PISTON LAKE CRUISER

We can now ride from Heidelberg up through Conesoga Lake to Blyth in the west or Clifford in the north. More trails opening in Western Ontario daily.

Groomer just went through our place headed west. I'm staring to smile!

Not very thick but its frozen hard due to the rain on it last Saturday night after it was packed.

I was told that Milverton was intending to start packing on Tuesday. Elmira/ St. Clements has packed last Saturday and has been doing some work in the Linwood to Conestoga Lake junction. Rumors that Conestoga Lake & Palmerston may have some open by the weekend. As of Monday there was no frost in the ground anywhere a groomer hadn't packed in the St.Clements and Wellesley areas. There was stilll a few wet spots and some really rough plowed fields. We really need one more dump to get a lot of area trails open.

Our trails are mostly farm fields so we have to be sure that the wheat fields have sufficient coverage that we don't damage the crops and that the trails are safe to ride. We do pay for crops that we damage but that doesn't fix the farmers feelings about their damaged crops. Fine line deciding when to open in this low snow area.

Our groomers trails got a double pas on Saturday. The groomer ran from 10AM to 5AM on Sunday. We went out to do a final sign and stake inspection on our trails yesterday. The base is frozen hard and flat but unfortunately there are still some wet spots and there are a lot of wheat fields that don't have enough coverage to consider opening yet. It appears that the clubs to our west and south had not gotten out as their trails had no sign of packing. Need more snow!

There have been major changes there. There is no longer a District 8. The clubs that made it up have joined whichever surrounding District they are closest to. Maybe an OCer closer to the situation could explain it better if they wish.

Lots of Mennonite farms all over Western Ontario still having feed delivered and unloaded by blower trucks. The 3 month old tri-axle my son is driving came with a blower / sucker /auger.

Their are still many feed companies who have some trucks with rectangular "box" style blower bodies. For example locally there Floradale Feed Mill, Jones Feed Mill, WS Feeds, Sharpe Farm Supplies, Niewland Feeds.

Unless the yard they are leaving from is set up with some type of snow removal system the driver cannot clear the roof. The roof an dry vans is a very light smooth aluminum skin. they can't safely be on the roof to remove snow and even if they did they did get up there it would be extremely slippery and they would likely break through the roof, not to mention the need of a long ladder and snow removal tool. Many companies won't allow drivers on roof due to liability issues. Wallenstein Feeds fired a driver a few years ago for going up top. No way no how is their rule.

Groomer just rolled through our place. He will have at least one pass on 90% of his assigned trails by midnight. A goood days work.

Hoping that if he gets it packed down with these cold temps we are to get this week it might tighten up.

Too bad. We are good here. 3 hours to clean driveway and walks last night. I'm told the groomer up here is going to give packing a try today and will see how it goes. Hopefully I'll have to get the gates across the road opened up for him.

I see this morning that Smooth Rock Artic Riders have their section of the A trail open.

Unfortunately there are too many who believe that is exactly how you should remove trailer roof snow..

Right

Darn, that might spoil beating your 75 km. on private land in 2023.

I just read that Missing Links groomer has been out today and if they get the snow predicted tonight they will likely open very soon.

A close friend of mine owned a multi generation mid sized transport compamy and 25 years or more ago Petro Canada approached him wanting to do an oil testing program. At the time the heavy haul fleet with loaded weights in the 123,000 - 139,500 lb. range operated all over Ontario and in Quebec and Michigan. When the testing started the trucks were on a 15,000 km. change interval. Petro Canada supplied the 15W40 non synthetic oil for the cross section of trucks they were testing and took samples for testing at different periods and were there to take samples at oil change time. Those samples were tested and my friend received copies of all the test results. If engines in the participating trucks were torn down for any reason, Petro Canada inspected the engine parts involved. Petro even had at least one high mileage engine that hadn't failed torn down for inspection. Over the years of testing the results were so encouraging that the change intervals were extended on trucks and the last I remember the change intervals for the whole fleet were at 40,000 km. There was never any pre mature oil related failures on the sampled engines that I remember. They used good name brand filters but I don't remember if they did filter changes midway therough the change intervals or not. I'm pretty certain that there are fleets out there presently operating on 50,000 + km. oil change intervals but those are not likely heavy haul.

You are entitled to your opinion. Others may not agree with it.

You are correct Ransomair. I just checked my manual for the 1049 engine and that's exactly what it states. While I prefer not to adhere to that schedule I don't believe for a minute that Yamaha would put that in print if they weren't confident in that schedule.

Welcome to the forum Loadman!

Looks like Sheeza Renegade is the winner in the "who will open first" lottery. He wins a free 2024 subscription to Ontario Conditions! Some Kap Top A and a bunch of Moonbeam are yellow on the map.

I think I'll just think about getting snow rather than the price of fuel.

If you look closely you would see the line where the open water starts just beyond the docks.