere will warranty this.
Have enough experience with tracks on ATV's. :wacko: Also not all groomer drivers are happy with a tractor with tracks. There are lots who want to go back to a "normal" groomer.
Thanks,


It tooks almost one and a half year to conclude this agreements with John Deere. Several discussions and visits from JD engineers has been done. They conclude pretty fast that there was no problems with our design and way of making things. What took more time was the security matters about adding weigths to the tractor. They finally agreed and we were very glad and I have to admit surprise also.
In life you can't satisfy 100% of peoples but we have a lot more people that are satisfy than else.
I saw a lot more clubs ready to go for tractors and tracks than going for a dedicated machine.

In 1995 we did our first atv on tracks and a lot of people was thinking it was a marginal and niche product. I was one of them. We sold 200 units the first year, 500 the year after... Our production for 2007 was 5000 unitsand we think we will make 6000 for 2008!!! We are producing our brand Kimpex Commander but also the BRP-Apache, Polaris Prospector and also Prospector Pro.

Our ultimate goal is to reproduce the same story for tractors.

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Steve.M
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Yannick,
What is the pressure per sq. inch for your Soucy tracks for ATVs, Tractors? The reason I ask is we've looked at using ATVs, Gators (with tracks) or the like for pulling XC ski trail drags, but the biggest issue has been ground pressure vs. a Ski-doo SWT (24" track) pulling a drag (like a Ginzu groomer by Yellowstone, or a G2 by Tidd Tech).

Ski trails cannot have deeper treads showing up after grooming. Also, icy conditions seem to pose a problem unless you can stud the tracks somehow-all our SWTs have studded tracks and can pull up steep hills w/o a problem.
Thanks!
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Yannick
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smeurett
Jan 20 2008, 04:23 PM
Yannick,
What is the pressure per sq. inch for your Soucy tracks for ATVs, Tractors?  The reason I ask is we've looked at using ATVs, Gators (with tracks) or the like for pulling XC ski trail drags, but the biggest issue has been ground pressure vs. a Ski-doo SWT (24" track) pulling a drag (like a Ginzu groomer by Yellowstone, or a G2 by Tidd Tech).

Ski trails cannot have deeper treads showing up after grooming.  Also, icy conditions seem to pose a problem unless you can stud the tracks somehow-all our SWTs have studded tracks and can pull up steep hills w/o a problem.
Thanks!

The p/psi for a tractor is around 1.8 p/psi for a mid size tractor (100 to 130 hp). I don't know yet for the gator but give me a day and I will come back with the answer. Several XC clubs uses atv on tracks and they are very satisfied.

For me the best utility vehicle is the gator XUV 850 Diesel. It uses a cvt transmission and have enough power to have fun and also work. We are actually designing a rubber track kit fir the gator and It will be available next spring. Our prototype is performing beyong our expectation. It will look like the RTV track kit with a little twist.

You can put ice studs in the tracks going from the ice screws for motocross tires to studs with carbide. They cost a little more money but they last longer. Both of them are very very good on ice and will give you tremendous traction on ice. What I like about the Gator is the full four corners diff.lock.

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Steve.M
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Thanks for the reply and pictures-what is the widest tracks avail for, lets say a ATV or a gator/ranger type unit...in other words, most surface area tracks (longer, wider) -for grooming and climbing hills, more is better here.

You mentioned some XC clubs use them-do you have any contacts I could check with?

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