The un-sung heroes in inclement winter weather are the snowplows and snowblowers, and their respective operators. Without them and machines like this monster 1970 FWD/SnoGo blower, many roads and airports would be impossible or unsafe for traffic to travel. This absolute unit is up for sale here on Facebook Marketplace right now in Lebanon, PA, USA. Let’s check it out!
FWD is not a well-known vehicle manufacturer, however they were one of the early pioneers of four-wheel-drive automobiles. They had developed a passenger car in 1908 but the market was not ready for such innovation, so they shifted to trucks and formalized themselves as the Badger Four Wheel Drive Auto Company in Wisconsin the following year. Their highly capable, heavy-duty trucks were adopted by the U.S. and other friendly military powers during the first world war and today they are FWD Seagrave company, making multiple types of fire-service apparatus. SnoGo is a brand which was under Klauer Engineering Company in Iowa for decades but is now part of Wausau Equipment Company. They began in 1928 and still make mammoth snow-moving equipment for municipal and airport use today.
The example presented to us today is from 1970 and, according to the seller, has a 501-cubic-inch (8.1 liter) International Harvester engine for the truck and a large Allis-Chalmers diesel powerplant for the blower. They say the truck has about 5,000 miles and the blower engine has 480 hours.
We can see the orange exterior is is very nice shape for the age, save for a few expected rust spots visible and paint a bit dull. No obvious damage nor missing finish, apart from some on the impellers and blower body. May be a bit around the edges of the body panels.
The interior is in impressive condition, with instrumentation for both the chassis and blower engine. Given its age and purpose, we are suprised at how nice the controls, dash and vinyl seat appear to be.
We’re not seeing the engine compartment for the truck but we can see some of the blower engine, and all looks well.
Obviously, you wouldn’t win any races with this beast, but it is truly a purpose-built thing and looks like someone really cared about it and kept it nice when not in active use. I dig these old machines, not so much for the aesthetics but their usefulness, practicality, and the idea of a simpler time gone by when people built things to last and actually cared for them so that they would last.
Whoa, now we’re cookin’,,,( careful what you wish for) This would be considered a “modern” version. While visiting the UP( der hey), I stumbled upon the Lake Linden Hist. Museum. They have several outside displays of machinery from the past. One of the displays was a Sno-Go like this, only older. Maybe early 50s, also a FWD. The motor on the back that operated the blower, was run by a MASSIVE Buda 4 cylinder, with a HAND CRANK start! Through a complicated series of gearboxes and driveshafts, eventually made its way to the blower. At full speed( 1800 rpms) I bet that thing shook like a leaf on a tree. To understand why this was even needed, the museum had pictures of this thing in operation, and there was so much snow, the city streets were impassible, with snowbanks up to the roofs. This,,,thing, would make a pass, piling the snow even higher, to make a path for the trucks, and slog along blowing the snow into dump trucks. Global warming( cough) has pretty much put the kabosh on that, and only this year, have they had any measurable snow at all. Pretty sure FWD used IH or Dodge cabs, Dodge used here, and today, cost a whopping $800K and mostly used for airports. Judging by the 1st photo, the chute is clogged, never know what is in a snowbank, and these can shoot snow 100 feet, just be careful there, Jethro. Great find, keep ’em coming,, :)
FWD made its rounds over the years. When it came to needing a lot of muscle to do the job you could count on FWD.
Interesting company, they were definitely an assembled unit. That cab looks like a Dodge. Just before that they used an International cab. But they used that IH RD 501 six for a lot of years, regardless of who supplied the cab. I’ve sold a lot of engine parts to a guy down in CO who is restoring a ’57 model.
Howard, I’ve got to disagree with you on the Global Warming stuff, at least in the Chinook Belt. I think it was three years ago that Great Falls had spent its entire snow removal budget before the end of November. And that’s with at least three months to go.
Christmas of ’60, when I was in 2nd Grade, the grass was green and it was raining. April/May of ’67 we got six feet of snow. Christmas of ’68, it was 25 Below with 10 inches of snow on the ground; I might add that in ’68 – ’69, we had 104 consecutive days of -20 (F) or colder.
