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NORTHWAY HISTORY
David - I thought you
might find this email interesting.
My father was in the
snowmobile business in
upstate New York during
the care between 1963 and 1973.
He started out as a Moto
ski and AMF Ski Daddler dealer in 1964.
He handled Moto ski until
1969 when he became a distributor for
Snow King (what a piece
of junk).
Late in the season of
1969 we saw an ad for a machine called the Eskimo.
We contacted the manufacturer
in Canada and they
promptly brought two
machines to my father’s business.
They were a lime green
and made from aircraft aluminum, very light.
One was powered
by a 20 hp sachs and the other 25hp.
The interesting thing
was in regard to the 25hp machine, deep snow could
not stop it. I
witnessed it cutting through 3 ft on the soft stuff passing a
light footed ski doo
and MS 18 moto ski on a grade.
My father made arrangements
to become the distributor for this sled, but
the company had internal
disputes and our contact left the company to
start a new snowmobile
business. The sled was called a Norway and the initial prototype
was a putrid maroon and purple color.
My father said it would
never sell based on the color.
They changed the
color to lime green slightly different from the Eskimo in order to avoid
any legal issues as Eskimo was in full production.
The name was changed from
Norway to Northway.
My father outfitted a
1970 Northway with a prototype Ord fuel injection
system on a 293cc sachs
engine. This sled could out run a 399 ski doo
Olympic and a 398 Polaris
Charger. The USSA would not let us run in the
New York state championship
and barred all other Northways as well.
We were forced to run
in the open class.
I read an article on one
of the vintage snowmobile site regarding the
history of Northway and
it was correct that an investor came along and
hired a design team that
was far superior to any other team, including
Ski doo. For the
1971 season they introduced a radically redesigned sled
that had many unique
features such as, a cowl that open like a car hood, a
totally enclosed engine,
a padded dash, two up seating.
They retained the aircraft
aluminum chassis.
The initial production
used primarily CCW axial fan cooled engines.
The problems that year
included bogie wheel separation, over heating due
to the poorly ventilated
cowl and engine problems (CCW 440CC only ).
In 1972 they solved these
problems and introduced the Kiekaffer engine
with CD ignition (fouled
plugs were a thing of the past).
My father exited
the business in 1973.
Northway created a business
venture with a recreation company in
Buffalo New York and
started building, 6x6 atvs and three wheelers,
( they were an accident
waiting to happen ).
The only funny story I
would like to relate to you involves the
AMF ski daddler.
If you know anything about this sled, in the early years
the cowl looked like
a grey crate. When my father told them that he was no
longer going to carry
this brand he elaborated to the salesman while
standing in our kitchen
that the sled was too drab and needed to be
redesigned, and “for
god sakes change the color”. My dad liked the color
orange and pointed to
the 60’s era vinyl kitchen swivel chairs
and said “I like orange”;
and by 1969 or 1970 they refreshed the
design and the cowl was
now orange.
IN
OTHER EMAILS, DALE WROTE THIS ...............
My father was the original
distributor for
Northway snowmobiles
as I explained in my first email.
I remember Louis
Boulanger, he visited my parents regularly.
He was the original contact
that my father worked with and when he left
Eskimo snowmobile company
he went to work on
the Norway that (later
became northway snowmobiles).
My Mother told me
that the lime green color picked for
the Norway came from
a salad bowl in our kitchen.
As told in my first
email the original Norway prototype had
a purple upper cowl and
a maroon lower section (ugly).
My
father was a Moto ski dealer and purchased the sleds from Dufrane.
He
sold Moto ski sleds from 1965 to 1968. In 1967 he had 50 brand new
Moto
ski’s snowmobiles on a truck in crates and sold everyone of them
before
he even unloaded them.
The
Northway was probably as reliable as anything else in it’s day,
but
they were not highly engineered and did not have
the
development budget like ski doo.
My
dad decided to exit the business due to low profitability.
He
also saw the writing on the wall when you had to start registering
your
sleds and you had to take a safety course if you were under 16.
He
had no regrets in exiting the business.
My
father was in the timber business so
he
went back to what he knew best. Dale k.
I
have a 1960’s vintage snow bug. This machine has the engine in the
rear,
with
22” wide track with a single ski up front. The driver sits in an
open
cock pit. This machine is meant for really deep snow.
It
is built of aluminum construction and a fiber glass hood over the engine.
It
also has reverse. My father is trying to locate a replacement engine.
IF
YOU CAN HELP DALE FIND AN ENGINE,
PLEASE
EMAIL
DALE.
THANKS
DALE FOR THIS GREAT HISTORY!
