Owning a business during the winter season can seem like a hassle – unless you operate a snow entertainment business. Regardless of the type of business you run, it is essential to maintain trails and walkways in and around your property, clear roadways to meet delivery deadlines, haul equipment through harsh winter conditions, and even provide transportation for workers when conditions get particularly harsh. Snowy terrain can be difficult to maintain without help from the right equipment – look no further than the PistenBully 400 Trail.
The 400 Trail model is one of the crown jewels of the PistenBully family. It combines convenience, performance, and comfort into a smooth ride that allows you to customize your settings while zooming through harsh terrain with significant movability. If you’re running a business in the wintertime, the last thing you want is for your business to become unreachable. The 400 Trail is an extremely reliable piece of machinery that can help you prevent becoming blocked in.
Everyday Maintenance Tips & Tricks
It is important to ensure all your most important equipment is running properly. Not only is this essential to surviving in the winter landscape, but it is also vital to doing your job well. Steps to keeping your snowcat fully operational are one of the first things you should learn when you choose to lease or purchase a snowcat, and that begins with maintenance.
Maintaining a snowcat can be tough work, but with the right tools and enough know-how, you can handle some of the everyday details without having to worry about hiring a full-time maintenance team. After all, you could be snowed in. Keeping your PistenBully 400 Trail running warm might be the most important decision you make during the winter, but before you can manage it, you’ll need some PistenBully service tips.
Checking the Battery
Imagine you are getting ready to clear out a section of snowy road with your PistenBully. You sit down in the cab, put your hot coffee in the cup holder, turn the key, and realize the battery is dead. Imagine the frustration as you now have to figure out why your battery died and how to either repair or replace it; this frustration will only compound itself if you’re snowed in and unable to secure a replacement battery for some time. That’s why knowing proper battery storage and maintenance is important to keeping your snowcat up and running in case of emergency.
Start by making sure your battery is functioning properly, which should occur before the beginning of the season and every 4-6 months thereafter. You need to remember to check the open-circuit voltage after a standstill period of six months. The most effective way to do this begins by making sure the battery switch is disconnected. This can help you avoid discharge and creep currents. If the voltage power dips below 12.4 volts on a single battery, you will have to recharge it. It’s recommended you use a regulated charger with 10% battery power over the course of several hours.
The resting voltage for your battery should be around 12.7 volts after recharging and cooling. If your battery has been marked “maintenance-free” and has screwed or plugged caps on the top, you will have to check the liquid level and use distilled water to fill it. Be sure to keep your battery stored in a dry place with a cool temperature no greater than 25 degrees Celsius, and follow all battery maintenance suggestions in your handbook.
Checking the Engine
The PistenBully 400 Trail has a powerful Cummins X12 engine, which provides your snowcat with significant power and big advantages over previous models. Those advantages include an optimum power-to-weight ratio, a considerable amount of torque, and, to top it all off, a lower consumption of fuel.
Whether you are checking your engine or cleaning it out, we recommend holding the engine speed at 1,300 revolutions per minute.
This engine speed allows you to achieve the highest torque with the lowest fuel consumption while also achieving a hydraulic performance that simply cannot be beat.
Understanding the iTerminal
The 400 Trail model comes equipped with an iTerminal feature, which showcases a color touch display that allows the vehicle’s operator to see an overview of all the necessary information and parameters that you will need for your work day. The home screen displays all the relevant and important engine data and display cameras. Easy-to-find menu buttons can take you back to the home screen and let you surf through various submenus with additional vehicle information.
The iTerminal even has an intuitive function that allows you to operate it using gesture control, which you can do with a simple swipe of your finger. However, if you are more partial to button control, you can also navigate that way. Ensuring your iTerminal is in tip-top shape can make navigating through storms easier. You will know where you are going and see potential roadblocks ahead. While making sure your snowcat is fully operational is very important, keeping your software up to date can be just as important to keep your machine functional and effective.
Checking Your Drive Wheels
The snowcat’s drive wheels, which are also referred to as “turas,” keep the PistenBully in motion with its tracks. These drive wheels are large sprocket wheels bolted to the vehicle’s rear on the gearbox. The drive wheels help ensure that the vehicle gets all the power it needs to do the job right. In order to ensure that power, the drive wheels are subjected to significant amounts of stress, particularly when the vehicle is going uphill.
