AND THE AWARD GOES TO.....

HOBBY-CAT PEOPLE-VS-"REAL" SNOW CAT PEOPLE
Here on the Forum we have mostly "Hobby-Cat" people. Those are the people like myself, and Bob Skurka, and Teledog that use their machine ocassinally, perhaps to access a cabin, go hunting, or just play in the snow. BUT we also have a few mwmbers that are REAL SNOW CAT PEOPLE who use snow cats to Access Microwave repeater Towers & cell Phone sites, or put in full 8 hour day's, sometimes 5,6, and 7 days a week operating a Groomer for a commercial Ski Area, or fix, repair, and buy and sell snow cats for a living. I suspect on more than one ocassion, one of the Real snow cat people, reading threads I've generated has said to themselves: "Yeah, Right. that Lyndon's FULL OF BEANS" or some other similar explative. And they may be right too. They are the PRO's, and I'm just a Hobby enthusiasts.

Companies like Tucker Sno Cat have customers like BP & The National Geographic Society that want 5 Custom Tucker 743's to do a 2000 mile treck across the South Pole, and customers like the Alaska Pipeline that want 40, custom Crew Cab/Diesel/Allison equipped, with special 100 gallong tanks.
Bombardiere similarly has customers like Whistler/Blackomb Ski Resort that want (10) 350,000$ Groomer's.
The owner of Sun Valley Ski resort walks into Kassbohrer's headquarters in Grey Maine and lay's out 500,000$ for a Groomer with a Half-Pipe attachment.
Uncle Sam really "steps-up-to-the-plate", he orders (1000), 320,000$ Haglunds. That's 320 Million$!
But some cabin owner, that migh have scimped and saved to build his 2 room cabin, taken 5 summers to complete it, and only visits 3 time a winter can not afford a new 300,000 $ machine. the fact is he doesn't have that much rapped up in his whole piece of property AND the cabin.

Hobie Cats?

A lot of people helped make my snow cat collecting hobby a real adventure.
THE ENGINEER's
Neil Fennessey, Phd Hydrology
Roger Mecon, Mechanical Engineer with ARCO/BP.
Gordon Arndt of NorthWest Tell
Rory Corniel, chief engineer for NorthWest Tell
Harry Dewient, Chief engineer for BC Tell
THE WELDERS & MACHINIST
Ron & Leo's Welding
Machine Repair & Design
Earl Lasher
THE VW PEOPLE
Bill Derickx, the"King" of N.O.S. VW parts.
Gene Burg, a VW Legend in his own right.
The writers and editors of HOT VW's Magazine.
The writers and editors of VW TRENDS Magazine.
Pelham Auto
OVAL's Motorsport
SNOW CAT MANUFACTURERS & DEALERS
Tucker Sno-Cat
Kassbohrer
Lisa Robinson, daughter of Rudy Robinson, US Importer of Snow Trac.
the folks at the Bombardiere Museum in Valcourt Qe.
Bob Person's, President ot AKTIV.
Christer Morlind, Snow Trac offical Parts Distributor.
Tony Karl of River City Equipment.
Bill & Mary Guthrie of Snowtrans.
Cook's Equipment in Vermont.
AND
My friend and painter Rick James and his wife Becky.(below)

I like alot of the old adages. Many still apply. IF IT'S WORTH DOING, IT'S WORTH DOING RIGHT, AND IT SURE BEATS DOING IT OVER!
ALSO: IF YOU WANT SOMETHING DONE RIGHT DO IT YOURSELF, or, HIRE A PROFESSIONAL!
You decide to put a new muffler and tail pipe system on your truck. The local guy, we'll call it "BOB's Muffler" get's 125$ an hour. You're cheap and say:"NO WAY", after 6 or 7 trips to the supply house and one to a tool rental, and 2 day's of knuckel busting your done! But what is your time really worth? Well, if your like me it's worth whatever your MAKING. If your a professional painter working for a painting contractor, and the boss pay's you 20$ and hour, then your time is at least worth that much when you are "Off-the Clock" too.
Now it turns out you have another identical truck that needs the same muffler work, your busy and can't get to it yourself so you take it to "BOB's".
You get BOB's Bill, it's for 175$! 125 for labor, and 50 for materials.
Hell! you paid almost that much for the pipe and 90's and clamps! How can he do it that cheap? So you get to looking at BOB's installation and comparing it to yours. Your's is heavy-duty, but doesn't have quite the finish to it that Bob's does. That's because BOB is a PROfessional! He bent the pipe out of one piece of pipe and didn't use any "factory 90's", which also means less clamps. It took him 8 minutes to bend up the pipe, but he has a special 10,000$ electric/hydraulic bender, you don't. And he did a better job on the fasteners and hangers! that's because he's done thousands of previous simalar jobs. Let's see, you spent 2 days on it, at 20$@Hr, that's 320$. One day of your labor working on YOUR job, as a painter would have paid for the whole thing! A lot of times itPAY'S TO USE THE PROFESSIONAL
If your trying to do something that your good at, fine do it yourself, but if your not good at it HIRE A PROFESSIONAL. It will give you alot less headaches. Some "Professionals" are a bit more professional than some others and it may be necessary to shop around a little.

