• Please be sure to read the rules and adhere to them. Some banned members have complained that they are not spammers. But they spammed us. Some even tried to redirect our members to other forums. Duh. Be smart. Read the rules and adhere to them and we will all get along just fine. Cheers. :beer: Link to the rules: https://www.forumsforums.com/threads/forum-rules-info.2974/

Welcome Snow Trac Owners

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
I've noticed we've had a few new members join up here and I know of a few lurkers who have contacted me via email who have been visiting here.

I just want to welcome all of you here, to my knowledge there is no one place to talk about Snow Tracs, trade parts, discuss repair or restoration issues. Christer Morland's site is the best resource we all have, however it has not been updated in a year, he does have some great information posted and still is the best single place I've found.

I'd like to encourage everyone to feel free to upload their photos and start any topic you feel would be of interst or concern. There are not many of us around, but we may be able to use this forum to share our information and keep our ST's in good running order.

Bob


EDIT: Just to add something that some Snow-Trac owners may not be aware of, there is a lady named Debbie who digitized some original Snow Trac ST4 parts and operating manuals. She sells them on eBay on a CD Rom. Debbie sells under the name "ladygazelle7" and here is a link to her ebay auctions . . . Operating & Parts Manuals on Ebay


Po prostu (dopiero co) dodawać coś co (żeby; który) niektóre (pewna ilość; niedużo) *Snow-Trac* właściciele może (maj; majowy) nie jest zdający sobie sprawę, tam jest pani wyznaczana (nazwany) *Debbie* kto (który) *digitized* niektóry pierwotny Śnieg *Trac* *ST4* częście i działający (operujący; działanie; operowanie) kierownictwa. Ona sprzedaje & (oni) na *eBay* na *CD* *Rom*. *Debbie* sprzedaje pod imieniem (nazwa) "*ladygazelle7*" i tutaj jest łączność jej *ebay* licytacje. . . Działanie (operowanie) & Kierownictwa Części na *Ebay*


Ajouter juste quelque chose que quelques propriétaires de Neige-Trac peuvent ne pas se rendre compte de, il y a une dame appelée Debbie qui a digitalisé quelques pièces originales de Trac ST4 de neige et operating manual. Elle les vend sur eBay sur des ventes de Rom. Debbie de CD sous le nom de "ladygazelle7" et voici un lien à ses enchères ebay. . . Manuels d'opération et de pièces sur Ebay


Etwas gerade addieren, daß einige Schnee-Trac Inhaber möglicherweise nicht bewußt sein können, es eine Dame gibt, die Debbie genannt wird, der einige ursprüngliche Schnee Trac ST4 Teile und operating manual digitalisierte. Sie verkauft sie auf eBay auf CD Rom. Debbie Verkäufen unter dem Namen "ladygazelle7" und ist hier eine Verbindung zu ihrem ebay versteigert. . . Funktionieren u. Teil-Handbücher auf Ebay
 
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Doc

Bottoms Up
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
Welcome guys! I don't own a Snow Trac but sure enjoy the pics. If you have a project going or general pics of your rigs please show em off here!
Thanks,
Doc
 

Snowcat Operations

Active member
SUPER Site Supporter
Thanks for the welcome Bob. I will be leaving next week (if the weather is good) for Canada to get my two Snow Masters. I am trying to set up a parts distribution center here in Nevada for the Snow Tracs and Masters. I have alot of parts on there merry way to me and will see what kind of prices I can get more for. So far everything has been pretty decent. The beauty about these vehicles is how simple they are. That equates to reliability. So parts even though there are not many should last a long time. I plan on stocking the higher wear items. I may even start to manufacture the grousers. Anyway thanks again for the welcome and all the help. When I get back I will start an article on Cold weather survival. Cheers and good luck.
 

dmeisner

New member
Thanks Bob for the help with the photo. Attached a picturre of my 68 snowmaster running in 2 feet of 7% snow. Wonderful machines.
D. Meisner
 

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Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
dmeisner said:
Thanks Bob for the help with the photo. Attached a picturre of my 68 snowmaster running in 2 feet of 7% snow. Wonderful machines.
D. Meisner
Glad to see you got it! It took me a few tries to size it properly - mostly because I screwed it up the first couple of times!

