Both Kässbohrer and Prinoth have new big machines this year, making this an exciting season for grooming vehicles. Electronics are at the heart of both the PistenBully 600 and the Prinoth Bison, along with greater operator ease and comfort. Oh, and they can cover more terrain than their predecessors, too.

Ohara, which has been threatening to enter the U.S. market for the past two seasons, may finally make its entry this year. U.S. distributor PBL says it hopes to have a demo machine on snow in the west before this winter ends.

In pipe and park cutters, Zaugg now offers sizes from eight to 22 feet, with newer machines at both those sizes.

Here’s a look at what’s new:


Prinoth

Prinoth’s big news is the introduction of the Bison, which combines the best of the Bombardier-designed BR 350 and Prinoth’s Leitwolf. To oversimplify, the black and silver Bison combines the 350’s frame with the Leitwolf’s blade.

Starting with the cab: the Bison’s front lights are Xenon, rear are halogen (with Xenon as an option). Xenon lights provide even greater illumination than halogen bulbs; they’re similar to those annoyingly bright and bluish headlights on late-model cars without being annoying. The Bison also has turn signals (required in Europe); “these allow the lead driver to signal his intention while fleet grooming, for example,” Prinoth VP Chris Nyberg says.

The new Recaro driver’s seat has BeGe suspension, top-of-the-line in heavy machines generally, not just snowcats. Other cab comforts: XM radio-ready, CD player, and heated rear window and heated wipers for good visibility.

The new, extended rear lift frame will pull the “tried and true” Posiflex tiller, Nyberg says. The blade, on the other hand, is the same as on the Leitwolf. Which is to say: lighter, due to high alloy steel. “It has a more aggressive cutting action, well suited for dozing and terrain building or maintenance,” he says.

The Bison uses a Bosch-Rexroth drive system, which has a higher output than the 350’s Sauer-Danfoss hydraulics. “Performance is boosted ten percent over the BR 350,” Nyberg says. “And the Bison’s exhaust system is quieter without affecting power.

Since the Bison is based on the 350, its almost square footprint makes it easy to maneuver and spin on its axis, and good at pushing. Plus, it’s a powerful, high-torque, low-rpm machine.

Prinoth continues to use stick controls rather than steering wheels for precision. “We believe in independent track control for more precise control,” says Nyberg. “Track tensioning is hydraulically controlled from the cab, for enhanced climbing and improved track life.”

He concludes, “Our main goal is to build a very reliable product that stays on the hill, has low operating costs, and is supported by guys who know the business.”


Bison: The Operator’s Take

How much of a difference do the electronics, seating, and drive system make? “It seems like a completely different machine,” says Marty Benson, lead driver at Okemo, one of the few U.S. areas to test-drive a Bison this winter.

“The torque and the power on the Bison are the biggest surprise. I’ve run 350s since they came out; I don’t know what they did to the Bison, but this machine does more than my 350 did last year. I do a lot of snowmaking blade work, and feel I can do more than I have before. This machine has always done what I wanted it to do.”

Benson adds, “They changed the length of the tiller arms—they are longer, so the tiller is back further. I think this son of a gun actually climbs better, too. We don’t have a lot of steeps, but I can push more snow uphill than before. This machine’s bladed a lot more snow than others [previous 350s]. I’ve been impressed with the amount I can push.” And that’s a big deal for Benson. “My biggest thing is pushing snowmaking snow. This machine just makes you want to do it. The other operators think I’m crazy.”

The Bison’s controls feel a bit different, he says. “It took a little time to get used to the sticks. It wasn’t bad, just different. Once I got comfortable with it, no problem. The sticks and blades are still responsive, just a bit different. It’s very quick.” The basic controls are largely the same, he notes; “a few more toggles for lights, otherwise it’s the same.”

Another positive thing on the 350 as well as the Bison, in Benson’s view, is the addition of heated wipers. “If you operate while snowmaking is going on, this is a great benefit,” he says. “With the heated wipers, you don’t have to get out and clean the wipers any more.”

He also appreciates the greater comfort of the Recaro seats, which some of the older Bombardier machines had. That said, the seats are the source of his only small complaint about the Bison: “The new Recaro seat won’t rotate like the old ones did. I make all the moguls and do a lot of work in the park, so I need to look out the back window a lot. The seat doesn’t turn, so it’s harder to look out the rear window.”

Still, he appreciates the attention to detail overall in the new groomer. “Little things like the Xenon headlights—very nice.” Unlike the blinding lights motorists often encounter on the highway, “These on the Bison shine just ahead of the cat, without blinding anyone,” Benson says. “They don’t bother other drivers at all.”


Kässbohrer

“The new PistenBully 600 is almost a new standard in technology,” says Kässbohrer marketing manager John Glockhamer. “Old-school machines use switch and relay components to activate valves, cylinders, etc. The new technology is CAN bus technology, in which a controller area network provides a digital communication link” between the operator and the mechanical systems. “It’s fast, and sends a confirmation signal back to the computer.

“We have a touch screen on the 600 for different functions. It allows us to introduce ‘smart valves.’ The object is to make it easier to operate and to create efficiencies in operation, less consumption of parts. We’ve eliminated all those switches and relays. Digital is very reliable, because it has fewer moving parts.

“For young operators, this will be easier to learn than the traditional switches. The whole goal was to make this machine easier to operate. Even operators who aren’t computer-savvy will pick it up.

