More links off of the americantrails.org website... this is the jackpot for you.. A test of various trail grooming products http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/download/hep...s/98232837.pdf

 

Hey DB once again you give and it seems too many are not going to take. I am going to check out your sites, thank you pnce again for your devotion to our sport.

 

I'll second that! This answers the question I had when I started this posting. Now, ATV clubs need to follow the lead of the sled clubs by getting the equipment and using it. Here is WI, the money to buy the equipment comes the the state returning money it collects for sled registrations. Clubs can bill the state by the hour for time spent on trail maintenance. There's probably more to it than that, but that's all I know about it.

Maybe I don't have to be so pessimistic about the future of ATV riding on public lands after all. Well maintained trails may not silence critics, but that would take away some of their ammunition. At least the critics couldn't be pointing to ugly rutted trails to make their point, and that has been their "big gun" in their efforts to block ATV access to public trails.

 

Deeplaker... check out this guy's equipment..(Bob Gervais). and drool... http://www.trailbuilders.org/trail_tailor.html.... I think you will find just about everything you could ever hope for in this website... Prices were suprisingly not as expensive as I expected.

 

Dragginbutt. I think you are onto something here. We need trail contracting companies to start up all over--harness the free enterprise system to solve this problem. You could buy a fleet of big, heavy duty quads every year and write it off. People dependent upon trail contracting to make a living could provide an option to local, county, state and federal government entities that control the trails. Replace ugly ruts with beautiful smooth trails and even the radical tree huggers would love it. Smooth trails would be good for their bird watching expeditions and their annual half-mile hikes. The politicians would become heroes. Eveybody wins!

A possibility that may only apply to my county. The Road Department here likes to empire build. I think I'll send them the equipment descriptions from that website and suggest they might want to buy this equipment to add to their collection. They could also add a few people to operate it. (I can't believe I'm saying this. I'd rather go with the free enterprise approach.)

I notice from that website that there are no trail contractors in Wisconsin, Minnesota or Michigan...which is shocking considering all the public trails they have. Within the next year or two, there will probably be dozens of them. I wonder if the Trail Tailor is selling stock in his equipment company?