I've never seen a tracked UTV compared to a snowmobile. How does the track surface compare in acreage? I suspect that getting one stuck could be a nightmare although a UTV is more likely to have a winch aboard.
Have you rode a fracked machine in the snow? I'm not talking about hill climbing and doing 70 mph across a field. Cruising roads with too much snow for a truck to drive on looking for tracks, glassing etc....
Don't have a track kit, but looked into them some, so my thoughts for what they're worth:
You'll never see 70 mph on a tracked ATV or UTV. The tracks take a lot more power to run than tires. The installation adapters change the final drive ratios considerably - you'll turn a 70mph atv into about a 40 mph machine on bare ground, more or less, slower in snow. Don't know the exact ratio/top end changes. Spent some time talking to one of the track kit manufacturer reps at Harrisburg show last spring. Supposedly you can run in deep snow, but a lot slower than a snowmobile. The better kits are atv size and engine displacement specific - so you can go down to smaller 300-450 cc atvs, but they will be the slowest on tracks.
Lots of videos on youtube showing tracked atv and utv in snow, mud, rocks, etc. Looks like they are a big improvement on soft ground, swamps, muskeg, etc. (much lower ground pressure than tires). Seems like the tracks would be ideal for changing conditions where you run from bare ground to snow during a trip - that would be the real advantage over snowmobiles. They do not look they'll climb in steep snow covered terrain as well as a mountain or deep snow type snowmobiles. Some tracks can have a harder time crossing obstacles like logs that a machine with tires can "bump" over.
Now, I've experienced larger tracked vehicles that perform very well in deep snow. We had the Army's M-973 Small Unit Support Vehicle (SUSV) when I was at FT Greely in Alaska.
http://olive-drab.com/idphoto/id_photos_m973_susv.php I've stepped out of one of those and sunk to my waist in snow that the vehicle was only sinking in a few inches. If the ATV/UTV track kits get the effective ground pressure down into the same range (around 1.8 psi) they should work well in deep snow.
afterthough - 1.8 psi seems high, you probably should look to get below 1 psiSo, a little summary of what I've gleaned:
Track kits are expensive.
Tracks are much slower in snow than snowmachines.
Tracks will reduce gas mileage a lot.
Tracks are much better than tires on soft ground like muskeg, flooded ground, mud, anything you would break thru with tires and bottom out.
Tracks are about the only system if you're going to encounter both bare ground and deep snow on same trip.
The all season track kits available work fine on rocks, gravel, dirt whatever year round, but cost a lot more and take more maintenance than tires.
Check the manufacturer's info for ground pressure.