Traveling uphill alone or pushing materials uphill can result in significant one-sided wear and tear on the drive wheels. Preventing this wear and tear can be vital for the vehicle’s extended service life. To prevent that wear and tear, we recommend that you change out the drive wheels from right to left when it appears the wear is getting one-sided.
By swapping out the drive wheels, you are ensuring that the vehicle’s less worn side gets its fair share of the demanding work, providing the vehicle’s drive wheels with an important state of equilibrium. By consistently changing out the drive wheels, you can ensure they are properly utilized when needed and can be replaced later, thus conserving your resources and reducing unnecessary additional costs for maintenance you might not need yet.
Refueling
Imagine you are halfway through clearing out a driveway or a parking lot. You’re looking forward to a break, maybe getting some breakfast, too. Then, you glance at your fuel gauge and realize you are almost empty. Now, you have to refuel the snowcat, which won’t be difficult but might be time-consuming, depending on your situation. As you can see, we’ve arrived at another important maintenance tip for the PistenBully: always top off the tank after driving it.
Not only does topping off the tank whenever you’re in-bay help prevent condensation buildup in the tank, but it also ensures that the next time you take the vehicle out, you will have fuel in the tank and won’t have to worry about running out. Sometimes, simple, routine tasks like this can save you a great deal of time and money later.
When it comes to condensation, the ideal is as little as possible. Essentially, the fuel tank heats up due to the warmth of the fuel and the waste heat that’s produced by fuel components. If you park the snowcat with an empty tank, the heated air starts to cool down. Moisture that’s present in the air then starts condensing on the walls of the tank. The moisture then accumulates at the bottom of the tank and can even freeze the fuel lines. If that happens, the vehicle won’t start.
When the fuel tanks are full, there is no room for condensation to form in the tank, and moisture cannot freeze the tank. The last thing you want is for your fuel lines to freeze, as they can be time-consuming to heat back up.
Servicing the Winch
The winch is one of the most important tools at your disposal on the PistenBully 400 Trail. The steeper the slope, the harder it can be to navigate your snowcat along the frozen land. Utilizing the winch can make it easier for you to drive on dangerous terrain. You can anchor the snowcat to the ground using a steel cable.
Servicing your winch is vital to your snowcat’s operation. You can calibrate your winch through your iTerminal setup. You want to make sure your winch is calibrated with a rope length between 4.5 and 4.6 tons. When calibrating the rope length, you’ll also want to calibrate the layers and the windings on the reel. You will need to determine the exact number of layers and windings to calculate the length of rope you will have available after calibration. This can also help you detect any errors in the rope.
Counting the layers and windings with a spooled rope can be difficult, so we can recommend an easier way: spool up your new winch rope roughly five windings or until the rope is seated firmly on the reel. Interrupt the spooling process and enter the current number of layers and windings on the calibration page into your iTerminal. Confirm your entry and continue the winding.
Using the PistenBully
The PistenBully is the premium snow removal and grooming vehicle, whether you need to clear a lodge parking lot, open up a construction site, or haul equipment across treacherous terrain. While clearing snow is one of its most important functions, you may also want to use it simply for transport, to help with rescue operations, or even to encourage back-country tourism. Every industry has the need to transport materials and people from site to site, and every industry can benefit from a PistenBully 400Trail.
Important Service Tips for the PistenBully: Provided to You by the Ski Cat Company
Few machines have the power to provide you with consistent safety, reliability, and strength that the PistenBully 400 Trail can bring to your company or business. The snowcat’s many uses surpass just the clearing of snow. This premium machine can be greatly beneficial for transporting goods and workers, assisting with rescues, exploring the roughest of terrains, and so much more. When you purchase or rent one of these impressive machines, proper maintenance is vital to the machine’s continued functionality.
These service tips can help you perform some of the most essential maintenance tasks on your own. If you choose to lease your PistenBully, you can leave major maintenance operations to your friends at Ski Cat Company. When you’re ready to learn more about what the PistenBully 400 Trail can do for your business, visit Ski Cat Snow Rentals to get started.
Sources:
- Service tip. (2022). PistenBully – Snow Groomers. https://www.pistenbully.com/en/service-tip