It looks like the snow is coming down pretty hard, how much snow dropped during that storm? Where is the photo taken and what do you use your Snow Master for (work or pleasure)?
 

dmeisner

New member
Bob,
Please forgive the late response. I use my snow master for access to the backcountry-strictly for friends and family. I have used my cat for everything form hunting Chukar partridge to the recovery of buried/stuck equipment and vehicles. Most often we use the cat to access ski tererain. I have never encountered snow that I could not navigate in the snowmaster. Sincerely, I have run my machine during some fantastic snow events and at elevations in excess of 10,000 feet. This cat seems to prefer cold snow to corn, the warmer/wet snow will fill up the grousers with ice and compromise the performance. The only thing that I have been plagued by with my cat is over-heating. As a consequence of the hard work and high underhood temps, my steering seems to suffer at times. We're just patient with her. The picture that I posted is in no-telum canyon.
Regards,
dmeisner
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
dmeisner, we're glad you joined us. The photo you posted and the pictures of your ski trip posted by Snowcat Ops were pretty amazing too. I'd appreciate it if you could write up a comparision of the Snow Master versus the Super Imp, I'm sure both have their good & bad points.

We've have an unblievably bad snow year this year, temps have been well above normal for most of the winter, we had stretch of weather lasting over a month and a half when the temps were above freezing so we've had inches of rain when we should have had a foot or two of snow!
 

ST4 JAPAN

New member
Just joined this forum.
Hi to all other owners out there.
Many Snow Masters and SnowTracs are alive and well, in everyday use in Japan.
Look foward to Chatting
 

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Snowcat Operations

Active member
SUPER Site Supporter
Welcome aboard! Have any more cool pictures? Nice Snow Master! Is that yours? Tell us a bit about yourself. What do you do with your snow master mainly?
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
Everyone made fun of the Japanese thead that I started a while back. But I guess it might have done some good. 雪Tracs のための日本の訪問者

Nick it is nice to have you on the forums. Nick joins us from Hokkaido the nothern island of Japan. Nick, I know you are looking for parts. Please feel free to post any questions you have and parts requests in the Restoration area. Photos are often helpful with parts requests because they help to narrow down some of the specifics about the machines, as some years differed slightly.

Also if you need manuals just let me know, I can mail those to you on CD in PDF format.
 

ST4 JAPAN

New member
Kiwi in Japan

Great forum
So happy that there are others out there.
I use my cats for day to day transport for 8 months of the year.
My house is 2km from the nearest plowed road so My machines get alot of shuttle work.
Bought both of mine in a bad state, non runners usual story, restored them and now have reliable transport.
Alot of Snowtracs,masters came to Hokkaido in the late 70,s I think, worked for the phone provider NTT and electricity provider Hokuden. Maybe up to 20units.
Were auctioned of in the late 80s most bought by 2 guys and now have dispersed into the local comunity, only a couple as well as mine are runners.
But there are wrecks everywhere around my local town.
Parts in general are not hard to come buy, just tyres, variator belts and track rubber is all "weathered" to say the least, I am in the market for tyres especially. Any help in sourcing them would great.

Thanks
 

Snowcat Operations

Active member
SUPER Site Supporter
ST4 JAPAN,
Forums member CHRISTER has the biggest spare parts inventory going. I would try him first. I know GOODYEAR makes a tire that will work for the LARGE boggies. You can find the smaller boggies usually at Agricultural tire shops online. They are not the typical smooth tire but will work. I say try CHRISTER first.
 

ST4 JAPAN

New member
Hi Everyone
Waiting patiently for snow here in Japan just as elseware.
Here are a few shots of abandoned non operational cats around the local farms.
I will post more as get around them.
Someone mentioned that they were used to groom the slopes for the winter olympics in Sapporo.
That as far as I know is incorrect, none of the cats I have seen are equiped with the rollers or the evidence of them having been fitted.
As for the grooming, my friend owns two of the first pistens in Japan and he assures me that they were brought in for the olmpics and has photos of them being used downtown as the city was snowed in during the games, all public services stopped etc. Great publicity for the Austrians sadly not for the Swedish.
I will send some photos of the early pistens as they now stand if anyone is interested.
The other cat in these photos is an early Ohara.
Cheers for a great forum
 

