Old Snow Vehicle adaptions & otherwise

[Terry Harper]

Tractor World, Oct. 1920

 

[arcticbuicks]

very interesting units......and yes thats the old common practice in extreme cold.......warm everything up .......then carefully try the rest ready to stop before something frozen breaks........and sometimes we would just try moving a little to get fluids/parts moving then stop and then go again,another thing i saw a lot in the north in extreme cold was track lifts or parking on blocks to prevent tracks from freezing to the ground or snow and ice freezing in around everything,anything oil was a risk of blowing out seals or even blowing up the oil filter i saw a ton of times

Edited January 28, 2023 by arcticbuicks (see edit history)

[Terry Harper]

If you have an interest in a model T or Model A snowmobile conversion or any other car of the era (A friend converted a Buick) then I would suggest joining the club or going to one of their meets. They are a wonderful group of people and a wealth of information. Yes, the price of a conversion can be daunting using either new or original components. However, over the past decade they have become a premium item with good, well built examples commanding premium prices.

 

http://www.modeltfordsnowmobile.com/index.htm

 

[arcticbuicks]

thanks i will read up on them,but i am maybe 2500 miles away from the meets,i would travel to buy though.......there are the odd tracked unit around here but very beat to a slow final horrible used to the last weldable  death ,I am tracking down a early 30s larger car[or more like a small bus] with original track set that is in the "Cranberry Portage Manitoba" area but it will likely be a basket case as far as the car.........Model A is looking good to me for heated cab and easy parts

[Dandy Dave]

On 1/27/2023 at 2:28 PM, sagefinds said:

I have this stuff on ebay right now if anyone is interested. It bolts right onto the rear drums and the front wheels clamp into the springs so it will work on a two wheel drive. According to the previous owner the bolt pattern is for a Jeep. He said his grandfather built it,I presume from a kit. It will need new rubber belting,at least one chain and some crossbars. It has been outside for decades but in dry Northern Colorado.

If these were closer I'd be interested.

[arcticbuicks]

It looks like there was a lot work put into making the tracks,I wonder how they worked in using? too me it looks like there could be problems with the chains staying on the sprockets ?

 

Interesting is that a lot of the early chain track snowmobiles used a 1940s 1950s combine 'feeder chain' pictured..... with a width of rubber belting loosly attatched to cleats to prevent sinking in snow and most just had oak wood sliders instead of boggie wheels,without loose snow the runners would wear fast or near catch fire from friction........the wide chain with bars behind the pick up header that fed the straw back into the combine  like from a "Moline "combine which i seem to remember supplied the first Polaris snowmobile tracks like "Sno traveller" and factories near by ,a lot of early snowmobiles were also produced by farm equipment companies........these chains were strong and had 'huck' rivet bolts with sprocket guides on chain links........i have been searching for a old huck bolt riveter tool to rebuild a extemly rare "Autoboggan snowmobile" track with bad bent cleats from arctic ice and rocks,Production snowmobiles started going to rubber tracks around 1961..........I got one of these combine feeder chains for fun from the scrap yard but old farm dealers have cheap new stock also, and would be a easy project to make your own as the track is the most difficult to make ,but i do not think it would stand the weight of a car or uneven sideways pressure on a car

Edited January 29, 2023 by arcticbuicks (see edit history)

[arcticbuicks]

This is the latest thing people have been doing in Canada  for snow tracks,but a set for a truck will cost you $15,000

Edited January 29, 2023 by arcticbuicks (see edit history)

[arcticbuicks]

one of my favorites is a "Sno Coupe" vintage snow car 

[arcticbuicks]

[auburnseeker]

Even tracks for a Side By Side run $5000.   I thought of getting a set for mine,  but just hard to justify since I don't really Have to go anywhere with it.  I would just use it to pack the mile and 1/2 or so of walking trails on the property. 

[arcticbuicks]

are they street legal there ? around here im not sure on trucks with tracks being street legal in all places,but snowmobiles are legal to ride into town with each area having their own rules

Edited January 29, 2023 by arcticbuicks (see edit history)

[arcticbuicks]

remember when all snow tires were the zig zag type ? and deep deep tread.......the new ones are so close to summer looking with shallow tread

[Terry Harper]

 

1909

[arcticbuicks]

i would call that almost 'steam punk' looking........it almost looks medival .......very cool

[J.H.Boland]

On 1/27/2023 at 11:08 AM, arcticbuicks said:

This 490 Chevrolet snow machine was once on display at the Minnie Thompson Museum near Stratford, Ontario. Some of the collection was auctioned off in the late seventies, including the Chevy. I bid on it but was outbid by the Canadian Automotive Museum of Oshawa, Ontario where it still resides.

