Model A Snowmobile Conversion

[Bruce Wayne]

 

[AtomicEraTom]

I'm surprised you don't see more of those around here.

 

[dhermann1]

Scroll down to the bottom for a pretty cool Rolls Royce version of the same:
http://www.prewarbuick.com/features/

 

[Talbot]

I recall reading this conversion was very popular with Model T's as well.

 

[tonyb]

I'm surprised you don't see more of those around here.

Around your neck of the woods, it would have rusted out 60 years ago!

 

[Tomasso]

[video=youtube;ve9s223EKT4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ve9s223EKT4[/video]

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Ha, you got me there!

Around your neck of the woods, it would have rusted out 60 years ago!

 

[tonyb]

When my Wisconsin relatives (I'm from Madison originally) come for visits out here in Seattle and environs, where corrosives are rarely used on the roads (because there is rarely any compelling reason to), they often comment on the numbers of 20- and 30-year-old (and older) cars that are still presentable and roadworthy. Me, I tend to take a dim view of modern (relatively) cars that don't last a good quarter million miles, minimally, provided they are well maintained and driven by responsible adults.

I hear that more modern auto finishes do a much more effective job of rust prevention. Is that so? Will a car survive regular use through 20 Wisconsin winters?

 

[AtomicEraTom]

My truck is from Iowa orginally and was a farm truck. It's a 1996 and is fairly rusty. The cab corners and rockers need to be replaced and the fenders on the bed are pretty bad. Chunks fell off in the car wash last week. It's my workhorse and I have it for that very purpose. I will drive it until there's nothing left of it, because the drivetrain will outlive the body.

My 87 Caprice was a winter driver for years, but was a Missouri car and has only been in Wisconsin about 12 years, not all that rusty. No rust-through anyplace. My Colony Park was a Wisconsin car all its life and has had rust repair done to the door bottoms. It's parked in the winters now. I would never drive anything I want to keep nice in the snow in Wisconsin. They salt the roads harder than McDonald's salts their fries. As for modern ones being any better, that's a toss up.

My friend has a 2000 Silverado that already has rocker and cab corner issues.

When my Wisconsin relatives (I'm from Madison originally) come for visits out here in Seattle and environs, where corrosives are rarely used on the roads (because there is rarely any compelling reason to), they often comment on the numbers of 20- and 30-year-old (and older) cars that are still presentable and roadworthy. Me, I tend to take a dim view of modern (relatively) cars that don't last a good quarter million miles, minimally, provided they are well maintained and driven by responsible adults.

I hear that more modern auto finishes do a much more effective job of rust prevention. Is that so? Will a car survive regular use through 20 WIsconsin winters?

 

[tonyb]

I wouldn't want anyone thinking that just because salt promotes rust in sheet steel that I'm opposed to salting roads. If not for the salt, we'd have less body rust, but undoubtedly more bent and twisted body panels. And that's the least of it. Just ask anyone who has ever been seriously injured in a car wreck.

As to your friend's Silverado ... That's what he gets for buying a Chevy. My beater van is an Astro. Sturdy drive train, but the rest of it? Pffft!

The Old Man, who lives on the other side of the Cascades (on the eastern slopes of them, really; they're still kinda in the mountains over there), where they do indeed get significant amounts of snow, has a plow mounted to the front of a beater four-wheel-drive Chevy pickup -- an old one, a '79, I think it is. He picks up a few extra bucks in the winter, plowing out store parking lots and rich people's long driveways and such. But I think he does it mostly because it makes him feel vital, which is understandable. And I think he gets a charge out of that rotating yellow beacon on the roof.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Oh yeah, you gotta do it up here. Rust-free vehicles aren't worth lives, however, I do think they could use sand. The Wisconsin River is full of sand bars and has a dandy bed and they could dredge it and use that, at least in my area it would be somewhat practical.

My parents have two Silverados, a 92 and a 2000 and a 2002 TrailBlazer and hardly any rust and the 92 is my mom's daily driver, as well as being fully equipped with a Western Plow. My only theory is the fact that they don't really go anywhere besides to work, where I'm on the road 7 days a week doing one thing or another.

 

[tonyb]

Sand will aid in traction, no doubt, but salt, if applied correctly, will lower the freezing point such that the snow and ice will turn to water. I believe that in most places they use a cocktail -- sand and salt.

