b'VAST NewsCHOOSING TO DOWNSIZE; HOW WE DID IT AND WHAT WE LEARNED PART 1By Jeff Fay & Pat PoulinWhat does a club with 123 members in a low snow area do to improve the trail product delivered to their membership? With a Class I power unit needing $20,000 worth of tracks after 19 years of service in 2 states by at least 3 owners, it was time to research this very question. The Williston Hill Hawks, proud owners of a year 2000 Tucker 2000 (newest piece of equipment in the county) and an 18 x 9 Mogul Master drag, have a VAST grooming contract for 6.2 weeks and 27.3 miles of trail. For those interested in cap values, that would be $8,124.48 in 2018/19. Unfortunately, its been many years since the club has groomed anywhere close to the contract limit cap; we groomed only 3 weeks and 82 miles in the 2018/19 season although we were sidelined with a breakdown for about a week.To protect our landowners property and cover the somewhat rocky terrain elsewhere in the area that we cover, Central/Southern Chittenden county,Williston Hill Hawks will now be grooming with a Mahindra ROXOR.we need a minimum of 18 to 24 of snow before we roll the Tucker. As many know, Chittenden County sitsbe a sizable investment with still aonly vehicle, 4-wheel drive, 62hp on the shores of Lake Champlain andsomewhat limited window of use. Wewith 4-cylinder turbo diesel. Then really isnt known for deep snowfallneeded something more affordableyou start to add options: hard cab, on a regular basis. This past season,that would require a minimal amountheat, wipers, locking differentialswe had a club member volunteer toof snow to get on the trails. A side byand, oh yeah, the tracks, which are use his John Deere side by side andside UTV was our choice. designed specifically for the ROXOR homemade drag to open our trailsby Mattracks. The 2019 version has before we could get out with theSeveral options were on the list: Johnan automatic transmission option Tucker. What an eye-opener! It wasntDeere, Polaris, Can-AM, Kubotawhich was the preferred choice of our an ideal set-up but worked welland Bob Cat. One by one they wereoperators. A dealer was not too far enough to establish a solid base thatresearched, using manufacturer specaway, Cyclewise in New Haven, VT. survived a few days of thaw and rainsheets, online reviews, and other clubsClub members Pat Poulin and Lucien on several occasions. This experienceexperiences, after which we narrowedMajor took a road trip to get the scoop was the key to our downsizingthe list down to a Kubota 1100and discuss pricing. Base price for discussion in earnest; we hadDiesel - or so we thought. After somethe automatic was $19,000, tracks mentioned it at a few club meetingsadditional investigation and advice,$17,250. Accessories and installation but never really took it the next step.we found out that it would require aadded another $15,250 for a total of We saw the Snow Rabbit at the VASTturbo kit and extra cooling, and there$51,500. We will be pairing this with Annual meetings for a couple of yearswas still some concern that it wouldan 8-foot by 6-foot Mogul Master and arranged a county-wide demonot be capable of grooming our trails.drag. This combination will change from Track Inc. in Newport on aSo, back we went to exploring otherour grooming contract from Class I to section of the Hill Hawks trail system.options.Class III.All county clubs were present to try itAbout this time, the MahindraLook for Part 2 of our story as we get out if they chose. Most did and wereROXOR was being splashed allcloser to the season and take delivery impressed with the capabilities, givenover Facebook. Based on the 1947of our new equipment. There will also the marginal snow conditions thatUS Army Willies, the ROXOR is abe a Part 3 follow-up in the spring day. But for our club, it was going tostripped-down, basic, off highwayafter we see how it works out!Summer 2019 | 13'