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| Trail Plane Groomer report | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jan 24 2009, 09:36 PM (1,968 Views) | |
| couchsachraga | Jan 24 2009, 09:36 PM Post #1 |
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Well, yesterday I picked up my LaRue Trail Plane, and today put it through a good work out. The positives: 1) I've never used a groomer that will annihilate a drift / bump like the Trail Plane. A lot of times...one pass...it's GONE. No dragging it out longer and longer as the season goes on with a Ginzu or Tidd. 2) Leaves a gorgeous trail (sorry...no images yet...I was too busy having fun (and dealing with my Alpines...) There is a link to a few images of the groomer below, though) 3) Sets and erases track nicely. At some point I'd like to add an actuator for the track pan (currently just to raise and lower the blade), but the for the extra cost I'll just deal with it manually for now. 4) 'wings' work well for making a curved edge to the trail...and if you want a sharp edge, flip up out of the way easily and it will "plane" right to the edge. 5) The rails keep most of the snow in front of the "main" packer...unless you're really running with the blade way down, you have NO berm. And if you are, put the side flaps down and it blends in nicely...without filling in the track on the other side of the trail. 6) Does an AMAZING job in fresh powder of knocking the air out of the snow and setting a good solid trail...that looks great. The negatives (no groomer is perfect!) 1) We should have used flexible snow comb instead - the hard stuff digs in too much, and you can't back up more than a couple of feet 2) For low tow vehicles (Alpines...) the blade may need to lift higher (picks up 6" or so now I think, 4" with the older Alpine that doesn't have the extended hitch). This is more for trying to get up rough hills that need to be planed down flat. I ended up having trouble with my '86 Alpine (theory currently is that the spring on the transmission is week, and it goes in to to high a gear too easily...so you give it gas at the bottom of a hill, and it ends up bogging down big time. After taking time to finish resurrecting my older ('79) Alpine, it pulled it up with not problem. So, jury is still out. 3) It could use a "foot" of some sort up front, as it is difficult to move the implement if it's not hooked up otherwise (e.g. come-along up a hill), as the blade will dig in unless the hitch is up high enough, with the blade set "up" 4) Tongue weight is about the same as a steel Ginzu...lighter would be nice, but I'm not sure that's realistic More to come as i continue to groom (I may ski tomorrow, rather than groom). The most frustrating bit was getting badly stuck a few times, but I suspect that is mostly the Alpine's issue, not the Trail Plane. Reading the Grizzly's review I hope one day to have one of them! Sounds ideal! The LaRue Enterprises site, images that include the linear actuator and Bachler track setter are my groomer. http://www.wmlarue-enterprises.com/grommers1.html#xcgroomers |
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| tolson | Jan 26 2009, 01:05 PM Post #2 |
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So, where are the pictures?????
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| couchsachraga | Jan 26 2009, 02:03 PM Post #3 |
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Hopefully Saturday I'll get some. LAST Saturday I spent time fixing Alpines when I had hoped to be taking pictures. And yesterday we went skiing:) (always import to keep in mind why I spend so much time grooming!) NEXT Saturday I plan on being up there all day getting things leveled out. After that I'll be a bit more willing to groom at night with the Trail Plane. William LaRue (who built the Trail Plane) took some "in action" images on Saturday (after I resurrected the Alpine, and retreived the Trail Plane from the woods with the OTHER Alpine that is running better, but had to be put back together (track replacement)). I'm hoping he'll post the "in action" images on his site soon (linked above). |
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| couchsachraga | Jan 27 2009, 09:12 PM Post #4 |
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No images from me yet... But the William LaRue has put some of my machine in action up on his site: http://www.wmlarue-enterprises.com/grommers1.html Scroll down to the white alpine pulling the red groomer.... The images of the machine in action were taken after numerous passes that day...snow was better after 1st and 2nd pass actually (as you can tell by other images above). More me being exhausted from working on the cranky Alpine (and putting the blade too low) than the Trail Plane itself. We're now expecting 10-16" of snow tomorrow...I'm going to try and roll or track pack tomorrow night so I can still Trail Plane this weekend (and take pictures). We'll see! |
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| couchsachraga | Feb 1 2009, 04:05 PM Post #5 |
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16 images for your viewing pleasure... http://picasaweb.google.com/riversideramblings/TrailPlaneAtPFXC# So far I've determined the following: 1) Levels a trail amazingly well, even just one pass. The combination of the blade and the "snow roll" behind it really works well. 2) One pass grooming is best. It compacts really well, so much so that without additional weight the tracks are not as fully formed as I'd like (same problem with Tidd Tenderizers I've had in the past) 3) I may try "hard bolting" the wings down next to see how that goes, rather than the spring-loaded wings now 4) Side by side laps are fine if the trail is flat - otherwise in followup passes (meaning after the initial passes) the trail may be uneven. Fixed wings may help this ...or not. We'll see! If I kept the blade up it's not a problem anyway. 5) I really neat to replace the Alpine with something else. Moderate hills are fine, but some of my steeper stuff is difficult to get up, even with the blade all the way up (for that matter I couldn't make the hill in the AM with just the roller, and it had been track-packed previously). In my opinion it does a far better job (especially leveling) than a Tidd Tenderizer. It levels better than a Ginzu (no experience with G2). For all-around trail finishing though the Ginzu is better....but also over twice the cost. I've only had it a week, and will continue to post my thoughts here. I wish I'd taken a few images of some of the area I leveled - 2-3' (yes, ') hillocks in an area that can be wet are basically FLAT now, one pass (second pass I was exhausted and kept the blade all the way up). Amazing difference. I did get stuck a few times, mostly from lack of Alpine pulling traction (lugs are 5/8" or so, for those that do not know), and once I should have known better (too narrow, deep...I figured I'd have to shovel either before or after...and I did.) |
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| couchsachraga | Feb 14 2009, 10:29 PM Post #6 |
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Today was a good test - last week we had temps in the 40's and a bit of rain. Last night it was below 0 F. Even without track modifications the Alpines could finally get everywhere...which was a nice change! The Trail Plane did well overall: 1) On areas previously "planed", one or two passes left nice corduroy 2) 3 passes erased (for the most part) 3-4" deep troughs left by snowmobiles. It's not perfect yet everywhere, but at least it is flat again 3) Areas I had not been gave varied results - non lumpy terrain groomed up nice, sometimes just one pass. Areas with more hillocks tended to be great, followed by a packed pile of ice cookies (where it had dug deep, took the top off the hillock, and dumped it in the hollow). Trail is MUCH more level now, but will need a few more passes to look better. Some areas I kept the blade up (because I wanted to make it through them) and didn't have too much trouble. I did manage to get stuck a few times (blade burying itself in a hillock, not enough momentum), backing up worked some times, otherwise just unhitch, wiggle the alpine over a bit, drive out, and drag the Trail Plane forward manually (I have a "ski" for the front of it now - works GREAT...I'll post images up some time), hitch it back up and go. It was the first time in a long time I didn't use the come-a long all day. Which was nice. I did do some "winter gardening" (shoveling) in a few spots though, mostly to take care of a few water spots. Overall I'm still very pleased with the unit, and hope a few modifications to my Alpines will make deep powder easier for me. I will say though that if money is no object, a Ginzu or G2 is a better implement, with the exception of being able to level a trail (for that the Trail Plane does far better than a Ginzu (I've never used a G2). The only part that needs work is the "wings", which I plan on addressing when I have some time (first try will be making them firmly fixable (bolt) further down, if that doesn't work trying to find urethane "wings" with the same snow comb pattern that are completely flexible (and bolt them on permanently). |
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