Edited January 29, 2023 by J.H.Boland (see edit history)

[arcticbuicks]

very cool to see a pic of before it went to the museum,and a 490 !      funny that they had to leave the front wheels and cut them in half ,seems like a lot of extra stuff and not like they could take the skis off and use the wheels .........is there a spare half a wheel on the back ? lol

[J.H.Boland]

2 hours ago, arcticbuicks said:

very cool to see a pic of before it went to the museum,and a 490 !      funny that they had to leave the front wheels and cut them in half ,seems like a lot of extra stuff and not like they could take the skis off and use the wheels .........is there a spare half a wheel on the back ? lol

They apparently never heard of the Snowmobile Company of West Ossipee, NH. They supplied kits to convert Model T Fords. I once had a set of their skis with the hopes of building a 490 snow machine. The Model T and 490 have interchangeable 1/2 inch kingpins so the Ossipee skis would bolt right on.

Edited January 30, 2023 by J.H.Boland (see edit history)

[Terry Harper]

My cousin had one of these conversion kits and had an early 70's Triumph Bonneville setup with it. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Terry Harper]

Early Linn working a hardwood stand.

[Terry Harper]

 

[sagefinds]

1 hour ago, Terry Harper said:

 

Yeehaw!!!

[arcticbuicks]

Great video !! thanks so much 

Edited January 30, 2023 by arcticbuicks (see edit history)

[arcticbuicks]

Here is a invention of my own I built with a business partner....started with a quick sketch of the idea.........kind of for fun ,kind of to try the idea..........[i now think getting a idea stuck in your head =a lot of work to come]......I had just sold a place I had and moved to a rural property and had not built new shop yet.....the property only had a double car garage with one single door 8 feet high,We started in late fall and built the thing with only the cab in door of garage through the winter laying on blankets outside ,i would say we built most of it in -25 to -35 and the odd -40 degrees and was a cold winter..... and finished it in 3 months by end of Feb. ,at the time we had 39 large snow contracts in city places like Home Depot and 3 Mc Donalds,a constant problem was having a big loader in tight places and having to have a loader and truck tied up at the same place.......I already had the great old truck that actually passed safety inspections no problem........it would never have to travel far also.......so i bought a old 750 Massey combine Perkins diesel powered $750 at farm auction that took a stone in and mangled thrasher,a 3 point hitch farm snowblower $800. and a corn silage chute traded for some tires......we stripped the combine of all the running gear and hydraulics etc and console with controls from cab......it all went well and balanced the other side of the truck with fuel tanks and hydraulic tanks etc.....it ended up that the snowblower had three times the HP needed and RPM scary.......First Problem......the snowblower blew the snow in the box at 100 mph and tight against the back wall and filled truck forward to cab ......great !.......until we went to dump.....it was a solid bread loaf 4 times the amount of a truck with loose snow.....it came out in a solid block and the truck front went up in the air 6 feet then came down.......a vibrator solved that after......we also ended up loading other semi trucks with it as the chute turned ........and used it to clear places without loading itself........used the truck for tens years way more than we imagined we would.......one night i felt a shaking in a huge storm behind a store and stopped,i saw i had eaten a stack of wood pallets.......later it ate a steel bicycle rack and other things.........sent a 2 litre frozen coke through a wall......two USA equipment companies looked at the idea with non disclosure statements to buy the idea for big city use.......but it was a no go........

Edited January 30, 2023 by arcticbuicks (see edit history)

[28 Chrysler]

Arcticbuicks

Growing up in Minnesota you would be dumping that at least twice in every block.

[arcticbuicks]

yes ,but it held 4 times as much as just dumping in a regular truck also i would load a row of 4 or 5 semis so it didnt have to haul much,some nights i would haul 30 loads out of a place though,the snow we get here is different lol

Edited January 30, 2023 by arcticbuicks (see edit history)

[Terry Harper]

Original and reproduction track conversions for a model T or model A out of your budget? Well.... build your own from scratch

as this gentleman did. Pretty cool!

 

 

 

[auburnseeker]

That's a good idea and would really cheapen up the project.  I bet if one used their own labor they could do it for a couple of grand.  Skis would be the hardest part,  but you could even make those from scratch if you had to,  or find something laying around that would work. 

[arcticbuicks]

the tracks are a lot of work really when you lay them out longer than a car ,to assemble,takes a thousand lil bolts or Huck rivets are the way to do them to hold together

[Bhigdog]

Well! You said snow vehicle............Bob

[Terry Harper]

 

Frosty's poor choice.

 

Edited February 3, 2023 by Terry Harper (see edit history)

[Skvitt]

From Facebook

[arcticbuicks]

ooooo nice color pic,i have a few black n white of the snow cruiser a page back

[Larry Schramm]

Maybe easier to see.

[Terry Harper]

Churchill Lake, Maine.

[Jim Bollman]

[Jim Bollman]

[Jim Bollman]

[Dandy Dave]

On 2/4/2023 at 6:34 PM, Jim Bollman said:

Love this photo. I can feel the blast of the cold air just sitting here. 🥶 

Edited February 6, 2023 by Dandy Dave (see edit history)

[arcticbuicks]

very cool.......i wonder how many people got seriously hurt back in these days with some of the wild contraptions .....with zero safety protection 

[arcticbuicks]