Snow Drag vs Snow groomer

 

1. When to sue a Snow drag vs a Snow Groomer.
2. No one wants to be a snow dragger.
3. Keeping the snow you want
4. In slushy or powder conditiosn.
5. Which costs more
6. Multiple uses

Wanting a snow drag but needing a snow groomer.    Snow drag vs snow groomer is what this article is about. Some call their snow drags  snow groomers but to us there is a huge difference.

 

For a long time snowgroomers used snow drags on snowmobile trails to knock down the whoops.  But they did not call themselves snowdraggers.  These drags need to be heavy to knock down the whoops and they need to be long so that they do not take out the snow between the whoops.  Many snow drags are heavy long devices and can definitely wipe out the whoops and leave corduroy.

 

Take off snow you want.

 

Because snow drags are often big and long there are times when you cannot or should not use them.  When there is only a little snow the drag can often knock what snow you have out of the way.  And off your  trail or hill.  Also, When it gets warn and the snow  cssn become slushie a drag can knock the snow off the trail.  The snow can build up  in the drag  and not get under things.

 

Deep powder snow grooming.

 

If the powder is deep then because drags are heavy you can  get the drag down into the snow and the  snow can build up and go right over the  drag.

 

Some drags do not have a cutting tool.

 

If a drag just is rectangle of  angle iron or wood then you need extra weight to knock down the whoops. Unless the drag it self is super heavy which some are.

 

For drags that have cutting tools they are often trying to turn over the snow multiple times.  They often have multiple blades that angle the snow  into the middle of the drag.  This is nice because it can knock extra air out if the snow is not too deep.

 

Drags can leave nice corduroy and they can compact the snow well.  I have never seen a drag with wings so if there is very deep snow the snow will fall into the path of where it was just drug and mess up the edges and the drag path.

 

Expensive.

 

It may or may not be more expensive to buy a snow drag.  But compared to a good snow groomer it is just way more expensive to use.  Weight and length and snow building up in the drag just makes your towing vehicle work much harder and therefore your fuel costs can be a lot more.  Over time this fuel cost can easily pay for getting a good  snow groomer.  Often snow drags have a hard time being pulled by snowmobiles or smaller ATV/UTV’s so just the cost of the towing machine and running it goes up.

 

Snow drags are not as good for cross country skiing.

 

Drags are long and many cross country trails need to make tighter corners than the longs drags want to make.  If you are just wanting classic tracks then the groomer in front in small amounts of snow mash the snow and do not leave enough to put in your xc paths.

 

To save money people have made many different types of drags.

 

One of the drags  that people use is just some tires tied together..  This can remove excess snow and never leaves nice corduroy.  Might be inexpensive but not really even a good drag drag coms from this.

 

Others build their drags out of wood and often have a rectangular drag.  This definitely knocks snow out of the way and lets deeper snow fall back into the dragged trail.

 

Snow groomer kills whoops.

 

If you buy the razor on our snow groomers we like to kill the whoops by cutting them.  Basically when you get big frozen whoops from snow mobiles cutting them down and putting the excess snow in the valleys between the whoops is the plan of our snowgroomers.  Our snow groomers do not need to be as long because we cut the tops of and do not go into the valleys to take out the extra snow because the razor is help up by the rest of the groomer.  When the rest of the groomer is in the valley the razor is lower and cutting the top of the whoop off.  How much you want to take off the whoop is just an adjustment on how deep you put the razor. The razor can cut the air out of snow but after the razor the snowgroomer also compacts the snow to compress the air out.

 

Very large snowgroomers can have a rototiller that cuts down the whoops.

 

Powder snow groomer.

 

Our snow groomers ride on top of the snow and many have a deflector place to make sure all the snow gets groomed and none goes of the top.  This has been true even in 3.5 feet of fresh very light powder snow.  The wings curve up the edges so less snow falls back into the groomed path. The wings are needed even if it is not powder because even heavier snow falls back into your path unless you have wings the shape it up so it is not straight up and down.  The deflector can even lift the snow groomer up if there is enough snow so that no snow should go over the top.

 

XC ski trail

 

When there is very little snow you do not need the razor but you can still compact the snow and get the air out.  You also do not push away any of that precious snow off the trail.  For this you adjust the razor to not be touching the snow.  This leaves the tracks left for XC skiing at the maximum depth which is just not possible if you drag it first.

 

Skinny windy trails

 

Because our snowgroomers are much shorter than most drags and have great solid towbars keeping it on your small trail and making it around tighter corners is just much easier.

 

You probably need to add weight to your snow groomer after we ship it to you.  We try to keep the weight down to keep shipping costs low.  Use 8×16 cement garden stepping blocks you can get from your local hardware store.  The snow groomer is meant for these to fit exactly.  And there is a cover to keep of excess snow.

 

Slushy snow.

 

In slushy  snow you may still want to cut it with a razor but the snow groomer will not know it out of the way.  And it will leave a nice corduroy trail for when the snow freezes.

 

Snow groomers are efficient.

 

You can pull our snow groomers with snowmobiles even small ones.  They work in deep powder if your snowmobile does not get stuck.  Basically you need a way smaller and most likely way more cost effective machine to tow a snowgroomer.

 

We have a special snowgroomer when you might want to remove excess snow or big drifts from your trail. It is called a sno blaster.  There is not a sno drag out there that we know of that you can set to keep just the right amount of snow on your trail.

 

In our view the only time a snow drag is better than a snow groomer is if you have really hard frozen snow whoops then the weight and the multiple turns can knock them down and leave maybe a better trail.

 

All other conditions like small amounts of snow, warm snow or slushy snow or powder snow or any kind of deep snow the snow groomer  just can do a way better job.  Including having adjustments to leave the best corduroy or xc ski trail.