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BS Trail Grooming???


Mooseman

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Yesterday, while riding, I witnessed something that left me speechless.  I saw two guys in a tracked side-by-side dragging a wood skid like they were grooming.  WTF?  Clubs get paid by the KM by the OFSC for grooming as captured by the GPS in the groomers.

 

Is this cheating the OFSC out of grooming money?  I wish I had my helmet cam on when I saw this.  I know in the "old days" that grooming consisted of dragging an old mattress box spring but this wasn't even that.  It was literally just a wood skid.

 

And I want to specify that this was NOT my club!

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Possibly going to a camp? I know 1 hunting camp that grooms the little trail into their place w/ a small 'groomer'.

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It was in a farmer's field, no hunting camps or anything around.  Dudes didn't look like no farmers so I can't see the landowner doing this (who is a known sledder himself).  I know this area.

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Not cheating the OFSC out of grooming dollars, but if it was a club, they are cheating themselves out of grooming dollars!

 

I suspect it was not a club grooming.

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41 minutes ago, Bigfish said:

Not cheating the OFSC out of grooming dollars, but if it was a club, they are cheating themselves out of grooming dollars!

 

I suspect it was not a club grooming.

 Club volunteers can use a tracked argo to drag a wood pallet into a section of trail to fill a washout. Just another example..

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Has the trail been staked for a while?  Is this maybe a pallet that they have the stakes stored on in the summer time, and they just got the staking done?

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Appreciate the report, Moose.

 

To my knowledge, not even Scandic snowmobiles with mini drags get reimbursed for grooming. Those small lake to lake portages are maintained by clubs, with little to no direct reimbursement (when I last heard).

 

Not sure what the definition of a 'groomer' is, or what it currently takes for reimbursement, but the rules were pretty strict.

 

What you viewed likely has many explanations.

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OFSC has, in fact, been investigating the use of small equipment to groom trails.  Some clubs have been doing this for a while, but there is no reimbursement for it.  There are investigations underway, AFAIK, to see how widespread and advantageous this could be.  It will allow trails to be groomed earlier if they are over swampy land where an industrial groomer would actually cause more damage if too early.

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1 minute ago, sledjunk said:

OFSC has, in fact, been investigating the use of small equipment to groom trails.  Some clubs have been doing this for a while, but there is no reimbursement for it.  There are investigations underway, AFAIK, to see how widespread and advantageous this could be.  It will allow trails to be groomed earlier if they are over swampy land where an industrial groomer would actually cause more damage if too early.

bingo this works well to drive the frost in 

 

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36 minutes ago, sledjunk said:

OFSC has, in fact, been investigating the use of small equipment to groom trails.  Some clubs have been doing this for a while, but there is no reimbursement for it.  There are investigations underway, AFAIK, to see how widespread and advantageous this could be.  It will allow trails to be groomed earlier if they are over swampy land where an industrial groomer would actually cause more damage if too early.

That is the only grooming that gets reimbursed. I had heard in the past of a trail in the area that was closed because the club(s) wanted to use a VK540 to groom it rather than a full size unit (horrible terrain & some major breakage issues). The OFSC wouldn't reimburse for it.

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43 minutes ago, sledjunk said:

OFSC has, in fact, been investigating the use of small equipment to groom trails.  Some clubs have been doing this for a while, but there is no reimbursement for it.  There are investigations underway, AFAIK, to see how widespread and advantageous this could be.  It will allow trails to be groomed earlier if they are over swampy land where an industrial groomer would actually cause more damage if too early.

I'll give you a perfect example of the problem between small and large groomers currently.

D12 has a centaur (Argo with diesel engine) it counts against D12 because the OFSC considers it a large groomer.

The POS would never be able to make a regular run, it's always broken.

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3 hours ago, Mooseman said:

Yesterday, while riding, I witnessed something that left me speechless.  I saw two guys in a tracked side-by-side dragging a wood skid like they were grooming.  WTF?  Clubs get paid by the KM by the OFSC for grooming as captured by the GPS in the groomers.

 

Is this cheating the OFSC out of grooming money?  I wish I had my helmet cam on when I saw this.  I know in the "old days" that grooming consisted of dragging an old mattress box spring but this wasn't even that.  It was literally just a wood skid.

 

And I want to specify that this was NOT my club!

It all comes from the same pot, if a couple guys want to tramp or groom for free what does it matter, so the club would not groom it because these guys tramped it?

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Alright, as long as they are not "cheating" and have a groomer's GPS in it falsely reporting real grooming, or did they?  I don't know.  I should have stopped and asked.  I could have just said "hey, this is for sleds only.  What ya doing here?"

 

It was a normal, flat, long, dry, frozen area that is normally groomed with a real groomer.  Seen it there before in years past.  I'll keep an eye out for it when I'm out.  I was just surprised more than anything they would do something so useless.  It did nothing really.

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Ya it is surprising almost shocking that somebody would do that for free these days, maybe the pallet is to cover their tracks 

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Ours are not hard wired, will drain battery if left too long , does not take much in cold temps, We have them mounted to the roof and wire runs into cab and plugs into cig lighter,

Would be alot of work to pull out and install into something else and for what, maybe to get a spare machine on the trails, when there is a break down

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1 hour ago, Mooseman said:

Alright, as long as they are not "cheating" and have a groomer's GPS in it falsely reporting real grooming, or did they?  I don't know.  I should have stopped and asked.  I could have just said "hey, this is for sleds only.  What ya doing here?"

 

It was a normal, flat, long, dry, frozen area that is normally groomed with a real groomer.  Seen it there before in years past.  I'll keep an eye out for it when I'm out.  I was just surprised more than anything they would do something so useless.  It did nothing really.

Might be best to ask if they are the landowner or related to the landowner before making any statements.  They learn us that at snowmobile club ambassador school.LOL

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Maybe it was the property owner,maybe not. But one thing for sure, in the south when you see this type of thing, be careful how you speak to people. Nothing ill get a trail closed faster than telling the owner of the property they are not allowed on the property. Saying they sure did not look like farmers is odd, what does a farmer look like?

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I saw a guy towing an old set of single bed springs a few years ago. Works great for tight forest trails. He just added cinder blocks as required.

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33 minutes ago, PISTON LAKE CRUISER said:

Might be best to ask if they are the landowner or related to the landowner before making any statements.  They learn us that at snowmobile club ambassador school.LOL

 

I wish they had taught some our trail wardens (in the old days). Every other season we'd get word that some over-zealous warden was hassling a trapper. From the trappers I knew in the area, they weren't snowmobilers gaming the system. 

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I saw gentleman last year in the woods of the E107 in Havelock on an old Skandic pulling a drag though there.  I followed awhile hoping he would pull over but he kept on and finally reached a side road where he turned and went down it.  NO sure if he was property owner or just a volunteer out helping packing it down.

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4 hours ago, SRXChris said:

I saw gentleman last year in the woods of the E107 in Havelock on an old Skandic pulling a drag though there.  I followed awhile hoping he would pull over but he kept on and finally reached a side road where he turned and went down it.  NO sure if he was property owner or just a volunteer out helping packing it down.

A couple of guys were grooming the TOP E reroute a week ago w/ 2 old drags. 1 sled was a newish Yammi and the other an old Tundra.

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15 hours ago, bbakernbay said:

The AtlasTrax GPS OFSC tracking units are hard wired into the Groomers and provide detailed info.  I very seriously doubt any Club would entertain cheating as the consequences of being caught would undoubtedly be severe and not worth the risk.

Not hard wired. Battery and/or pluged into a lighter socket. 

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