Quote:
Originally Posted by Major problem
Ice fishing on Winni led to my passion for ATVing but, there have been too many times where there was a foot of powder snow on top of a foot of slush and water, on a foot of ice. It was slow or impossible to move on my atv at those times (even with tire chains). Tracks will go where tires won't, just slower.
I really envied those people with UTV's that had tracks instead of tires. With a canvas enclosure, heat, stereo, GPS and a cargo bed; it seems like the perfect solution for a winter island visitor. (I'm pretty sure the UTV comes with wheels and the track kit is a lug-wrench bolt-on seasonal conversion.)
There is a long time forum member (from Welch's Island I believe) that has posted pictures of his rig. He could always get to his ice shanty when I couldn't. In 60 mph winds at 5 degrees, he was cruisin with tunes in his pajamas while I was suffering in my eskimo gear. He had two seats in his cabin and I had no cabin.
The UTV's are a bit heavier but, weight is better distributed by the tracks to provide more square inches for your pounds per square inch.
No matter what surface vehicle you choose, you'll still be limited to approx. 6-8 weeks of good ice per year.
It's been a while since I priced them but, a new full sized utility atv can be bought for $5-8 thousand and a UTV for $10-13 thousand, stock. The track conversion kits run about $2-4 thousand more if I recall.
If I had a modest lottery win, I'd rather be towing one of these new tracked UTV rigs behind my 12 yr. old pickup truck, than to buy a nice new pickup.
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You have a good point that I didn't mention which is the track kits that are available for both ATV and UTV. While very expensive it does give either or much more versatility than a sled. The tracks for the UTVs seem far more substantial than those on an ATV which admittedly appear to offer more float in deep snow or as you say when you get the slush layer under the cover of snow. Even so I still would rather deal with a stuck ATV than a stuck UTV because the ATV is light enough to be manhandled by a person or two. A UTV I think you're need another machine to get it unstuck.
It all comes down to how much investment you want to make and bang for the buck. In PIG's situation he doesn't have to cover a far distance and for the most part once the ice sets in there are few slush holes that form in the area he will need to traverse. Also there are usually ample sled tracks that make a good packed path most of the way out so even with just a decent set of tires and 4WD it's likely he'd not have to much trouble. Again I would not suggest this as an option if the idea is to go out joy riding all over the place. The trouble with winter transportation is that conditions change rapidly and vary greatly so finding the perfect solution for all situations is difficult but I think an ATV probably is the best all around choice when weighing total cost of investment noting that it's not always going the be the best for any particular situation, but certainly functional.