• 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/

Personal Snowcat value

mtncrawler

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
O.K., lets discuss this. A couple of us are under the perception that these older, trailerable Snowcats are increasing in value. I think alot of it has to do a lack of new products to fill this nitch. Where alot of guys feel comfortable working on gasoline engines and can figure out mechanical steering the jump to diesel hydrostatic drive is a big one. When was the last gas skid steer machine made? I'm thinking LMC 1500 in the very early '90s? So for about 15 years now there hasn't been any second hand machines trickle down into the private market place that handy guys like us feel comfortable with. And the power companies and such that are buying the newer diesel/hydro units for upwards of $100,000 are keeping them around for awhile. And when those get old and worn maintainance costs go sky high. So what do you guys think?
 

Eric L

Member
Site Supporter
As stated elsewhere, it's worth exactly as much as someone is willing to pay for it.

My personal take on this... I wouldn't buy an old Tucker from any of you! :hide: Why? cause you (we) all are into this stuff and we (you) want stuff like this. Heck, I wouldn't buy my Tucker from myself, I'd want too much for it, based on prices around here and on e-bay I could double my money, but then I'd be stuck having to pay more to replace it.

The real trick in buying collectables (or high demand, low supply) items is to find the seller that doesn't know what he's got, or what it's worth. Don't be in a hurry, beat the bushes a little and talk to people outside of the "market".

Older (cheaper? to buy, simple to maintain) and smaller (trailerable) 'cats will retain thier value well into the future for personal use buyers. go shopping for oldr used machine shop equipment, anything that fits well into a garage is in demand, while the larger stuff has less market and the commercial shops dont want it, = comparatively low price.

I guess a relative question is: How many of us are out there? how many people in this world want a snowcat for their personal use, and what kinda $ are the willing to put up for the priveledge?

Eric

:my2cents:

:snow_smi:

edit: There seems to be a shortage on the west side of the US. Most of the equipment seems to be in the Great Lakes area or Northeast. Some CO and ID, but CA cats are really scarce.
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
I think they are only worth what the market will bear, and that is a changing number. Right now if you rated the older snowcats (1985 or OLDER) on a quality scale from 1 to 10 with 10 being amazing condition, and 4 being a basically working canditate for restoration, I think there are a lot of deals to be had on the snowcats that would fall in the range between 3 to 5.

There are a lot of fairly rough, but still running older snowcats out on the market. Most of those can be good candidates for a restoration. And many of those are available at moderate prices.

But I think we will begin to see that change. I see 3 basic types of buyers out there looking at snowcats and most of them are looking at older snowcats.
Buyer Type 1: People who NEED a snowcat. These would include a wide range of folks like Pixie who uses them for trail grooming and woodlot management to Brad (Mountain Home Lodge) or Larry (Roughwoods Inn) who use them for tourists. Then there are guys like Bjorn (OscarInn) and Villi who use them for rescue and actually for real transportation issues. All have a variety of uses, but all can justify a NEED for a basic snowcat.

Buyer Type 2: People who use snowcats to achieve OTHER GOALS. I'm going to guess on a few of our members, but ALLEN PARSONS probably falls into this category as he uses his Tucker to access a cabin for winter get aways. "byoung" and dseymour use snowcats to access back county skiing. These folks don't need a snowcat other than to accomplish other things. Now you can access a back bowl for skiing by helicopter, but a snowcat is cheaper and easier to own! Or you can access a cabin by maintianing a roadway every time it snows, but that is not always easy.

Buyer Type 3: Hobbiests, collectors, restorers who have no need but like to tinker. This is where I fall, and I suspect Teeoster, Tommo, Ice Queen, Gordon Robertson and quite a few others fit in too. We may use our snowcats for some recreational activities, but if we can't get a snowcat we'll find something else. Some probably picked up an old snowcat becasue it was cheaper to mess with than a similar age semi-classic car (have you priced a '67 Camaro lately?) or because antique tractors are becoming a business and finding good restoration candidates are harder to find.
To each type of buyer there are different thresholds of price that can be justified. The NEED people will probably pay the most, the people who use them to achieve something else will probably pay a pretty good amount too. Type 3/hobbiest~collectors are the hardest to figure out because they probably buy on emotion more than logic.

But the fact of the matter is that all 3 buyers are actively buying old units. So the demand exists. And parts are also getting harder to find as all the buyers are relying on stripping other units for parts so we are canibilizing our supply to keep our units running. My feeling is that prices are going up but there are many deals to be had and the supply is going to be good for several more years. However, 10 years from today that may well change. I don't think we will get rich on the price appreciation, but I think we will see a slow climb in prices as the old units get rarer and rarer.

The newer units are often $100,000++ each and will never be affordable to many of us, unless they get junked. And then they won't be desireable to many of us. Also consider that newer units are often TASK SPECIFIC and a trailer groomer is not easily adapted for use to take the family up to the weekend cabin. So new snowcats are often less suitable for our needs than the older units.

