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John Hollenhorst ReportingStudents at Utah State have won some national recognition for rethinking and remodeling a snowmobile. Design-wise, it's definitely off the beaten track.
Think of the fumes and the noise of a regular snowmobile. Now imagine a new kind, with zero emissions and an engine so quiet you can't even hear it. It looks like a regular snowmobile. But there's not a hint of blue smoke. In fact, this machine put together by U.S.U. students has no exhaust whatsoever.
Nathan Hansen, U.S. U. Mechanical Engineering Student: "For environmentally sensitive areas it's the perfect solution."
And the difference in noise is certainly noticeable. You can hear a bit of noise from fan belts and tracks grinding on snow, but the motor itself is nearly inaudible, even with our microphone inside under the hood.
The secret is an electric motor. Instead of a gas tank, you sit on a bank of boat batteries.
Nathan Hansen: "In terms of performance, this is the highest performance electric snowmobile that we know of."
They proved it last week in Michigan at a college competition called the Clean Snowmobile Challenge.
Nathan Hansen: "Every award that we were eligible for, we won. So we feel like we did pretty good."
But in one dimension, the electrical snowmbile is not competitive - range. It can only go about nine miles before the batteries poop out. They're working on that and say we can expect improvements next year.
Jed Jenkins, U.S.U. Mechanical Engineering: "Yellowstone's our goal, to get enough range to go through Yellowstone. We haven't got there yet, but like I say, this is the first year. This is a prototype and there's a long ways to go."
Another disadvantage is the batteries weigh almost 400 pounds, so at the moment it's unsuited to recreational use. But it can definitely pull its weight as a utility machine. During the competition it pulled a sled weighed down with a full ton of freight.
