I posted this over at slopegroomer.com, but I know some of you are interested in snowcats, so I thought I'd share it with you as well.
Spent tonight in the demo PB 400 at Sugarbush. Just wanted to share a few thoughts.
Overall, I like the machine a lot. This one was setup with sticks (not paddles like the older PBs, but sticks). The operation of the cat is pretty simple, nothing out of the ordinary. I like the new rocker switches, and the computer display. The climate control setup is good... infinitely adjustable fan speed keeps you comfortable all night!
The lighting system is fantastic. I could see well ahead of the machine, but most notably was the lighting in the rear of the cat. The pass behind me was lit up like daytime, for a respectable distance. A huge improvement over the older Edge and 300 models. Very very nice.
The joystick is nice, but I don't like the little red button! I always end up hitting that instead of the other top button for the blade wings. It doesn't help that I've spent quite a lot of time in a BR-350, which has the button for tiller articulation in the same spot. Not to mention that the blade function buttons are exactly opposite of those on the BR-350. However, I do like the placement of the switches for tiller up/down and up/down pressure. You don't have to take you hand off the joystick to make those adjustments anymore. This is good!
I'm not sure that I like the articulation functions on the right stick. It's too easy to bump the stick forward when you're trying to articulate or center the tiller. Can be frustrating at times. I think this needs to be redesigned. But the location of the track speed and tiller speed pots behind the sticks is pretty handy. And the tiller on button is also convenient there.
The Cummins powerplant is powerful and quiet, and I like new setup for setting RPMs. Rather than a hand throttle, you rev it up with the throttle pedal, and then hold a button to set the RPMs. Another nice feature is the auto ramp-down when you put the brake on.
The tiller seems essentially unchanged, at least as far as operation. Left a nice pattern most of the time, even in the less-than-ideal conditions in some spots (read:bulletproof). The depth of cut setup must have been changed quite a lot, because where we've usually been tilling at a depth of "2" on the depth meter, we had this cat set at "5" to cut the equivalent actual depth. Not sure about the reasoning for the discrepancy.
Again, overall I was very pleased with the cat. I would be more than happy operating it every night.
A bad quality picture (I'll get some good shots tomorrow or Monday night):
Spent tonight in the demo PB 400 at Sugarbush. Just wanted to share a few thoughts.
Overall, I like the machine a lot. This one was setup with sticks (not paddles like the older PBs, but sticks). The operation of the cat is pretty simple, nothing out of the ordinary. I like the new rocker switches, and the computer display. The climate control setup is good... infinitely adjustable fan speed keeps you comfortable all night!
The lighting system is fantastic. I could see well ahead of the machine, but most notably was the lighting in the rear of the cat. The pass behind me was lit up like daytime, for a respectable distance. A huge improvement over the older Edge and 300 models. Very very nice.
The joystick is nice, but I don't like the little red button! I always end up hitting that instead of the other top button for the blade wings. It doesn't help that I've spent quite a lot of time in a BR-350, which has the button for tiller articulation in the same spot. Not to mention that the blade function buttons are exactly opposite of those on the BR-350. However, I do like the placement of the switches for tiller up/down and up/down pressure. You don't have to take you hand off the joystick to make those adjustments anymore. This is good!
I'm not sure that I like the articulation functions on the right stick. It's too easy to bump the stick forward when you're trying to articulate or center the tiller. Can be frustrating at times. I think this needs to be redesigned. But the location of the track speed and tiller speed pots behind the sticks is pretty handy. And the tiller on button is also convenient there.
The Cummins powerplant is powerful and quiet, and I like new setup for setting RPMs. Rather than a hand throttle, you rev it up with the throttle pedal, and then hold a button to set the RPMs. Another nice feature is the auto ramp-down when you put the brake on.
The tiller seems essentially unchanged, at least as far as operation. Left a nice pattern most of the time, even in the less-than-ideal conditions in some spots (read:bulletproof). The depth of cut setup must have been changed quite a lot, because where we've usually been tilling at a depth of "2" on the depth meter, we had this cat set at "5" to cut the equivalent actual depth. Not sure about the reasoning for the discrepancy.
Again, overall I was very pleased with the cat. I would be more than happy operating it every night.
A bad quality picture (I'll get some good shots tomorrow or Monday night):
