DIY Ski Trail Groomer, Adding a Snow Cutter Bar

In this video, I show you the cutter bar that I added to my homemade cross country ski trail groomer. I will use the bar when I am re grooming trails that do not have fresh snow on them.
If you are interested in purchasing any of my 3D printed components or merchandise, or to reach out, check out my website
northwoodsengineered.com
Here is a link to the original video of the overview for the groomer itself
• Homemade Trail Groomer...
I would suggest looking at a local hardware/fleet store for the trailer runners but if you cant find them locally you can get them on amazon, they are just a little more expensive.
Trailer Runners: amzn.to/3kKSucB
Ice House Hitch: amzn.to/3ck1TDi
Disclosure: I am a member of the amazon associates program, which means if you click on the link above and buy something off amazon, I receive a small commission for eligible items. This does NOT affect the price you pay for items.

[@alango831]

Awesome design and work

[@northwoodsengineered]

Thank you!

[@vaclavsubrt5474]

Very nice. I wish I would be half as skilled as you to be able to make my own. It seems to compress the snow nicely (even without additional weight) and make solid base (almost like professional device).

[@northwoodsengineered]

Thank you! I’m really happy with how it works.

[@itypefaster]

I like the cutter bar. I have a wooden sled that'll haul shy of a cord of wood. If I want to pull from the woods to my house I'll have 7-10 miles of trails that run next to the road and across driveways. It will require a lot of trail maintenance and fixing the transitions over peerless driveways. Your grommer has impressed me the most, I'm going to try and replicate it, I'll try and remember to update you next winter. Stay warm and dry.

[@northwoodsengineered]

Well thank you, happy to help. I’d definitely be interested to see what you come up with

[@timcameron6559]

Very nice. This should smooth out my combination of snowmobile / UTV tracks nicely. Question… how do you attach the hitch to your snowmobile? Upgraded bumper with ball?

[@northwoodsengineered]

My snowmobile came with a utility hitch which is essentially a piece of flat steel with a 1/2" hole in it. Then the groomer hitch has a C shaped piece of steel with two holes in it, and then just a pin holds them together. Hope that makes sense. If you look up an otter ice house hitch you should be able to see the end.

[@gregcooper9753]

Building one now!! Thanks. I’m thinking of using the track based cutter that you made for your smaller groomer. Any thoughts?

[@northwoodsengineered]

Are you talking about the one where I cut all the “fingers” into the black trailer runner part?
If so, this metal one works much much better. But is obviously much more work.

[@sucapizda]

Instead of the complexity and massive engineering effort of the scraper bar attachment, what if you just add a bunch of weight to the top of the drag?? Would that give you the same effect??

[@northwoodsengineered]

That’s a good question, but no that wouldn’t really work. Even if you add a lot of weight, it won’t make the original groomer parts sink down and cut into the snow. If you look at other commercial groomer, having some sort of cutting function on the front is fairly common.

[@timcameron6559]

Do you adjust the height of the cutter much? I’m wondering if with my limited metalworking tools, I could build more of a fixed-height cutter to take on/off with bolts?

[@northwoodsengineered]

No I don't, so a fixed depth that you take on and off should work. Some things to think about though are if you dont have a deep snow base and its set too deep, you may hit the ground. And then also on the flip side if its set too shallow it may not work well. You could put multiple holes in a vertical mounting bar so that it would be adjustable each time you put it on.

[@billkircher2310]

@@northwoodsengineered the modern commercial units provide the ability to move the cutting teeth vertically on the fly and from the operator's tow vehicle. This allows one to adjust for conditions and changes with trail profile. The vertical bar featured in this video really isn't going to work well for adjusting on the fly.

[@rampanttricky17]

This is impressive; as is your feedback for people asking questions.
When you said -10° you are using the Celsius scale, right? I have cross-country skied at -10 °F and had a great time and would not be surprised if you all were as well.
I am just guessing you were in a rational place that uses the metric system.
... but you used feet for the lumber dimensions so....

[@northwoodsengineered]

Thanks Steve! But no, I’m taking -10 Fahrenheit aka -23 C. I can’t say we would do that often, we had a very cold stretch of days and wanted to get out. It was calm, so it wasn’t terrible.

[@NathanMelby]

Fahrenheit is an subjectively better system for measuring temperature when it comes to humans. I'll cede metric everything else.

[@mthabitX]

How is the groomer is holding up now that you have used it a few years?

[@northwoodsengineered]

It’s actually held up very well. So this will be my third winter with it and I have used it once this year already. I have not had any issues with it, nothing has broken. Given it’s made out of wood I’m sure something will fail eventually, but nothing yet.

[@mthabitX]

@@northwoodsengineered thanks for the response, good to hear!

[@alexaruda9008]

Check out that subscribe button!! 👍👍