Grooming suppliers are upping the ante despite a down economy. Both Prinoth and PistenBully are introducing new vehicles to the North American market. Prinoth’s Beast platform has been available in limited quantities here, but now sports an entirely new cabin and is universally available. PistenBully is putting more effort behind the Formatic 350, a result of its purchase of the Finnish brand in 2008. And Global Cutter is offering its 22-foot halfpipe cutter to compete with the established Zaugg Pipe Monsters.


PISTENBULLY
With the Formatic purchase behind it, PistenBully is now focusing on bringing the Formatic 350 to North America.

“There are several things about the Formatic that are different from the PistenBully. One is the driver’s cabin,” says marketing manager John Glockhamer. “It features a center seat, and there’s a buddy seat on either side.”

The display screen is also unique. “The operator can make all of his adjustments on the screen,” Glockhamer says. “It’s right down by the joystick; you look down and sight right into the display.”

Yet another novel feature: AutoTrace. “This is basically a system to steer the vehicle’s tri-flex tiller. In most vehicles, you can steer the tiller left/right/float it, or center it so that it stays behind the vehicle. The AutoTrace goes a couple of steps further and can actively help steer.” When cutting across a fall line, for example, Autotrace crabs the tiller uphill.

“Autotrace is one of those tools that you use in certain situations where you want to make sure the tiller goes exactly where you are going,” says Glockhamer. “To me, it’s the neatest feature on the cat from the operational side.”

There are some mechanical novelties, too: for one, the Formatic lacks a gearbox. Instead, the hydraulic pumps are direct-mounted to the engine and stacked one behind the other. “The benefit is that you don’t have a gearbox to worry about breaking or changing the oil on,” Glockhamer says. Plus, the 350 has a hydraulic suspension that gives it a unique ride.

Dimensionally, the Formatic 350 is similar to the PB 400. The engine is the Cummins QSL 9, same as the 400, providing continuity between the two models. The Formatic is rated at 350 hp vs. 375 hp in the PB 400.

In short, the Formatic complements the PB 400. “They are different constructions, so the feel and ride is like being in two different cars,” Glockhamer says.

The PistenBully line benefits from a couple of recent innovations, too.

The AlpineFlex tiller, which debuted last year, improves snow processing and the surface itself. Key to that is an internal flap that controls snow processing time. “The flap moves up or down, sort of like the wing flaps on a plane, and either holds back or releases the snow. In hard snow you want to process it longer, to chew it up and avoid cookies. It’s an important tool,” says Glockhamer.

Scott Miller, vehicle maintenance supervisor for Liberty Mountain, Pa., agrees. “We have four PB 300s with Multi-Flex tillers, and purchased a PB600 with AlpineFlex,” he says. “We have skiers who can tell where that machine has been on the mountain because the surface is so much more enjoyable to ski on.

“And the surface lasts longer, because you can get a deeper till. With the MultiFlex, you end up with chunks if you cut as deep. But with the AlpineFlex you can still cut deeper, process longer, and the surface lasts longer. It really has taken our standard of what we want our product to look like to another level.

“It’s operator-friendly, an easy tiller to use,” he adds, as well as easier and faster to work on in the shop.

A new active boom for the winch cats has also worked well, says Glockhamer. The active boom automatically aligns the cat with the pick point. “As the driver turns his wheel or adjusts his levers, the active boom compensates to pull him back on line.

“The big advantage is that you can pull offline and not have to move your pick point across the trail as often as you would otherwise. Our winch has a 60º working range; the active boom allows you to work outside that range,” Glockhamer says.

Kurt Wisell, assistant general manager at Gore Mountain, N.Y., echoes that: “It’s a very useful device. It really helps you overcome problems, especially in steeper places where you might have a trail not in the fallline. You can get out of the fallline more with the active boom. It makes the winching game a bit easier. You don’t have to change pick points as often. It can easily save an hour or so of cat time. The steeper the terrain, the more true that is.”


PRINOTH
The big news is the Beast, “a vehicle that is the only one of its kind on the market, due to size, balance point, and power versus weight,” says Greg Clowers, director of western North American sales. The vehicle, including the blade and tiller, is more than 20 percent wider than the BR 350/Bison. The Beast offers increased productivity and lower grooming costs by many measures, along with numerous custom options.

“The biggest part of it is the productivity of the vehicle, and the cost per acre that the vehicle puts out,” Clowers says. In Prinoth’s onhill tests, grooming costs with the Beast were considerably less, on a per-acre basis, than for the 350 and the Bison. Operators who have been running the Beast say they have seen gains greater than they expected.

In short, efficiency = money. In Prinoth’s simulated-fleet tests, two Beasts produced a comparable amount of work to three Bison/BR 350s. Over a four-year period, the cost of owning and running two Beasts vs. three 350/Bisons is about 30 percent to 35 percent less. With its extra width, greater climbing ability, and pushing capacity, the Beast simply covers more ground.

