By Eric Anderson

Editor’s note: A snowmobile review in a cross country ski magazine? Not to worry, we haven’t changed our editorial focus. But as we move forward to continue to meet our mission of covering all facets of the sport of cross country skiing, this season we bring you a series of articles that looks more in depth at grooming. Our readership includes many Nordic center personnel and grooming staff and even home trail groomers. We hope these articles will prove informative and useful to this constituency. We also think all skiers can benefit from learning more about how ski trails are prepared for their enjoyment and as a result gain a greater appreciation for this aspect of our sport. Ed.

It might look easy as you watch your local groomer tooling around on a snowmobile, creating great corduroy and straight tracks along the way. The job, however, is quite complex, with the snowmobile pulling a 200-300 pound groomer with up to 1,500 pounds of pulling resistance created by the teeth or knives. The machine must maintain traction, steering and, most importantly, cooling at very low speeds, typically four to six miles per hour.

Not just any snowmobile will do. The low grooming speeds require low gearing and low RPM clutch engagements to prevent engine belts from burning. The cooling systems must be fan-cooled or liquid-cooled with a radiator and fan.

An ideal grooming snowmobile wish list also includes:

• transmissions with low gearing

• wide and long tracks with a medium-size lug that can be studded for ice

• stiff rear suspensions that do not squat with the weight of the groomer but deliver adequate ski pressure for steering

• a reverse speed in the transmission

• two or three actuators each drawing 20-30 amps and with a reversible 12-volt electric motor. Actuators are electric devices that allow the driver to control implements being pulled (e.g. moving the teeth on a grooming device up or down).

• 12-volt batteries and charging systems

• heavy duty hitches

With the goal of finding the top utility snowmobile on the market, the groomers at ABR Trails in Ironwood, Michigan, conducted a series of tests to rate fuel economy, power, traction and steering. The testers compared their vision of the ideal grooming machine to Ski-Doo, Yamaha, Alpina and Polaris machines.

Read more on the next page.