Riding in snow

[ARGOJIM]

Thanks for the replies everyone.. Kinda what I was thinking.. Know that you don't go everywhere, but damn near..

Though I have no real experience, I believe what your asking could possibly happen as follows.
You are atop 6-8 inches of crust with powder underneath, a turn ( most likely) breaks the crust and you are now in powder attempting to push and hopefully climb back on the crust. I'd assume it would be like breaking through ice in a marsh having a bulk to push with minimal traction resulting in some additional downward force ( less floatation).
Again I'd assume, a straight path in either direction would be your friend to climb back on top though it may continue to break for a while.

[plott hound]

DSCN0253.jpgDSCN0252.jpgDSCN0251.jpgpictures say a thousand words.heres NCT and my self in 3 feet of snow with very little crust.

[Floorman]

Thanks Plott Hound your pictures say it all. Not hard to have 3 to 4 ft of snow in our area and I have yet to be stopped in it. I will admit to some minor detours on certain hills or packing the snow to climb a hill.

[BW3]

Southeastern Mass. we get a wet snow here ,my friend with an Argo Big Foot and stock 18” Argo plastic track owns the winters here , Adair open swim/ mud tracks on my Frontier dig a hole with very little foward movement or if deep enough high centers the body and your stuck , but short of snow here I ain’t found anything it cann’t go through short of driver error and /or machine break down..... I will try an experiment by placing belting to inclose the track for winter use hopefully to get it to run atop the snow and not dig in, ....but may have to break down and get a set of plastic track but with so few / little snow here of late just cann’t justify the $$$$$.....

[plott hound]

Thanks Plott Hound your pictures say it all. Not hard to have 3 to 4 ft of snow in our area and I have yet to be stopped in it. I will admit to some minor detours on certain hills or packing the snow to climb a hill.

what tracks are you running floorman?

[allwheeldrive]

Think about 5 feet of powder snow...The Argo wheels/tracks couldn't possibly reach solid ground when "afloat" on that powder. The tracks would simply spin once the snow under the Argo packed down enough...then where's the traction to move forward? Then, if it did mire itself enough to make contact with hard ground, you would be up to your kazoo in powder snow with nowhere to go except back where you came from...maybe.

There are hundreds of snow pack combinations. i would wager Usually powder snow as you describe only exist for a short while directly after a snow fall. It quickly compacts melts freezes over and over into the hard crusty laminations we are used to. In all my time skiing I’ve never encountered powder more than 6” deep. I’d think you’d need 5 feet of snow in a single storm to get such a scenario. The chances for such a snow condition might not be impossible but it has to be extremely unlikely. So the answer is: Yes an argo on tracks could not drive through 5’ of powder. No: I can’t image in all the miles of Argos driving has this condition presented its self. Mind you if such a deep layer of powder existed. You’d sure as die stepping into it as quick sand and every animal not hibernating would essentially drown.

[scimanstev]

I have seen video of a man driving Escargo tracks through 45 cm of powder. He stepped off the Argo and sank to his waist. He dropped an ax, lengthwise into the snow and it went in all the way, plus another 6 or 7 inches. I think he had the winter extension kit attached to the tracks. I saw another video of red conquest driver going up a steep hill with the winter extension kit attached, and he was in deep snow.

Myself, I hope we get that much snow, although 2 feet is possible, it is rare in one storm. The Beaver Dam tracks I have have an even better bite than Escargo tracks, and I am itching to test them in as deep of snow as possible.

Steve

[mowbizz]

There are hundreds of snow pack combinations. i would wager Usually powder snow as you describe only exist for a short while directly after a snow fall. It quickly compacts melts freezes over and over into the hard crusty laminations we are used to. In all my time skiing I’ve never encountered powder more than 6” deep. I’d think you’d need 5 feet of snow in a single storm to get such a scenario. The chances for such a snow condition might not be impossible but it has to be extremely unlikely. So the answer is: Yes an argo on tracks could not drive through 5’ of powder. No: I can’t image in all the miles of Argos driving has this condition presented its self. Mind you if such a deep layer of powder existed. You’d sure as die stepping into it as quick sand and every animal not hibernating would essentially drown.

Certainly not impossible in some parts of the world! We in New England have had 3'+ storms in recent years and look at Buffalo NY with the lake effect snow..they do get whacked 5' at a time but I'm sure it's not all powder like in Colorado...

[CarlR]

With my 2011 HDI and rubber tracks we have no problem in deep Utah powder. The last stretch to my cabin is on a 15 degree grade and I've gone up it with 2 feet of powder, 4 people, and food for the weekend. Sure it slows it down, but the Argo just keeps pulling til we are there. It's FAR better flotation than a UTV on tracks.

IMG_0094.jpg

[ARGOJIM]

I'm sorry if I got the scenario or possible outcome wrong, guess the picture in my head was on a different channel than the rest.