A snowcat is an enclosed-cab, truck-sized, fully tracked vehicle designed to move on snow. Snowcats are often referred to as 'trail groomers' (or 'piste bashers' in British English) because of their use for grooming ski trails ("pistes") or snowmobile trails. Most snowcats, such as the ones produced by Bombardier or Aktiv in the past, have two sets of tracks, fitted with a Christie suspension or a Vickers suspension. Others, like the Tucker Sno-Cat and Hägglunds vehicles, have a complex arrangement of four or more tracks.
The tracks are usually made of rubber, aluminum or steel and driven by a single sprocket on each side, and ride over rubber wheels with a solid foam interior. Their design is optimized for a snow surface, or soft grounds such as that of a peat bog. In addition to grooming snow they are used for polar expeditions, logging in marsh areas, leveling sugar beet piles, and seismic studies in the wild.
The cabs are optimized for use in sub-zero weather or cold conditions worsened by wind chill, with strong forced heating and a windshield designed to be kept clear of internal and external ice or condensation through a variety of means such as advanced coatings, external scrapers (windshield wipers of a modified type), and internal ducts blowing hot air on the surface.