Back in October, I wrote up another one of these unusual snow removal machines. That one was a 1950; this one is a 1942 and is based on a Ford, but still features two engines. It’s listed here on craigslist and is located in Fairbanks, Alaska. The asking price isn’t shared–they are just looking for offers, but it’s worth noting that the other one, which had been refurbished and was in running condition, was going for $25,000! Thanks to Eric H. for this great find!
I was able to find this cool video of a 1942 Ford SnoGo in action. These things can really move snow! Marmon & Herrington provided some of the modifications; this is a true 4×4. The seller tells us it “ran when parked,” and that they were also told that the rear engine (that powers the wicked looking snow blower unit) is a six-cylinder International unit and that it runs. The front engine, of course, is a flathead Ford V8.
I wish there were some pictures of under the hood (either one!) or the interior, or a close up of the faded sign writing on the door. I wasn’t able to make any of it out, even after zooming in closely. Maybe you can do better with this picture from the advertisement. Thankfully, it doesn’t look terribly rusty, so there’s some hope of refurbishment if you want to. Someone has already begun the mechanical work, as the seller states that new water pumps, a thermostat, and belts have already been installed. They also tell us that the snowblower drive line has been rebuilt but needs to be reinstalled. I wonder why someone did so much work and is now walking away from it? Are any of you snowed in right now? Would this be useful for you? Let us know in the comments!
I believe this is a military snowblower. I read, Snogo made 80 of these in 1942, and they went all over the world. Some sources say the rear engine is a Red Diamond in-line 501 OHV 6,( they came in several displacements, but the biggest one was used here, for obvious reasons) producing about 215 hp, but a whopping 451 ft/lbs of torque. Restore? Lot of work, probably best to just get everything hummin’ ( no easy task in itself) and just use it as is, if you have a mountain of snow to remove, that is. http://www.milweb.net/webverts/9168/2.jpg
Break parts. LOL
Holy Hell, it’s like something out of a Stephen King novel…
To bad the shipping would cost so much. This would make quick work of plowing big parking lots.
Ha Ha Haa ..small dogs Beware
Call me crazy but, I would love to see a Prius being eaten by this thing
Highest and best use……..
Somebody found Tim Allen’s snow blower.
Yep. Bin Ford model 61942.
lol
Hi Ed, nope, THIS is the Binford 9000 snowblower. (best show in a long time) Found at “The Yoopers Tourist Trap” in Ishpeming, Mich. and rumored to actually work. Great place.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_d6_Qumn0gZo/TLIQvjmkK8I/AAAAAAAAB3o/M6l_r4Gn2OU/s1600/Wisconsin_20100921_0503.jpg
This thing would be wicked in action, wished I would have had something similar when running my snow removal business. No I wasn’t known as “Mr. Plow “.
Plow King???
Talk about clearing roads. I bet you wouldn’t have to worry about slow drivers in the fast lane when they saw this in the mirror!
Why does it blow the snow to the left?
Hi fordfan. typically, with these, there would be a snow bank in the middle of the road, from the plow, and this would chew up the bank and blow it into a dump truck running along side. The chute does looked fixed in that position. I think it’s missing the end part of the chute.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Sg-500FFI90/UweS-KFGatI/AAAAAAAAILw/Uv7fNKkxBBQ/s1600/2+-+FIRST+SNOWBLOWER+CITY.JPG
Wow! Can you imagine driving that monster with vacuum wipers and all the snow blowing back at ya. Not to mention that chute in your way. Boy, you could really blast your enemies on the sidewalk!
Good God-What a wicked machine!! I just moved to Spokane wash. and there are a lot of people making extra money pushing snow. Today I saw my grass for the first time in a month. We get a fare amount of snow here. and at times it stays for a bit. I was told that and I see now.
For all of that I would love to have this thing. just the look of it and watch it blow snow would get you all the jobs. People would want to have that seen in there lot working and would want you for the attention alone.
That justifies buying it.LOL
The problem in Spokane is there isn’t always a lot of snow. Some years there is very little so,it is pretty tough to invest a lot of money in plow equipment. My brother has a plow that he uses at his shop and house but some years it just sits. One time years ago the city hired some idiot Californian as the city manager, There had been several years of light snowfall so he decided to sell off the city’s considerable fleet of road graders used for snow removal, he made the case that chemicals could do the job cheaper and would cut the ice better…..the next year was a huge snow year. I remember when home on leave there were 10 foot snow banks between the lanes downtown. So……he was soon gone. It is a great place to live. Good luck
I grew up in Spokane, mostly during the 60’s. My first car was a ’55 MF TF 1500 bought off a “No Money Down” lot for $800. I later bought a 1955 Porsche Continental Coupe (creased windshield) for $1200. I met and worked for Irwin Schubach and bought a ’56 Porsche Speedster (red with chrome wheels!). Then I worked for Bright Volkswagen-Porsche and used to pick up some real tired, broken Renaults Dauphines, Simca Arondes, etc. Now I’m retired and live in Puerto Vallarta. Those years in Spokane are my best memories, but I have to tell you, I hate snow! Feliz Navidad to all my amigos here at BF!
