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Anyone know anything about the "Formatic" cat featured on the inside cover of the latest SAM? Is this supposed to be a new KATV brand or something? I thought it might be a "value" model, but w/hydraulic suspension, I doubt that now. Is this a yet-to-be-released model or something?

Kassbohrer acquired Formatic last year. Formatic was a Finnish snowcat manufacturer. Solid machine. The price is competitive with retail tag @ $250,000 as of March 2009. I don't think I'd call it a "value" machine, though. Just a different product.

It's a center seat stick cat, which comes standard with a tri-flex tiller. And it's a damn sexy machine, if you ask me:














I'd love to demo this machine.

Interesting. Thanks for the info.

Those tracks are SHORT, for a 350 hp machine. I wonder how it climbs w/those short tracks? I'd be keen on a demo too. Weird that KATV bought another brand, that shares virtually nothing w/PB. I wonder where is the "economy" in that (for KATV, I mean)? Perhaps they'll blend platforms in the future and keep the same two brand names? Interesting.

Formatic was a company purchased by Kassbohrer 2 or 3 years ago. The machine offers a center seated drive cabin, cummins 350hp motor, with some really neat features. The hydraulic suspension, the auto tracer rear lift frame, and the snow robot tiller. ( I am not making these names up, this is what formatic called them). It is a solid machine, but is not a true pistenbully. We had the machine at Steamboat for NSAA last week. It ran non stop during the demos. by far the busiest machine out of the 5 that were there. I think the pricing quoted above was the pricing they give to SAM magazine, the machine is very competitively priced. In the pics above you see the flaps on the snowrobot, we did find by accident that with those flaps down, the tiller is the exact same width as the beast. Although the snow under the flap is unprocessed. Tom- I am sure Ken or I can fill you in on the formatic in more detail... more models = more options for the customer.

Cool. Thanks for the write up, Jim.