Antique Auger Tracks Pulled Tractor Through Snow

Antique Auger Tracks Pulled Tractor Through Snow TRACTORS Antiques 21-2-19 When we first saw photos of this late 1930's Fordson tractor, we thought it was some kind of joke. After talking to an expert, we learned that the big flighted pontoons mounted on either side of the tractor were actually designed to pull it through snow. It was salvaged from a Cook City, Mont., mining camp and is on display at The World Museum of Mining in Butte, Mont. "The system was first built in 1923 and was called the æFordson Snow Motor Con-version,'" says Lloyd Harkin, a Silver Star, Mont., collector of mining equipment. " The tanks were about 3-ft. in dia. and 7-ft. long. They were attached in front with a yoke in-stead of the regular axle and were chain driven from a gearbox that bolted on behind the ring and pinion gear. One screw turned clockwise and the other turned counter clockwise to propel it forward. If they'd both turned the same way, the tractor would simply have turned circles." The kit was built and sold by Snow Motors Inc. of Detroit, Mich. "It's my understanding they worked reasonably well in moderate snow, but were impractical in heavy powder because the vehicle sank in," he says. "Top speed wasn't near as fast as a tractor, either." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, World Museum of Mining, Box 33, Butte, Mont. 59703 (ph 406 723-7211).

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