1972 leisure vehicles raider 400

Throughout the history of snowmobiling there have been those who would go their own way. They would believe in their own designs. One such person who constantly thought outside the box was Robert Bracey.

Like many entrepreneurial sorts who had big ideas, but low cash reserves, Bob Bracey was always "selling" his idea as though he expected you to pony-up some serious money. Maybe it was this aspect of his personality that made you just a bit unsure of that which he was promoting. Or, maybe it was even simpler than that.

While every other snowmobile manufacturer in the early 1970s was building a sled with two skis in the front, an engine in front of the rider and a single track under the rider, Bob was promoting and building a sled that had an engine in the rear, two tracks and a cockpit that put the rider ahead of the engine and behind the pair of skis. His "Raider" snowmobile was unlike anything else on the snow.

For three decades Bracey evolved his twin-tracked, rear-engined snow vehicle concept. Beginning in the early 1970s, Bracey designed, built and sold more than 10,000 Raider snowmobiles.

All of his designs shared dual rubber tracks at the back. His early models relied on coil spring front suspensions that eventually evolved into independent front suspension designs that proved more precise and vastly improved handling.

The rear-engine, twin tracked concept was one that "…he believed in all of his life," stated Carol, his wife of 39 years. "It gave you two tracks where rear tires would be on a car. It gave you a cockpit. You sat in it, and you were protected."

As a young snowmobile magazine associate editor, I rode an early Raider in Yellowstone National Park. It was my first ever ride "in" a snowmobile and it was very different. Having grown up as an east coast Ski-Dooer, I was used to exerting body language on a sled. You had to move around to make the conventional sled respond. Hanging out on the running boards usually was the only way you could influence steering back then.

In the Raider you were literally passenger. An active passenger, I'll admit, but a passenger nonetheless. You operated the steering bar, tapped the bar-mounted thumb throttle and drove the Raider pretty much like a car. That was the way Bob Bracey intended for you to ride. Hunkered low in the cockpit, scooting around the snow roads of the early 1970s as though you were in a little sports car.
Actually, once you got acclimated to the Raider, you realized that Bob's "different" idea wasn't bad. Different than what you were used to, but not bad at all.

Once you realized that you would have to do something incredibly stupid to get the Raider to roll over, you settled in and started having a whole new experience that could be incredibly fun!
The 1972 Raider 400 produced by Leisure Vehicles and designed by Bracey came with a Canadian Curtiss-Wright two stroke that measured 398cc and delivered a claimed 30 horsepower at 5,700 revs. These CCW twins were standard fare at the time. So too, was the Kelsey-Hayes caliper brake and Salsbury drive system.

What was unusual was that the engine sat in a rear bay behind the rider and it powered two 8-inch wide tracks. Without a differential, the twin tracks rotated at the same speed. Because, snow and not asphalt, was the medium for turning, the vehicle could frequently turn inside the radius of a conventional sled. Designed with a bias of 40 percent laden weight up front and the remainder to the rear, the steering was actually very effective.

Despite the fact that the boxy looking machine appeared heavy, it weighed in around 400 pounds, competitive to other sleds with electric start.

The Raider 400 featured slide rail suspensions for each of its dual track units. The front skis were wide for floating over snow and controlled via coil springs mounted over concentric sliding tubes.

At a price of $1,225, the Raider 400 was a unique snow vehicle conceived and promoted by a unique individual who followed up this design with the Manta twin-track of the 1980s and Trail Roamer in the 1990s. Bob Bracey is gone now, but his pioneering concept of twin-tracked snowmobiles is a long lasting legacy that continues in the Ski-Doo Elite.

This story ran in the January 2004 issue of American Snowmobiler magazine