This is EARL LASHER. Earl worked for Boeing, joined the Army, went to the ARMY's Tank and Tracked Vehicle school (Ominus), did his tour as a mechanic in Vietman, and went back to work for Boeing as a Welder of excotic metals. He's been with Boeing for 35 years. Out of 840 specialty welders in his Union, his seniority number is #1! Earl has been thru the Snow Cat thing with me from the start. He halped me haul my pieces of rusted scrap iron all over Alaska, Canada and the Northwest. He put in an imense effort on various of the restorations.

We drove the ALCAN, toured all over BC & Alberta together, probably made 30 trips to Bill & Mary's place in Idahoe together. Just 6 weeks after having a hip replacement and a knee replacement he was in the engine compartment of the Track Master in the picture above, with the variator and engine out, welding and grinding away.

You see that tube projecting out from the engine of this 737, (the actual one I ride to Prudhoe), that blows our air under high pressure to prevent gravel from being sucked into the engine on what are commonly reffered to as "UN-IMPROVED RUNWAY's", or gravel runways. Earl built that part. Not some other guy, Earl, Earl Lasher.

THEY ARE THERE!


WHO'S THERE?


THE PEOPLE


WHAT PEOPLE?


THE PEOPLE GETTING THE AWARD!

GO THE EXTRA MILE
December 1999. With Y2K Looming in the near feature and people afraid that the world might come to an end, Alyeska dicided to put in a sattellite phone system as "Back-Up". And I had to inspect the installations at all 12 pump stations and 3 remote private airports that the pipeline operates.

I drove the 800 mile length of the Pipeline 3 times (2400 miles), and flew the length of it once. All in about 2 weeks. Christmas Day I worked a regular 12 hour day, driving the Pipeline. I crossed over 2 major mountain passes, 3 times each. And my tires never touched pavement, it was Ice and snow the whole time. I crossed Atigan Pass, ON Christmas Day.

I actually cross this Pass, Thompson Pass, just outside of Valdez 4 times.

GO THE EXTRA MILE
It's a treacherous road, but if you know where the bad spots are and drive it alot it it's no big deal. In the 7 years I worked for Alyeska I never got stuck, and never wrecked. I also crossed this, the Yukon River Bridge at least 10 times during this Y2K inspection.

On New Ears Eve, Alyeska put me up at a nice hotel in Fairbanks. I was "ON-CALL" in case something happened. I had already put in a 12 hour day by 6 in the evening and was on Overtime. I stayed suited up in my FRC's(Fire Retardant Clothing) with my radio nearby, munching on snacks and and watching TV. At midnight nothing happened. Not so much as one of a thousand indicator lights on the control consols at Valdez, where the Control Center is even blinked. At 2 Am they told us we could "STAND-DOWN". I went to bed. The Pipeline had operated like it always does, like a 'Swiss Watch', and I earned an extra 8 hours of Overtime. During that 8 hours we pumped around half a million barrells of crude. That's about 22,000,000 Gallons. That's enough to run your state, any state, for about a week! Employees got these Milestone posters when we reached One Billion, then 2 and so on. We reached 10 billion in 1994, right around the time I started working there. I don't know what it's up to now, but I'm sure there were hats and poster comemorating each milestone.