Among the problems with sand (as with anything, there's always a downside) is that it really ought to be cleaned up, as well as it reasonably can be, once the snowy conditions are past. I realize that in Wisconsin, where the snow might be on the ground for months on end, sand removal might have to wait so long that it gets scattered such that collecting it would be a big waste of effort. But in the Seattle area, where the snow might be around for a day or two or three, and rarely more than a week (some winters we get no snow at all), whatever sand is used on the roads collects in little drifts along the shoulders after the snow has melted away. It gets tracked into homes and workplaces and stores, where it undoubtedly accelerates deterioration of the floor surfaces. And it's treacherous to riders of two-wheeled vehicles. Sand atop pavement can be slicker than snot. I darned near dumped a motorcycle on an offramp of a mountain pass highway in summer when I hit the sand that had collected at the bottom of the ramp.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Everything we use has an upside and a downside, I just am always surprised for the abundance of sand here, that they don't use it. I hear that's what they do in Montana, and the Dakotas, I could be wrong though. It is certainly bad news for folks on bikes, but usually they don't come out around here until long after the rain washes everything away. I've always thought that sand would be easier on the environment than salt, at least in this area, considering how sandy the soil is.

 

[tonyb]

Perhaps sand is more commonly used where traction is a greater concern? I realize that much of the Dakotas is flatlands, but the Black Hills are quite mountainous (duh!), and there's a reason Montana is called Montana. In recent years the City of Seattle has been quite generous in its use of sand on roads when conditions might call for it, and sanding trucks (usually with plows on the front) are a common sight on the mountain pass roads. But the city is hilly, and of course the pass highways are.

Feeble responses to snowstorms have derailed more than a couple of political careers out here. It used to be that the region would essentially shut down whenever a significant snowfall hit. People just don't accept that anymore.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

It's the same here. If you call work and tell them you can't make it, it's snowing. They're gonna tell you that they don't care and to get your sorry behind to work. Which is why I don't understand why the snowmobile conversions haven't continued here lol

Perhaps sand is more commonly used where traction is a greater concern? I realize that much of the Dakotas is flatlands, but the Black Hills are quite mountainous (duh!), and there's a reason Montana is called Montana. In recent years the City of Seattle has been quite generous in its use of sand on roads when conditions might call for it, and sanding trucks (usually with plows on the front) are a common sight on the mountain pass roads. But the city is hilly, and of course the pass highways are.

Feeble responses to snowstorms have derailed more than a couple of political careers out here. It used to be that the region would essentially shut down whenever a significant snowfall hit. People just don't accept that anymore.

 

[tonyb]

And, to bring this thread back where it started (kinda), there are few things like challenging weather conditions to acquaint a person with how things actually work (or don't), as contrasted with how they look or what people with an ulterior stake in the game (politicians, salesmen, lawyers, etc.) have to say about it. If a Model A with skis on the front and a tread-track on the back gets you to the hospital and a Cadillac won't, then the Model A is what you want.

What's a snowplow but a road grader or a dump truck or a pickup (or whatever) with a plow blade attached? Ain't gotta be pretty.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Yup, sometimes it's about function over beauty. Lord knows I didn't buy my truck because it has classic lines lol

 

[HodgePodge]

I wouldn't want anyone thinking that just because salt promotes rust in sheet steel that I'm opposed to salting roads. If not for the salt, we'd have less body rust, but undoubtedly more bent and twisted body panels. And that's the least of it. Just ask anyone who has ever been seriously injured in a car wreck.

A few years ago I met a couple from one of the Nordic countries (memory fails as to which one), and they said that they don't salt the roads there. They plow, but not down the bare asphalt. Everyone has to be able to drive on the "snow" roads, with studded tires, as part of their drivers license testing.

It's the same here. If you call work and tell them you can't make it, it's snowing. They're gonna tell you that they don't care and to get your sorry behind to work. Which is why I don't understand why the snowmobile conversions haven't continued here lol

Up here, if it gets bad enough that it's unsafe to drive at all, the County closes the road(s). If you drive on them ( and get caught) you'll get fined. The Ministry wording, "driving or operating a vehicle on a closed road" presumably means that you would still get fined regardless of whether or not your car was equipped with tracks and skis.

Back in the day they used to use these puppies in the areas where a plow just wasn't going to cut it.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Now that's the way to travel. :eusa_clap Love those portholes on the sides.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Sand and salt are a huge part of every town's winter budget here -- the sand isn't sifted too fine, either, and it's not uncommon to get a rock thrown up into your windshield while driving in town. Glass companies do a good business here.

There are still some Model A skidders at work in the woods up north, some of them even fitted with skis in the front.