Snowmobile

A snowmobile (known as a snowmachine in Alaska) is a land vehicle propelled by track at the rear and ski(s) up front for steering. Early snowmobiles used rubber tracks, however a modern snowmobile will have a track made of a kevlar composite. more...

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They are designed to be operated on snow and ice, and require no road or trail. Most snowmobiles are typically powered by two-stroke gasoline/petrol internal combustion engines. Four-stroke engines are becoming more and more popular in snowmobiles. Summertime occupations for snowmobile enthusiasts can also involve drag racing on grass, asphalt strips, or even across water. People who ride them commonly are known as snowmobilers. The three main types of riding are Snowcross/racing, trail riding and mountain climbing.

History

Multi-passenger snowmobiles

The first United States patent for a snow-vehicle using the now recognized format of rear track(s) and front skis was issued to Ray H. Muscott of Waters, MI on June 27, 1916 with U.S. Patent # 1,188,981. Many individuals later modified Ford Model Ts with the undercarriage replaced with tracks and skis following this design. They were popular for rural mail delivery for a time.

The relatively dry snow conditions of the United States Midwest suited the converted model Ts and other like vehicles but they were not suitable for operation in more humid snow areas such as Southern Quebec. This led Joseph-Armand Bombardier of the small town of Valcourt in Quebec, Canada, to invent a different caterpillar track system suitable for all kinds of snow conditions. Bombardier had already made some "metal" tracked vehicles since 1928, but his new revolutionary track traction system (a toothed wheel covered in rubber, and a rubber and cotton track that wraps around the back wheels) was his first major invention. He started production of a large, enclosed, seven-passenger snowmobile in 1937, the B-7 and introduced another enclosed twelve-passenger model, the B-12 in 1942. The B-7 had a V-8 flathead engine from Ford Motor Company. The B-12 had a flathead in line six cylinder engine from Chrysler industrial, and 2,817 units were produced until 1951. It was used in many applications, such as ambulances, Canada post vehicles, winter "school buses", forestry machines and even army vehicles in World War II. Bombardier had always dreamed of a smaller version, more like the size of a motor scooter.

Individual snowmobiles

Numerous people had similar ideas. Edgar and Allen Hetteen and David Johnson of Roseau, Minnesota were among the first to build a practical snowmobile in 1955-1956, but the early machines were heavy (1000 lbs or 450 kg) and slow (20 mph or 30 km/h). Their company, Hetteen Hoist & Derrick Co., became Polaris Industries, a major snowmobile manufacturer.. It was only in 1959, when engines became lighter and smaller than before, that Bombardier invented what we know as the modern snowmobile in its open-cockpit one- or two-person form, and started selling it as the "Ski-doo". Competitors sprang up and copied and improved his design. In the 1970s there were over a hundred of snowmobile manufacturers. From 1970 to 1973 they sold close to two million machines, a sales summit never since equalled, with a peak of half a million in 1971. Many of the snowmobile companies were small outfits and the biggest manufacturers were often attempts by motorcycle makers and outboard motor makers to branch off in a new market. Most of these companies went bankrupt during the gasoline crisis of 1973 and succeeding recessions, or were bought up by the larger ones. Sales rebounded to 260,000 in 1997 but went down gradually afterward, influenced by warmer winters and the use during all four seasons of small one- or two-person ATVs. The snowmobile market is now divided up between the four large North American makers (Ski Doo, Arctic Cat, Yamaha, and Polaris) and some specialized makers like the European Alpina Snowmobiles^, . Modern snowmobiles can achieve speeds in excess of 120 mph ). Racing snowmobiles reach speeds in excess of 180 mph .

Read more at Wikipedia.org