building a small groomer puller

_FIII · Post by **_FIII** » Fri Feb 06, 2009 1:08 am

looks nice there Pete. I say 1078.5lbs

Liquifire 4/6 · Post by **Liquifire 4/6** » Fri Feb 06, 2009 1:22 am

S_Kyle wrote:1150, and I may have found an accomplice for your relic if it is still on.

Hiya Scott....Yes, the derby is a go for March 7. This saturday, I'm going to start putting up the signs. I had given the trail the first grooming last weekend and will cover it again this sunday. You're guess is a a tad low. Looking forward to seeing you and your buddy at the derby.

Liquifire 4/6 · Post by **Liquifire 4/6** » Fri Feb 06, 2009 1:38 am

Mr. Deere wrote:It looked kinda tippy in the video when you were in the field but good to hear it handles well. Maybe 1000lbs

Actually, Bob, it feels very stable. I know what you mean about the video.......but 90% of that illusion is because I was holding the camera in one hand while operating the machine with the other......and any small bump I hit, was exaggerated considerably with my arm waving about. The machine does look kinda tallish which might suggest tippiness, but almost all the heavy stuff is way down low giving it what so far, seems like great stability.........and believe me, there is weight. You guys were all low with your guesses (and so was I). The scale at the elevator read 710 kg when I drove the machine on (the drag was not hooked up at the time). That works out to around 1575 pounds. There might have been 25 pounds of snow and ice in the track suspensions at the time and I had roughly 8 gallons of fuel in the tank. That weight kinda shocked me and I have no idea how that little 440 (detuned by clutch weighting it down to 6800rpm max...the engine power peak is at 7800RPM) can propel it and pull as well as it does. I thought I might want a larger engine, but in low range the thing can really pull........I filled the drag with as much snow as it could carry (as seen in one of the videos) and the 440 doesn't offer any hint of complaint. If it had any more power, I'm sure I'd end up shearing lugs of the track drive sprockets.

Post by **ICCSF 108** » Fri Feb 06, 2009 2:06 am

I wasn't far off, LOL

Kenny

Liquifire 4/6 · Post by **Liquifire 4/6** » Fri Feb 06, 2009 8:47 am

Yeah, Kenny. Come to think of it, if we deduct the weight of the gas and snow, you are pretty much spot on. Congrats!

Mr. Deere · Post by **Mr. Deere** » Fri Feb 06, 2009 5:12 pm

That good. I hope it works well for ya.

427cobra · Post by **427cobra** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 10:16 pm

Nice job Pete. The groomer turned out really good! All that hard work paid off!!

b00stinGTP · Post by **b00stinGTP** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 2:15 am

I wonder what kind of fuel economy you are going to see with that thing! A+ work.

Liquifire 4/6 · Post by **Liquifire 4/6** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 11:34 am

b00stinGTP wrote:I wonder what kind of fuel economy you are going to see with that thing! A+ work.

That's a good question! I haven't ran it enough yet to get a real idea of what it's gonna burn. If my clutch comes in this week, I'll be grooming with it next weekend and will find out what it's going to do mpg-wise. So far, I have put about 4 hours on it.....some pulling my drag, and some just playing around with it and it looks like I've gone through about 6-8 gallons of gas so far, but that may or may not be represenative of what it'll do while grooming.

pj sportfire · Post by **pj sportfire** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 7:41 pm

That is one of the neatest DIY project I've ever seen! Great job!!!