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Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
ST4 JAPAN said:
Someone mentioned that they were used to groom the slopes for the winter olympics in Sapporo.
That as far as I know is incorrect, none of the cats I have seen are equiped with the rollers or the evidence of them having been fitted.
As for the grooming, my friend owns two of the first pistens in Japan and he assures me that they were brought in for the olmpics and has photos of them being used downtown as the city was snowed in during the games, all public services stopped etc. Great publicity for the Austrians sadly not for the Swedish.
Wow that is interesting the only evidence that I have seen about the Snow Tracs being used as groomers were in magazine articles. There is no proof that those were particularly accurate, and at least the American press has been known to make mistakes. If you look at post #2 in the VW TRENDS article thread, on the left side of the page the photo caption claims the picture is attributed to Snow Tracs in Japan for the '72 Olympics. Again, I don't know what actually happened 30+ years ago, but it seems that if the ST4s were used, then there would be some units left in the area that actually had evidence of grooming attachments. Perhaps both ST4s and Pisten Bully's were used at the Olympics?

By the way those are some cool photos, it is a shame the units are in such a sorry state of repair. Hopefully someone will restore those. But what is that odd looking snowcat with the yellow canvas top? I've never seen one like that? Is it a Japanese or Asian brand? Do you know anything about it? Can we get some more photos of it?

Something else that I find interesting is that ALL of the Aktiv units in your photos are the wide track Snow Masters. Those were made in far smaller numbers than the Snow Trac. Perhaps only the Snow Master units were exported to Japan?
 

Ice Queen

Bronze Member
SUPER Site Supporter
Bob, stop drooling, you can't rescue them all. Welcome to ST4 JAPAN, it is lovely to have more people coming in, all like minded, Snowtrac nuts!
 

ST4 JAPAN

New member
There are a few SnowTracs ,1 operational and a few wrecks.The rest are Masters. I will send some pics as I take them.
Here are a few more of the local oldies.
Yes the Oharas are Japanese, the yellow canvas one is one of the first maybe 50s era looks alot like a pickup mated with a small tank, the SM15 was one of the first used by private owners, All mechanical drive with a wet clutching system.
They changed to hydralics in the late 80s
Hope you enjoy the pics.
 

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Lyndon

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
Just to set the record straight: 5 Brand New Snow Masters were shipped to Japan for the Winter Olympics. The Picture in VW trends was supplied by Bob Persons, the president and Owner of AKTIV, included in the series was actual pictures of the machines on the slopes in the Olympics. The Pics have developing dates on the back sides. They had Silver roofs and Silver roof Racks.
 

ST4 JAPAN

New member
I suppose it is possible that the 5 delivered to Sapporo didnt remain in country after the Olympics and went onto promo elsewhere?
I live about 1hours drive from Sapporo so I will keep my eyes open for a hydralic equiped machine I suppose the groomer gear is very rare now.
Here are a few more of the local Masters and Tracs.
One local engineer has three Masters in a good state of repair, thats his under the blue sheets.
The single Master photographed from the front is for sale for approx $2700US.
Hope you enjoy the pics.
 

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Warren

New member
Lyndon said:
Just to set the record straight: 5 Brand New Snow Masters were shipped to Japan for the Winter Olympics. The Picture in VW trends was supplied by Bob Persons, the president and Owner of AKTIV, included in the series was actual pictures of the machines on the slopes in the Olympics. The Pics have developing dates on the back sides. They had Silver roofs and Silver roof Racks.

Here are the photos Lyndon is talking about:

olympics-snow-masters.jpg
olympics-grooming1.jpg


olympics-grooming2.jpg


You can see larger copies of these photos at http://www.snow-trac.com/photos-olympics.htm
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
Hi Warren,
(for people who don't know who Warren is, he operates a dedicated Snow Trac site that we have several cross links with, the site is under development but will be the best record keeping site for Snow Trac history when it is done)
Looks like you are back from your vacation! Thanks for posting the photographs. They clearly show the Olympic logo on them!

I guess the mystery now is What happened to those Olympic Snow Masters? It appears that all 5 of them were equipped the same.

