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Sno-Cat
The Tucker Sno-Cat is a family of tracked vehicles for snow conditions, manufactured in Medford, Oregon by the company of the same name. Different models have been used for expeditions in the Arctic and the Antarctic during the second half of the 20th century. It differs from other truck-sized snow vehicles, commonly known as snowcats, by its use of four independently mounted sets of tracks. Early models While the majority of Tucker Sno-Cats utilized four sets of tracks, a few experimental models and early production models used two sets of tracks. Initially Tucker Sno-Cats employed two front-mounted steering skis and two sets of tracks mounted to the rear. However, there are at least three production models that only employed dual tracks—the small 222 Tucker Kitten, the 322, and the 323 models were all two-track Tucker Sno-Cats with a conventional front engine design. There are at least two variants of the Tucker Kitten, some have square corner doors while others have ro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tucker Sno-cat
The Tucker Sno-Cat is a family of tracked vehicles for snow conditions, manufactured in Medford, Oregon by the company of the same name. Different models have been used for expeditions in the Arctic and the Antarctic during the second half of the 20th century. It differs from other truck-sized snow vehicles, commonly known as snowcats, by its use of four independently mounted sets of tracks. Early models While the majority of Tucker Sno-Cats utilized four sets of tracks, a few experimental models and early production models used two sets of tracks. Initially Tucker Sno-Cats employed two front-mounted steering skis and two sets of tracks mounted to the rear. However, there are at least three production models that only employed dual tracks—the small 222 Tucker Kitten, the 322, and the 323 models were all two-track Tucker Sno-Cats with a conventional front engine design. There are at least two variants of the Tucker Kitten, some have square corner doors while others have ro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Snowcat
A snowcat (short for snow and caterpillar) is an enclosed-cab, truck-sized, fully tracked vehicle designed to move on snow. Major manufacturers are Pisten Bully (Germany), Prinoth (Italy) and Tucker (United States). Snow groomers A snowcat dedicated to snow maintenance rather than transport is a snow groomer. Other terms are "piste machines", "trail groomers" (in North American English) or "piste bashers" (in British English) because of their use in preparing ski trails ("pistes") or snowmobile trails. Other functions In addition to grooming snow they are used for polar expeditions, logging in marsh areas, leveling sugar beet piles, medical evacuations and seismic studies in the wild. Construction Most snowcats, such as the ones produced by Bombardier or Aktiv in the past, have two sets of tracks, fitted with a Christie suspension or a Horstmann suspension. Others, like the Tucker Sno-Cat and Hägglunds ''Bandvagn 206'' vehicles, have a complex arrangement of four or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Snow Trac
The Snow Trac is a small personal Snowcat that is roughly the size of a modern compact car. Origins and description In 1954, Lars Larsson, the chief design engineer for a Swedish farm equipment company, AB Westeråsmaskiner, decided to develop a tracked vehicle to take him and his brother on fishing trips in the winter. The company put his snow vehicle into production in 1957. It uses a unique steering mechanism called a variator that allows the steering of a tracked vehicle to use a traditional automotive steering wheel instead of levers. The Aktiv Fischer Snow Trac is a tracked vehicle, which was manufactured from 1957 to 1981 in Sweden. It runs on two rubber tracks powered by a Volkswagen flat 4 industrial boxer style engine and is suitable for both deep snow and soft surface use. The engine developed about 40 horsepower, but that varied from year to year as the earlier models developed 36 hp, and later models developed 54 hp. With a length of approximately 12' ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
KRISTI Snowcat
Kristi snowcats were 1950s/1960s tracked vehicles suitable for snow and other terrain and produced originally in Colorado and then later in Washington. Propeller drive before track drive According to the introduction, contained in the operators manual: "The development of the Kristi snow vehicles began in early 1947 in the form of a very unusual snow plane. This propeller driven vehicle utilized a control by which the operator could tilt the machine from side to side, in effect raising one ski and lowering the other to negotiate up to 45-degree side slopes and permit high-speed turns without skidding. This tilting and edging of skis after the manner of a skier was called "Ski-Action". Since it could do a "Christie" up or down hill, the trade name "Kristi" was adopted." The Kristi snowplane featured a revolutionary change in ski handling concepts. As stated in the manual, the design was inspired by snow skiers who angled their skis to effect a turn (this angling of skis is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition
The Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition (CTAE) of 1955–1958 was a Commonwealth-sponsored expedition that successfully completed the first overland crossing of Antarctica, via the South Pole. It was the first expedition to reach the South Pole overland for 46 years, preceded only by Amundsen's expedition and Scott's expedition in 1911 and 1912. In keeping with the tradition of polar expeditions of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, the CTAE was a private venture, though it was supported by the governments of the United Kingdom, New Zealand, United States, Australia and South Africa, as well as many corporate and individual donations, under the patronage of Queen Elizabeth II. It was headed by British explorer Vivian Fuchs, with New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary leading the New Zealand Ross Sea Support team. The New Zealand party included scientists participating in International Geophysical Year research while the British team were separately based at Halley Ba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bombardier Recreational Products
