Snow Trac recovered from bottom of frozen river in Central Alaska

[arcticracer]

Just thought I would stop in here and say hello. My neighbors Snow Trac that was recovered from the Tanana River has been undergoing a slow rebuild, it is getting repainted, has a replacement VW 1600 in it now, and some other mods. The gas tanks are getting moved outside, on top of the area above the tracks. A heavy duty receiver is getting added to the front also, and more. I will try to get a few more photos to post shortly. Good thing mother nature was beaten before breakup or the rig would have been unrecoverable and totalled. The river runs clear in winter, but extremely silty the rest of the year.

 

[Melensdad]

Any chance of documenting the re-build with photos?

The summer months are pretty slow for snowcat posts and photos would sure make for some interesting discussion.

 

[arcticracer]

I should have snapped a few along the way with the rebuild, but there is still work to be done so I will get some photos as it looks now and later as work progresses. Dave and CHris were hoping to have it ready for later in the winter. They can't really take it anywhere until the river is safely frozen anyway. Here is what the river looks like now.

 

[arcticracer]

Oops......

 

[Melensdad]

The river looks a lot more frinedly in this photo than in the pictures at the beginning of the thread!

 

[arcticracer]

Finally, some new pictures of Dave and Chris Lace's SNow Trac undergoing restoration after spending a couple months on the bottom of the Tanana River. It has a rebuilt VW 1600 CC engine now. Dave has covered the interior with that interlocking puzzle piece rubber matting stuff. It now has digital gauges, a new aluminum gas tank, and a reinforced rear door and fender support area. Have a look! THe red head guy in the pictures is Todd Evans, the other guy is Joe Brown, they are both aircraft mechanics who work on DC-6 and C-46 birds for Everts Air.

The doggies are Rex and Storm and belong to Todd.

 

[arcticracer]

Here is a look at Todd's mods to the rear. Check out the steel reinforced corners, and fender. There are also bumpers front and rear, if you can see the rear receiver, that is what supported the rig during recovery.

 

[arcticracer]

here is a look at the rear lighting, and new digital dashboard. All wiring has been replaced.

 

[arcticracer]

Here are some pictures of the new tank on the left side, and inside shots.

 

[arcticracer]

Here is the engine, front bumper, etc.

 

[arcticracer]

More general views of the rig. The girl is the daughter of Joe's girl friend who can be seen in the corner of one pic.

 

[arcticracer]

Finally, an Alaskan coatrack, and one of the vehicles Todd and Joe usually work on.

That's me in front of the DC-6, and flight engineer Blaine with the round motor.

 

[Melensdad]

Interesting modifications/improvements during the rebuild. I really like the double rear doors to open up the entire back end of the Snow Trac. When the seats go in will they be fold up seats to allow for more cargo storage?

Is that carpet on the fenders? If so, why?

The marine grade switch panel on the dash looks like a nice upgade too.

 

[kensfarm]

I noticed in all the photos in this thread, plus in the photos of your PHOTO GALLERY that there was no picture of the driver.

I thought the driver was the first big chunk of ice they hauled out!

 

[Melensdad]

I thought the driver was the first big chunk of ice they hauled out!

The easy way to pull it out of the river would have been to use another Snow Trac as the rescue vehicle

 

[downriver david]

UPDATE: Snow Trac recovered from bottom of frozen river in Central Alaska

Here's a couple of notes about the rebuild of the sunken Snow Trac. First and most sad, the guy in the picture helping with the re-build, (the one with the red shirt: Todd Ivans), was killed in a explosion earlier this Fall at Scaled Composites in California where he was working on Burt Rutan's space plane project. He and 2 others were testing a rocket engine when it exploded. All 3 died.

Answering the question about pulling the track rig out of the river with another one...it wouldn't have worked. It took all the power of the Zoom Boom to get it out of the water.

I just drove it out of the garage for it's first test run. Second, 3rd,4th and reverse are fine, but 1st gear pops out. I can move the plate so that 1st gear works, but then i don't have reverse. Any hints?

My other question is about cooling. I replaced the engine with a 1600 cc VW engine and the only air flow I have is from the blower on the generator shaft with the engine shroud. It seems to run hot. I installed digital gauges and shut it down when it reached 210 F. What is the normal oil temperature when running?

 

[downriver david]

Just saw a couple of other comments. We used outdoor carpeting on the fenders to help with rattling. Ditto for the inside. We used interlocking foam squares on the floor and walls to keep the noise down. Our neighbor Dale said that it would help it float too kidding. (This is Dale, Arcticracer. I just noticed on the instrument panel that Dave installed, as a marine panel, is labeled with the various devices one would find in a boat. I told Dave I hoped he would not be needing the BILGE PUMP OR ANCHOR LIGHT!!!!)

 

[Junkman]

The easy way to pull it out of the river would have been to use another Snow Trac as the rescue vehicle

I believe that Hemmings has that all wrong. That Corvair will go just about any place that a snow cat will go, as long as the snow isn't so deep that it has to plow its way through. You can say a lot of things about a Corvair, but getting stuck in snow isn't one of them.... Junk.. driving Corvairs since 1962

 

[Snowcat Operations]

DOWNRIVER DAVID,
Sorry to hear about your friend. Thats always a hard thing.

As far as keeping your engine cool here is a thread by one of the worlds most leading experts on snow tracs! Also PM LYNDON. He is up in Alaska and I have never heard of him not stopping by to check out a snow trac!

Heres the thread:http://www.forumsforums.com/3_9/showthread.php?t=3895&highlight=engine+cooling

There are threads on pretty much every aspect of the Snow Trac! Ask and one of us will find it for you.

 

[arcticracer]

Tribute to Todd Ivens

This evening after the earlier post here, I found a tribute to Todd Ivens, Eric Blackwell, and Glen May who were the technicians killed in the Scaled Composites explosion last July. Sorry if this drifts just a bit off topic, but Todd was the chief fabricator and mechanic in Dave's Snow Trac restoration/rebuild. Todd can also be seen in the recovery photos on the Tanana River. He ended up over here on the river a lot at Dave's place, just hanging around with other guys from Evert's Air, and helping Dave with his airboat, the Snow Trac, or whatever. Dave was flying the DC-6's that Todd and the other guys were working on.

The tribute as well as those for Eric and Glen is at the Scaled website at http://www.scaled.com/