Friday, March 21, 2014

1967 Thiokol Snowcat?



Auction Car of the Week: 1967 Thiokol Snowcat


Boldride
By Craig Fitzgerald 14 hours ago


There’s something so cool about vehicles that were former professional vehicles. Sometimes it’s an old Crown Vic from the local police department. Other times it’s the Jeep J20 the local fire company used as a brush truck. This might be the coolest former work vehicle ever, though. It’s a Thiokol 601, formerly used by the US Air Force as a shuttle to its radar stations, presumably in places where it snowed like crazy.
Your go-to producer of wild snow machines probably isn’t the Thiokol Chemical Corporation of Logan, Utah, is it? Well, maybe it should be.
Front
RELATED: Up and Over – The Wildest Snow-Going Vehicles, Past and Present
Thiokol was a chemical corporation that made a foul-smelling adhesive compound that clogged a sink in the laboratory and was completely resistant to any kind of solvent. As it turned out, that substance was a type of synthetic rubber, and the company went on to use it as the stabilizer in solid-fuel rockets.
REAR
Along with the rocket fuel stabilizer, Thiokol also built ski-lifts from after the war through the skiing boom in the 1950s and 1960s. When you’re building and servicing lifts, you get to learn a lot about how ski mountains operate. In the days before four-wheel drive was even available as a factory option, Thiokol noticed a need for a vehicle that could be used both as a snowmobile to shuttle people around, as well as some form of rudimentary grooming equipment.
VIDEO: Alfa Romeo 8C Playing in the Snow
Interestingly, Thiokol’s snow machine division was sold to Logan Manufacturing Company (LMC), which was owned by John DeLorean. There’s currently a Thiokol Imp out in front of the Mount Washington Weather Discovery Center in North Conway, New Hampshire.
Steering TIllers
Powered by six-cylinder Ford gasoline engines, and steered via steering clutches like a Caterpillar, the Thiokol 601 and the smaller Imp became standard fare at ski resorts, as well as with outfits like the Air Force, whenever trudging through snow was required. Thiokols with larger bodies like this one are suitable for carrying up to ten people.
RELATED: NASA and the US Air Force Used Awesome Chase Vehicles
Considering this was used by the military and essentially mothballed for decades, the condition of this Thiokol 601 is remarkable. The Air Force Blue paint is in exceptional condition. The interior has been fitted with more modern seats, with headrests and seatbelts.
Sunroof
It’s got a sunroof/hatch thing, and the seller notes that if you need a gigantic trailer to haul it with, he’s got you covered.
Trailer
It also features what looks like a Heineken keg for a fuel tank, though a VIN check could reveal it to be a Lowenbrau.
Interior
For the adventurous vintage car buyer, this Thiokol 601 might be just the ticket for that vacation in the woods, or for the anarchy loosed by the inevitable onset of rampaging zombies.

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      • Auction Car of the Week: 1967 Thiokol Snowcat

        There’s something so cool about vehicles that were former professional vehicles. Sometimes it’s an old Crown Vic from the local police department. Other times it’s the Jeep J20 the local fire company used as a brush truck. This might be the coolest former work vehicle ever, though. It’s a Thiokol…
        Boldride
        My father and grandfather owned something like this that was called a Weasel which was an Army surplus vehicle with tank treads. It looked like an army tank with it's turret taken off. I was four years old and my Dad and Grandpa bought it at an Army Surplus auction in 1952 when I was about 4. My Dad took me for a ride in it down a 45 degree angle hill in a foot or two of snow and I bumped my head on the dashboard and cried. He gave me to my Mom because he was being way to radical for me at that age without any seatbelts or shoulder harnesses (that would be about 40 years later in the late 1980s. But, then again that's a lot how guys were then with kids. They weren't as hands on then as they are now as fathers. There was a very big separation between the roles of men and women then. Mostly kids could either survive what Dad was doing or they couldn't and there wasn't really any in between.

        But, finally my Dad and Grandpa sold the thing to some guys in Alaska who could use it in the snow. So, it was shipped up there from Lake Forest Park in Seattle where my Grandad owned several acres of cherry and apple trees and also raspberries and blackberries which I loved to eat then at age 4 by walking out my kitchen door.