The Beast can often groom where only winches dared to tread. Its wider tracks mean 27 percent less ground pressure. It can climb and descend better as a result—several drivers reported less need for winch work.

For example, Loon Mountain, N.H., had eight trails that were groomed via winch twice a week. Now, crews groom these trails almost exclusively with the Beast. “It saves us all kinds of time, fuel, and labor, and the product is better,” says Ralph Lewis, skiing operations director. “We saw a very good savings.”

And the quality of the snow is good, too, says John Tulloss of Sugarloaf, Maine. “This mountain gets a lot of ice, and this machine allows us to just rip right through that. The product is so much better.”

And for moving snow in the park—well, that’s another strength.

How does the Beast manage all this? “Basically, we took the same balance point of the 350, and expanded it in length and width,” says Clowers. “So you have the same feel in the Beast as you have in the 350. That balance point—as close to center as we can get—helps with our climbability and obviously the ride.”

The new cabin has been a hit, too. It allows the choice of either sticks or a steering wheel, and either center or left-hand drive position. “If a customer is running a mixed fleet, we can address the people who have been running Prinoth vehicles with sticks as well as those who have been running the competition with a steering wheel,” Clowers says.

Prinoth continues to refine the Pininfarina-designed, Caterpillar-built cab, introduced on the Bison last year, based on customer needs and feedback from the field, he adds.

The electronics are largely shared with the Bison; the two vehicles use the same microprocessor. “The electronic controls are a modular design,” Clowers notes. The right armrest houses controls for blade, tiller and diagnostics. Steering controls are at the operator’s left hand. “Since it’s modular, we can take the seat from center position and move it to lefthand position with minimal problem,” he adds.

The TTC, which includes the microprocessor controls for the vehicle, both hydraulic and vehicle controls, is easily accessible for maintenance. “One of the things we’ve tried to do is make it easy to service the unit as a whole,” Clowers says. “When you have to go in and work on the electrical or the programs or change your different modes for the vehicle, we want to have that as accessible as changing the engine oil.”

Standard monitoring includes two trip measures, plus fuel/hr, fuel/acre, total distance, idle time, and implement use time. The Isaac GPS-based monitoring system, with its 122 data categories, is also an option.

Prinoth held two high-profile introductions and demoed the Beast at the NSAA winter shows. For those who have somehow missed these events, “we have demo vehicles that we will be transporting all around North America,” Clowers says. We will be doing extensive demos at the resorts.”

Along with the Beast, Prinoth continues to offer the BR 350 and Bison/Bison X. “Those have pretty much the same standard equipment as last year,” he says.

A final note: Prinoth is opening a regional office in the Midwest, “so our exposure to the customer will be higher, something that’s been lacking. We will be factory direct there,” he concludes.


OHARA
The Ohara Caliber is the only machine the company is exporting to North America this year. It now comes with a Tier III-compliant motor. Distributor PBL told SAM that there will be other changes to this utility machine in the fall, but that it is premature to talk about these now.

PBL says it has a five-foot-high tubing lane cutter/shaper in development. It will come with a quick mount for a blade or the cutter, and a tiller able to cut seven-foot-wide lanes, to permit more lanes in a given amount of space.


GLOBAL CUTTER
The Global Cutter, produced by Development Snowparks, debuted in New Zealand in 2008. Cutters are available in 13-, 15-, 18-, and 22-foot heights.

Pipe builder and Cutter inventor John Melville says that it forms a large, smooth, elliptically-shaped transition, a smooth takeoff and a wider landing.

A laser guidance system helps a vehicle operator cut a straight pipe. Melville claims this can save a resort 15 percent in build time, offering savings in snow cat operation and snow. The laser system also calculates an accurate vertical angle reading for a precise take off.

Bi-directional motors in the paddle-style cutting system prevent stalling and enable the cutter to recycle snow up to repair a wall, or cut down volume if it has been snowing. By recirculating snow, the cutter can reduce the amount of snow needed to maintain the pipe, he adds. The cutter works well in both icy, hard conditions as well as slushy, spring snow, Melville adds, and fills tracks and holes quickly. A heated pressure bar and finishing mats allow the machine to rest its weight on the wall and imprint a corduroy finish. In all, Melville claims the Cutter can reduce snowmaking for the pipe by up to 30 percent.

Global Cutter is demoing its 22-foot behemoth to prospective customers at the Telus World Ski & Snowboard Festival April 16-25 at Whistler, B.C, and at Cutters Camp West, May 9-13, at Timberline, Mt. Hood, Ore.


ZAUGG
Largely unchanged for next year, Zaugg offers pipe cutters for 8-, 13-, 18-, and 22-foot walls. Paul Leck of distributor PBL says the company is seeing increased interest in the 22-foot machine by resorts that are interested in hosting world-caliber events.

“It looks like we’re going to sell a passel of 22-foot machines this year,” Leck says. “A batch of areas are stepping up,” since 22 feet is the FIS, World Cup, and Olympic standard, and Zaugg has traditionally been the machine of choice.