Winter Ride, Conquests on Tracks

[Rock Doctor]

Made a trip in to the bush for a few days with my girls. Wife wanted to take in the "Womans Weekend" without any distractions from the rest of us, so we left
Weather was OK, temps dropping down around -20C at night and up as high as -5C in the day. Mostly clear skys.
The trip into the Cabins was relativly uneventfull. We did break open some trails that had not been used yet this winter. Some of the trails were really tight to navigate with the axle extensions and wide tracks.
Oldest daughter is 8yrs old and managed to make the trip in without any problems.
It's amaizing how different the landscape looks under a couple feet of snow. There were a few times there when I was not sure just exactly where I was supposed to go.

Trip in

Someone made off with a bunch of my Firewood, so we had to make a trip out to gather up some more. We went into an old drained Beaver Pond, to cut up some wood. Holy Cow those are nasty places to ride. Stumps, logs, holes, runs, deadfall and brush........ We never stayed long. I managed to step into a hole that I couldn`t reach the bottom of. The snow cover made it look OK, but looks can be decieving. I also backed over a stump that managed to stick itself up between my 2 back axles on the drivers side. Luckly, this time, I got it to break off so I could keep moving (Last time this happened, I had to pull a tire out of the tracks, and poke my chainsaw in the hole to cut the stump off)

Wood Trip

Fun Ride in the snow down to a friends cabin, we just went out looking for something to do. Found a couple hills to climb. In their current configurations, the Adair Tracks seem to be working better than the Supertracks. The snow is very loose and crystaly, seems to be working like marbles under the Supertracks, the larger paddles on the Adair Tracks seem to work better in these conditions. The "flat light" makes everything looks flat, but if you watch, you will see that we do have a few hills around to play on.

Fun Trip

The trip back to the truck on Sunday was fun, my second daughter (7yrs old) drove one machine all the way out (eldest daughter had a "tummy ache". We came across a couple guys in a new Bombadier Comander "Limited Edition" on Tracks. Well, it was on 3 tracks, the 4th track was peeled off the front passenger side. They tried to climb up a creek bank that had a narrow trail up it. Too narrow for the tracks, causing the machine to drive out of one track. Having experienced this myself, I had another route in mind to get out of the creek.
Not as warm as the trip in, but still a nice day

Trip out

So, anyway, that was my weekend with the girls

RD

[swamp donkey]

Man that's cool looks like your girls was having a great time with dad. We done get to see much of that white stuff down here in MS but it sure looks fun.

[Bazooo guy]

Awesome...looks like a great place to ride. And everyone seemed to enjoy the trip including the dogs.
Winter wonderland for sure.

[North Country Tough]

I know alot of guys who cant handle their machines half as well as your young lady's,them fellers in the Bombardier included,great vids as always thanks Doc.N.C.T

[Obsessed]

Great videos RD...thanks for sharing...NCT your right...pretty sure a few of my buddies couldnt drive as well as RD's girls :-) Wish we had some snow like that down here.

Tim

[Rock Doctor]

Thanks :-)
The girls are smiling at your comments.

I've been having problems with my POV Headcam, so this we all shot with my Ikam. Turned out pretty good.
It's been a strange yr for snow here too. We just went through a warm spell again, and it settled the snow down and chrystled it up too. It was not very deep on the ice, but there was 2ft in some places in the trees.
The kids loved playing outside in the dark with their headlights on, lol.

RD

[mightymaxIV]

Wow Roc Doc, WHAT AN IMPRESSIVE PERFORMANCE BY YOUR TWO MACHINES. That beaver pond in video two was scary. I doubt that you could have walked very far in that area if you had a problem.

I found it fasinating that your machines had enough traction to knock over those small trees and bush in that heavy snow.

I couldn't figure out why the guy with the Can Am drove the machine with a track off. You only have to loosen one bolt to walk the track back on and it only takes a minute. Those type of tracks are great for trail riding on loose snow but they would be a disaster in the beaver pond where your two Argos moved through terrain that would be extremely difficult for any other machine. That type of area is best left alone and reserved for Argos "ONLY". That terrain is ROC DOC territory.

[Rock Doctor]

Wow Roc Doc, WHAT AN IMPRESSIVE PERFORMANCE BY YOUR TWO MACHINES. That beaver pond in video two was scary. I doubt that you could have walked very far in that area if you had a problem.

I found it fasinating that you machines had enough traction to knock over those small trees and bush in that heavy snow.

I couldn't figure out why the guy with the Can Am drove the machine with a track off. You only have to loosen one bolt to walk the track back on and it only takes a minute. Those type of tracks are great for trail riding on loose snow but they would be a disaster in the beaver pond where your two Argos moved through terrain that would be extremely difficult for any other machine. That type of area is best left alone and reserved for Argos "ONLY". That terrain is ROC DOC territory.

