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Upgrading XC Roller
Topic Started: Feb 6 2008, 10:27 PM (2,749 Views)
79bombi
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79bombi
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I was lucky enough today to get my hands on a handmade "powdermaker" roller that I want to pull behind my snowcat to groom trails/fields for skate skiing. My bombi is 5 feet wide and this roller is a hair under 5 feet. I was also able to pick up some used groomer combs. I want to put the combs on a floating board/steel connected to the main roller with some contraption to lift it when I back up. I am also considering putting a 24" plastic culvert on the roller. I will also probably put something to knock the snow off the roller. Do I need to add weight to it? I have a farm near my house where I play. Also I have a 2" ball on my cat so I need to put a trailer hitch on the roller or switch out the ball on my cat. As you probably figured out I am trying to do on the cheap as I don't want to spend $3,000 for the real deal.

Any suggestions or thoughts?

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1979 Bombardier Bombi

Deep Creek Lake, Maryland
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Steve.M
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The comb could be attached to a solid bar, as wide as your roller, and then attached to the ler frame, near the axle. Just pivit it there. WHen you want to back up, just lift the comb and it's frame, and use a pin through the roller frame to keep it in place. My Yellowstone roller has this, and I modified it with a pin to keep the comb up when needed.

A poly culvert works great-the deep grooves really pack snow and then the comb behind smooths it out. Weight? Depends on how much that steel roller weighs, I do add weight to mine, but then, it may be lighter than yours.

Good luck with the project-
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couchsachraga
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Greetings!

Welcome to the land of home-made XC attachments:). I might have to start another thread for those:)

A "proper" (not that you need a "proper" anything) powder maker consists of two of those rollers at a slight angle - you change the angle depending on how much bite you want. As a straight roller it will roll, and likely work to knock the air out of the snow, but I'm not sure how well it will create powder from hardpack.

Packer bars are the easy to make...I've used PVC tubes (great until you hit a stump...) as well as wood bolted together (with snow comb under each - my comb is more flexible than yours...yours is likely better).

You don't necessarily need a lot of weight - just get it packed down and let the snow set up. The only reason you might need more weight than those of us using snowmobiles is to break up and chunks left by your bombi (and your roller, with some weights, may work quite well for that - let us know!)

For the "how wide should a skate trail be" it depends on the length of your skis:) I can get by with a 6' trail, but that's because I still have fun on shorty (135cm) skate skis. The widths other folks mention really are ideal, and I envy them for being able to have trails of a proper width!

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Steve.M
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Trail width? Well, on our country XC trail, I groom around 12' wide, we set tracks on one side and have the rest for a skating lane. On my home trails, where usually I just groom for skating, my trails average 8'-10' wide, enough to easily skate on. It looks like with your roller, 2 or 3 passes would do the trick. Of course, and the other groomers here will agree, once you start grooming ski trails, you tend to get really picky about how it looks, I've gone back out and made more passes just to "clean" things up a bit and make it look all purdy! ;)
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tolson
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I added comb and a tracksetter to the back of a Tidd Tech Roller. You can see pictures at http://www.timmshilltrail.com/grooming/grooming.htm. It's just a frame of 1" square tubing with the comb bolted on. The levers lift the comb off the ground to backup and the springs apply down-force to pack the trail.

All the levers are kinda complicated, and I don't backup very often, so I wouldn't be too worried about that.
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79bombi
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79bombi
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Got my roller/groomer working. Need to work on it a little so the chunks don't go over the combs.

Some Video
Edited by 79bombi, Nov 29 2008, 07:19 PM.
1979 Bombardier Bombi

Deep Creek Lake, Maryland
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couchsachraga
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Looks good! What is the "finish" like? I'm seriously considering picking up some more snow comb to add a packer bar behind my roller.

Also -how do you like the Bombi? One of these days I hope to upgrade from my Alpines....a Super Imp or Bombi (or Kubota RTV or similar) seems to make the most sense size-wise...but I don't know of a lot of folks using them for XC grooming these days.

I noticed you're from the Deep Creek area - once a year I travel down to the North Branch of the Potomac and usually stay at the Jennings Randolph lake campground with a bunch of other whitewater canoers. Nice area!


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79bombi
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I like the Bombi a lot but the only thing I have to compare it to is the $200,000 Pisten Bully the ski area uses. The Pisten Bully has satelite stereo and mine doesn't. I don't groom a lot due to time constraints and lack of consistent snowfall but I do like the finish compared to unpacked snow and or following snowmobile tracks. This week it was really good skiing thanks to the early lake effect snow we have had. When using my groomer you always have to be prepared to walk home but most of the time it does work but it is an old machine that needs tlc. It is I believe like riding in an old tank loud and without suspension.

The finish skis very well but the current configuration allows a lot of snow to chunk and go over the combs to litter the trail. It is aesthitically ugly but the surface skied great the 2 times I skied this week. You just hit a chunk every so often. Last year I just did a big loop in the field for the skate skis but I did some long trail xc this week for my wife and I.

Stop by the next time the North Branch is releasing.

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1979 Bombardier Bombi

Deep Creek Lake, Maryland
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