as I posted earlier I found a rare light foot snow cat out at a mine here in western ak. I put together a deal to get it and the story of getting it home was a true adventure. the thing was at a mine 6 miles off the road through some real nasty conditions I went out to work on a Volvo excavator I had no quad that ran at the time so the owner was giving me a ride in. the marooka blew a hydraulic drive hose that morning they met me at the road that morning in a Polaris 6x6 side by side. the side by side got stuck on the way in and broke the winch cable trying to free it. this meant a 3 mile walk. with tools and equipment I worked on the excavator and pulled the marooka hose so I could get another one built. when I asked about getting out they said I would have to hoof it out. stop here I may have been a soldier but I worked n the motor pool we ride every place.i asked about the snow cat he said it ran when parked but it would throw tracks, so I put my MacGyver hat on through a battery in it 5 gallons of gas and filed the points and set them by eyeball. it started and ran pretty well I had to put it in gear and start it because the clutch wouldn't release I drove it around the laydown area and felt pretty good it would stay in the tracks so off we went to rescue the side by side I drove out over some pretty nasty disadvantaged minority heads and through a boulder field and it stayed in the tracks about 500 yards from the stuck Polaris I had a nasty deep mud hole to cross this is when it wanted to get out of the right track while I was driving straight. the owner said some bad words to the machine, than told me that he owed me some money and I could have the POS. so it sat in the mud for another month while I got my bigboss 6x6 running. I went out got it started and out of the mud up on another disadvantaged minority head high and dry. I looked at the front wheel and could see the axle was bent I came out with a porta power and straightened it out. than on another nice day and now it was getting cold we went out with 3 of us to re assemble the track and drive it out. because I traveled out of town during the covid - 19 panic I got my self quarantined from work for 2 weeks tat meant I had time to pull the 3 speed and replace it with a c-4 I scored. with a little jerry rigging at the end I got it in and built up a driveline so I could move it and made up a shifter, it rolled out into the sun this afternoon and I drove it back to work.in review its real quiet, steers nice, the tracks are squirly on the ice especially with the rear end in high, but the ride quality is excellent and its a pretty nice rig worthy of paint and a track rebuild. the pics are coming my boy is going out with me tonight to shoot video with me.
