AmSnow.com is now SnoWest.com
Boom and bust times, rapid technological advancements, more than 100 manufacturers and a major emphasis on racing and speed propelled snowmobiling as the sport exploded and then imploded throughout the 1970s.
Times were simpler.
Sales and promotional materials showed happy eager riders bare handed and in stocking caps. Sleds rode lower to the snow with bare bones front suspensions and bogie wheel rear suspensions. Most engines cranked all of 20 to 35 horses, and yet sledding was so much fun that sales grew almost as fast as gas prices were rising.
Meanwhile clubs were being formed and growing in strength like a nor'easter roaring off the North Atlantic. Trails, nearly non-existent at the beginning of the decade, were being laid out and marked to build a network that now spreads throughout the northern tier of states and across Canada's provinces (nearly 137,000 miles of trails at this point).
This was snowmobiling's hay day!
The Growth:Back in 1970 virtually anyone could become a snowmobile dealer. For $1,800 a person could buy a minimum order, three sleds, and set up shop in their garage. "There was no shop really needed," says Les Pinz, former racer, dealer, vintage sled expert and AmSnow's senior test rider.
In addition, the factories usually insisted you buy about $30 in parts to support the sleds you sold. And it wasn't just one company. Pinz says many had a similar policy, big names at the time like Alouette, Scorpion and Sno-Jet.
With more than 100, and some estimate as high as 190 sledmakers cranking out their own versions of the perfect sled, sales skyrocketed to 495,000 worldwide in 1971, with more than 2 million sold between 1970 and 1973. Then there were some lean snow years and the oil embargo and tough economic times set in (sound familiar?). Sales declined to 195,000 by 1977, dealers were left holding the bag, some with massive inventories, and the list of manufacturers shrunk quickly to about 7 at the end of the decade. It had become a mature market that would settle at about 250,000 sled sales annually.
Funny how things can change in only 10 years.
The Times:"There weren't many trails back then. We'd go out and ride from 10 p.m. to 2 or 3 a.m. and it was fun, a new adventure. We were always finding new places," says Pinz.
Snowmobilers were trailblazers in more ways than one. They were mapping the trails, but also negotiating with land owners to set up the trail networks. They were getting property owners to grant rights of way and acceptable routes across rural fields, farms and forests.
Pinz, who raced for Minnesota-based Scorpion and continues to work as a groomer in Minnesota today, says that by the end of the '70s the trail network was well established and manufacturers quickly took note.
"By the end of the '70s the sleds started to become more trail oriented. They got heavier and speedier and just weren't as explorer friendly as before. They ended up with bigger suspensions and 40 to 60 horsepower engines and weighed in the 360 lb. range, so they didn't scoot across the snow quite the same. Plus they had more and better features, like hydraulic disc brakes."
But Pinz adds, the sleds were unreliable generally.
"We used to say that we'd ride 'em for an hour and then work on 'em for three," he says, laughing.
The Sleds:But as the 1970s hit, big changes were already in the works. Sleds were starting to become more sophisticated. Gone were the water pump motors, old lawn mower engines and such. Manufacturers' factories were starting to produce special-built snowmobile engines Mercury and OMC were among the first to develop their own sled-specific engines.
But in the 1960s Arctic Cat was the first to move the engine up front and also use a slide suspension to replace some of the bogie wheels in its ground-breaking Panther. By the mid-'70s nearly all the sleds had moved their engines to the front.
AmSnow's Tech Editor Olav Aaen notes that parallel twin engines were developed to slide down into the chassis in front of the driver to give the sleds a better center of gravity too. Aaen, a former OMC mechanical engineer who now runs Aaen Performance, says these moves really led to what most of us consider the modern snowmobile.
With newer, purpose-built engines power began to increase too and could better be put to use on the increasing number of groomed trails spreading across North America.
Power jumped and along with it prices and sled weights. Sleds were kicking out 12-24 horsepower and cost in the neighborhood of $675 in the late 1960s. Looking through his collection of literature from the time, Pinz points out that a 1976 Polaris Colt delivered 32 hp and cost $1,500. By 1979 a Polaris TXL with a 340cc engine was pushing out 50 horses and the price was $2,689. A top-of-the-line Centurian with a 3-cylinder 500cc motor was $3,319.
Weight also increased throughout the decade. A Ski-Doo Olympique weighed 295 pounds in 1970. By 1979 an Olympique 340 pressed the scales at 386 lbs. Some larger sleds were already pushing 500 lbs.
But the engines were better, more reliable and suspensions were making quick strides. By the mid-'70s slide-rail suspensions (or similar such as Scorpion's para-rail) were the norm instead of the exception, although some small snowmobile makers found that out the hard way, going belly up before adapting to the change, or adapting poorly. Rupp was one of the later.
In 1971 Ski-Doo ruled the snowmobile world, making 250,000 sleds that year to Arctic Cat's 111,000. Polaris was still a relatively small player, as was Yamaha, they both made less than 20,000 that year. By comparison the worldwide market for sleds last season was about 163,000, and again, Ski-Doo has returned to the No. 1 spot, although each of the surviving three have had their day in the sun.