Bob McDonald asked about oddball Automobile Snow Attachments for Fords - here's one that didn't get as successful as the usual snowmobiles..
A commercial presenting the invention by twin brothers Olof and Johannes Löfström from Östersund, Sweden in 1924:
http://alturl.com/4942h
The film is called "World's first auto sled" (Obviously they weren't aware of the US companies building snowmobiles) The shack shown first is the blacksmith's shop where they created their invention. Attached to a shiny new T it seems like it worked fine.
The last text in the film says "In the hands of Ford this invention would be worth millions" (oh yeah..)
The development of the motor sleigh was financed by Andreas Eriksson, who also tried to sell the patent for production. After trying unsuccessfully for years he traveled to USA and met Henry Ford in 1929. He reportedly wanted one and a half or three million swedish crowns for the patent but was only offered 7-800 000, so he quit trying and went home. I find it strange that Ford offered anything at all at a time when snowmobiles already were on the market, so perhaps Mr Eriksson embellished his offers when he got home?
By 1929 snow plows were getting better and better at keeping the roads open during winter, so the interest for sleigh attachments soon vanished.
Remains of the first sleigh attachment prototype was found in the 60's and restored by Folke Boogh in Föllinge. He has later found the remains of a second sleigh attachment, but it remains unrestored for someone interested in the future (he's 83 & has retired from restoring)
http://alturl.com/h3xa6
Google translate isn't good, but better than nothing..
Here's another site with the story about the brothers and their winter equipmeent for Fords:
http://alturl.com/aqi47
Roger
Thank you for the article. Too bad they didn't invent it 5 years sooner. Might have been successful them. The fact that it had 4 skiis instead of 2 makes me think it might have been better than the snowmobiles built over here. Too bad we cannot compare them. Built with good Swedish steel I presume.
Roger,
Det var en kul film.
MVH/Sven
An interesting idea but I think the Swedish auto sled has a couple major disadvantages when compared to the US Snowmobile. 1, it has a higher center of gravity and any force down on the tracks would make it even more unstable on a side hill. 2, if the tack spun out and dug a hole in the snow under the auto sled, it would be dead in the water (or really snow).
It is clear that it works under some conditions but not a reliable under all conditions.
Jim
Roger
Thanks for the great information on the Lofstrom brothers invention. My files contain 91
patents for over the snow transportation dating from 1896 to 1930, with the largest number being from 1910 to 1930 and from all over the world. But this one had escaped my searching for the past 34 years. Is there any way to get a copy of the film on DVD, I'd like to show It when I have my Snowmobile and Snow Bird on display. I do have a DVD copy of the 1929-30 advertisement film that I use now,produced buy the F-S Mfg. Co. (B.F.Arps) Snow Bird, much like this one only they were driving it very hard over the unplowed roads and snow drifts at 40 to 50 mph.
Thanks for posting it.
Bob
Bob,
Without regard to copy-write issues there are ways to copy an online video to your computer. Here are 18 free ways:
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/18-free-ways-to-download-any-video-off-the-internet /
Jim
Jim T, I agree about the disadvantages compared to the usual smowmobile conversions.
Here's another Model T conversion that helped put the auto sled conversions rotting in the fence row:
Wonder what accessory trans they had to make it strong enough for plowing?
With the extreme angle of the plow moldboard, low band would most likely be plenty powerful enough.