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Everyone likes a mystery sled, and that’s what this Deere was, and is, to a degree.
In 1981 when this Deere IFS Liquifire prototype was created, John Deere was running on fumes in the snowmobile market as overall sled sales were stumbling. Polaris would eventually go on to buy Deere’s snowmobile business, including this prototype sled, in February of 1984 and it was quickly whisked away to Roseau, where it disappeared from public view for years. There were pictures of it, and of another Deere in a Polaris holding yard, but no one would ever confirm its existence.
Until last winter when Polaris’ Aaron Johnson brought it out of a warehouse to display at the giant vintage show at Waconia, Minn., where Deere was the featured make.
New York’s Joe (John Deere) Rainville was there.
Joe, who owns more than 30 Deere sleds, had been looking for this Liquifire prototype with its independent front suspension since he was a college student working in Vermont, more than 20 years ago. An acquaintance there had described the sled in great detail to Joe, but not long after it was built, Polaris snapped up Deere’s snow unit.
Joe gave us some little known details of this machine. "This sled had been shown in the spring of 1981, was tested in Alaska and was one of Deere’s sleds that they had been looking at several different suspensions on. But they settled on the IFS with a strut and an integral shock. Inside is a standard coil-over shock, but the strut itself is used for support."
"The powertrain is very interesting too, it’s a standard 440 Kawasaki liquid twin with about 65 horses. But it has an HSR (High-Speed Retard) ignition on it, which didn’t appear on a Liquifire until 1982."
"This also has a TR-800 drive clutch, cut into a trapezoid on the diagonal between the towers. It’s cut that way, otherwise you couldn’t get a belt on the machine."
Rainville says he talked with Larry Swanson, an engineer who worked on this sled, who says the machine uses a standard Liquifire bulkhead with supports for the struts and coil-over shocks. The sway bar end links allow it to preload the sway bar and keep the sled level in corners. The prototype also has a 30-inch ski-stance like a Sportfire model, not the standard 32-inch stance of then current Liquifires.
That narrowed it up to fit everything beneath a standard ’81 hood, but the prototype used a square, 1982 Liquifire headlight. There’s also a longer 121-inch track with a long-travel rear suspension too. However, it does not use a Liquifire bumper (or side panels), but one off a Sportfire. This machine also features 1982 Liquifire tunnel stripes.
Rainville notes too that the sled, as shown in Waconia, used dual Mikuni 34mm carbs, a Polaris add on, as 36mm was standard during Deere’s development. He says too that there’s a dent in the sled (not seen in the Polaris yard photo), apparently indicating Polaris engineers gave it a thorough testing once they had their hands on it.
The Deere expert, who owns a complete set of the final 1984 Deere lineup, believes this prototype was intended as a late 1982 or 1983 sled. But Deere, seeing the declining market, downscaled its lineup, away from Liquifire and to the Sprintfire models. So this unit, with its more high-tech IFS front-end, was shelved.
After mild engineering changes for 1983, when only 1,300 Liquifires were made, just 420 Liquifires were created for Deere’s final snowmobile lineup. Rainville says all those sleds sport unique VIN numbers, starting with M0LQFRX and starting with production number 285,001.
As for his own Deere obsession, Rainville says simply, "I have this weakness that makes me horde John Deere snowmobiles."
But it was a thrill for him, and other Deere faithful, to see the prototype, at last.
"We’ve been wondering about this sled for years, and it was great to see it at the show. I only hope it will be refurbished by a Deere enthusiast and sent to a museum," Rainville says.
Check out this video ofJoe Rainville discussing the project with the engineers.