BRP Inc. is the holding company for Bombardier Recreational Products Inc., operating as BRP, a Canadian manufacturer of snowmobiles, all-terrain vehicles, side by sides, motorcycles, and personal watercraft. It was founded in 2003, when the Recreational Products Division of Bombardier Inc. was spun-off and sold to a group of investors consisting of Bain Capital, the Bombardier-Beaudoin family and the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. Bombardier Inc., was founded in 1942 as ''L'Auto-Neige Bombardier Limitée'' (Bombardier Snowmobile Limited) by Joseph-Armand Bombardier at Valcourt in the Eastern Townships, Quebec. , BRP had about 5,500 employees; its revenues in 2007 were above US$2.5 billion. BRP has manufacturing facilities in five countries: Canada, the United States (Wisconsin, Illinois, North Carolina, Arkansas, Michigan and Minnesota), Mexico, Finland, and Austria. The company's products are sold in more than 100 countries, some of which have their own direct-sa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Logan Machine Company
Logan Manufacturing Company was a US manufacturer of snowcats that ceased operation in 2000. LMC is both the tradename (brand name) and an acronym. The company's earliest history started with a prototype tracked snow vehicle built in 1948 by engineers Roy France and Emmett Devine, of the Utah Scientific Foundation at Utah State University in Logan, Utah. After building a few more prototypes, series production began in 1950 under the Frandee Sno-Shu brand. In 1961, Utah Scientific Foundation sold the snow vehicle business to the Thiokol Corporation, with the Frandee Sno-Shu name being retired in favor of the Thiokol brand on the company's products. Manufacturing moved out of a workshop on the Utah State University campus to a new facility in Logan. During the mid 1970s, Thiokol adopted a new strategy of divesting ancillary businesses in order to focus on its core rocket and missile operations, and the snow cat business division was earmarked for sale. In 1978, John DeLorean ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thiokol
Thiokol (variously Thiokol Chemical Corporation(/Company), Morton Thiokol Inc., Cordant Technologies Inc., Thiokol Propulsion, AIC Group, ATK Thiokol, ATK Launch Systems Group; finally Orbital ATK before becoming part of Northrop Grumman) was an American corporation concerned initially with rubber and related chemicals, and later with rocket and missile propulsion systems. Its name is a portmanteau of the Greek words for sulfur (θεῖον ''"theion"'') and glue (κόλλα ''"kolla"''), an allusion to the company's initial product, Thiokol polymer. The Thiokol Chemical Company was founded in 1929. Its initial business was a range of synthetic rubber and polymer sealants. Thiokol was a major supplier of liquid polymer sealants during World War II. When scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory discovered that Thiokol's polymers made ideal binders for solid rocket fuels, Thiokol moved into the new field, opening laboratories at Elkton, Maryland, and later production facilitie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vivian Fuchs
Sir Vivian Ernest Fuchs ( ; 11 February 1908 – 11 November 1999) was an English scientist-explorer and expedition organizer. He led the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition which reached the South Pole overland in 1958. Biography Fuchs was the son of the German immigrant Ernst Fuchs from the Jena area and of his British wife Violet Watson. He was born in 1908 in Freshwater, Isle of Wight, and attended Brighton College and St John's College, Cambridge. He was educated as a geologist, and considered the profession a means of pursuing his interest in the outdoors. He was a member of the Sedgwick Club, a geological society, at Cambridge. His first expedition was to Greenland in 1929 with his tutor James Wordie. After graduation in 1930, he travelled with a Cambridge University expedition to study the geology of East African lakes with respect to climate fluctuation. Next, he joined anthropologist Louis Leakey on an expedition to Olduvai Gorge. In 1933, Fuchs married his cou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Snow Grooming
Snow grooming is the process of manipulating snow for recreational uses with a tractor, snowmobile, piste caterpillar, truck or snowcat towing specialized equipment. The process is used to maintain ski hills, cross-country ski trails and snowmobile trails by grooming (moving, flattening, rototilling, or compacting) the snow on them. A snow groomer is usually employed to pack snow and improve skiing and snowboarding and snowmobile trail conditions. The resulting pattern on the snow is known as corduroy, and is widely regarded as a good surface on which to ski or ride. Snow groomers can also move accumulated snow made by snow machines as part of a process, called "snow farming". Snow groomer A snow groomer (informally called a "piste basher" in the United Kingdom) is a tracked vehicle equipped in front with a shovel (or dozer blade) and behind with a cutter (or roller). It is usually driven by diesel engines. When the machine drives over a snowfield, it pushes snow ahead of it a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Medford, Oregon
Medford is a city in and the county seat of Jackson County, Oregon, in the United States. As of the 2020 United States Census on April 1, 2020, the city had a total population of 85,824 and a metropolitan area population of 223,259, making the Medford MSA the fourth largest metro area in Oregon. The city was named in 1883 by David Loring, civil engineer and right-of-way agent for the Oregon and California Railroad, after Medford, Massachusetts, which was near Loring's hometown of Concord, Massachusetts. Medford is near the middle ford of Bear Creek. History In 1883, a group of railroad surveyors headed by S. L. Dolson and David Loring arrived in Rock Point, near present-day Gold Hill. They were charged with finding the best route through the Rogue Valley for the Oregon and California Railroad. Citizens of neighboring Jacksonville hoped that it would pass between their town and ''Hanley Butte'', near the present day Claire Hanley Arboretum. Such a move would have all but guarante ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
M7 Snow Tractor
The Allis-Chalmers M7 snow tractor was designed for use by the U.S. Army Air Corps as a rescue vehicle in remote northern bases. History The M7 (T26E4) snow tractor was standardized in August 1943, and was downgraded to Limited standard in November 1944. It was intended to pull a one-ton M19 snow trailer (T48). The tractor used many Allis Chalmers farm tractor components. It also used many Willys MB jeep powertrain components to lessen the military's spare parts inventory requirements. The distinguishing feature of the M7 was the track system (halftrack). The M7's track ran on two rubber belts with four steel cables inside. The machine had a tendency to have the tracks come off in use. Another feature of both the tractor and trailer is that the tires could be switched with skis. Prototyping of the machine that eventually became the M7 included several machines by Emmett Tucker ( of subsequent Tucker Sno-Cat fame ) At least one of the prototypes, a T26E3, still exists. Somethin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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