GO THE EXTRA MILE
As soon as I finished the last entry on the It's a Suprise thread I headed out on a 976.2 mile drive. It would take me right at 30 hours. The 20 hours of that sitting behind the wheel I used to lay out this thread. What to put in, how to make the transitions, what to leave out, editing and 'word-smithing' in my head.
I live right outside Mt. Rainier National park and it is right in the way of where I'm going. Damed if I going to take my truck, it only get's 15 MPG, I'm taking the Jetta, it get's closer to 50 MPG. But the Jetta's not 4 wheel drive, doesn't accomodate chains, and I don't have Studded tires. My choices? the quickest way is Chinook pass, a lofty 5432 feet IN the National part onHighway 410. but it's closed for the winter. An avalanche rolled a snow cat off the road and killed the operator, and did the same thing to 2 snow plow drivers. They don't even allow snow mobilers and skiiers on it any more. Can't go that way.
Mt. Rainier National park and Yellowstone became the first 2 National Parks at the same time.
The next best route is snowqualmie Pass, I-90, at 3000 Feet. But the State of Washington Web site is requiring Chains on all Eastbound traffic and it's snowing!
Ah, White Pass isn't requiring Chains, but it's snowing and White Pass is 4500 Ft.

GO THE EXTRA MILE

In order to go thru White Pass I have to skirt around the Park and put on an extra 70 miles, on windy little 2 lane highways. When I got to White Pass it was snowing and there was alot of new snow on the road. After I got thru the pass it was pretty smooth sailing until I crossed out of Washington into Oregon thru the Columbia river Basin. Then the trouble started. Ice and Snow. 30 to 40 MPH on the interstate! Lines of tractor trailers 6 miles long chaining up. I passed some 30 trailer tractor wrecks, and a dozen cars and SUV's, some serious. But all in a day's work for a bonified "Ice Road Trucker" like me. Finally after 365 miles I came to an impass. They CLOSED the freeway. Seems some 2 dozen trailer tractors had wrecked and they couldn't even get emergency crews in. I got a motel room. The Packistani or Indian woman running the place gave me a big ear to ear smile when I said:"Su-KREE-Ah" thank you in Hindi.
At 4.00 AM the next morning I got up to 2 inches of new slush and ice frozen to my car, warmed it up, scrapped it off and was on my way. Right ON! the road is open! another 140 miles and I was IN WEISER. I had my watch set to Washington time and there is a time change zone right as one crosses into Idahoe. I stopped in a great little restraunt where half the patrons were wearing big brimmed cowboy hats.

I'M THERE!
Bill & Mary Guthrie probably played the single biggest role in my snow cat collecting career.

I purchased 5 snow cats from them, sold sever thru them, but it was the "Leed's" that I got from them that really put it all together.

They are great folks.

Earl Just pulled in with a bunch of his photo albums so I'm going to take a little break. But there's a bunch more to come.
This 1963 Tucker 443 I purchased from Bill & Mary. Of all the machines I've owned it was my favorite, and the one I regret selling. This is it after restoration, the picture on the plaque, with Bill standing by it is "Before" restoration the day Earl and I picked it up.

At Bill & Mary's the day I got it and a later shot after restoration.

Earl blasting around at Government Meadow. I never thought you could get a snow cat to throw 'rooster tails'.

I also got my first Trac Master from Bill & Mary. It is vertually identical, even same year, as the FBI rig, but had the full width tracks. I had a "Balanced and Blueprinted" 1776 CC, roughly 80 HP motor built up for it.
These are Before and After Pictures also.

Ron Hoffman was the 3rd party that made up the core of the ST4 Owners Association. His White "snow dragon" got it's name because the previous owner had cut slots in the front fenders to allow debris cought on the track to exit. In deep, light powder it would blow out 2 plumes of snow out the front. It looks wild!

Here's a few shots of the Northwest Vintage Meet. "Professor Fennessey" in the first Photo. Trophies won at various Meets in last photo.

TUCKER KITTENS, COLLECTABILITY
They only produced about 125 Tucker Kittens. They produced 2315 ST4's. They produced roughly the same number of Rolls Royce Phantom One's as ST4's. A Rolls P1, usually brings between 100,000$ and 1,200,000$. I figgured that some day ST4's might be selling at Christy's or at Barrett Jackson auction houses just because of their rarity. A John Deere Lindeman, of which 1100 were produced usually fetches around 20,000$ for one in the shape of mine pictured earlier.
Here we are picking up a 1958 Tucker 443, and a Tucker Kitten.

