AmSnow.com is now SnoWest.com
Here today, gone tomorrow could have been the motto for many snowmobile makers during the 1970s. A huge number of once successful snowmobile manufacturers slipped from the market, disappearing forever, some from well-known makers of other outdoor equipment.
One was Mercury, an outboard motor maker that jumped into snowmobiling in the 1960s and just prior to the '70s built the CDI Thunderbolt ignition, twin cylinders, electric start, hi-lo beam lights, and an enclosed dashboard. It was powered by an engine based on one of Mercury's outboard boat motors. By 1972 its Hurricane model featured Mercury's first snowmobile specific engine.
In the mid-'70s Mercury was a dominant force in snowmobiling using Kohler engines, but quickly declined after it was sold and became Mercury Marine. Merc stopped making sleds in the late '70s.
Outboard Marine Corp. (OMC), also was a major sledmaker even in the 1960s. Its brands, Evinrude and Johnson, continued in the outboard motor market, but its sleds disappeared by 1976 as it sold off 1975 models.
They disappeared with the likes of John Deere and Rupp. Scorpion, which had been No. 1 early in the decade, was eventually purchased by Arctic Cat and the name was dropped.
Kawasaki, known for its motorcycles, continued to make sleds into the early 1980s. When it departed that left Yamaha as the sole Japanese snowmobile maker, although Suzuki continues to make engines for Arctic Cat.
Other famous names that vanished in the 1970s include Skiroule and Alouette, Ariens, Sno-Jet (later Kawasaki), Chaparral, Massey Ferguson (Ski-Whiz) and Harley-Davidson. And a few may be less well known, but memorable in their own way, including Boa Ski, Hornet, Hustler-Rustler, Ski-Daddler, Sno-Pony, Sno-Prince, Viking, Yukon King, and Boatel (see Backtracks, p. 66). Like Kawasaki, John Deere and Moto-Ski stayed in business into the 1980s, but just barely.
All these makes are gone, but not forgotten, by the vintage sled fans who continue restoring them in their garages across North America.