Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire 1954 bombardier snow car project

Fuggin A.

You'd be shocked at the $ these old dumpsters on skis bring.

Dave;
Top of the snowy morning to you my friend, I hope you're all keeping warm and dry.

Thanks so much for sharing this build with us, I am never disappointed in your creativity and craftsmanship.

It's got to be super cool having your son involved in the build too.

Well sir, we got about 10" to a foot of snow last night and I've got to get back out there and do the neighbors place now - did our place in the dark via the LED lights I stuck on the tractor a couple years back. My goodness I do like LED lights Dave, that's one part of technology I heartily embrace.

Thanks again, all the best to you and yours and good luck ice fishing this season.

Dwayne

Install a floor hatch so the rig can be used as a temporary fishing house?

Well, the new fiberglass Poop 'n Fish (aka Snobear) is ~$85K new.........

Try and buy a good Thiokol.

Sheesh.

I loved those things In my living in Minnesota days....Those were pretty cool. My ex wife was from Chisholm.... would see several running around the Hibbing Area, but that was back in the 80s... place we deer hunted at about 30 miles north of Chisholm, had two of them going thru there each season....One Blue one like Dave's and then a Green one...the Green One looked like a Home Paint Job, with a brush....or Roller..

I thought you’d put a 426 Hemi in there!!!

Mm😀😃😀😀

Geez if you needed a "donor engine" you should have said something.

Love it! You could have a great YouTube channel!

Steve, (and everybody). Try to find a tv series called "ice vikings". It plays up in Canada. It's like deadliest catch, but it's canadian commercial ice fishing with nets through the ice. It's very interesting and they use a lot of these machines in the show, it's real life, a reality show. A lot of these machines in Canada have wood stoves in them!

I will try to summarize history and use of these machines.

Joseph Armond Bombardier, born in 1907 is said to have developed the "Auto neige" (snow car) after losing a child due to medical complications in which the child could not be transported to a hospital due to snow conditions. I believe he had been developing machines prior to the tragedy but this is the story as I understand it. This would be the initial product of the company known as Bombardier. 1937 is when production formally began. Early units had plywood coach bodies, this transitioned into metal bodies in the early 50's. Original power plants would be flat head chrysler inline 6 cylinder gasoline engines, manual 3 speed trans, automotive drive axles flipped upside down.

Sales markets varied, schools (winter bussing), mail delivery, emergency transport, military, commercial utility etc. Commercial fishing would become one of the markets.


Over the years, some machines arrived in the US at national parks areas such as yellowstone where fleets of these machines were used for winter park tours. This lasted up until recent years, some still exist out that way. Quite a few exist on lake of the woods in northern MN, mostly owned by resorts that transport sport/hobby fishermen. A few are privately owned like mine.

In Canada, many are still in service for commercial ice fishing. Others are used to transport goods way up in Nunavut and northwest territories. They pull large sleds loaded down with fuel barrels, vehicles and all sorts of goods.

Mine is purely recreational.

No questions on the modern swap yet. I'll try to stay ahead of that.


Prior to plucking the engine and trans from the donor pickup truck:

We used HP tuner software to interface with the engine and transmission module through the diagnostics port. We deleted the VATS (vehicle anti theft), deleted egr, evap, air pump, downstream cats, AC etc. everything we didn't need, we zapped. We remapped fuel mixture for a little more power in the mid to upper RPMs. We programmed the trans settings so the trans thinks it's always in "tow/haul" and we programmed for the drive sprocket vs vehicle tire size.

I then purchased a stand alone wiring harness for cleaner "engine only" wiring.

That's the coolest damn thing I've ever seen. Almost better yet is this thread is old school CF.

More Dave more!

How capable are these off the snow and ice? Marsh/mud/bog type of terrain?

That is an awesome project.
Would be cool to have of I lived in an area that received a lot of snowfall each year

GD it Dave. This is an abusive relationship we have here. Every time I get sick and tired of the bitching and complaining here and tell myself I'm leaving, YOU go and post another one of these threads and reel me back in!
Why do you have to be so MEAN!

ND

Thank you for a post that goes back to what I like about this site.

Different people doing different things/activities and posting the results for our entertainment/education.

As always your projects are ALWAYS Number ONE!

And

Some think sniping at others is viable thread

i don't really want to know. lol

Tagged ..... I love these threads.