b'VAST NewsCHOOSING TO DOWNSIZE:PARTS 2 & 3By Jeff Fay & Pat Poulin The long awaited and much anticipated follow up to the summer article is finally here! Here is a recap of the summer article. The Williston Hill Hawks, proud owners of a year 2000 Tucker 2000 and 18x9 Mogul Master drag, have a VAST grooming contract for 6.2 weeks and 21 miles of trail. (This Tucker is still for sale!) The club only groomed for three weeks and 82 miles in the 2018/19 season. In Central/Southern Chittenden county, to protect our landowners property and cover the somewhat rocky terrain elsewhere, we need a minimum of 18 to 24 inches of snow before we roll the Tucker. During the 2018/19 season, we had abut short incline. It was not a greata brief weather cycle of freeze/thaw/club member volunteer to use his Johnfirst impression, but with no basefreeze. The Roxor has power enough Deere side by side and homemadeestablished, there was nothing forto pull a drag full of snow, something drag to open our trails before wetraction in the loose snow. A few morewe werent sure of when we made could get out with the Tucker. Thiscases of winching were needed tothe decision to go with this setup. A was the key to being able to startcompletely pack the 27 miles of trail.few areas of our trail system will get downsizing discussion in earnest. WeThe weather finally cooperated withsome attention over the off season to had mentioned downsizing at a fewcolder temperatures and another smallimprove approaches to water bars club meetings but hadnt really taken itsnowfall, so the next trip out was withand bridges. Again, this is part of the to the next step.the drag to pan. There was still minimallearning curve and adapting to a new About this time, the Mahindra Roxorsnow coverage, but enough to startpiece of equipment. A couple of minor was being splashed all over Facebook.building a solid base. The track packingtechnical issues will be addressed Based on the 1947 US Army Willies,definitely improved the traction, andon Roxy including larger mirrors, a the ROXOR is a stripped-down, basicwe only needed to winch twice withrear view camera, relocating the drag off-highway-only vehicle, four-wheelthe drag. It was like a totally differentoperational switches and adding blue drive, 62hp four-cylinder turbo diesel.power unit! This is part of the learningtooth speakers. Our 2019 version was ordered with thecurve of a new piece of equipment.Overall, we feel our path to downsizing automatic transmission option, hardRoxy is stored at a central point inhas been successful and have learned cab, heat, wipers, locking differentials,our trail system, giving us a norththat change can be a good thing. The winch and tracks specifically designedrun and a south run of nearly equallearning curve was not as steep as we by Mattracks for the Roxor. The totalmileage. Normally, we have a loophad originally thought it would be. It price was roughly $51,800 after addingconnector that allows us to hit eachhas also been relatively easy for the LED lights and defroster fans that arun directly. However, this year, dueveteran operators to train a couple of club member installed. The aggressive- to a logging operation, we needed torookies. Having a smaller machine is cut Mogul Master drag addedgo north before we could hit the southless intimidating than something the approximately $11,000 for a total setupportion. This meant extra passes onsize of a Tucker. It is kind of like the cost of $62,800. this section of trail. It was a good testdifference between driving a mid-size In the fall we did have a chance to useof what could be accomplished withSUV and a UPS truck.Roxy for some trail work. It was aadditional grooming. As the baseThe club members have been chiming much better choice than using ATVs.developed, traction improved, and thein with praise for how great the trails The track flotation works well for ourareas that were winch points in thehave been this season and how well somewhat wet areas. The real test wasbeginning became a non-issue with thethey have held up. Hopefully gone are the first early snowfall of ten inches,locking differential and some seat time.the questions like Why arent the trails which we track-packed without theThe aggressive-cut drag was a goodopen? and Why isnt the groomer drag. Within a half mile of where wechoice. The blades are set below theout?A few short videos are available store the Roxor, the winch was putframe rail, allowing for more efficienton the club Facebook page if youd like to use in order to climb a fairly sharpcutting when the trails became icy afterto see Roxy in action. 8 | Snowmobile VERMONT'