A Ford Dealer Made This Incredible Three-Axle Snowmobile Conversion Kit for Model Ts
While the closest thing I’ll get to a blizzard this year is an ice cream treat from Dairy Queen, I realize that some of you poor, iron-oxide-battling, long-suffering cold people might be dealing with some inclement weather right now. So, why not brave the frozen Starbucks drive-through with this rad 1926 Ford Model T Snowmobile?
Long before Larry Enticer was just gonna send it, seller Legendary Motorcar Company notes that inventor and authorized Ford dealer Virgil T. White decided to make his own snowmobile out of a car he knew quite well: the Ford Model T. White lived in West Ossipee, N.H., where there is plenty of snow in the colder months. He patented the Snowmobile conversion kit for the Model T in 1913. The kit finally went on sale for $400 in winter 1922, or you could buy an entire converted Model T from White for $750.
These kits are exceedingly rare even though they were made by several different builders, as Legendary Motorcar Company explains. White only made around 70 Snowmobile units in West Ossipee by 1923. In 1925, he sold the manufacturing rights to Wisconsin-based Farm Specialty Manufacturing Company. In the latter half of the 1920s, Farm Specialty Manufacturing Company bought the patents of White’s Snowmobile Company and took over operations of the factory in West Ossipee. Between the West Ossipee plant and another one in St. Paul, Minn., only about 3,300 units were made per year.
The Snowmobile Company shut down in 1929. Sadly, the factory burned down shortly after the shutdown, so you can’t exactly go picking through ruins in hopes you can find some sweet sleds for your daily. Stick to cafeteria trays, friends.
