i groom trails for big condo complexes on whistler mountain and we just use 3x4 or 4x4 sections of chainlink fencing. we put mid to large size rebar in the front and back, have mid grade chain approx. 6' long attached to a regular hitch. it is light weight for the steeper climbs we have to do and it smoothes the fresh sno (25-30 cm's) on a groomed trail it looks like a groomer had been there.we do about 25 km's of mountain trails 10 to 15 nights a week, turn around on roads, smack them off rocks and trees. these things can take a good beating but need maintanence as they like to pull apart ,so we twist all the ends together and we found they last a litter longer. we replace the chain link  usually when it dosent hold the rear peice of rebar. cheap to for a 50' roll of chainlink home depo i cant rember but i think it was like 60-70 bucks.this way the mountain groomers only have to go through our trails (ski-in,ski-out's for condos) once a week no matter how much it sno's. speed we travel is about 19 to 25 km's per hr. for a smooth finish we found if u go to fast it bounces around alot. hope this helps, it took a long time to figue something out that worked for us and this was a simple and cheep way.my friend use to use this method when he was a kid on his hills in thunderbay.f*@# crazy !

  Hat I have been thinking of building a groomer.  Plastic culvert pipe around 5 ft long 30 inch diametr or so. Just going to build a tow bar and put axle trhough it, then have a chunk of converyor belt as a drag behind the roller.  If you have any ideas let me know.  Link to site that sells them you can get a idea.
http://www.tiddtech.com/SGImplements/sgimplements.htm

[Edited by cavecan on 9/24/2008 at 8:20 PM]