:my2cents:
 

dseymour

New member
In 1967 my Tucker Sno CAT 342A sold for $8500.00. At that time your Ford or Chevy could be purchased $3000.00. Today a sno cat is three or four times the price of a new car or pickup truck, as they were in 1967. Maybe in the year 2035 we can afford a used 1999 sno cat, if we desire to have one at the nursing home.
It would interesting to see what buyer type we all are in the sno cat forum.I fit more in to the buyer type three as I like to restore and take my 342 to vintage snowmobile showes. Next week I will take delivery of a 1967 442a tucker for my own restoration. Will this make me a collector?
 

Eric L

Member
Site Supporter
I would fall into group #3, I dont NEED a Sno-Cat, I just wanted it, something to go farther and faster than my Jeeps in the snow. purely recreational. I will probably create some kind of need for my next one tho.:D But I've downsized my storage capabilities for projects and toys, so its likely something else would have to go.:(

Eric
:snow_smi:
 

nutsster

Member
The smaller trailerable snowcats do have a high demand and tend to bring top dollar. You can purchase a large worn out groomer for cheep, but good luck moving it or driving it down a narrow road.

Cabin owners love the small cats with 5 seats or more to haul supplies. That is what got me into my first machine. I looked at the new Lite-foot, now Piston Bully Scout and it sells for over $100,000... stripped down. The VMC is the only other small cat available for about the same price new.

However, if you look carefully at private owners that want to sell their machines, you can find some really good deals. Many owners have no idea what an older cat should be worth or where to check for a price. :confused2:
I found a real nice IMP 1404 with 300 hours on it for my friend for $5000.00 a year ago in Wyoming. The DMC 1200 I purchased was owned by a small X/C ski area that was recently purchased. The owner had no idea what it was worth. I gave him the $8,000.00 that he asked for it and drove away as fast as I could. Back in Utah, the first guy who saw it and knew something about snow cats offered me $18,000. :yum:

Many of the small snow cats can be purchased cheep if you look behind the barns or backyards. Plan on putting some work into them to get them up to snuff...but the rewards are really worth it.:D
 

nutsster

Member
Another point of view is the increasing demand for personal use snow cats.

My cabin is located in a property association with 449 lots. There are probably 50 to 60 year round cabins in the association. Three years ago we had three snow cats up there. This year we have about 15. If I could find four or five nice cats, I could sell them tomorrow to cabin owners. :D

Once people see how nice it is to load it up with groceries and drive up to their place, it was all over. No more groceries spread all over the trail behind the snowmobile. Grandma isn't frost bitten anymore or lost off the back of the Polaris somewhere.:smileywac There is simply no comparison.
 

mtncrawler

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
There are a few more small cat options out there, but once again over $100,000. Had a chance to demo an O'Hara Caliber a few years ago and was well impressed by power, speed, and quiet. And if you can afford it Prinoth's T-2 is really nice also. But when was the last time anyone saw one of these in clean, low milage, affordable condition?
 

nutsster

Member
I have noticed several nice small snow cats available in Europe. The Italian made snowrabbit seems quite nice too. (www.faverolorenzo.com)
The price was much better than many of the others, but it like many of these machines, it's not available in the U.S.:mad:
 

tree guy

New member
i fall into #3 as it is something different and i really cant do much more with my jeep it's already a moving violation on road ,i like to be different than most and the frieghter fits that bill (course its a good thing i am a tree guy cause i will need to cut the roots off it before its done . i was talking to the guy i got mine from and when he was selling it he spoke with a guy who felt his frieghter was worth $100,000.00 as it had been in antartica. i guess it is what someone will pay but if ours are rare to some extent now just think what they will be when our kids have to clean this messwe call a life up ??
 

Ice Queen

Bronze Member
SUPER Site Supporter
I agree, Bob, I do fall in to the hobbyist catagory, as you know I have various vehicles, I saw a snowtrac on tv (yours actually in the 'restoration' programme and decided "I want one" - hence my snowtrac. I do have apart from the old lorries a couple of classic cars, a 1966 Mk2 Triumph Spitfire, a 1951 Singer Roadster 4AB and a Willys Jeep (I thought this was about 1960 ish, but it turns out to be a rare (in the UK) M38 and these were built, I think, between 1949 and 1952. TOYS ARE FUN!
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
Ice Queen said:
I do have apart from the old lorries a couple of classic cars, a 1966 Mk2 Triumph Spitfire, a 1951 Singer Roadster 4AB and a Willys Jeep
Anita, great minds think alike. I used to have a Triump TR6 and recently purchased a Kaiser (Kaiser purchased the Willy's corp) Jeepster.
 

Ice Queen

Bronze Member
SUPER Site Supporter
Great minds think alike, Bob! You will definitely have to come to the UK and especially to Wales, and see the collection over here, make it during the rally season and you will see there are a lot of like minded people!
 
Top