When did the Cat nip you?

I thought it would be of interest when and how you contracted the passion. My dad started me skiing when I was four at the Summit Ski Area on Mt. Hood OR. This is where I saw my first Tucker Sno-Cat, a 421 with two pontoons and two skis to steer with. I soon found that it was more fun to remove my snow skis, hold them in my hands and crawl through the trees and drifts making engine noises. I had arrived, I was the Sno-Cat. Some years later I talked dad into riding in one of Timberline's 443's, where they took us up to the 10,000 foot level and we skied down. The ski down was not as memorable as the ride up. Some time later dad got a 443 and we worked with the Lodge, Forest Service, Mt. Hood Ski Patrol, and Search and Rescue on the mountain. After working a real job for a few years, I decided to get paid to play and started an over snow business which lasted for about 30 years. Now we spend time restoring and playing with Tuckers, by the way, we found my first love, the Summit 421 and it is being restored at the present.

When I was a kid I had a MATCHBOX SnoTrac

When I grew up I bought a real one!

I guess i got bit when i was 4 or 5 ,but it wasn't a sno cat it was going to work with my dad a few times and riding on a dozer when he ran a TD 18 international dozer for Cleve West of Errol N.H. He was working on the Kancamagus highway between Lincoln and Conway N.H. If i remember right 7 different construction companys went bankrupt working on that road.I know a bunch of the guys on here know what im talking about!!!! I'm a sucker for crawler type tractors. In my early teen years my Grandfather used to talk about the Lombard tractors he used to work around, needles to say i needed a couple of those also.Growing up logging, working on construction,having my own logging and excavation business as well as working at Ski areas i have been around this stuff all my life !!!! Hell i weren't bit ,i was just plain overwhelmed with "CATS"from all directions !!!!

Tyrol Basin, Mt. Horeb, Wis. winter of '64. It was an old Oliver caterpillar, with 2x4s bolted onto the tracks for floatation. (My neighbor groomed. There were no guards between your feet and the tracks. When it went sideways to the hill, it would slide all the way to the bottom.) I was just 5. Sandy Stevenson taught me to ski (RIP).

Like Melensdad, I too had one of those red Matchbox cats, and it was one of the favorites (along with the Alvis Stalwart BP Exploration truck, BTW).

Then came their first Thyokol, and I wiped out on the T-Bar hill and slid in underneath the cat while it was still running (although thankfully not moving). I was about 12 then.

Seven years ago I built a rope-tow on a hill on my farm, and it was all downhill from there.

BTW, this past winter was my 50th year on skis, and I made 101 runs at Tryol Basin in one day. (That's 30,000 vertical feet. I guess I'm not dead yet.) Next year we might let the young-uns try it too.

That's why I'm into cats.

Somewhere in Vermont. I saw the snow cats at ski areas. I never dreamed I'd some day own one, just admired them. That was in the 60's, 70's, and 80's. After about 20 years of being into VW's, and finally giving that up for more reliable "Detroit-Iron", I was in Oregon on business and happened on a 63 Snow Trac at Bills used Cars and Trucks, in LaPine Or. One look under the hood at the VW Industrial, along with the fact that it came with a 'Hand-Crank', a rare item in VW circles, I thought to myself:" This is for me!" After 20 years of the VW powered ones, I once again gave up the " Vee-Dub " machines for the more reliable "Detroit-Iron",... or in this case "Oregon-Orange". I sure have met a bunch of great folks, and seen some great places in this somewhat unique hobby.

When I was in my young I couldn't have any motorized vehicles. Seventh or eight grade I got a snowmobile. In 94 we got two new arctic cats and my dad and I started snowmobiling all around NH and ME. The grooming back then was ok. Always loved running into the groomers which were mostly two track. As time went on more and more orange tuckers showed up with these awesome blue mogul master drags laying beautiful ribbons of smooth trails. From then I always wanted to groom snowmobile trails and own a groomer. Mid 90's I saw my 442 sitting next to my friend's camp in Warren NH. I always wanted to buy it but it was not for sale. A decade or so later it was available to me with the help of my friend who worked the deal. Didn't even really have the disease then. Once I got it home it was still a toy like many I have. After getting the internet then found the forum and researching, learning it became a chronic illness. Turns out that illness is treated by any cool snow or other vehicles with a motor. There is just something about a Tucker that makes me feel better in life!

Goat Mt Oregon about 2012. Imp I was riding in caught fire. I decided perhaps I should be doing this myself.

Cidertom said:

Goat Mt Oregon about 2012. Imp I was riding in caught fire. I decided perhaps I should be doing this myself.

Click to expand...

The cell tower at Goat was maintained by Days Wireless and I used the Tucker to get them there for several years. If I look hard enough, I have photos some where.

Melensdad said:

When I was a kid I had a MATCHBOX SnoTrac

When I grew up I bought a real one!

Click to expand...

It was my first MATCHBOX toy as well, and led to others. I was 6 years old when I begged my mom to buy the Snow Trac I wore the tracks and paint off of it. My Mom kept it with some other memorable toys we had when we were kids..

Then I got involved grooming snowmobile trails, and finding out about Ski Dozers brought me here. Of course the pics of Snow Trac's here really hooked me once again. I am old enough to appreciate both a snowmobile, and ride still, but really enjoy snowcatting just as much. As I age the Snow Trac just gets more attractive each year...

Regards, Kirk

I've always been interested in machinery, mostly for what they could do, so I had my time at the controls of crawler tractors. back hoes. loaders, articulating grapples, etc, but always as a tool to get a particular job done - I spent a few years on the ski hill, often waiting for the groomer to come, but seldom had a lot of desire to drive one - about the only time I'd drive one on our local ski hill was when I was asked to open the "East Run" ( a particularly steep nasty group of short cliffs linked together by appliance sized boulders on a slope that would better be served by climbing gear, than skis, I thought ) - none of the regular volunteer operators wanted to head down that slope until there was at least one grooming pass done - about 4 decades ago I got into racing sleddogs - not the long distance dogs that trot along at a sedate 7 or 8 mph, but sprint dogs that can average 20+ mph for 20 miles or more at a time - to train dogs to be able to perform such a feat, the trail has to be safe or they lose confidence in the driver - that's when I started learning about trail preparation - in the early years my buddy and I would head out on snow shoes to pack a trail after a heavy snow fall - that got old rather quickly, so I got a snowmobile and came up with some sort of drag to smooth the moguls left by the snowmobile crowd - about 25 years ago I invested in an elderly sno-trac and designed a drag with a remotely operated hydraulic blade ( this was in the days before the internet, and I'd never seen a drag or even a picture of one ) - the drag worked great ( it's still in use ) but it was too heavy for the sno-trac to make a turn when the snow was heavy - - I've stumbled along since then, with more modern snowmobiles, even a J5, and finally decided to bite the bullet and get a machine that would put in the kind of trail, no matter the snow conditions, that I wanted to run my dogs on before I was too old to run them - so this spring I bought a very nice 82, 1344 Tucker, ex utility company, with low hours - it's such a nice machine that I've been thinking I might explore some of the local back country mountains next year ( just for the fun of it )

for me it started in the 80's working at alexander lake lodge around jeeps snow trac's and bombies. I always wanted one. several years ago I aqured a jeep and a snow trac as family outings were becoming work with the kids all needing a machine. I gave up on sleads and quads and went to jeeps and snowcats. after a few years of working my little red snow trac I realized there is a nitch market to open up here I brought in the Thiokol 2100 to do my heavy work.