Hey, thanks Dan.
You're very right, I doubt I could have walked very far in the Beaver Pond. Very rough going, and just stepping into that one hole was enough for me. The good thing was that the pond is just behind my cabins, so if all else failed, we were not too far away.

The Adair Tracks were much better at pushing trees/brush, but to be fair, they have Studs and Cleats that are pretty impressive.

The guys in the Can Am seemed to be in a bit of a hurry, they loaded up and bolted out of there........... almost like they were on a mission. Not sure why. Personally, I'm not impressed with those machines, but I had to be nice and say something positive to him. They do have their place, but from what I've seen of them, the Muskeg is not their place. I was impressed with how they will rip across the frozen lake. That's one of my only beefs with the Argo's.............it takes to damn long to ride across the lake to where the better fishing is.


RD

[JohnF]

The Adairs are 18" now right? Both machines have the same width?

[trevorakm1]

great videos rd. your daughters handle them well. i like the rack you got on the back, looks beefy, is it easily removed? it's got me thinking. do you have any sort of cleats on the super tracks? i haven't tried mine yet, lack of snow, but i'm always debating getting rid of mine and just getting the adiar tracks and leave them on permanently. one of the positives of the tracks from what others have said is that they also tend to smooth out the ride somewhat. i'm convinced of the capabilitys of the adairs plus the swimming, all good. watching the super tracked argo going up the hill and struggling to some extent is the reason i ask about the cleats, would they have made that much of a difference in that snow condition or was it lack of driver experience?

[DanDANthefisherman]

Very nice vids RD. Wish we had some better snow here in Colorado. The mountains are pretty dry this year. Denver has been getting more snow than the hills! You sure do live in Argo country. Thanks again for the vids.

[Rock Doctor]

Yes John, both sets of tracks are 18" (I think the Adair's might be 18.5" but close enough)

great videos rd. your daughters handle them well. i like the rack you got on the back, looks beefy, is it easily removed? it's got me thinking. do you have any sort of cleats on the super tracks? i haven't tried mine yet, lack of snow, but i'm always debating getting rid of mine and just getting the adiar tracks and leave them on permanently. one of the positives of the tracks from what others have said is that they also tend to smooth out the ride somewhat. i'm convinced of the capabilitys of the adairs plus the swimming, all good. watching the super tracked argo going up the hill and struggling to some extent is the reason i ask about the cleats, would they have made that much of a difference in that snow condition or was it lack of driver experience?

The rear rack is 1"x2" Tube, mostly, with Angle Iron around the Splitline. Very "Overkill" in my opinion, but it has never failed me yet. I could remove it, it's just bolts through the splitline of the machine holding it on. Super strong though, I've hauled some wicked loads on it (22 sheets of OSB Plywood, Quads, Piles of Lumber, ect)
The supertracks have 3/8"x2" Bolts through the Cleat mounting holes, but no Cleats. The bolts help on hardpack and on ice (not too much grip, but enough). They don't help in the powder though. Like I said, I think the crystly snow was acting like "marbles" under the Supertracks, and with no "paddles" on them, the tracks spin very easy without moving much material. It's also "harder" to follow a fresh set of tracks up a hill. If the snow had had a chance to "set-up", even for just a few minutes, the second machine would not have spun so much. The machine I was driving, with the Adair Tracks, had it easy, first one up, and paddles and cleats for traction. It was once mentioned to me that the Adair Tracks have a "Cheese Grater" effect on the snow. Supertracks like snow with some "substance" to it, be that "undisturbed snow" or damp snow, drifted, or heavy snow. So, couple all that up with the fact that she's 8yrs old, I think that's why the Supertracks seemd to have a tougher time on that hill
The Adair Tracks will smooth the ride in some conditions, but at the same time, you will probably be running higher tire pressure with the tracks on which will make the ride rougher in other conditions.
I have not had enough time on the snow, and definatly no time with the Adair tracks in the mud/muskeg to say great things about the Adairs yet. I will say that So far, I like them, and have had no bad experiences with them.
For me, I don't know if I want to "put them on and leave them". The Standard Width are not wide enough for winter, and I think the wider version might be too wide in the summer. I'm going to give the wide tracks a try this spring/summer, but I suspect I will be putting the skinny spacers back in. I also wonder what the wider spacers might do to the water performance of the tracks? Might effect the performance of the aggressive "side profile" of the tracks?

Very nice vids RD. Wish we had some better snow here in Colorado. The mountains are pretty dry this year. Denver has been getting more snow than the hills! You sure do live in Argo country. Thanks again for the vids.

Hey Dan, despite how it looks, it's actually pretty dry here too this winter. Not very much snow in the mountians. I suspect that the rivers will be running low this summer.
Glad you liked the clips


RD

[plott hound]

very cool videos once again RD.YOUR KIDS ARE AWESOME!most adults will never experience what yours girls have done in just one of those clips.

keep 'em coming bud.