A novel way to get yourself stuck *even harder*

https://www.youtube.com/embed/oeGWxC3WUrs

Is it just me or do these things seem like a terrible idea? Like, burrow straight into the snow and never come out terrible? They look cool in the vid but I can't imagine they'd work as well as advertised.

Also, they cost twenty five thousand dollars according to the company's website. Which would be lovely when you mire one in a frozen creek and pop straight out of it.

I think for snow I'll stick to just getting stuck in 2wd and then locking it into 4 low to get out.

Who am I kidding, what I meant is get it stuck in 2wd, and since it isn't actually 4wd, it stays where it is for 3 days, no big deal though, it's just stuck in my front yard.

For $25000 I could just walk away from the car every time I get stuck and still be money ahead for the rest of my life.

I bet they work great. In snow, it's all about flotation, the whole reason behind snow shoes. Each corner has to have 10X the contact area.

Seems like a massive load on ball joints. And what happens when one jams up at speed at it spins around the wheel? I'm sure minor fender damage would ensue.

In reply to joey48442:

Oh lord, gender damage could get very ugly

Edit, corrected while I was typing. Nevermind,nothing to see here.

Created because mattracks are almost as expensive and take forever to put on and while on make the vehicle worthless on the the street.

The principal isn't new:

And if you want to know, those tracks work GREAT for off-road snow action.

What's new here is that it doesn't require hours to install.

But for 25K? That's just nuts.

Those will keep you from getting stuck in the snow but will stick you in a financial quagmire.

You know what's a lot cheaper than these and almost as good? Big tires at low pressures with beadlockers and snow chains.

We use to put chains on all four wheels on our CJ when driving the mile of unplowed road to our camp.

The thing was unstoppable.

Now they plow the road.

In reply to fanfoy:

those are the mattracks I mentioned above. check the price on them.. about the same price as the $25K mentioned above.

For <$25000, you can get a surplus military tracked vehicle of your choice.

If these were really all that great the Icelanders and Scandinavians would have already invented them decades ago. They use huge tires at low pressure.

Nick (Bo) Comstock wrote: In reply to joey48442: Oh lord, gender damage could get very ugly Edit, corrected while I was typing. Nevermind,nothing to see here.

Ha ha! I thought I changed that before anybody saw it lol

^Well it's definitely something you don't want to get on your hootus...

35 inch mud tires at 12 psi work great in deep snow. Kinda of terrible on city streets at all pressures in winter though.

Depending on your goals, $25k would buy 4 decent snowmobiles (used), a trailer and truck to tow them, the gear to keep you warm and dry, and a tow behind sled to take any extra gear you want.

Faster, more maneuverable, and more fun on the snow.

If I wanted to go through deep snow and had a $25k budget I could choose one of the following

*5 crappy jeeps

*2 sweet jeeps

*1 monster jeep

*Several nice snowmobiles

*50 crappy snowmobiles

*A really nice John Deere tractor

None of which would smash the fenders on my vehicle. My YJ with 35's and lockers in both ends loved to go play in the snow.

Edit; I'm not sure how much a deuce and a half likes snow, but last time I checked the run about $2500 at government auctions, so add ten of those to the list of possibilities.

Or. buy this snow cat for $12k and spend the rest on a truck and trailer.

Buy it

For a business it can make sense. Think of the guys that need to check pipelines at high terrain. The same truck you use for 10 months of the year can also be used the other 2, if needed.

looks like a solution looking for a problem..

i bet the jacked up diesels around here with the 8" stacks in the bed all have these within a year..

gearheadmb wrote: Edit; I'm not sure how much a deuce and a half likes snow, but last time I checked the run about $2500 at government auctions, so add ten of those to the list of possibilities.

Stock on the stock non directional tires not so good, but you could build 4 or 5 bobbed M35A2s that should do alright for that kind of coin.

novaderrik wrote: looks like a solution looking for a problem.. i bet the jacked up diesels around here with the 8" stacks in the bed all have these within a year..

They've been out for 4 years. If they don't have them yet, they probably won't.

For $25,000, I'll take an Aeronica Champ on skis.