Stock-Drawn Equipment for Trail Work

Performance Testing

All of the implements were tested on the Clearwater National Forest, Lochsa Ranger District portion of the Idaho Centennial Trail No. 2; Fish Butte Trail No. 223; Fish Creek Trail No. 224; and Down River Trail No. 2. (Figure 30).

Figure 30-The Beatty grader being field tested.

Soil types were those common to the southern exposure of the Idaho Batholith, or decomposed granitic soils. The projects were done in late May and early June when soil moisture was high (15%). Trail slopes on the Lochsa face typically range to 60% and steeper. Trail grades in the project area ranged from 5 to 30%. Vegetation ranged from bunchgrass with heavy sod; to willow, vine maple, and serviceberry corridors; to the heavy-timbered canopy of cedar, Douglas-fir and white fir on the north sides and bottoms. Only two sections of hard rock were encountered on Trail No. 223. Neither section was more than 30 ft (9 m) long. There were two sections of semihard partially decomposed granite on the upper mile of the trail. The tread on some sections of Trail No. 223 was virtually nonexistent due to years of weathering and elk traveling up and down the slope across the trail. In those sections, tread width averaged less than 10 inches. Trail No. 224, off Fish Creek Canyon, crosses numerous hard rocky spines of essentially unplowable trail interspersed with a long section of plowable decomposed granitic soil. Through the portion of Idaho Centennial Trail No. 2 from the Lochsa Historical Ranger Station to Boulder Flats, the trail grade averaged less than 10%, the soil was granitic, and the vegetation was mostly grass with low ferns and bunch grass.

The project was a Level III maintenance job on a trail that had seen little maintenance in 20 years. Brushing had been completed the previous year and the trail had been logged out before the tread maintenance began.

The crew consisted of the district packer, district trail foreman, and two trail crew members. Experience levels of the packer and crew members with draft stock and stock-drawn trail implements ranged from 1 to 8 years. Fred and Kate, the two Forest Service mules used in the project, had 13 and 14 years experience in harness, respectively. In general, the draft stock used for trail work on this project have more experience than any members of the crew. While using the trail equipment, both the teamster and the equipment handler followed the mules.

The manufacturers of the Trail Ace and Trail Scoop used a two-person crew and their own mule, Stumpy, to demonstrate their trail equipment. One person walked ahead of the mule to lead it. The other person followed the mule to handle the equipment.

The MTDC grader was used on portions of the Idaho Centennial Trail No. 2 and Down River Trail No. 2. The Chattanooga plow, Fremont grader, and Beatty grader were used on the Fish Butte Trail No. 223. The Trail Ace and Trail Scoop were used on Fish Creek Trail No. 224.

About 1¾ mi (2.8 km) of Idaho Centennial Trail No. 2 from the Lochsa Historical Station to Boulder Flats was plowed and graded with the MTDC grader. The first pass was made with the wing shoe lowered to elevate the outside of the wing 4 to 5 in (100 to 125 mm). The return pass was made with the shoe adjusted to allow the grader wing to contact the tread. The spread of the wing was adjusted to obtain a trail tread width of 2 ft (1200 mm). The two passes were completed in 3 hours. The production rate for reconstructing this portion of trail is about 0.4 mph (0.7 km/h).

The MTDC combination plow/grader was also used on Down River Trail No. 2. Two members of the Lochsa trail crew and one mule used the implement to construct tread on 1460 ft (445 m) of trail beginning at the trailhead. On the first pass up the trail, the cutting point was used to cut the inside edge of the trail. On the second pass, the cutting point and the grader blade were used.

Two adjustments were made on the second pass. The offset of the hitch was increased to allow the point to dig more aggressively into the hillside. The spread of the wing was decreased to decrease the finished tread width. The tread was finished on the second pass. The tread maintenance took about 50 minutes, including 10 minutes of downtime to adjust the wing. The production rate for reconstructing this portion of trail was about 0.6 mph (0.9 km/h).