TUCKER KITTENS, COLLECTABILITYcontinued.
If they only built 125 Kittens, and the population of the world is over a billion people, and we estimate that a Kitten passed thru 10 owners, then somewhere around 1 in 50,000,000 people have ever owned a Tucker Kitten.

MT. RAINIER AT NIGHT IN THE KITTEN
One night we took Earl's ST4#196 and the Kitten up thru the national forest right into the edge of Mt. Rainier National Park. It was about 15 miles from where we unloaded off the trailers. At somewhere around midnight, after navigating all sorts of narrow, twisting logging roads in about 8 feet of snow we found a spot with a spectacular view and stopped. It was a crystal clear night out. There were 5 or 6 of us, a few guy's brought beer. We were all standing around looking at a spectacular sky when the Kitten, which was ideling with no one in it died. We always carried everything including the 'kitchen sink' for just such an ocassion. It turned out that a tiny fibre washer that insulated a little screw in the points, inside the distributor, had failed. One of the guy's had a little plastic bar code card that was his membership for a Video store. We punched a hole in it, trimmed it off with aviation tin snips, and completed the repair in less than half an hour and were on our way, with no further problems.
Later, back in town I got ahold of the guy that wrote the VW Article, Dean Kirsten. He's the "Go-To" guy for Anglia stuff. Kittens have brittish Ford Anglia motors. Dean gave me a cross reference recomendtion for a new set of points. I went to Hagens, a local antique car parts place and low and behold they had a Brand New set of the correct points, still in the original 1958 box! That's what is in the Kitten now.
If it hadn't been for Bill & Mary Guthrie I wouldn't have gotten to be that 1 in 50 Million'th guy that owned a Tucker Kitten, and I certainly would never had that great adventure at the base of Mt. Rainier.

SNOW SURVEY IN THE KITTEN
Mary Guthrie is a real Trooper. She used to load up and chain down a Tucker Kitten, drive 50 or 100 miles to some remote location, un-chain and unload her 'Cat', motor off into some remote places miles back in to the mountains, test snow depths, record the DATA, motor back, load up and chain up, and head home. I'll bet she saw some beautiful places too.
IN A 40 YEAR OLD MACHINE? That takes courage and determination. If you break down you're not walking out, it's snow shoes or skiis! And 40 year old machinery has been known to get cranky!
I feel greatfull to have been one of the 1 in 50 million that got to own and operate a Tucker Kitten, but my money says that NO ONE ELSE went out in a 40 year old Tucker Kitten and and did Snow Survey's. That makes Mary the 1 in a billion! That's like being sir Edmond Hillery, first guy to scale Mount Everest, or Neil Armstrong first man on the moon! I sure she doesn't think of it that way. To her it was just another day at work. Still, Mary didn't have a support team of 50,000 people at Mission Control, SHE WAS HER OWN 'MISSION CONTROL'.

"LEED's & "TIP's"
Besides the 5 machines I got from Bill & Mary that led to great adventures, 2 "LEED's" Bill gave me led to some truely GREAT ADVENTURES.
The first was the was the FBI Trac Master. It has it's own thread and it would be great if someone posted pictures and the Linc. It would also be approiate for anyone else having a snow cat that came from Bill & Mary to post their stories, and pictures.

"TIP'S & LEED'S
the one lone Tip that Bill gave me that stands out and led to a truely great adventure was that of the COLD BAY ST4.
http://www.forumsforums.com/3_9/showthread.php?t=7954
For me, a lone solder electrician, finding, bringing home, collecting the parts for it's restoration, and restoring it was roughly equivalent to the logistics of planning and equiping the NORMANDY INVASION! Earl just brought over these photo's I have never previously seen. The forklift picture is of him picking it up at the dock's in Seattle. I was in Prudhoe Bay, 2500 miles to the north.

It still has the original FAA Markings, which they usually scratch off or paint over before selling government equipment. It also still had the FAA License Plates which are hanging up on the wall of Rick James shop.

this should be the Linc for the FBI Rig.
http://www.forumsforums.com/3_9/showthread.php?t=8113