My dad owned the tire shop across the street ( and a little west) of Bright VW. That is the shop my brother owns now but they have moved a few blocks away on Pacific. We have owned that shop since about 1959. I need to get up there and pick up my new {to me} Quatroporte that my brother got running for me. I too had a Porsche Conential coupe in about 1968 with a pointed windshield, it could have been the same car but mine was a 1952. One of my high school buddies was Tom Kagi, his dad owned a large VW shop on north Division. I grew up with the Snevas, big racers and eventually Indy guys. There dad owned a muffler shop on W 3rd. The Sneva that was in my class was Ed, he was killed racing in Canada I think.
You’d need a lot of snow before it would be necessary to fire this beast up. It’s overkill for most snowfalls, unless you live in the mountains somewhere. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to watch the ” cool video”, because thing is awesome.
With a lot of snow, or possibly a lot of heavy snow, this is what you want, however for anything less, plowing would be faster
I have a lot of time clearing snow with these. There are a couple of different chute styles. One, the chute swivels and allows the snow to be blown left or right. These are nice for loading dump trucks.
Two, the chute housing rotates and the chute leans over to blow left or right. I think that is what this one has.
Both chute styles have a “good” direction, and that is the same as the rotation as the impeller. They blow a LOT further in the correct direction! Usually you would use a plow to windrow the snow and then use this to blow it up or over a bank.
They are very slow and work best as a last pass in deep snow.
They will shear an auger pin very easily, not possible to chew anything up. You don’t want to get anything into the impeller. Tires were our nightmare as people would leave one behind their parked car just in case the snow completely covered their car and it wasn’t possible to see it in the snow. Trying to unwind all the steel cords from the augers made you want to ram the car on purpose.
My favorite was a 40’s era Oshkosh chassis with a HUGE 1100 Cu/In Climax 6 cylinder gas inline 6 powering the blower. Couldn’t have turned more than 600 RPM. What torque! At night the blue flame popping for the Climax stack was a sight to see. They take a lot of maintenance with all the mechanical activity. Most modern ones are all hydo drive.
Hi Jay, I’m sure you’ve seen many a frozen animal carcass ( at least I hope it was an animal) come flying out the chute. The Houghton Co. Hist. Society in Lake LInden, Mich. (UP) has a 40’s ish Oshkosh, big one 4 ( maybe 5? augers) with a huge 4 cylinder Buda motor on the back on display. There’s a long handle out the back, and THAT’S how you started it. Like you say, those mombo gas motors idled at maybe 3-400 rpm and a redline of about 1500rpm, so I suppose if it would turn over, it would start. WOW!.
We have a couple of the modern hydrolic drive ones in Calgary where I live. Last time I saw them out was in 2010. Most of the time it’s the graders that come out, and not even them this year. I think this is the mildest snow year I have ever seen.
Thanks dave wright for the input. I came for visits through the years and it seemed like there was always snow in winter. This year I live here now and only 3-8 in. shofar but it came and never left. just a little more each week. so I justsaw grass this week after about a month.
Yes this machine is overkill for here,its just cool. I like it here miss the saltwater that I came from. I,m hopping the lakes will be fun since I,m a boater.
I,m used to crabbing,shrimp and salmon.
I own a marine salvage company, got interested in the trade when growing up on the big northern Idaho lakes. You are close enough to the coast for a fun weekend trip. My brother used to keep a Tollycraft in Tacoma. My ranch is in western Idaho, we travel to the coast often for work and fun but always glad to get back to the sanity of our small town. We keep a lot of boats here at the ranch, up to 36 feet for work and play. When growing up in Spokane, one of my buddy’s dad had a 50 foot tug on Coeur d’ Alene lake. It had been used to move barges and log rafts on the lake. Have loved that big stuff ever since. Good luck in your new home. It has always been a great place to live and a wonderful old car area. My brother has my dad’s old shop. He does general automotive work but is also the only Goodyear dealer in town.
This kind of stuff is really cool (no pun intended).
The picture of it operation, cool, Someone who drove one, really cool. Great comments on a vehicle I never knew about. I moved away from Illinois snow to the California sun in 1969, maybe I saw one as a kid.
I remember years ago at the local supermarket I worked at, and we had a LOT of snow, which the plots were having difficulty getting cleared. They brought in something similar that was attached to a big (highway dept sander big) dump truck. That thing had to have stood 6′ high, and had I believe 4 rows of impellers. They had a line of dump trucks that this would pour the snow into, and then they would haul it around back and dump it into a field. I was out collecting carts (not many with all the snow) when I heard a metallic clank. I looked in the direction of that machine just in time to see parts of a shopping cart come flying out the shoot. The following summer (once all those snow piles melted) a number of very mangled shopping carts were recovered…