Wilderness Trapping and Living


No Profanity *** No Flaming *** No Advertising *** No Anti Trappers *** No Politics
No Non-Target Catches *** No Links to Anti-trapping Sites *** No Avoiding Profanity Filter


Home~Trap Talk~ADC Forum~Trap Shed~Wilderness Trapping~International Trappers~Fur Handling

Auction Forum~Trapper Tips~Links~Gallery~Basic Sets~Convention Calendar~Chat~ Trap Collecting Forum

Trapper's Humor~Strictly Trapping~Fur Buyers Directory~Mugshots~Fur Sale Directory~Wildcrafting

Trapper's Tales~Words From The Past~Legends~Archives~Kids Forum~Lure Formulators Forum


~Dobbins' Catalog~

ATS
(Please support Ted's Fur Shed, our sponsor for the Wilderness Page)


Alaska Trappers Association

Print Thread
Hop To
Single ski snowmobile alpine #6119942
01/09/18 10:11 PM
01/09/18 10:11 PM
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 982
Bemidji, MN
J
Jacks Offline OP
trapper
Jacks  Offline OP
trapper
J

Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 982
Bemidji, MN
How did those single ski dual track snowmobile like the alpine handle? I assume not good as no one talks much about them or anyone uses them anymore really, But they sure look like they can go anywhere and seem to still be made in Russia and Europe. Would love to hear some stories

Re: Single ski snowmobile alpine [Re: Jacks] #6119974
01/09/18 10:29 PM
01/09/18 10:29 PM
Joined: Dec 2015
Posts: 3
New York, United States
Z
Zachman Offline
trapper
Zachman  Offline
trapper
Z

Joined: Dec 2015
Posts: 3
New York, United States
Jacks, I had one hear in NY and it wasn't handy at all. It kept me in great shape always tugging and yanking. It wasn't very fast but it was a tank as far as power, and pulling. I'm sure if you were using it for the right job it would be the go too sled. It is not a machine for tight turns. Mine was a 79, had revers and electric start but it was like trying to ride a picnic table.

Re: Single ski snowmobile alpine [Re: Jacks] #6120070
01/09/18 11:45 PM
01/09/18 11:45 PM
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 4,421
Yukon
Y
yukon254 Offline
trapper
yukon254  Offline
trapper
Y

Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 4,421
Yukon
There are guys still using them for sure! I've got a good friend who has a three of them. He loves them. A few years ago he found a guy on Ebay that had all kinds of new parts for them. He bought everything the guy had to the tune of about 10K, then drove to California and picked them up. I had one for years. I didn't like it on sidehills....but nothing else would stop it.....except overflow!


do unto others as you would have them do unto you

www.grizzlycreeklodge.com
Re: Single ski snowmobile alpine [Re: Jacks] #6120099
01/10/18 12:27 AM
01/10/18 12:27 AM
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 35,129
McGrath, AK
W
white17 Offline

"General (Mr.Sunshine) Washington"
white17  Offline

"General (Mr.Sunshine) Washington"
W

Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 35,129
McGrath, AK
I know of 3 of them here. None running.


Mean As Nails
Re: Single ski snowmobile alpine [Re: Jacks] #6120106
01/10/18 12:36 AM
01/10/18 12:36 AM
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 4,517
Nebraska
Trapset Offline
trapper
Trapset  Offline
trapper

Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 4,517
Nebraska
My buddy in NW Ont. has one and still uses it as a spare on his line. I blew an Enticer up one March and used his Alpine (Mrs Piggy) while testing our setter. I found it kind of hard to steer but was new to snow machines at the time so may have just been me. I was amazed where it could go in the deep fresh snow though.

Re: Single ski snowmobile alpine [Re: Jacks] #6120107
01/10/18 12:40 AM
01/10/18 12:40 AM
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 45,271
james bay frontierOnt.
B
Boco Offline
trapper
Boco  Offline
trapper
B

Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 45,271
james bay frontierOnt.
They were good for breaking trail in deep snow.Also a lot of guys used them to pull a groomer over their trails.Dont see any in use today,see them at the winter carnivals with all the other antiques.

