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1st Grizzly 'real' Grooming report; groomin with the Ginzu/Grizz
Topic Started: Jan 18 2009, 02:40 PM (5,251 Views)
Steve.M
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Well, finally, the break-in hours are on the Grizzly, the battery pack and switches installed, jackstand on the Ginzu and delivery to the trail system this weekend. New shot of snow the past three days, so I was dying to get out and test the new rig pulling a real groomer (heavier, teeth, gooseneck, receiver hitch etc). Groomed during the night on 2" of new snow with the Ginzu. I'll attach pics, but the mechanic fabricated a fairly long receiver hitch for the goose neck. That extra length did make a steering difference-the front of the grizz is fairly light. Now that is comparing the Ginzu to the Tidd Tech tt, which is fairly light. The deep cycle battery is mounted on the front frame of the Ginzu, so that also adds wt. near the tounge. Anyway, steering was pretty decent-better than a skandic SWT w/ flex skis. I was able to easily swing around corners that sometimes have been hard on the sled. There were cases, where I'd just toss the Grizz in reverse, crank it back sharply (the gooseneck does clear the Grizz tracks, so it's almost as good as a snowmobile on that maneuver) and swing the corner. Nice.

I was running the Ginzu teeth just below the powder, so it would wipe out old tracks and skim the tops of bumps. Set tracks also and of course, you can feel it pulling harder in that case. That said, the Grizz pulled up everything and it was no problem. To really test the set up out, I stopped on our steepest hill, and started from a dead stop. No problem, just crawled up the climb. Traction was no problem and since you really can't take a run at hills like on a sled, so you just keep crawling up. I liked that a lot-never seemed to have a problem pulling at all. (I did use Low range all the time).

The Grizzly didn't leave any track marks at all, something I was worried about. In most cases, the skandic would have left ski marks here where the Grizzly didn't, just clean corduroy. Rider comfort-well, it was -13 this morning and and more fresh snow, so I was covered with snow-dust. The tracks do toss up a lot of snow on the groomer. I wonder if there are fender flares or something to cut down on that. Hands were good (heated grips) and the windscreen has a ton of protection. Feet do get colder than on the SWT. I like the rider position a lot-you can see everything and with the headlights and rear lights, I could see how things were grooming up.

The machine is much quieter than the skandic and of course not stinky. We were worried about cold temp starting, but inside the shed, it was -1 and the fuel inj motor cranked over and finally caught. I let it warm up about 10 minutes before heading out.

I have to admit, as some of my posts from last year expressed, I really didn't want the county to buy this machine, but rather another Skandic, but after using it 20 hrs, I'm sold and really happy with how well it has performed so far.

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couchsachraga
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Thank you for the report! It sounds like I really should consider upgrading B)

The hitch looks good as a compromise too. If you ONLY ran the Grizzly, would you go for a lower hitch, that would clear above the tracks but below the rear fender? or ?

I'll be very curious to see how you like the combination of the Grizzly and Ginzu in conditions where the Ginzu and Skandic pulled too much snow.

One other question - was their a reason you (/ the county) went for the 700 vs the 550? If there's plenty of power with the 700, I'm wondering if the 550 would be more economical on gas. (both have power steering, efi, etc... I believe).

Thank you again for taking the time to post your comparison testing / thoughts.


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Steve.M
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couchsachraga
Jan 18 2009, 03:44 PM
Thank you for the report! It sounds like I really should consider upgrading B)

The hitch looks good as a compromise too. If you ONLY ran the Grizzly, would you go for a lower hitch, that would clear above the tracks but below the rear fender? or ?

I'll be very curious to see how you like the combination of the Grizzly and Ginzu in conditions where the Ginzu and Skandic pulled too much snow.

One other question - was their a reason you (/ the county) went for the 700 vs the 550? If there's plenty of power with the 700, I'm wondering if the 550 would be more economical on gas. (both have power steering, efi, etc... I believe).

Thank you again for taking the time to post your comparison testing / thoughts.


Good question on the hitch-I think if we only used the Grizzly, I'd use a shorter reach and maybe a 4" drop-whatever would work to keep the Ginzu/G2 level and clear the tracks if you jack knife it. I just think a shorter receiver would put less leverage on the rear of the machine, although again, as it is set up now, It works well.

