The Challenge:
Perisher Ski Field in the Snowy Mountains of Australia conducts maintenance on the snow making machines, base and drains of the ski field in the off season.
Normal access is by benching up the slope to get to the parts requiring work and then replacing the dirt afterwards. The soil is fine and clogs the triple bar shoes easily, meaning severe loss of traction. Ski field gradients range from 22° to 40° plus.
The Solution:
Peter Vagne fitted his Hitachi ZX120 with 14 TrackGrip IceGrips (ITG-500-MH) with the goal to provide additional traction and stability.
Manufactured from high tensile steel for extreme durability, they are functional at minus 15 degrees Fahrenheit/minus 25 degrees Celsius. Serrated teeth have been designed to penetrate through ice, snow, rock and shale with the side spikes providing exceptional sideways protection. It meant less time benching to do work.
The Outcome:
“The IceGrips on my machine turned my job around with:
- Improved safety – exceptional sideways protection when ascending and descending slopes and walking across on an angle
- The ability to work in previous inaccessible mountainous terrain and sub-zero conditions
- Improved productivity – massive savings on the time taken to complete the job
- Dramatically improved traction and stability when operating on hard packed clays and loose shale
- Improved fuel efficiency” says Peter Vagne