Last edited by Boco; 01/10/18 12:41 AM.

Forget that fear of gravity-get a little savagery in your life.
Re: Single ski snowmobile alpine [Re: Jacks] #6120115
01/10/18 12:57 AM
01/10/18 12:57 AM

O
Oh Snap
Unregistered
Oh Snap
Unregistered
O



You mean one of these? I could put this machine anywhere and if the snow got too deep and I could back it up 1 inch I could power out of some real deep stuff. Great trail maker. With 1 ski I could run over 2 inch trees and if it was 30 below they would just snap off. BUT like 254 said not so good on side hilling. It wasn't bad on tight trails you just had to start turning early but it took a little bit of practice.
I wish I would have kept mine! Great machine.

Last edited by Oh Snap; 01/10/18 01:17 AM.
Re: Single ski snowmobile alpine [Re: Jacks] #6120482
01/10/18 02:48 PM
01/10/18 02:48 PM
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 25,391
williams,mn
trapper les Online content
trapper
trapper les  Online Content
trapper

Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 25,391
williams,mn
Collectors snap them up around here, and they'll sell for about $850 at a local auction .


"Those who hammer their guns into plowshares will plow for those who do not."
Re: Single ski snowmobile alpine [Re: Jacks] #6127367
01/16/18 01:43 PM
01/16/18 01:43 PM
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 4,517
Nebraska
Trapset Offline
trapper
Trapset  Offline
trapper

Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 4,517
Nebraska
Funny story about Mrs. Piggy, Mrs. piggy being nick name given to his Alpine years and years ago by Robbies kids. My buddy, Robbie, would bring her out to the middle shack on his line during heavy snow years and use her to pack trail and pull his groomer each way and such. The extra wide machine made it nice to trim trail from without getting off also. In order to get Mrs. Piggy to the middle shack by himself, Robbie had a method of hooking the single ski to the rear hitch on his Bearcat with a home made tongue and pin system. He also had a homemade adjustable throttle depressor on the alpine. In the bush he would adjust the throttle to barley move the Alpines tracks when in tow, thus reducing the strain on the pulling Bearcat. When crossing large lakes with no sharp turns, he would depress the throttle on Mrs. Piggy even more so she would "push her own weight".

On one such trip to the middle shack, with Mrs. Piggy in tow, Robbie came to the largest and last lake of the trip. He stopped just when he hit the lake and walked back to adjust or rather "step up", Mrs. Piggys throttle. He would normally tighten the set screw on Mrs. Piggys throttle gizmo until the Bearcats track just started to turn a bit, but in this case, the Bearcat actually started moving foreword. With the Bearcat moving foreword he ran and jumped into the saddle figuring he was on the last leg of the journey so what the heck.

The trip across the large lake was going fine and actually a ticky faster than usual although early on he wondered whether he should have backed off Mrs. Piggys throttle a bit but surely the assent off the lake to the shack would be steep enough to help the Bearcats brake to stop the caravan. About the time he was getting comfortable with his decision to keep her cooking, he noticed movement out of the peripheral vision of his right eye. He instinctively reached for his .22 mag thinking "Wolf" then he realized, Wolfs are not orange.

Mrs. Piggy had broken free of her harness and was heading off on her own. He quickly changed course and pursued. After a short chase he was beside her. Steer wrestling style, Robbie slid half "out of the saddle" of his bearcat and smacked the kill switch down on Mrs. Piggy. Just after hitting the switch he pulled on the handle bar of the Bearcat to re-seat himself. He felt his grip slip and he nearly fell. Only after becoming fully re saddled did he remember he had disconnected that kill switch years earlier to eliminate it from being the cause some ignition trouble he was diagnosing. The chase resumed. This time he targeted the key and was successful in shutting her down in short order, having already had a practice run under his belt. He re hitched Mrs. Piggy to the Bearcat and the rest of the trip was uneventful.

