White 'Slope Boss

[Tramway Guy]

In case you have never seen one of these, I thought I"d post a few photos of one I ran across in Massachusetts recently.

 

[J.Wondergem]

Looks rugged with those big tires on it. By the looks of the PTO shaft, it has done some hard work.

 

[RickieBlue]

Looks like a 3208 Cat?

 

[G1355]

Those were made for a groomer to groom snowmobile trails right? I've seen a couple there kinda rare

 

[Tramway Guy]

Yes, the 3208 is the engine in this machine. They started as an alternative to the rubber-tracked vehicles that were being used at almost every Ski Resort. Track repairs on those machines were (and still are) time-consuming and expensive. It was thought that these would be able to handle a large amount of snow grooming tasks. And be cheaper. But they just couldn"t match performance of later tracked alternatives and very steep terrain. In particular, rear-mounted tillers came into everyday use on tracked groomers, and there was no such thing for the Slope Boss.
I was told the PTO got twisted on a very large rotary mower being used on a ski hill during the summer months.

 

[rrlund]

I remember the article in HPOC about those. Didn't know if there were any left in existence or not.

 

[Thompson Mike]

When I was with WFE, Duane Starr sent me to Hawaii To work on some tractors and Parker Ranch on the big island had one they used grooming pastures on some very steep slopes. I dont believe any of the ski resorts in California had one running. I always thought they would have been a perfect beach grooming tractor also

 

[Ken in Illinois]

Thanks for posting on this very interesting White. Ken