Twin Track Snowmobile Offers Smooth Ride

Twin Track Snowmobile Offers Smooth Ride FARM HOME recreation John Kweens’ twin track snowmobiles were built for comfort and fun “I remember riding the first one which I built in 1980 It rode like a car ” says Kweens “Regular snowmobiles at the time didn’t ride well With the 2 tracks I was sitting in between the suspensions ” A few years later Kweens got into racing and building sleds Over the years he built or modified around 80 snowmobiles for racing on ice snow and grass ovals Along the way he picked up the nickname Johnie Fast “I love the building part ” he says “I’m always building something and then I sell it I have snowmobiles all over North America with a number of them in museums ” He thought about building a second twin tracker but while he had drawings of the original machine which was parted out years ago there were no measurements He did have lots of vintage Ski Doo parts in particular from Ski Doo Blizzard and Blizzard Plus models About 15 years ago he started the project by building a drive system He used two 1981 Blizzard Plus machined drive axle shafts with flanged bearings The right-hand side axle shaft has a hydraulic caliper rotor brake disk The drive system has two 13-tooth drive sprockets and a modified chain case In order to center the 2 drive axle shafts in the bulkhead Kweens cut an output bearing holder off a salvaged chain case and welded it to the twin track’s chain case The drive axle shafts were torque-arm bolted on the end of a shortened cross drive shaft with a 21-tooth top gear and triple roller chain tightened with a stringed lever Kweens used an Alpine 38-tooth bottom gear Polaris primary and secondary clutches an 1108 Dayco clutch belt and a 1/8-in thick clutch guard His latest twin tracker weighs in at only 500 lbs thanks to judicious use of aluminum He started with a welded frame made from 1/8-in thick 1/2 by 1/2-in aluminum angle iron The chassis has a welded bulkhead of 1/8-in aluminum plates Motor and chain case support plates are 1/2 in thick The roll bar is 1 1/2-in OD aluminum pipe and the steering support bracket is 1/2-in OD pipe Kweens pop-riveted a 77 SS Blizzard chromoly front spindle axle onto the bulkhead For cooling he made two 8 3/4-in tunnel heat exchangers by cutting a 17 1/2-in dia tunnel from an 81 Blizzard Plus in half He pop-riveted them to the side of the bulkhead with 1/8-in thick 1/2 by 1/2-in aluminum angle iron for supports The hood and engine cover are made from 14-gauge aluminum plate pop-riveted onto the frame The twin tracks started out as a 16 1/2-in wide track from a 1983 9700 Blizzard “I cut a 1 1/8-in strip out of the middle of the track to center the drive windows and create the 2 separate tracks ” explains Kweens He powered it with a Rotax L/C 440cc rotary engine also from an 81 9500 Blizzard Plus He rebuilt it with new pistons ignition carbs and fuel pump but went with vintage 1978 Gagne race pipes and a thrust exhaust muffler At 9 700 rpm’s it produced 85 hp Kweens finished the twin tracker off with a racing go-cart seat a 7-gal fuel cell new skiis steering parts master brake brake caliper and steering tie rods “If someone needs information on a vintage snowmobile they can call me I have a list of 600 people across North America who are interested in vintage snowmobiles If I don’t know the answer I can pass the question on to them ” To see some of the 80 snowmobiles Kweens has built go to his Pinterest page johniefast productions Contact: FARM SHOW Followup John Kweens 204 Kito St Churchbridge Sask Canada S0A 0M0 ph 306 262-0009; jgkweens@sasktel net

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