Excerpt from an interview with Jason Smith of Scenic Safaris.
The snow coach is new technology that has hit the ground in the last few years and essentially it is an aftermarket vehicle that’s completely rebuilt. It’s a shuttle van that has custom built rims and agricultural tires that float on top of the snow. These tires are 30 inches wide and 42 inches tall and they allow the pounds per square inch of the vehicle to be displaced over a larger area. So even with two, three and three-and-a-half-foot snow falls, we can float on top of the snow with very little impression into the snow. The really nice thing about the snow coach is that there’s individual bucket seats and seat belts for everyone that is in the vehicle. There are 14 seats in the machine, although we cap it at 10 for general public tours. We have made exceptions where a family of 14 will fit, but we have to let them know that it’s going to be a snugger ride. The other really nice part of the snow coaches, no matter what temperature outside, you’re in climate-controlled vehicles. Whether it’s 40 degrees in the spring time or negative 30 for those two or three days throughout the winter that you’re have the indoor climate-controlled components. Another addition of being in the snow coach is the ability of the guests ask all the questions that they want to a season guide. This may be their bucket list once in a lifetime trip and then the snow coach, you have full access to the guide the entire 13 hours a day. Whereas on a snowmobile you’re, you’re taking five, 10, 15, 20-mile chunks of driving and you’re driving the machine. In a snow coach you can sit back, relax and be as involved in and enthralled in the conversation or just sit back and enjoy all the scenery that you’ve ever experienced before.
Do you find that the snow coach is appealing to families, especially with younger children?
Certainly that is I would say the number one advantage. Families can still go to the park with a four-year-old or a two-year-old and not have to worry about bundling them up in the Michelin man costume that we’ve seen in movies. They can wear their normal winter gear that they would be wearing around downtown or wherever and then being a warm vehicle and be sheltered from any of those environmental concerns. The families definitely have a huge benefit for having a snow coach as their touring mechanism.
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