My guess is in conditions where the Ginzu/SWT pulled too much snow (loaded up) it will do the same with the Grizzly.....except, I know it will pull thru the snow better...in other words, it won't get bogged down, stuck as easy. I found this to be true when I pulled a tidd tech really loaded with heavy drift and it made it. Behind my Alpine II I'd been dead in the water.

Why the 700? I guess it was a matter of more HP is more HP. More is better, right? Your gas use is probably right on, I went thru a full tank in 3 hrs of grooming. (the little flashy gas tank light when it got down there made me a bit nervous, but I made it to the shed.). The Skandic is 500+ cc so the 550 Grizz would probably handle this load fine, but the 700 just seems to have gobs of torque and power.
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TFox
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Thanks for the report!
Who makes the windshield?

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Steve.M
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TFox
Jan 18 2009, 08:19 PM
Thanks for the report!
Who makes the windshield?

It might be a Yamaha one???? Not sure...will check on that. It gives me pretty good protection on the hands and face and I actually look thru it during grooming.
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semntrails
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Thanks for the report, keep them coming, I'm interested to hear how you like it long term and how it works out.

Couple of questions/ideas...

In the first picture it looks like a long hitch that puts a lot of leverage on the point the receiver attaches to the Grizzly. I'll be interested to hear how that holds up, or is the receiver sturdier than it looks? If it does start to bend down I wonder if creating a tie point from the luggage rack down to the hitch would strengthen it?

Have you looked at adding a blade to the front? It could be used to help cut drifts/fill low spots and act as a counter weight to help with the lighter steering when the groomer is attached.
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Steve.M
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semntrails
Jan 19 2009, 09:33 AM
Thanks for the report, keep them coming, I'm interested to hear how you like it long term and how it works out.

Couple of questions/ideas...

In the first picture it looks like a long hitch that puts a lot of leverage on the point the receiver attaches to the Grizzly. I'll be interested to hear how that holds up, or is the receiver sturdier than it looks? If it does start to bend down I wonder if creating a tie point from the luggage rack down to the hitch would strengthen it?

Have you looked at adding a blade to the front? It could be used to help cut drifts/fill low spots and act as a counter weight to help with the lighter steering when the groomer is attached.
I'm a little concerned about the leverage on the receiver also and thought that maybe a couple bars coming down to it from above will help- So far, so good though. I'm not sure how much serious tounge weight there reall is-it's more pressure pulling back, so I'll guess it'll hold up well.

A blade would be a great idea, except we don't have much for drifts etc to push down. The wt would help the front though. I may try to just add a little wt on the front just to see. As of right now, it steers well, but of course, not as well as when there is nothing to pull.
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Steve.M
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New Grizzly report!
We have had really cold temps lately here, so my grooming from several days ago has held up well all week. Today I just wanted to touch up some spots-the skate lane and pack two trails we haven't groomed all winter-I thought..."what the heck" put this grizz thru it's paces.
One trail, Coyote cutoff, is super steep and an "S" turn in it. I'd guess 25+% grade-by far the steepest hill we have, and for years we haven't groomed it-the skandic can only go down it pulling a Ginzu and it just wasn't used much. So, I decide to run down it with the Grizz...of course, no problem. I get to the bottom and jacknife it around and decide to TRY pulling back up. Thought I might as well give it a go. So this is new snow, really steep and the Grizz just crawled right up it! I was impressed.....the skandic could never had done that. Feeling gutsy now, I head over to a flattish trail that has 15" of untouched snow on it. It did have a crust down below so it wasn't like 15" of powder, but still, we always have problems with the Ginzu loading up in any more that 3 or 4" of snow. So I set the tracksetter down (which could help) and headed off into the trail. She powered thru the snow (working some) and pulling a pretty huge pile of snow in front of the Ginzu, but it just kept going. Snow would fill in the ATV's tracks and it set a nice classic track in one pass. Way cool. The SWT would have been dead in the (frozen) water so to say. The more I use this rig, the more I like it.
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Steve.M
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First really hardpack of the season (rare for Wisconsin!) after a small meltdown Sat and Sun. Hooked the Ginzu on the Grizz and started chopping. Worked really well-no power issues at all. Not icy, so we couldn't test it's non-studded track performance yet. Break-in period is over, so now we can just groom away with the G2 and Ginzu. We haven't used the differential lock yet-suspect it would be really hard to turn with tracks! But, it might be able to climb icy hills well with it switched on? Have to give that a try soon.
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couchsachraga
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Do you even use that Skandic any more? :D

Thank you for the update, as always.

