Snow Drag or Snow Groomer — Trying to show the what they are, the how and why sometimes people call them the same thing.  

Snow drag best uses

For flat land snowmobile trails Snow Drags can take care of the moguls on trails left from snowmobiling.  Good drags will cut the tops off moguls or whoops multiple times to break up the icy or hardened snow. The top of the moguls need to be cut off and deposited in the valleys between the whoops.  Sometimes cutting the tops a little bit at a time Is wise. Also trying to warm up the snow with multiple cutting blades for better compaction to keep the moguls or whoops from returning as quickly.

Getting rid of moguls and totally flattening out a trail can be difficult, especially in icy conditions.  Some snow drags can add extra pressure with the hydraulics and three-point hookups of a tractor (or something like a Tucker)  to keep the front of the snow drag down and cutting into the moguls.

Snow drags are good for filling in the tracks of the towing machine.  They can weigh a lot and the blades cut the snow or slush and often move it back and forth to fill in any tracks.

Snow Drags often are very heavy and therefore can compact the snow easily with the weight of the drag.

A great use of a Snow drag that isFor  long can leave a very flat trail because they do not go down into the little valley

Snow drags are not as good for the following.

Making sledding hills because they want to slide sideways when you go sidehill.  And thy push snow where you may not want it pushed.

Ski hills because it is harder to not have ridges between the paths of the drag.

Some folks call our snow groomers that have a razor, a snow drag, because it is pulled behind machines.  These are far from a snow drag.  Even though the razor can cut moguls or whoops down and put the snow in valleys between the whoops.  It only makes one cut and is not intended to heat up the snow but to cut it multiple times.  It is meant to be pulled by much smaller machines and be way more efficient in grooming the snow. If for nothing else the snow groomer is much smaller and weighs less.

In deep powder conditions, many drags can have the powder go over the top of the drag and not leave good corduroy.  Some of this can be solved by using a snow plow to knock down the snow before it gets to the snow drag.

Grooming at ski resorts

Ski resorts groom the hills with a plow and a snow groomer behind them.  There are two big ones who do this.  Prinoth and Pisten Bully.  They move the snow with the plow on the front which has many ways it can turn or push the snow.  That is  the easiest way to get snow to the correct place to be groomed.  The groomers just compact the snow and leave corduroy.  They do not need to warm up the snow for compaction in most cases.

Very few snow drags have wings to keep the sides of the trail from falling back into the groomed area.

Snow drags have sides that keep things level but there are cases where the sides keep the drag on top of the moguls and do not let it cut them off as much as needed.

Because snow drags are heavy it often takes large towing machines or works smaller towing machines a lot to pull them.  It can be expensive to pull these snow drags for fuel costs alone.

Where to use a snow groomer.

Snow groomers can cut whoops and make for good corduroy snowmobile paths.  You most likely will have to snow groom more often on a snowmobile path than if you had a true snow drag.  But it is not a problem to just pull a small groomer behind your snowmobile and keep your trails nice all the time. When you only have a little bit of snow then a snow groomer keeps more snow on the path.  We currently do not sell any true snow drags.  Because most of our uses are for different reasons.

Our snow groomers are meant to be pulled by anything you ride on the snow.  We have even pulled our smallest groomers with a sno-scoot.

If you groom a trail then have time to let the snow settle before snowmobiles go on your trail then a snow groomer can leave as compacted as snow as a heavy snow drag.  Ie why we like to snow groom late at night.

For deep powder conditions, our snow groomers will always stay on top of the snow if you have your deflectors in front of your pan.

For walking trails, ski hills, tubing runs, snow fishing paths, ski joring, dog sled trails, cross country skiing. It is way more efficient and better to use a snow groomer than to use a snow drag.

Summary

We are hoping this answer questions about snow drags versus snow groomers and when to use each

Snow drags are most useful in keeping very used snowmobile paths smooth. You need machines that are meant for towing lots of weight to pull most snow drags.

Snow groomers leave corduroy snow in many cases and can be pulled by side by sides with tracks.

We do not even know how to classify the sno-Blaster as it is neither a snow groomer by definition or a snow drag.  We call it a snow groomer because it leaves nice corduroy but the plows in front. This is different than any other snow groomer.