Spring on the horizon

 Here it is the first of March, the days are getting longer and the temperature is rising in north central MA. With days above freezing the snow is rapidly melting and, as there is no real freeze in sight the season of grooming snowmobile trails is rapidly coming to a close.

This Tucker Sno-Cat has spent the season grooming the Ware river rail trail. We call this one the "Southern Tucker" because, until recently, it groomed Rutland State park at the southern end of our trail system. This year it was technically the Northern Tucker and the Northern Tucker moved to the south. I don't know why, I don't dare ask. You might remember my writing about the Northern Tucker a few years ago.

Anyway Chris has been running the machine but last Saturday he was going to be away and since we figured the trails would close soon Ben and I took it south so it will be easier to haul to it's summer home.

Like the Northern Tucker this machine has a Cummins 6BT, back in 2019 I wrote that the other machine had 135hp and I don't guess that this one would be any different. I did find that this one has Dana 70 axles (70 is stamped right into the case), interestingly the rear one is upside down but I guess that makes sense since the engine and transmission are mounted backwards. Remember the machine has two rear axles since it steers by pivoting the axles, the machine doesn't articulate, the axles do.

Like the Northern the Southern Tucker has suffered the neglect of "Its not really my machine" from its operators. The first thing I noticed when I got in the cab is how badly it smells. When I took over the ASV the very first thing I did was to clean out every mouse nest I could find and then scrub every surface with Simple Green cleaner. For the summer I put small squares of denim, soaked with peppermint oil inside the cab, it seems to work, the machine smells much better. I mentioned to Ben that I've put them in his machine too, it also smells better. "Keep it up!" he told me. He's lucky to park next to me, I happened to have an extra square and he benefits...

Running a Tucker is interesting when you're used to a fully hydrostatic 2 track machine. Tucker uses a conventional automatic transmission so you feel it shift. The machine also creeps when it's in gear which the ASV and Pisten Bully don't do. 

The rear two wheels on the rear driver's track show an all too common problem. They're urethane coated and the coating is falling off. This is at the end of our trip, there was more rubber on there at the beginning. We spend an inordinate amount of money on tracks and wheels on the two Tuckers the club owns. In fact this is the first year I've been hanging around with these guys that we haven't had to at least repair a track...

Groomer Madness

Big storm on the way so day 2 of making sure the groomers are ready. Our fearless leader is actually on a snowmobiling trip to Idaho so today Ben and I went over to look at his Tucker:

A Tucker is a weird machine, I've heard it called "Farm Equipment with delusions of grandure." Its basically a 1ton truck with two rear axles and a cab over on tracks. The front axle pivots to steer. The blade on the front is 4 way, up, down and twist which is to say you can lift either end. You don't plow a whole lot with a Tucker because there is one big tie-rod that steers it and if you break the tie-rod end you're hooped...

Power is a Cummins 4BT, I think this one is rated at 135hp, ours is an '89 and is clapped out. Nobody has taken care of it even to the minimal level that Ben and I take care of the Pisten Bully and ASV.

Anyway it fired up pretty readily at 30F, the key is broken off in the lock, you start it with the stub, so hinky.  The hydraulics all work but drive Ben crazy since they're backwards, the front set of controls run the drag, the rear the blade. The Pisten Bully is the other way around. The ASV controls are all in a row so they both drive me crazy.

The accelerator pedal was sticky like the ASV was yesterday so I went back later to lube it up. At FLAPS I found a can of Fluid Film which claims to be "Penetrant, lubricant, protectant" and it was the cheapest magic goop they had so I grabbed it. The pedal free'd up pretty easily and now smells vaugely of sheep...