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Using a skid steer for jump building.

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Caveman.
Posts: 9067 - Karma: 330
I know that a skid steer can be used for building jumps on level terrain, but how can they do on hills? I would imagine that they would pretty much have to just push snow down hill and back up going up the hill. I am thinking of something larger than a bobcat with rubber tracks. What would be the likeliness of tracks slipping?

Sparks: If anyone has built jumps/ pushed snow on hills with a skid steer let me know how it went.
Oct 27 2008 10:08PM
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WikiWiki
Posts: 5584 - Karma: 426
i watched a guy flip one but he was building mountain bike jumps- pretty funny
Oct 27 2008 10:17PM
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ZAM
Posts: 344 - Karma: 861
not that i know anything about skid steers, but what kind of crazy idea are you dreaming up now kip?
Oct 27 2008 10:18PM
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seeingstars
Posts: 422 - Karma: 14
It would work well as long as it had tracks and not wheels.
Oct 27 2008 10:19PM
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skiminnesota
Posts: 9093 - Karma: 429
if you try it kip, i want pictures!   it might work, but like you hinted at be careful with the roll over possibility. ive never used one on a hill, only flat ground, but i can see it digging right through the snow and scraping it down to dirt when going up hill.
Oct 27 2008 10:19PM
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Caveman.
Posts: 9067 - Karma: 330
This guy who lives in a cabin near are ski area has an annual "shed gap tradition" he has a bobcat with wheels on it to build a gap over a shed and we tow into it with 4 wheelers. It can move quite a bit of snow at once but then again Montana snow fairly light compared to most of the country. I will try to upload some pics from that later tonight or tomorrow.

This is the machine I have access to, its an ASV HD 4520
Click for larger image

We used it for about 6 weeks in this kind of terrain;
Click for larger image

It had absolutely no problem with any of the hills we went up, some of which were steep enough it hurt my ankles and knees to walk across. So I know it will do fine on the hills as long as we stay either straight or down on the hill. The machine itself ways about 6 tons but the surface pressure is only about 6psi... Could traction be a problem on snowy and icy hills?
Oct 27 2008 10:30PM
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Caveman.
Posts: 9067 - Karma: 330
Building some jumps in a small coulie (sp) by Great Falls, about a mile by house that gets crazy wind loaded and seems to hold snow for a long time. This would be pending permission from the people I work for (easy) and the land owners (Indian reservation; it seems like they let almost anything fly on their land (hill 57))
Oct 27 2008 10:33PM
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ZAM
Posts: 344 - Karma: 861
word. make sure to let us know if and when you do. sounds like a good time
Oct 27 2008 10:37PM
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T.L.
Posts: 4729 - Karma: 3,008
I operate a cat 297 at my hill for moving all the rails and stuff.  granted its 90% man made snow but it will still plow through most any pile and climb pretty much every hill we have except when theres ice.  you should do just fine building some jumps
Oct 27 2008 10:40PM
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GrassCutter86
Posts: 320 - Karma: 9
At work I use an ASV just like that one you have in the pic, We use it at a golf course that gets around 4ft of snow a year, to clear cart paths and greens of snow. Great machine to use on level ground, but the tracks we have looks to be the same as yours, some sort of rubber, they just don't get a lot of traction when it comes to climbing up a slope. I mean it still can climb, but you got ot find some undisturbed snow, something that will allow thoes treads to get some traction. Once you drive over the snow a couple of times you can for get about climbing up that part again.
Oct 27 2008 10:58PM
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Caveman.
Posts: 9067 - Karma: 330
Thats interesting.. I wonder if alot of hills use skid steers rather than snow cats to move rails around. Why dont you use a snow cat?
Oct 27 2008 11:16PM
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Caveman.
Posts: 9067 - Karma: 330
I see what youre talking about and I was a little worried about that to; not being able to climb packed out snow. What kind of slope were you trying to climb?
Oct 27 2008 11:17PM
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GrassCutter86
Posts: 320 - Karma: 9
It's pretty hard to described the how steep the slope actually was, only way I can describe is by saying you need to be in 1st gear on a mountain bike while standing to climb it. Any steeper and there no way you would be able to ride up it with a mountain bike, and less you don't really need to be in 1st gear.
Oct 27 2008 11:34PM
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Caveman.
Posts: 9067 - Karma: 330
Un related, but have you ever slipped a track on your ASV?
Oct 27 2008 11:44PM
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GrassCutter86
Posts: 320 - Karma: 9
What do you mean by "slipped a track", like the track not getting enough traction and just keeps slipping, or like the track slips off the machine?
Oct 29 2008 11:36PM
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Funnel
Posts: 7815 - Karma: 1,531
Yeah I was gonna ask the same question.
Oct 29 2008 11:41PM
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Caveman.
Posts: 9067 - Karma: 330
Like slide sideways and have the track slip off the machine. I've never seen it happen but this guy I work with has had it happen to him a couple times and he is deathly paranoid about it.
Oct 30 2008 12:27AM
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Caveman.
Posts: 9067 - Karma: 330
haha Sorry for the dub post but this is funny. The same guy, when we asked him what the worst thing that happened to a machine at his old employer was. To summarize they were working a job, 10-12 hours a day 6 days a week making Davis Bacon and mad overtime. In about 3 months he burned through 45 employees (Way to run a business) ANyway he said they were in a hurry one day and this guy backed as ASV off the edge of a ravine and flipped it upside down. He never told us what happened to the operator but that the ASV was fine, they just got it out with an excavator.
This guy is so balls to the wall. IT fucking sucks working with him.
Oct 30 2008 12:31AM
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GrassCutter86
Posts: 320 - Karma: 9
Ok, never heard of that happening before I usally try to go just straight up or down a slope never across, but I would be pretty paranoid too, those tracks are a lot I think we bought a new one for 3 or 6 thousand, and took much of the day to get the track on the machine. Side note I once heard that an asv will eat up $10 worth of the tracks each hour of use, Im guessing this is for pavement, not really sure, but I thought it was a neat fact.
Oct 30 2008 8:06PM
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m.brus
Posts: 1597 - Karma: 103
I have some incidents with skidsteers but, depending on how slippery the snow will get while stuck to the track, you may slip. Last year I was slipping down a hill like crazy with a skid steer.
Oct 30 2008 8:44PM
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samskisalot
Posts: 711 - Karma: 12
asv has bolt on lugs, doesn't it?
Oct 30 2008 8:55PM
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