WEST FARGO, North Dakota – Ranchers, loggers, utility line workers and others who must be mobile in winter have a new vehicle to consider.
The SnowBear is an enclosed, rubber track machine aimed at replacing the aging Bombardiers that were produced in Canada from 1938-72.
Anyone who has driven one of the old Bombardiers agrees they are cold, noisy, rough riding, hard to turn on any surface and not much better than a horse and sleigh. A brand new, custom-built, one-off replica of the old design sells for $70,000.
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The modern SnowBear weighs 2,400 pounds, has a 1,000 lb. load capacity in the vehicle itself, plus another 700 lb. tow-behind sled capacity. It exerts one lb. per sq. inch down pressure and costs about $40,000.
Tom Lykken, designer of the SnowBear and president of the company, is no stranger to building machinery for farmers. He spent 24 years as an engineer at Steiger Tractor. His last major project as chief engineer for Case-Steiger was the STX series of tractors, including the QuadTrac. SnowBear is his retirement project.
Lykken is an ice fisher who has spent countless days on Pelican Lake near Killarney, Man., and in more northern areas of the Prairies. He knew that a lot of winter transportation is routed over frozen rivers and lakes, so he designed the SnowBear to be warm and airtight and to float if it breaks through the ice.
The snug body consists of a one-piece, seamless, inner fibreglass shell that incorporates the floor, walls, ceiling, plus openings for the door, windows and emergency roof hatch.
The outer shell is an exact copy of the inner shell, but is two inches larger all the way around. It also has seamless construction.
Expanding foam is injected into the two inch void between the two shells to provide rigidity, insulation and flotation. The single door and the emergency roof hatch are constructed in the same manner, with two inches of foam insulation. The windows are sealed double pane.
The cab interior is 80 inches wide, 122 inches long and 68 inches tall. Because the small engine does not produce an abundance of heat, there is a propane furnace.
“We don’t recommend using it as a boat, but the entire construction is 100 percent sealed,” said Lykken.
“The cab is basically one continuous piece of fibreglass and foam. It will not sink.”
Power comes from a Daihatsu, four-cycle, three-cylinder, liquid-cooled gasoline engine pumping out 34 horsepower. An optional turbo-diesel, also 34 hp, will be available for higher altitudes where gas engines run out of air. Both of the one litre engines are warrantied and serviced by Briggs and Stratton dealers.
The power train has some familiar parts. All components are obtained from small industrial and construction equipment suppliers. Power is fed through a continuously variable belt drive transmission with low and high range, plus reverse and neutral.
“In low range, it’s capable of a theoretical straight vertical climb,” Lykken said. “It creates tremendous torque.”
The transmission and differential come from Team Industries in Minnesota.
The differential runs with open spider gears, but has a standard equipment, cab-mounted lever that quickly switches the differential into straight full lockup mode. It has in-board disc brakes equipped with twin-piston squeeze type calipers.
The brakes are also used for steering, allowing the SnowBear to turn in a 360 degree circle on its own footprint.
Lykken’s engineering experience on the QuadTrac taught him a bit about the behaviour of rubber drive tracks. He knew that when it comes to snowmobiles, getting stuck in ice or deep fluffy snow is a nightmare. SnowBear combats the problem in two ways.
It has unique track geometry that prevents digging into the snow and it has an optional raise-lower hydraulic system that moves the machine up and down.
When a conventional snowmachine starts to go down, the operator instinctively feeds a little throttle. Because of the geometry of the drive system, this makes the track lift the suspension at the rear idler. As the rear lifts and pressure transfers forward, the leading surface at the front of the rubber track has no choice but to dig down. The track consequently breaks through the ice or snow. The more power you apply to pull yourself up, the more you dig in.
On the SnowBear, the unique suspension geometry within the twin 220 inch long belts cancels out driveline torque and maintains a constant pressure at all points along the track. The track refuses to dig itself in at the leading edge. More power results in more force transfer to the rear of the rubber track to boost forward and upward momentum.
The other unique feature uses four hydraulic cylinders to lower the cab to the surface or raise it up to the full running height of 14 inches.
Although this $1,300 option was originally aimed at ice fishers so they could lower the cab to ice level and fish through the floor, Lykken said it’s invaluable in getting unstuck or in breaking frozen skis loose from the ice.
Instead of digging with a shovel or trying to jack up the machine, the operator simply uses the lift system as a built-in hydraulic jack.
Lykken said this was a challenge to figure out because he did not want the tracks to protrude at all into the cab. There is no wheel well associated with the lift system. Instead, the hydraulic system stretches the tracks out front-to-rear in a parallelogram so they become flat, much like a cat ready to pounce on a mouse. As they flatten out, their height shrinks. The front skis have a simple up-down hydraulic cylinder.
The ice fishing model has three holes in the floor that are sealed with airtight lids for transportation.
Although some prototypes have been produced in yellow, the production run models will be white. Colour and reflective decals are available as an extra-cost option. They do not use a gel-coat colour system, so the white body shells can be painted in the conventional manner.
While the original Bombardiers were Canadian built, SnowBear Industries is located in West Fargo, N.D.
Ironically, many of the components are built in Canada.
The first production run of 150 SnowBears got under way last month and is already sold out. The Canadian distributor is Frontier Turf and Power in Winnipeg.
