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This Tundra Cat Is No Child's Toy
WASILLA, AK (AP) - With tires 5-1/2 feet tall, the Tundra-Cat could be considered
an Alaska-sized toy for big boys. That would be a mistake.
The vehicle designed for use in the oil fields - looking a lot like a monster
truck - has a tender touch when it comes to the delicate Arctic tundra.
Its huge tires, at 5 pounds of pressure per square inch, do less damage than
a golf cart, said Mark Tope, the man who came up with the Tundra-Cat after
having a brainstorm a couple of years ago while watching a monster truck show
at 1 a.m.
Tope said he recalls the moderator saying, “Man, they have a big footprint.”
“
Then the light bulb came on. I said ‘Why can’t we do that for Prudhoe
Bay? Why can’t I put a crewcab on big wheels?’” Tope said.
“
Mark dreams big,” said wife Trisha, who acknowledges that she thought her
husband had lost his mind when he first came up with the idea. Now that one Tundra-Cat
is built and another is taking shape, she’s not so sure.
“
He said, ‘This is my niche,’” Trisha Tope said.
“
I never gave up on my niche,” Tope responded.
Tope, 36, was born into a family that hauled heavy equipment to the North
Slope oil fields. He’d done his share of bumping around Prudhoe Bay
in Rollagons and Tucker Snocats - large all-terrain vehicles used to transport
equipment
and crews.
Tope thought it was time the oil field workers had a more tricked-out ride.
But he knew if his idea was to have commercial success, the 15,000-pound
Tundra Cat - priced at between $240,000 and $270,000 - would have to be gentle
as
a pussycat on the tundra.
State regulations are strict when it comes to tundra damage. The Department
of Natural Resources has 20 stations on the North Slope where frost and snow
depths
are measured to determine what types of vehicles are allowed on the tundra,
and when.
Most tundra traffic shuts down in mid-May. Operators then have 72 hours to
get off the tundra; it’s later opened to a short list of vehicles approved
for summer use only.
The tundra is what keeps the permafrost frozen, said Leon Lynch, a natural
resources specialist with DNR in Fairbanks. Permafrost is ground that remains
frozen year-round.
“
Once you disturb the vegetative mat the frost gets exposed and melts, so you
basically melt the permafrost,” Lynch said. That also leaves the tundra
even more susceptible to scarring.
A warming Arctic also means that oil companies now must wait about three
weeks longer for the ground to sufficiently freeze to begin the winter work
season,
the busiest time of the year when repairs and exploration work gets done.
Next summer, DNR will test the Tundra-Cat for inclusion on the list of vehicles
that can be used in the summer.
This year, the department approved the Tundra-Cat for prepacking snow. Prepacking
is used by oil companies to build ice roads that allow crews to get out on
the tundra to drill pads and get rigging in place weeks before areas are
officially reopened to vehicle traffic. The snow is tamped down and then
water is sprayed
on it, creating an ice road.
“
We’ve been encouraging them to use the Tuckers, the Rollagons, the Tundra-Cats.
We want them out there to drive the frost level down faster and capture the snow
(before it blows away),” Lynch said.
The Tundra-Cat’s tires are 66 inches tall and 44 inches wide - agricultural
tires used mostly by sod growers. Tope has equipped them with metal studs
for a better grip on ice and snow.
The Tundra-Cat comes with four-wheel drive, two-axle steering, allowing the
two front wheels to point in one direction and the back wheels in another.
The advantage
of that is that the Tundra-Cat is gentle, moving more like a snake slipping
across the tundra.
With the front steering one way and the back steering the other, the Tundra-Cat
can cover an impressive 14 feet of ground in one pass when prepacking
snow.
Tope turned to Mike Dropik - who for three years built and raced monster
trucks as a member of the Indiana-based Bearfoot Team - to build the
Tundra Cat.
Dropik, 39, who also worked as a petroleum engineer on the North Slope,
had a good idea of what the industry needed and what environmental
laws would
allow.
Not only is it light on the tundra, it is designed to leave nothing
behind - not even human footprints. It comes with extensions for
a 3-foot-wide,
metal catwalk for walking around the truck.
The Tundra-Cat also has an undercarriage drip tray to catch any
fluids that could leak. It has triple-sealed axles to keep gear
oil in.
And the belt-driven transfer case is dry.
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