Wanted Tour - Finning Canada

COMPANY PROFILE: Snethun familyBecause he often spends long days in the air,having Challenger combines that are easy tomaintain makes sense for Vern Snethun“With the combines,there are very fewmoving parts and thatreally cuts down onyour maintenance andbreakdowns. I like thesimplicity of them. Ilike the fact that easeof maintenance anduser-friendly controlsare a priority.”both their Challenger 670 combines andtheir Challenger 95E tractor. “So that daywhen his mom said he could bring mewhat he had been waiting to show me,I was surprised to see that he done fourreally good drawings of Cat equipment.The combine was especially good. It reallyshowed me how involved and interestedthe entire family is in the farm.“Of course, Iva-Jean didn’t want thatto interfere with negotiations,” Leslie continueswith a laugh, “so she wouldn’t lethim show me the artwork until after thedeal was done.”The pictures Tyler drew hung in Finning’sregional sales office for severalyears, and the Cat equipment the youngestSnethun sketched still sits out back. Vernsays Cat machines weren’t all that popularin the area several years ago, but he saw thesuccess his uncle and cousin had with Catproducts, so he decided to give them a try.Fuel savings and decreased compactionwere two of the attractions.“Less soil compaction and a smootherride were just a couple of the advantagesof moving from rubber tires to track,”says Vern. “The fuel economy is betterand so is traction. You can really seewhat tire compaction can do by lookingat shovel wear on the air drill cultivatorshovels behind the tractor tires. Thoseshovels wear twice as fast as the rest. If theother shovels are good for 2,000 acres,those behind the wheels are good for1,000 acres. Behind tracks, shovel wear iseven across the implement. That’s a prettygood indicator right there of how muchless compaction damage you are doingwith tracks.” Rubber track tractors tendto cause less compaction because theyspread the weight of the equipment oversix axles rather than two.A lighter machine also contributes todecreased compaction, of course. And itmakes for smoother operations in wetweather. With the tractor, for instance, theINSET COURTESY OF SNETHUN FAMILY32 TRACKS & TREADS • Spring 2006 www.finning.ca