One interesting thing to note, in the photo with the 5 Snow Masters lined up, all appear to have roof racks, and all appear to be 7 passenger versions of Snow Masters. However, in the other 2 photos that show the Snow Masters, those are clearly short cab - 2 passenger Snow Masters.
  • So is it possible that there were more than 5 Snow Masters used at the Sopporro Olymics?
  • Or is it possible that the photo that shows 5 Snow Masters with 7 passenger cabs were not used at the Olympics?
  • Or perhaps the 7 passenger versions were used for transport but not for slope grooming? While another lot of short cab/2 passenger Snow Masters were used for grooming?
 

ST4 JAPAN

New member
Hi there
The picture of the 5 masters with roof racks and 7person cabins could easily be the some of the ones in my area.
But after searching high and low in the Sapporo, Hokkaido area there were no single cab or hyralic equiped machines to be found, none of the Japanese owners or snow area operators have any idea what happened to them.
I found one guy in Teine Highlands ski resort in Sapporo city he is now the mountain manager who remembers operating them at the olympics but cant recall what happened to them.
Would love to get my hands on a single cab.
So will keep looking.
Any idea of serial numbers?
Does any one know the make, model name and size of the large bogey tyres avalible. I have been searching high and low for a modern tyre.farming?forestry?
Any help would be great.
 

Moorbagger

New member
hello at all,

my name is robert, my location is south germany.

i am owner of a Snow trac i think its a st4? my father buy the snowtrac from the german army in the year 1975.
since this time he was the most time in a car box an was not run..
and now i have begin to restorate the snowtrac

some pictures: http://www.drsnet.de/~robert/Mil-Fahrzeuge/album/

greetings robert

(sorry my bad english)
 

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pixie

Well-known member
SUPER Site Supporter
Hello, Robert and welcome to these Forums !

Your English is very good and understandable :thumb:

Your Snow Trac looks very good also and the countyside in the other pictures is magnificent :a1:
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
Hi Robert, welcome to the Forums. Your English is much better than my German (I can still read a bit of German but have not spoken it in many years). We are glad you joined us here. Feel free to join in any area, and please ask questions (in English or auf Deutch) and we will do what we can to help you out. And of course, if you can help us, please do so!

I do my best to translate English-German, but it usually is pretty rough!



Hallo Robert, Willkommen zu den Foren. Ihr Englisch ist viel besser als mein Deutscher (ich kann ruhig las ein wenig Deutschen aber hatte gesprochen ihn nicht in vielen Jahren). Wir sind Sie verbanden uns hier froh. Tun, fühlen Sie frei, irgendeinen Bereich anzuschließen, und bitte stellen Sie Fragen (in englischem oder im auf Deutch) und wir was wir die Dose, zum zu helfen Sie aus. Und selbstverständlich, wenn Sie uns helfen können, bitte so!

Ich tue mein bestes, um English-German zu übersetzen, aber es ist normalerweise recht rauh!

Wenn Sie ein Handbuch benötigen, habe ich die, die an keinen Kosten vorhanden sind. Ich kann es Ihnen auf einer Computerscheibe schicken.
 

Moorbagger

New member
hello pixie, hello B_Skurka

thank you for the nice welcoming.

the picture of my ST are 4years old. at this time i have lot of work to make him in a better condition. I should like make a new paint on it and the engine is not running very well. yesterday i have the engine built out and the next weeks i fit a new exhaust, i check the ignition system and the orginal tank have loss by rust and i must build a new tank.
but i need my Snowtrac not for work and it is my hobby to repair old vehicles,
so the fun is mutch better when the ST running well :yankchain:

the identnr. is 000769

@B_Skura:
thank you for the offer, but i have all user manual, spare parts list for the
engine and the Snowtrac.
in time i need a v-belt for the steering and i hope to find a manufactur in germany who sell one...


it is possible to upload pictures?

greetings robert

I wish you a Happy New Year! :festive: :festive:
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
Ich sehe Sie, im Bayern zu leben. Vor ich verbrachte einige Zeit in Oberamegau vielen Jahren. Es ist ein schönes Teil des Landes.


The V belt you are looking for is called a VARIATOR belt. Do a search here on the Forums for VARIATOR and you will find suppliers for these belts.
Der "V" Riemen, den Sie benötigen, wird den VARIATOR Riemen genannt. Tun Sie eine "Suche" hier auf den Foren für VARIATOR und Sie finden Lieferanten, die diese Riemen verkaufen.
To upload photos please read this thread: http://www.forumsforums.com/3_9/showthread.php?t=1312&highlight=upload+pictures
 
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