High Cab Snow Trac Purchase

Hey I'm the son of fellow new member Geoff, we have made the recent purchase of an Snow Trac with a high roof. Number 2317 if there is any order that makes it the second one built by Alex Mclarty In Scotland. I'll will take some more pictures later, just interested if this one has any oddities. Feel free to ask any questions I'm sure either my father or I can answer them.

Welcome to the FF!

Welcome to the Forums.

Well if you want to know about oddities, what I can tell you is that you only have 2 belts on your tracks! That is odd for a late production unit. Many of the early units had 2 belts but then sometime (maybe the late 1960s or early 1970s) they went to 3 belts. Lyndon would probably know the exact year this occurred.

I'd love to see some interior photos. It looks like you have a movable floodlight above the cab? Also is there a radio inside the cabin because it looks like there is an antenna mounted?

By the way, what does CAA mean?

Currently it's absolutely pouring down so I don't want to go and inspect but the ariel I believe was from a CB system NATS used to use, the radio is no longer inside but the antenna was left. I'd have to ask my father because he drove it, and two others for NATS. One was replaced by a BV206 the others by 4x4s. I think the floodlight is fixed as I never saw a handle inside, but once again a question for my father. I'm really hopeless at this CAA Stands for Civil Aviation Authority, it's air traffic management and control, in the early 00's part of it was privatized to form NATS, National Air Traffic Services. However the CAA stickers where left on the old vehicles because it was too much hassle to remove them.

Just curious, but where in the UK are you located? We have a couple members there . . . IceQueen is in Wales. Tommo is in the south of England. I know we have a couple other members, but can't recall where they are located.

What are you & your dad's plans for this? Just a fun toy? A hunting vehicle? Remote cabin access? Something practical?

Plans are to sell it on eBay, we sold the other Snow Tracs however that was for NATS. We bought this one and are to sell it ourselves. We are in the North West of England near the Scottish border.

Andeh said:

Plans are to sell it on eBay, we sold the other Snow Tracs however that was for NATS. We bought this one and are to sell it ourselves. We are in the North West on England near the Scottish border.

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Hi All, My son is correct the vehicle is an ex National Air Traffic Services Vehicle formally the Civil Aviation Authority. It has only recently been picked up from the station it worked at in Dumfries in the Scottish borders. The radio has been removed from it and it has to have the markings removed before sale. It will most likely be put on eBay for sale late August.

As for the two belt tracks these were for use on peat and the vehicle was ordered that way when the spec for the new vehicle was written, it was found that with three belts the tracks were more prone to coming off in non snow conditions.

It is road licensed and runs fine; there is a few spares that will be sold with it i.e. tyres wheels and some small spares.
The body work is not bad for the year as it has been garaged all its working life, there is some small areas of rust that could be easily restored.

Geoff

Geoff said:

Hi All, My son is correct the vehicle is an ex National Air Traffic Services Vehicle formally the Civil Aviation Authority. It has only recently been picked up from the station it worked at in Dumfries in the Scottish borders. The radio has been removed from it and it has to have the markings removed before sale.

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For those of us who love to find out the history of these things, it would be great if you could do us all a couple of favors.

• First, take some close up photos of the markings and post them for us and if there are any documents you can scan, or even photograph for us, that would be great. (Also you can post larger documents in the PHOTO GALLERY section of the ForumsForums, up to 2MB so we can see the detail).
• Second, provide us with any history detail you can about this specific unit.
• Third, if the CAA used several of these, it would probably be great if you could tell us something about their general use with the CAA such as how long were they in service, what were they used for, why did they need to drive on peat, etc.

Also its very interesting that the 2 belt doesn't de-track as easily as the 3 belt. I would have never guessed that. I would have presumed that it would have depended more on the depth and design of the cleats than on the tracks?

B_Skurka said:

For those of us who love to find out the history of these things, it would be great if you could do us all a couple of favors.

• First, take some close up photos of the markings and post them for us and if there are any documents you can scan, or even photograph for us, that would be great. (Also you can post larger documents in the PHOTO GALLERY section of the ForumsForums, up to 2MB so we can see the detail).
• Second, provide us with any history detail you can about this specific unit.
• Third, if the CAA used several of these, it would probably be great if you could tell us something about their general use with the CAA such as how long were they in service, what were they used for, why did they need to drive on peat, etc.

Also its very interesting that the 2 belt doesn't de-track as easily as the 3 belt. I would have never guessed that. I would have presumed that it would have depended more on the depth and design of the cleats than on the tracks?

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Hi, My son I am sure will oblige with more photo's.

The CAA started using Snow Trac's in the late sixties it used them to access radar and comunication stations in both Scotland and England. They were based in Shropshire for the Clee Hill Radar, Cumbria for the Great Dunn Fell Radar and Comms site, Dumfries for The Lowther Hill radar and Comm's site this particular one was the last machine bought in the early eighties and was based in Tweedmure for a NAV site at Talla this is also the longest in service at 24 years.

It has been found from experiance of using them in the snow conditions in the UK were snow cover can be patchy that the three belt design that we first received in the early seventies that used in these conditions that the two belt design was less likely to de trac. Also in summer used when used on heather in Scotland the two belt design was better this was why machines used in Scotland were ordered with the two belt tracks.

In England were the machines were used only in winter the three belt design was used.

The Snow Tracs have all now been replaced with either the BV206 or Kasbora machines the reason for this was not that the machines had come to the end of there lifes mechanically it was on Health and Safety grounds as they had no roll cage and the fuel tank was internal.

Hope this information is useful, regards Geoff

The images have been uploaded to my gallery as very large high quality jpegs, I will update when more are added this afternoon (GMT 18:00 Aprox). I will add both low quality ones here and high quality ones into the gallery. Thanks' for the tip.
http://www.forumsforums.com/pp53/showgallery.php?cat=572

Here's some more pictures, they are also in the gallery as larger images.

According to the Serial Number Chart this was made AFTER AKTIV stopped production, the last machine being 2315? and I see it has an Alex M sticker on it too! The second of his machines?

Lyndon said:

The second of his machines?

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Ice Queen was the first person here at the ForumsForums to get a post-Aktiv machine that seems to have been assembled by Alex in Scotland.

I think it to be the second of Alex's machines as mentioned in my first post. That is if he contined the serial numbers the same order.

We have recently removed the CAA livery and moved the numberplate from covering the 'Trac' section of the forward Snow Trac picture. Attacthed are some pictures of the engine bay and of the brakes.

Had a quick look at the serial number of mine - 2325, and it was a tall cab one too, interesting....I still think it looks better with the lower cab though.