He spent the night in his middle shack skinning the Wolf he had shot earlier in the trip, which was no doubt the reason for his instantly mistaking Mrs. Piggy for a Wolf when she broke loose. The mind does funny things.

The next morning, with Mrs. Piggy tarped and settled in to her winter quarters, Robbie began the "bobtail" return trip with the Bearcat. He chuckled inside when he came to the first set of tracks where the rodeo had ensued. He also half jokingly found himself hoping for snow, in this already very snowy winter, in order to hide the evidence from anyone who might pass by or over the tracks of the adventure. Being a pilot he couldn't help but grin when he thought what the tracks must look like from the air. If he only knew.........

It was a ways further down the trail on the lake that Robbie started to become a bit confused. It looked as if the trail he made yesterday with the Bearcat and Mrs. Piggy, a double wide track, was only made by a single, single wide machine. Soon he came upon a set of double wide tracks heading off to his right. They had to be Mrs. Piggy. He followed them for a ways and it became clear that Mrs. Piggy had broken free of her hitch long before he had realized and had done a little exploring of her own.

Mrs. Piggys tracks showed she had quite the adventure indeed. She had cut a hard left and headed kind of back the way they had came, a bit barn sour maybe? But then angling more towards the bank. When she got to the bank she attempted to clime it and appeared to be successful until it became too steep and she started to slide backwards. While sliding backwards she hit a tree on her left rear which allowed the front end to come around, and back down she went. When she got back on the lake she hit a rock on her right side, apparently with the ski or right track at any rate, this collision turned her back on a course in the same direction as Robbie. When her ski hit the trail made by the Bearcat it apparently was turned by the rut and started to follow Robbie for a bit until they hit a patch of old re-frozen overflow which re directed the single ski on Mrs. Piggy to the right thus becoming visible to Robbie who assumed very briefly that she was a Wolf, then again incorrectly, that the bumpy re freeze of the overflow had worked the bolt on her hitch loose just then. Paying attention to the side of the trail that the chase was on the day before, Robbie had missed the tracks of Mrs. Piggys original escape, to his now right.

Robbie had commented that he debated just heading to his far shack the morning after the rodeo and completing his loop from the back side but was a bit low on fuel so he back tracked home. Had he continued on we may never have known the details of "Mrs. Piggys big adventure" as the new snow would have covered up the story before Robbie returned to the middle shack.

When testing our Setter years ago, before the above adventure, I had the pleasure of using Mrs. Piggy for a couple days after my Enticer blew a cylinder. When Robbie relayed the story of her adventure to me a few years ago I said "I always knew she was 'SOME PIG'." LOL

Re: Single ski snowmobile alpine [Re: Jacks] #6135243
01/23/18 11:47 AM
01/23/18 11:47 AM
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 4,517
Nebraska
Trapset Offline
trapper
Trapset  Offline
trapper

Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 4,517
Nebraska
There was also an old minnow trapper back in the day that had a Tundra Wheel on the front of his Alpine. I never met him but heard stories that he was a big ol dude and he used his Alpine year round. Ski in winter, tundra wheel rest of year.

Re: Single ski snowmobile alpine [Re: Zachman] #6135318
01/23/18 12:52 PM
01/23/18 12:52 PM
Joined: Nov 2017
Posts: 11,194
Maine, Aroostook
Posco Offline
trapper
Posco  Offline
trapper

Joined: Nov 2017
Posts: 11,194
Maine, Aroostook
Originally Posted By: Zachman
it was like trying to ride a picnic table.


Ever see one of these? A buddy of mine who passed away had six or seven of them in varying states of disrepair. He said they would go anywhere but the YouTube videos I've seen make them look like a Jane Fonda workout.


Previous Thread
Index
Next Thread

Moderated by  akntrpr, Ol' Blister, otterman 

Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.1