Groomer Mileage

[kuczala_21]

Well the semis I work on get a low 7 miles to a gallon and a high of 11 if your lucky as all he**.. We are running 6 cylinder cummins and what not.. I belive some groomers are running a smaller cummins verison.. So I can see a groomer getting around the same pr gallon.. Figure they are working just as hard as a truck and pulling alot of heavy wet snow..

plus I figure with a truck they are doing a constant speed at times with cruise unless they run into hills and traffic..
the groomer has to run a PTO for rear drag.. this makes the motor work harder etc etc.

Wouln't surpize me if it wasn't around 5-7... Roger let us know what you figure out after going out..

[Dreadan]

The new john deere we are running gets about 4 miles per gallon, the old pisten bully gets about 1

[Hooter]

We run Bombardier BR180's in Florence. If I can remember right, it is about 4 gallons per hour. Top speed in perfect conditions is about 7mph. We go through the same amount of fuel no matter what the speed is!!.

[DARBO]

If I recall, the Kewaskum club has a 1993 Tucker with a 360 Chrysler engine. They have a pretty good size drag behind it, but 3 gals per mile still sounds excessive. I would say right around 1 mile per gallon is realistic.

[Johnnie]

When the 100 Miler had a 360 gas Tucker it got about .7 miles per gal. Pulling a 9'6" Trailmaster drag. The smaller 318 actually got better mileage pulling the same drag.

[Red Baron]

I have double groomed 15 miles of trail many times with a 318 gas Tucker and it takes over 30 gallons. I have also groomed the same trails with a small 75hp 3 cyl. turbo diesel tractor, and it takes a little over 1/2 as much fuel. Bottom line is, it takes a lot of fuel, anywhere from 1 gallon per 1-3 miles of trail, no matter what you use to groom. That's just fuel, which is really a small portion of the big picture of how much it costs to groom. Make sure you fill up the donation jugs at your local pit stops to help pay for it all. A few years ago, with fuel, repairs, etc. we figured it cost our club $85/hr. just to run the groomer. Bittersweet news, it won't cost anything for a while now, you can't groom mud.

[snowdog]

this weather really sucks !!!!
you guys had some really nice trails in washington & dodge counties .

[2sleds]

the trails in the area were great!!!

im from west bend, and since the trails opened, i coverd alot of washington county, ozaukee county, dodge county, sheb. county and a little of fon du lac county. im at like 825 for the season so far and they trails have been great. groomed, hardpacked and HAD a great ice base.

sucks that it has be so warm and rainy.

[R/L GROOMER]

I have been grooming for a few years now and have been using a 115hp tractor with half tracks with a 10ft drag down in the Random Lake, Adell, Batavia area. I have been using around 3.8 to 4.1 gals. per hour, depending on snow and trail conditions.
Now that I have a break in the grooming I HOPE the snow comes back so I can do some riding at the cabin up by you guys.

[snowdog]

[QUOTE=2sleds;7085]the trails in the area were great!!!

im from west bend, and since the trails opened, i coverd alot of washington county, ozaukee county, dodge county, sheb. county and a little of fon du lac county. im at like 825 for the season so far and they trails have been great. groomed, hardpacked and HAD a great ice base.

sucks that it has be so warm and rainy.[/QUOTE]

do you find that the trail signage in dodge county leaves something to be desired ?

a lot of arrows , but they don't tell you where you're going , if you don't have a map you're screwed .