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1953 Tucker Sno-Cat
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THE STORY OF A SNO-CAT
One of the problems of being a kid is that you have to learn to read, and I suppose most people remember the first book that made a big impression on them. I particularly remember a book of my father's which had a lot of stuff about ice and snow in it, but what really made the impression was a host of photographs of some amazing-looking orange machinery teetering on the edge of enormous crevasses. They made quite a lasting impression, and for years afterwards at school any time drawing was required the result always seem to be boxy and orange with triangular wheels.
Thirty years pass, the book is lost long ago, and my attention turns to the sensible hobby of restoring military vehicles. A predisposition to amphibians results in the purchase of an amphibious jeep, a DUKW, and finally a LARC-5. The shortage of published information about the LARCs (Lighter, Amphibious, Re-supply, Cargo) results in me consulting a friend who sends me a copy of the LARC page in a book by a chap called Fred Crismon. The Crismon book, 'U.S. Military Wheeled Vehicles' is still the definitive reference book on the subject, and after I bought it I decided I'd better buy the companion volume about 'US Military Tracked Vehicles' too. I leafed through my new purchase - and there were the vehicles I remembered from my youth. It turns out they are called Tucker Sno-Cats, brainchild of E.M. Tucker of Grants Pass Oregon. Apparently as a youth he had real problems getting to school through deep snow, and spent a lot of his time tinkering with snow propulsion systems of varying types. (If only students these days were so dedicated.)
This discovery pretty much coincided with the arrival of the Internet in my life, so I decided to try and seek out the owners of these mysterious beasts, especially after I discovered that they were mechanically very similar to the Dodge 4 x 4s I already owned, sharing the same engines, gearboxes, and axles. I really should pretend that it was a long and arduous search, but on my first round of appeals on the various 'Net forums a contributor in Reno, Nevada that I had already corresponded with at length about Dodge Carryalls, e-mailed me back to tell me that a friend of his collected the things, and he was pretty sure he had one for sale. That was in February '98, and by May images had been sent, conditions reported on, and I was the proud owner of a 1953 Tucker 443 Utility Double Drive Sedan. In the gap I'd discovered other owners, the range of product available, from the tiny Anglia-engined 222 Sno-Kitten to the 743 Freighter Double Drive that I remembered from the original book, and the book itself " THE CROSSING OF ANTARTICA" by Fuchs and Hillary, Cassell, 1953. Even more, the book told me that the crossing had been supported by BP, and an e-mail to their excellent library in Brewer Street, London, resulted in the two films about the crossing being transferred to video and forwarded to me for a very reasonable, if three figure, sum.
It only took till August '98 to get the 'Cat delivered to my home in Falkirk, Stirlingshire, and the shipping process was tedious, but not difficult, at least not after I'd convinced the shippers that this was a lightweight machine and it wouldn't ruin their container. Even the taxman played his part, and only charged the 5% duty rate reserved for special purpose vehicles. The package deal included the original rear body from a donor vehicle, as mine had apparently been supplied as a pickup, then a galvanised sheet body screwed on over the top. Mechanical work was minimal, and largely consisted of maintenance, rewiring, and the replacement of instruments. I did have to pull out the massive heater which would run but was very unhappy, it just needed the cockroaches emptied out, presumably the relatives of the ones that tried to eat the fuel gauge.
Despite the mixed materials of construction, with a steel chassis and axles, cast iron engine, angle iron frame and aluminium body sheeting, transfer case, fuel tank, and steering platforms, it was virtually untouched by corrosion, though the galvanised steel sheet and marine ply rear body was soaked with water, which didn't matter much as it was immediately removed and junked. I salvaged the framing for the body and rear door from the donor body, and replaced virtually all the bodywork except for the cowl, radiator grille, engine cover, and front doors. Fabricating a complete body was like falling off the proverbial log, and even the cost of the aluminium, screws, and rivets didn't amount to much. I did have to buy a new MIG that would handle aluminium before I could weld up the roof corners, but a box of 1/8" drills and a packet of jigsaw blades took care of the rest.
I had already decided it really should be portrayed as a military machine, but I couldn't face painting it green and white camouflage so I matched the original deep orange colour to an unfaded area covered by an overlap, and marked it up as a U.S. Navy vehicle in the service of the Williams Air Operating Facility, the contemporary name for the U.S. base at McMurdo sound which was Navy run under Rear Admiral George J. Dufek when my 'Cat was new and Fuchs was making his crossing. The base was named as a tribute to Richard T. Williams, a tractor driver who lost his life when his machine fell through the ice and was lost in the depths of McMurdo Sound.
As finishing touches I replaced the tired windscreen with tinted glass, using tinted polycarbonate to replace the side and rear door windows, and fitted contemporary US running lights, spot lights, and a trailer socket wired to provide trailer power as well as lights. The mechanical controls provide nothing so sophisticated as a footbrake, so I wired the brake lights to come on when the clutch pedal was held fully depressed. The finished vehicle looks impressive enough from on top, but the genius of Tucker's design only becomes apparent when you get down underneath the thing. Ordinary truck axles in constant four track drive power sprockets on the top of each lightweight pontoon, dragging a skeletal ladder track round the pontoon rather like a giant tyre chain. The pontoons themselves are hollow, and float on top of the snow not unlike the floats on a floatplane, giving a very low ground pressure. Since the tracks extend in front of and behind the body and chassis it is the only vehicle I've ever seen with negative angles of approach and departure. It is also the only exception I've seen to the rule that a wagon steer vehicle should not be turned on the side of a hill. An 'ordinary' wagon steer machine will simply fall over if you try to move downhill and then turn back uphill, but the extreme pontoon length on the Tucker means that the tracks actually protrude downhill for the necessary stability, and the high side profile of the pontoon stops the vehicle sliding sideways which is another problem on ordinary bogie wheel units.
So what is it like to drive? noisy, very noisy and harsh on hard ground, and despite thoroughly crossed fingers I've had only 1" of snow since I finished the rebuild in October '98. I do have a few details to finish, like getting the right engine temperature gauge and kick starting the chap who is duplicating the dashboard plates, but apart form that, and some artwork on the Tucker hood and door signs, she is ready to go when the white stuff eventually gets here. She is about to retire to the rear of the garage for the summer, and next year I hope to get her an Allis-Chalmers M7 snow tractor to keep her company. I would recommend a project like this to anyone - fun, relatively easy to do yet challenging in finding the bits and the contacts to finish the job. Maybe if I parked her sideways on I could fit in a bigger 743 too.
2000 update, this year she's had some new gauges (water temperature and a voltmeter) plus a new US Navy Aviation Dept Pioneer compass.
Snow ? still not had any, but I'm ready for next winter !
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