1920s "snow tractor"

This is pretty cool...

http://www.videosift.com/video/Snowmobile-of-1926

only in Michigan...

Geat old video! I kept trying to turn up the volume but then I realized that they likely did not have "talkie" flims back then. About 8 minutes into the 10 minute film they show a Chevy with the drums attached. The driver picks up 4 buddies and proceeds to do doughnuts in the road. You can almost smell the wiskey that would likey have been included!

Another fun one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aq6OdYzrIGA
This is a current video from Ohio and the Lake Erie Island City of Put-in-Bay.
About 2 minutes into the 3 minute video there is some great old film of Ice Racing. Likely taken in the 50's but the cars are from the 20's - 40's. Cool, real, rat rods.

I think tha that is pretty cool.

One of those would make a great garage find. Wonder how many were built. Limited market, but it sure did work.

I am surprised that is not in use today in some places.. seems to work just as well, if not better than a lot of things.. and is a LOT simpler than a tracked vehicle

I wonder how the steering worked?

I never could clearly see how the rotors were attached. One belt or 2. If 2 then somehow it varied the speed of the rotors. It looked very easy to manuever so someone spent some time calculating the ratios.

procainestart wrote: This is pretty cool... http://www.videosift.com/video/Snowmobile-of-1926

This museum says they have one, but they don't have any pictures.

http://www.aghistory.org/cgi-bin/default.asp?AID=168

(down towards the bottom of the list)

http://www.formandreform.com/wordpress/?tag=armstead-snow-motor

Check out the Zil video at the bottom.. CRAZY RUSSIANS...

the Russian one is the craziest, that looks so menacing.

That thing is awesome!! I would love to have one of these in todays age... cruisin around the countryside

And... ...in Mother Russia, road builds Snow-Motor!!

carguy123 wrote: I wonder how the steering worked? I never could clearly see how the rotors were attached. One belt or 2. If 2 then somehow it varied the speed of the rotors. It looked very easy to manuever so someone spent some time calculating the ratios.

It's running off the PTO (Power Take Off) Shaft. then it's broken into a side by side diff. Chain driven. no slippage.

most tractors use differential braking. Left and Right rear brakes are seperate for allowing turns on one wheel

Grtechguy wrote:

carguy123 wrote: I wonder how the steering worked? I never could clearly see how the rotors were attached. One belt or 2. If 2 then somehow it varied the speed of the rotors. It looked very easy to manuever so someone spent some time calculating the ratios.

It's running off the PTO (Power Take Off) Shaft. then it's broken into a side by side diff. Chain driven. no slippage. most tractors use differential braking. Left and Right rear brakes are seperate for allowing turns on one wheel

I read some more..

It works off of the steering wheel for turning. The steering wheel changes the slipper clutches in the big drive box.

Oh i want one.....

I thought it was funny that Fordson made one for a Chevy.

Fordson was a branch of ford of corse.

That's cool, but it's not Lombard Steam Log Hauler cool:

http://www.allroutes.to/modeltandlombard/4/images/MVC-024F.JPG

I have actually seen something like this. They used to use these on the spoil areas(where they pump dredged material from the harbor) around here. This one was powered by two Chevy V8s driving through automatic trannys. The pontoons were probably 6-8 feet in diameter. Looked like it should float. I didn't get to see it run, but it would have been cool.