        Luckily, I found this on the World War II Weasels I remember:

        M29 Weasel

        From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
        M29 Weasel
        M29 Weasel 2.jpg
        Type Tracked vehicle
        Place of origin  United States
        Specifications
        Weight 3,800 lb (1,700 kg) dry
        Length 10 ft 6 in (3.20 m)
        Width 5 ft (1.5 m)
        later 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m)
        Height 4 ft 3 in (1.30 m)
        5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) to top of windscreen
        Crew 4
        Engine Studebaker Model 6-170 Champion 6-cylinder
        70 hp (52 kW)
        Suspension Tracked
        Operational
        range
        		 165 mi (266 km)
        Speed 36 mph (58 km/h)
        The M29 Weasel was a World War II tracked vehicle, built by Studebaker, designed for operation in snow.[1]

        Design and development

        The idea for the Weasel came from the work of British inventor Geoffrey Pyke in support of his proposals to attack Axis forces and industrial installations in Norway. Pyke's plan to hamper the German atomic weapons development became Project Plough for which he proposed a fast light mechanised device that would transport small groups of commando troops of the 1st Special Service Force across snow. In active service in Europe, Weasels were used to supply frontline troops over difficult ground when wheeled vehicles were immobilised.
        The first 2,103 vehicles had 15 in (380 mm) tracks, a later version had 20 in (510 mm) tracks. The M29 was amphibious, but with a very low freeboard;[2] the M29C Water Weasel was the amphibious version, with buoyancy cells in the bow and stern as well as twin rudders.

        Gallery

        • St. Lo Special 1 "Young Jim" let's go essayons Nihil Timemus We fear nothing
        • M29C Weasel in Arctic finish in a display at the U.S. Army Transportation Museum

        Variants

        • T-15 prototype
        • M28 (G154)
        • M29 (T24) without float tanks (G179)
        • M29C with float tanks
        • M29C Type A: with center-mounted 75 mm M20 recoilless rifle[3]
        • M29C Type B: with (T106) rear-mounted 75 mm recoilless rifle
        • M29C Type C: with center-mounted 37 mm Gun M3

        Specification

        M29 Weasel in parking lot of Holiday Inn in Omaha
        M29 Weasel
        M29C Weasel
        SCR-508 Radio mounted in weasel
        General
        • Weight (fighting): 4,451 lb (2,019 kg)
        • Shipping dimensions:
          • Uncrated; 340 cu ft (9.6 m3); 57.7 sq ft (5.36 m2)
        • Ground clearance: 11 in (280 mm)
        • Ground pressure: 1.9 psi (13 kPa)
        • Pintle height (loaded): 27.125 in (0.6890 m)
        • Electrical system: (volts) 12
        • Brakes: Mechanical – external contracting in differential
        • Transmission: Speeds: 3
        • Transfer case: Speeds: 2
        The engine was a Studebaker Model 6-170 Champion, a 6 cylinder 169.6 cubic inch 4-stroke engine running on 72 octane gasoline delivering 70 bhp at 3,600 rpm. Fuel capactity was 35 US gal (130 L). Under average conditions typically 5 miles per gallon it could range 165 mi (266 km).
        Performance
        Maximum gradability: 100 %
        Turning radius: 12 ft (3.7 m)
        Fording depth: Will Float (M29C)
        Maximum width of ditch vehicle will cross: 36 in (91 cm)
        Maximum vertical obstacle vehicle will climb: 24 in (61 cm)
        Maximum allowable speed: 36 mph (58 km/h)
        Maximum allowable towed load: 3,800 lb (1,700 kg)

        See also

        Notes

        1. "OSS Briefing Film – The Weasel". Real Military Flix. Retrieved 2009-01-28.
        2. "World War 2 Talk – Transport". Ww2talk.com. 2013-11-22. Retrieved 2013-11-29.
        3. "United States' M Number Designations – World War II Vehicles – World War II Vehicles, Tanks, and Airplanes". Wwiivehicles.com. Retrieved 2010-06-29.

        References

        • TM 9-1772A – Technical Manual for Engine, Engine Accessories, and Clutch for Light Cargo Carrier T24/M29
        • TM 9-1772B – Technical Manual for Power Train, Suspension System, Hull, and Hull Electrical System for Light Cargo Carrier T24/M29
        • TM 9-772 Technical Manual, Light Cargo Carrier T24/M29
        • TM 11-2733 Installation of Radio Equipment in Carrier, Cargo, Light, M29 and M29C (Amphibian)
        • Philip R. Kern. "The Studebaker M29 Weasel". Military Vehicles Magazine. 1, 2 & 3.
        • "Studebaker M29 Weasel". ISO Military Vehicle Series. 1985.
        • Richard Quinn. "Studebaker Goes To War". Turning Wheels.
        • Bart Vanderveen (1989). Historic Military Vehicles Directory.
        • U.S. Army Transportation Museum. "M-29 weasel". Retrieved 2007-12-29.
        • "Oldtimer gallery. Trucks. Studebaker M29 (UST24) 'Weasel'". Autogallery.org.ru. Retrieved 2010-06-29.
        • "M-28 / M-29 Weasel Amphibious Vehicle". Olive-drab.com. Retrieved 2010-06-29.

        External links

        Wikimedia Commons has media related to M29 Weasel.
        This page was last modified on 29 November 2013 at 15:01.

        end quote from:

        M29 Weasel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

        en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M29_Weasel‎
        Wikipedia
        The first 2,103 vehicles had 15 in (380 mm) tracks, a later version had 20 in (510 ... M29 (T24) without float tanks (G179); M29C with float tanks; M29C Type A: ...
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