This implement performed acceptably in terms of building trail. However, design features made this implement more difficult to use than the hillside plow. The single handle provided less control, requiring the operator to 'handle' instead of 'guide' the equipment. Improvements to the cutting point would provide a less aggressive cut.

The Chattanooga hillside plow, the Beatty grader, and the Fremont grader were tested on Fish Butte Trail No. 223. The testing began at the intersection of Trail No. 223 and Fish Butte Road (FS No. 483) 5.2 mi (8.3 km) from the trailhead. Two crew members and one mule made the first pass of the trail with the Chattanooga plow. The other two crew members and a second mule followed with the Fremont grader.

The hillside plow/Fremont grader combination had mixed results. The hillside plow worked satisfactorily. The Fremont grader did an acceptable job of grading but left large clumps of vegetation in the trail. These clumps of vegetation built up between the grader blade and the heel of the front skids on the Fremont grader. The lack of clearance would not allow the vegetation to roll off the grader blade. After about 650 ft (200 m) of trail work, testing of the Fremont grader was discontinued. The crew plowed another 3420 ft (1042 m) for a total of 4070 ft (1241 m). This portion of the trail was completed in 1½ hours. The production rate for reconstructing this portion of trail was about 0.6 mph (1.0 km/h).

The Chattanooga plow and the Beatty grader was used to finish the remaining 4.4 mi (7 km) of Fish Butte Trail No. 223. A single pass with the plow followed by a single pass with the Beatty grader was completed in 8 hours. The production rate for reconstructing this portion of trail was about 0.6 mph (0.9 km/h).

The developers of the Trail Ace and Trail Scoop, Bonner Brumley and Clarence McReynolds of Whitebird, ID, presented the features of their trail building equipment and demonstrated the implements on Fish Creek Trail No. 224. The two-person crew worked an 1170-ft (357-m) section of trail between 2850 and 4020 ft (869 and 1225 m) from the trailhead.

On the first pass up the trail, a single 2-in (5-cm) ripper tooth was attached to the Trail Ace to dig and loosen the inside edge of the trail. During the second pass going down the trail, the Trail Ace with a three-ripper tooth attachment was used to reestablish the tread width. After returning to the top end on the trail, a third pass was made downhill with the Trail Scoop. During this pass, the tread was finish graded and five water dips were installed. Each pass over the 1170 ft (357 m) of trail took 15 minutes, for a total of 45 minutes. The production rate for reconstructing this portion of trail was about 0.3 mph (0.4 km/h).

Results

The results from the stock-drawn trail equipment testing conducted in early summer 1994 on the Lochsa Ranger District in Idaho are listed in Table 1.

Discussion of Results

The combination of the hillside plow and the Beatty grader resulted in the highest rate of production under the conditions of this test. The other equipment may not have been as easy to handle as the hillside plow. In addition, the operators have more experience and are more comfortable using the hillside plow and Beatty grader.

The production rate obtained with the MTDC combination plow and grader was about 10% less than that obtained with the hillside plow and Beatty grader combination. This is a relatively small difference. However, the equipment operators agreed that the MTDC grader was much more difficult to control than a hillside plow. Thus, the hillside plow was preferred to the MTDC grader in the test configuration.

The Trail Ace and Trail Scoop combination resulted in the lowest production rate, or about half the production rate of the hillside plow and Beatty grader combination. This result may be misleading for several reasons. First, this test was conducted on a relatively short portion of trail. Second, this portion of the test was conducted by different operators (manufacturers) using a different stock-handling technique. Although this is the lightest of the trail equipment tested, the handle design and angle may be reducing the efficiency of this equipment by requiring more 'handling' than 'guiding' of the implement. This technique requires the crew to make more passes over the trail than the hillside plow and Beatty grader combination, or the MTDC grader.

The Fremont grader did not perform effectively in the soil type and vegetation type in this area of Idaho.

Recommendations

• Equipment Modifications

Good equipment, skilled operators, and experienced stock are necessary for a safe and productive trail maintenance crew.