I may have to stop off at a Yamaha dealer soon (3 interested parties in my Alpine within 24 hours of posting the ad here and on Craigslist).

I've got to believe the Grizzly would not do worse than an unstudded Skandic in icy conditions....versus a studded skandic I'll be very curious.
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semntrails
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What type of maintenance have you had to do on the tracks? Anything drastically different than you would on the snowmobile. I see most (all?) tracks have grease fittings and specifics on track tension. But wasn't sure if those need to be cared for each grooming trip or if they are a spot check and good to go for several trips.

Any chance to try it on hard pack/icy trails. I'm assuming traction would be similar or better than a snowmobile.

Thanks
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Bob C.
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smeurett
Feb 4 2009, 08:36 AM
First really hardpack of the season (rare for Wisconsin!) after a small meltdown Sat and Sun. Hooked the Ginzu on the Grizz and started chopping. Worked really well-no power issues at all. Not icy, so we couldn't test it's non-studded track performance yet. Break-in period is over, so now we can just groom away with the G2 and Ginzu. We haven't used the differential lock yet-suspect it would be really hard to turn with tracks! But, it might be able to climb icy hills well with it switched on? Have to give that a try soon.
One unit ready for a test drive at Village Rentals in Speculator NY. Stop by and give it a try!
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Steve.M
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semntrails
Feb 27 2009, 02:55 PM
What type of maintenance have you had to do on the tracks? Anything drastically different than you would on the snowmobile. I see most (all?) tracks have grease fittings and specifics on track tension. But wasn't sure if those need to be cared for each grooming trip or if they are a spot check and good to go for several trips.

Any chance to try it on hard pack/icy trails. I'm assuming traction would be similar or better than a snowmobile.

Thanks
Sorry, have been gone for a bit here-
We haven't had a ton of ice conditions to test the Grizz in chopping conditions, but a little. So far, it has been able to climb icy/hardpack hills pulling a good load on the Ginzu (Teeth down) better than the SWT (Unstudded) My theory is that there are FOUR tracks digging in and it has better traction climbing than the SWT. Just my thoughts. The other day I was climbing our steepist hill, teeth slightly down, hardpack, and I could "feel" th etracks diggin in, but was able to climb up the hill and leave a nice combed surface.
Nice.

The tracks can be adjusted really easy-just a open end wrench to tighten then as needed. I haven't done andy grease yet. The CAMOPLAST reps were atthe dealer the other day and checked everything over and it looked good-they were really interested in how it was working. We did have a speed sensor go out on the grizz and it was replaced and we're good to go. Yamaha, also wants feed back because we're one of the few folks using the Grizzly in this situation. They want to know about power, engine temps etc....

So far, again, we're happy with it.

Groomed at -18 the other day-she fired right up and ran great.
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semntrails
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Thanks for the updates, we're hoping to replace our Skandic 550 in a year or so. We like the 800 we have but I think the Grizzly or similar will be a good option, it would give us equipment that could be used year round for maintenance.
The weather forcast makes it look like our grooming will be done this week.
I look forward to year 2 reports next year or if you use it for summer work as well.
Thanks
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Steve.M
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MAybe this should go under "G2 vs. Ginzu" but I switched receiver hitches and installed the pindle hitch on the Grizz tonight. Groomed with the G2 because I just wanted to spruce up the skate lane and knew the G2 combs so flippin well in these conditions. Set teeth just touching the snow, and groomed away-ran the Grizz at "19mph" (really around 10) and it turned out so sweet. The G2, with it's extra cutting width over the Ginzu, just did a great job of laying out a perfect skate lane. The Ginzu would have cut narrower and left a slight berm outside the teeth (it did this sat. under the same conditions).

The Grizz pulled up the hills just great in +20 degree conditions. BTW, I groomed saturday at -18 and she started just fine-in the pole shed, I'm sure it was slightly warmer, but there is no heat in there!.

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