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Tucker 544's shiny pontoon

4TrackCat

New member
Site Supporter
Late last season I noticed that one of my fiberglass pontoons was missing a skid plate and had been operating like that for some time. While greasing the rollers, I saw some damage where it looked like the rollers had cut through the bottom of the pontoon on both sides. Further inspection found that the remaining skid plates were in tough shape. With the help of some amazing snowcat friends, we now have new stainless skid plates and one fully restored and shiny pontoon! The cat is back together and ready for McCall.
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4TrackCat

New member
Site Supporter
That pontoon restoration was done top notch! That one call to T.S.N (Tuckerville support network) really saved my bacon. I can turn wrenches with the best of em' but don't think I could've pulled off that fiberglass repair and paint with any kind of respectable results. Burn , weld , grind, wrench... I'm good:thumbup:
 

Pontoon Princess

Cattitute
GOLD Site Supporter
Hmmm- Good idea! That would certainly help with the downtime.

the 500 club has 4 spare pontoons, and he is a member in good standing, very good standing, 4 trackcat guy and wife are really good people, so enjoy their company.

so he has a spare pontoon or 2

we take care of our own
 

Blackfoot Tucker

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Looks fantastic and the pontoon has a new lease on life!

PP I'm curious...

My impression is the steel pontoons were on the earlier machines and fiberglass replaced steel on later machines. Were there years where both were available, and did customers have the choice? Also which type of pontoon do you prefer (steel or fiberglass) and why?
 

4TrackCat

New member
Site Supporter
I found this sales brochure on the web. Prices look reasonable too. :)

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Wikipedia says that the change was all about rust and maintenance...

"Tucker Sno-Cats were originally built with a steel track that rotates around a steel pontoon. Located at the top center of the pontoon is a drive sprocket with teeth that drive the chain-like tracks around the steel pontoon. Due to maintenance issues with rust on the steel pontoons, fiberglass pontoons eventually replaced some steel parts but the overall mechanism was basically unchanged."
 
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Pontoon Princess

Cattitute
GOLD Site Supporter
Looks fantastic and the pontoon has a new lease on life!

PP I'm curious...

My impression is the steel pontoons were on the earlier machines and fiberglass replaced steel on later machines. Were there years where both were available, and did customers have the choice? Also which type of pontoon do you prefer (steel or fiberglass) and why?

BT, sir,

both pontoons were offered on Tuckers starting in late 1963, on 400 and 500 series and it was the customers choice, 300 series machines came only with fiberglass pontoons,

as for which is best, humm,

the biggest draw back to steel pontoons is they rust from the inside, big issue with a tucker, is they are built from miid steel and only painted the outside of pontoons and frames, so places like the inside of the square tubes used in building the frames did rust and have found far more machines suffering from badly rust out frames and the pontoons, and not painted and or had any rust preventive applied to the inside of the pontoons and frames ( and in all fairness to tucker inc, pretty sure they never envisioned their machines lasting this long to have this be an issue, surprise, they did last this long and still are far superior to snow shoes in the back country ) so, they too rust from the inside out, and every steel pontoon has this issue, some far worst than others, with rusting from the inside, it weakens the structural strength of the pontoon, there are a couple more smaller issues, all in all, the issues with a steel pontoon are really caused by the fact they have lasted so long.

so good job tucker inc! they lasted longer enough to have a second life.

so far, the only real problem i see with a fiberglass pontoon is damage to the glass from the hard life of a pontoons, cracks/holes and or a track shaving the fiberglass down to where it has worn through, these issues come from very hard use with little to no maintenance to the pontoon and tracks.

what i have seen, is the fiberglass pontoon for what ever reason seem to survive better, and as for repairing/restoring, at this point, i think it is easier to save the fiberglass pontoon, i cut them open along the factory seam joining the 2 halves together and make all the needed repairs from the inside, I think this works quite well and i like the outcome, and it is about half the time to do when compared to a steel pontoon, only real problem, tucker is orange, and the pontoons are blue

so, to anwser your question, i much prefer an early tucker, two pontoon with skis, they were built with a angle iron frame, then a few of these were fitted with all stainless steel pontoons. thats the ticket...
 

Tucker Someday

Member
GOLD Site Supporter
Late last season I noticed that one of my fiberglass pontoons was missing a skid plate and had been operating like that for some time. While greasing the rollers, I saw some damage where it looked like the rollers had cut through the bottom of the pontoon on both sides. Further inspection found that the remaining skid plates were in tough shape. With the help of some amazing snowcat friends, we now have new stainless skid plates and one fully restored and shiny pontoon! The cat is back together and ready for McCall.
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Great looking pontoon 4track. Maybe a silly question but curious, did you freehand brush the orange lettering? Or roller? Or mask somehow? It looks very clean!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

4TrackCat

New member
Site Supporter
Great looking pontoon 4track. Maybe a silly question but curious, did you freehand brush the orange lettering? Or roller? Or mask somehow? It looks very clean!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
One might ask the princess that question...[emoji106]
 

Blackfoot Tucker

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
PP,

Thank you for the thorough and detailed explanation. I didn't realize the fiberglass pontoons were available for such a long period, though perhaps customers opted for the steel ones with greater frequency.

I've never done it, so I'm not speaking from experience, but my understanding is it's not terribly difficult to create a fiberglass mold from an existing part. The point being it may be possible to build new pontoons for steel track Tuckers, and for those who aren't as particular about a true "restoration" (meaning they're okay with substituting a fiberglass pontoon for a "correct" steel one) they may be a cost effective solution for a machine with badly rusted/damaged steel pontoons. And I suppose one could use either orange or blue gel coat for the pontoon color...
 

Pontoon Princess

Cattitute
GOLD Site Supporter
PP,

Thank you for the thorough and detailed explanation. I didn't realize the fiberglass pontoons were available for such a long period, though perhaps customers opted for the steel ones with greater frequency.

I've never done it, so I'm not speaking from experience, but my understanding is it's not terribly difficult to create a fiberglass mold from an existing part. The point being it may be possible to build new pontoons for steel track Tuckers, and for those who aren't as particular about a true "restoration" (meaning they're okay with substituting a fiberglass pontoon for a "correct" steel one) they may be a cost effective solution for a machine with badly rusted/damaged steel pontoons. And I suppose one could use either orange or blue gel coat for the pontoon color...

FYI, such molds are in existence
 
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