The Lewiston Fun Ones Club of Lewiston, Mich., is another club that uses Zuidberg tracks for trail grooming
COURTESY OF LEWISTON FUN ONES CLUB AND THE MSA GROOMER WORKSHOP
systems that were on the market. So far,
so good, according to Erickson, who
adds that his club has already put on
more than 500 hours on that machine
since installing the Zuidberg tracks.
“We read up on them and talked to
the guys at the Tucker factory and they
said our vibrations would be less than
half of other machines,” he said. “We
figure we’re getting about 80 percent
less vibration on it now. That’s almost
as good as you’re going to get.”
And the good news is no one is avoiding
that machine anymore.
“They’ll hop in and no one complains
about their hands going numb anymore,”
Erickson said.
Low maintenance
The Seney Snowmobile Association,
based in the upper peninsula of
Michigan, made a similar switch just
prior to this season when it installed
the Zuidberg track system on one of
its two grooming machines, a New
Holland T7.210.
The club grooms more than 87 miles
of snowmobile trails in the region and
its grooming crew logs anywhere from
13,500 to 22,000 miles in any given
year. That means its two grooming machines
are in use for between 1,000 and
1,200 hours each winter.
A big part of the reason for his club
switching, past club president and trail
boss Don Reed says, was to reduce
the amount of time and money it was
spending on maintenance with its previous
track system.
“The maintenance we had to pull
on the old set we had was just crazy,”
he said. “More time on maintenance
means less time on the trail grooming.
“The problem for us is we’re about
six hours away from the nearest dealer.
There is no AAA you can call to assist
you with any grooming issues you may
have. It’s usually in-house work.”
Part of what makes the Zuidberg
track system different from other similar
conversion systems is its oil-filled
bearing hub. A clear glass hub that allows
operators to easily check bearing
fluid levels and quickly refill the
hub if its levels are low, eliminating
much of the messy and time-
consuming guess work associated
with other track systems.
Reed estimates his club’s snow
grooming crew has already put on
more than 1,100 hours this season on
the New Holland machine with the
Zuidberg tracks and it has required virtually
no maintenance to date.
“Right now, the maintenance on
them is you grease them and change
the oil bath. That’s it,” he said. “The
greasing is minimal compared to the
other track system we had, and it looks
like we won’t have to change the oil
bath until the end of the season. We did
a maintenance class and set the tension
on the tracks at the beginning of
the season and, knock on wood, we’ve
not had an issue in terms of maintenance
or had to readjust the tension on
the tracks.
“Where we’re grooming, its pretty
extreme weather,” Reed said. “Reliable
equipment is paramount for us because
we are in such a rural area. It’s
no fun to be broken down when you’re
50 miles away from town in below zero
temperatures with no cell service.”
Early adopters
The Cadillac Winter Promotions snowmobile
club is based out of Cadillac,
Mich., near Traverse City. The club is responsible
for grooming about 120 miles
of trails. All of the work is performed by
PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT
The Zuidberg system allows users to attach rubber
tracks to virtually any type of tractor.
26 April 2018 | snowopsmag.com