People talk about Climate Change. They’re right; I’ve never seen any two years the same. My grandfather wrote about it in January,1907 when he came up north for the first time in his life; Boarded the train in Salt Lake and it was ZERO, got off the train in Great Falls and it was +50, sunny, no snow…
Now, back to the truck…
I like that Geomechs…… “And now…… back to the truck”. Love it!!! And a really nice FWD you posted.
I can honestly say, it’s all a load of bunk,, :) I tell ya’, pal, we missed the boat on careers. We could have been weather forecasters. Just think, $200,000/year to be wrong. My favorite is “a 50% chance”, it might and it might not, heck, I could make that prediction. The mountains are particularly difficult, depending greatly on wind direction. They cover their axx by saying “snow showers”, could be a dusting to a foot.
Back to the truck, indeed,,,several companies used these set back axle types. The Hendrickson, Autocar, the M series IH, with those big fenders, all to get more weight on the steer axle and to get around better. The cab here, the Dodge C (?) series, was used on the short lived BigHorn tractors.
Awesome rig..enough sticks inside the cab to blow the average mind lol. Thanks for the good write-up Glantz. Imagine operating this beast. Requires alot of seat 💺 time, along with skill, patience, and sensibility. ❄️
This monster will make ANYBODY win an argument……… That THEIR snowblower is BIGGER than their neighbors!!! Lol. Can you just picture it???? Whats that Fred??? The town just plowed in the end of your driveway again and your Simplicity can’t cut through it??? OK, I’ll be right over…..
This is a monster. I don’t know much at all about FWD. But they look like a healthy beast. The Hand crank 4 cylinder Howard mentions just has me thinking, give it a snort of ether and hope it fires in the 10 below temps. The truck Geo has a photo of is really nice too!!! And Stans right, mind blowing sticks. But I’d be willing to bet that back in the day, there were operators that could run this thing like the back of their hand. This is a terrific find Russel, and you did a great write up on a truck thats not very common. I really enjoyed this. Thank you!!!
Hi Dave, yeah, that “hand crank” was intimidating. Those big in-line 4s were pretty low compression, but I can imagine it still took Jethro Bodine to start it. Make no mistake,, it was a rough job. Cold, noisy, and I imagine breakdowns were plenty. Like I say, those augers are unforgiving, aw, what the heck, I can’t sleep, so here’s a snowblower story for ya'( animal lovers stop reading now)
When I moved to the mountains, I was fascinated by the RR that cut through the hills, still am. The D&RG wanted a route over the mountains, impossible job, including the Alpine Tunnel around 1900. ( look it up, fascinating) Once completed, naturally, winter was the biggest obstacle. They had so much snow, it required these non-propelled steam rotary snowblowers that had to be pushed by locomotives, several sometimes pushing this thing. Many times, by the time they got to one side, the track was already snowed back in. On one trip, a brakeman recounted, the snowblower was slogging along, visibility zero, ran into some,,,obstruction. The engineer told the brakeman to see what it was. The brakeman was horrified to see all red, and a group of cows meandered down the track in the snow, and um,,,met their fate. He said the boys at the repair shop weren’t too happy.
My first Air Force assignment was Empire, Michigan, right on Lake Michigan and 20 miles west of Travers City. Word for the day in the winter was “lake effect”. Lots of snow to say the least. Lost my MG Midget for a while in a huge pile of blown snow. Crowning blow was a Ford Pinto that wound up buried in snow on the main road that one of these giant machines ate up and spit into the woods. Found the engine and pieces when spring thaw came. Engine was the biggest piece left.
We were snowed in about a block away and you can’t believe the noise that made.
They used something quite similar to this when I was in the AF in North Dakota. The drifting snow would surpass 12 ft and these would clear the roadways on base. Amazing how they would eat the snow and throw it.
Howard and Geomechs….the correct term should be “Climate Engineering” which as been going on for many years..Climate change has been happening since the beginning of time as we all know..as for the snow, up here in the U.P., we have already had over 5′ of snow- mainly “lake effect”..the big plows have been busy!!!
I suppose if you have the space to store a beast like this, you probably also have a use for it.