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Snow Trac dealer from Western Canada

Bob Cantin

New member
I sold Snow Tracs in Western Canada in the 70's and 80's.Some of the utility companies that bought vehicles from me, had to use the little tractors at pretty high altitudes. Because of the altitude, the VW engines were a bit disadvantaged because of the horsepower loss at those heights, so as we were doing the pre- delivery on the units, we installed performance header kits and mufflers which increased horsepower a bit.

The main reason that Aktiv quit building them, was because VW shut down their European production of the VW Industrial engines. Another one of my companies was manufacturing a smaller tracked machine (PPT) in Western Canada, and I actually approached Aktiv-Fischer about building the Snow Trac, (under license) in Canada, because the engines were still available from South America sources. They seemed to have lost interest in the machines, and concentrated on other projects, and refused the offer!

We continued selling parts for a few years, until they too dried up and got very difficult to obtain. The rubber products associated with the unit (tires and variator belts) were VERY expensive by the time we got them, so we sourced other North American suppliers for the variator belts, and filled the tires with foam.

I have a few parts left in inventory, that I would like to clear out of stock----there are still a lot of machines in Western Canada, to my knowledge, most of them are still being used. They were a wonderful snow-on-snow machine, tough, quiet,warm(when equipped with a gas heater) and worked well climbing mountains in deep snow (especially the ST4B).

One of the largest end users was CNT (Canadian National Telecommunications), and when we could no longer supply them with new Snow Tracs,they started searching the market for a suitable replacement. A demonstration was arranged, and a new Piston-Bulley machine took several representatives from CNT "up the mountain". A short time later, the call came in on the radio, that the Piston-Bulley had broken down, and could they send a unit "up the mountain" to retrieve the brass. The only unit available was a 20 year old Snow Trac, which much to the Piston-Bulleys embarassed salesman's dismay, pulled up alongside the broken hi-tech machine, and extricated the crew, and brought them back down the mountain!! Great story!!

Other utilities companies parked Snow Tracs in sheds built at high altitudes to house the machines, because the distances to travel to these sights from a base were very time consuming and difficult (terrain wise), so a chopper would drop a couple of guys off at or near said sight and the crew would do whatever repairs were needed etc. The crews loved the Snow Tracs, because if the batteries were down a bit, and the weather a bit cold (-40F), they could simply hand crank the VW engine to get it started.
Yep, we were very sad indeed to lose contact with a very old friend!!

Anyone with any questions may want to contact me directly at bobcantin@cruzinternet.com-------Bob C
 

Doc

Bottoms Up
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
Good snow trac story. :thumb:
Welcome aboard Bob! Enjoy, and post often!
 

BigAl

Gone But Not Forgotten
SUPER Site Supporter
Welcome Bob ,
It is nice to have you as a member . There are quite a few Snow Trac owners here and your input is going to be a big help .
Allen
 

neu0006

New member
I sold Snow Tracs in Western Canada in the 70's and 80's.Some of the utility companies that bought vehicles from me, had to use the little tractors at pretty high altitudes. Because of the altitude, the VW engines were a bit disadvantaged because of the horsepower loss at those heights, so as we were doing the pre- delivery on the units, we installed performance header kits and mufflers which increased horsepower a bit.

The main reason that Aktiv quit building them, was because VW shut down their European production of the VW Industrial engines. Another one of my companies was manufacturing a smaller tracked machine (PPT) in Western Canada, and I actually approached Aktiv-Fischer about building the Snow Trac, (under license) in Canada, because the engines were still available from South America sources. They seemed to have lost interest in the machines, and concentrated on other projects, and refused the offer!

We continued selling parts for a few years, until they too dried up and got very difficult to obtain. The rubber products associated with the unit (tires and variator belts) were VERY expensive by the time we got them, so we sourced other North American suppliers for the variator belts, and filled the tires with foam.

I have a few parts left in inventory, that I would like to clear out of stock----there are still a lot of machines in Western Canada, to my knowledge, most of them are still being used. They were a wonderful snow-on-snow machine, tough, quiet,warm(when equipped with a gas heater) and worked well climbing mountains in deep snow (especially the ST4B).

One of the largest end users was CNT (Canadian National Telecommunications), and when we could no longer supply them with new Snow Tracs,they started searching the market for a suitable replacement. A demonstration was arranged, and a new Piston-Bulley machine took several representatives from CNT "up the mountain". A short time later, the call came in on the radio, that the Piston-Bulley had broken down, and could they send a unit "up the mountain" to retrieve the brass. The only unit available was a 20 year old Snow Trac, which much to the Piston-Bulleys embarassed salesman's dismay, pulled up alongside the broken hi-tech machine, and extricated the crew, and brought them back down the mountain!! Great story!!

Other utilities companies parked Snow Tracs in sheds built at high altitudes to house the machines, because the distances to travel to these sights from a base were very time consuming and difficult (terrain wise), so a chopper would drop a couple of guys off at or near said sight and the crew would do whatever repairs were needed etc. The crews loved the Snow Tracs, because if the batteries were down a bit, and the weather a bit cold (-40F), they could simply hand crank the VW engine to get it started.
Yep, we were very sad indeed to lose contact with a very old friend!!

Anyone with any questions may want to contact me directly at bobcantin@cruzinternet.com-------Bob C
Hello bob
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
THANK YOU for the history lesson!

If you have any Sno Trac brochures or memorabilia in with those spare parts I would be interested.
 
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