“The new electronics make steering very sensitive, and the operator can adjust that.” Electronics also make it possible to automate several actions. For example, to program the lights to come on or off; it’s not necessary to time them individually.

“On the safety side: the new windshield has a safety shield between two sheets of glass; this makes the windshield nearly shatterproof,” Glockhamer says. “The frame uses modular construction for greater strength. We reduced the points under tension when it’s under load. We made some weight savings in the frame, but overall, the machine is a little bit heavier. But it doesn’t feel heavy, and the efficiencies offset the slight weight gain.”

Speaking of which: “The engine is a 400 hp Mercedes-Benz diesel. It puts out 1,400 foot-pounds of torque, a 41 percent increase over the 300, at 1,200 rpm—so it’s quiet and fuel-efficient. It’s a bigger-block engine that meets Tier 3 emissions requirements,” he says.

“The cabin frame is new, with lots of other refinements. For example, lights shine on the tracks for easier entry and exit,” Glockhamer notes. Besides a very spacious cabin, a comfortable suspension seat with non-slip fabric and an adjustable steering column, the cabin includes an Alpine XM-ready AM/FM radio and CD player.

“One other advantage,” Glockhamer says: “The machine has increased tiller pump size. In the 300, it was 71 cc displacement. The new pump has 105 cc displacement. So the tiller cuts better, and can operate faster on hard snow. We’ve also refined the automatic tiller depth control,” first used on the Polar.

Glockhamer concludes, “We wanted to make it very friendly and functional for the operator, so we increased visibility in the cab for all directions. And Xenon lights aid visibility, too.”


600: The Operator’s Take

Greg Sorensan, lead driver at Mammoth Mountain, has been working with a fleet of four 600s. He agrees that the 600 is a step up.

“When they built this thing, they built it for the operator,” he says. “It’s so comfortable; it’s like sitting on a couch. The operator just sits in there and drives. During a heavy storm cycle, the graveyard shift can be out there for 10 to 12 hours, and that’s when it’s important to have a comfortable machine.”

The touch screen computer located between the two seats uses simple bar gauges to tell the driver the tiller depth and amount of pressure being put down on the tiller. “It’s much more information than we’ve ever gotten before,” Sorensan says. “Since we are new to them, I don’t yet know all the different screens we can go to. I didn’t really know anything when I first got in it, but it comes to you pretty quickly once you run them a few times.”

Beyond comfort, however, is the PB 600’s more practical improvements over its predecessors. On older PB machines, the main controls were on rocker switches. On the new PB 600, the blade, tiller and other adjustments are all on one handle. “It makes the job a lot quicker,” Sorensan says. “You’re not reaching to change switches, you can go from forward to reverse and raise the tiller at the same time. And the dash is laid out all electronically now. Lights and window heaters are pushbuttons. Everything is right there at your fingertips.”

“In the rear, the snowtronics allow the operator to actually enhance the terrain, like rollers,” adds John Walline, a snowcat mechanic of 20 years. “And the frames are ten times stronger than they used to be. The terrain parks have made a huge difference in what the demands are. Snowcat frames are breaking now more than ever before because the machines are going in at odd angles.”

The added horsepower and torque are very apparent. “You can run at 1,300 rpm and the torque is unbelievable,” Sorensan says. “I was running at 1,200 rpm and it just chugs through the snow.”

Sorensan also likes the improved visibility out of the front windshield, where the beam at the edge of the windshield has been narrowed. “There’s a slope out the back so you can see out there a bit better, too,” Sorensan says.

On the maintenance side of things, says Walline, “There is quite a bit of a learning curve, but then you realize it’s very simple. The CAN bus technology makes troubleshooting so much easier. The self-diagnosis is far superior to anything we’ve seen before. On that screen you can check switches and it will tell you if they are working because it goes all the way to the central electronics.”

The PB 600 is nine inches taller than any other machine Mammoth currently has, so Sorensan says operators have had to be careful with them. The added height makes it difficult to do grooming work on lift ramps. But, he points out, “The main reason we got these is for grooming the main hill. You have 400 horsepower and they are so much quicker uphill than any other machines.”


PBL

After two years of false starts, PBL hopes to begin importing the Ohara grooming machines in 2007, according to PBL president Paul Leck. “We have everything in place for the Ohara launch, once it gets the go-ahead” from the company, he says. That could be as early as this spring, and it’s possible that PBL will have a demo machine operating in the west by season’s end.

PBL’s main line, of course, is Zaugg. The company is now producing its 22-foot superpipe cutting machine, which is in use at a few areas already. But the real action is in the smaller machines, the new 8-foot cutter and the 13-foot, Leck says. “We have a few of the 8-footers scattered across the country, and everyone who has one loves it,” he adds. That’s a reflection of the focus on progression parks and the needs of snowsport schools, for which the smaller cutters are ideal. From a maintenance standpoint, many of the parts for all the Zaugg cutters are interchangeable, aside from the cutting blades.

The newest market for Zaugg is tubing. The four-year-old, 8-foot Tubing Designer, which uses the same drive system as the pipe machines, is beginning to catch on, Leck says. It can create three different lane shapes: 8-foot inverted wall, like a bobsled run; 8-foot vertical wall; or for multi-tube runs, 11-foot walls.

In the end, it seems that there’s a machine for every job.

Tim Sweeney reported from Mammoth Mountain for this article.