"Doo Doo" Snowmobile Works Like A Skid Steer

"Doo Doo" Snowmobile Works Like A Skid Steer TRACTORS Skid Steer Loaders 28-6-20 Mike Pigott, Angus, Ontario, needed a snow machine that would turn short, climb over brush and fallen logs, and pull a load out of the bush. "I had a couple of 1971 Skidoo Olympic snowmobiles in the shed and decided I could put the two together into one machine that would meet my needs," he says. Pigott stripped the two machines down and welded the frames together side by side. Intent on making a skid steer-type machine, he left both belts and drives in place, but removed the skis and front end of each snowmobile with a Sawzall. "I cut them off right between the "Ski" and the "Doo" on the original cowling and used the cowling that was left to make a new front," he says. "Since it now says just æDoo' on each side, we call the double tracked snowmobile a Doo Doo." He mounted just one of the 340 cc twin cylinder Rotax engines in the reconfigured double frame. "In a single snowmobile, the engine drives a belt that powers the track," he says. "After remounting the engine, I added a jackshaft with a pulley at both ends. A belt from the engine powers the jackshaft. Belts from each of the end pulleys drive the individual tracks." The original clutch is between the engine and the jackshaft. In the belt drive between the jackshaft and the tracks, Pigott added tensioners and pulley brakes. He controls the tensioners and brakes with individual levers so that when he pushes a lever forward, the corresponding track goes forward. When he releases the lever, the track freewheels, and when he pulls back on the lever, the pulley brake for that track engages. While he can't reverse the track, he can quickly turn 180 degrees with one track stopped. Most of the parts he used in the project were from the original snowmobiles. At the center of the rebuilt frame, he mounted a plywood box and put one of the original snowmobile seats on it. Inside the box is a gas tank and battery salvaged from a Polaris snowmobile. With no skis, there's no need for handlebars, so he mounted the twist grip throttle control and kill switch from one of the old SkiDoos on the right hand lever. Even the tracks are original, although, Pigott admits, they're a little bald and he's thinking of putting some studs on them to increase traction. He chose a combination of pulleys on the jackshaft and chain case towers that geared down the machine so he now has more torque but less speed. "It will still go faster than I need in the woods," he notes. With no skis to catch on brush and a steel bumper with an angled skid plate that Pigott made for the front end, the Doo Doo will go right over most low growing brush and even walk over the top of a 7-in. log on the ground. "We even use the Doo Doo when there's no snow on the ground," he says. "It works great in a gravel pit or on pasture, but it's a little harder to turn on dry grass." Pigott says he put it together thinking he'd probably have to refine it later. So far, though, he's not changed a thing. "If I were doing it over, I'd probably gear it down even more. It doesn't need to go as fast as it does and it can actually turn around too quick if you're not careful," he says. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Mike Pigott, End of the Road Farm, 6665 20th S/R RR1, Angus, Ontario, Canada L0M 1B1 (ph 705 424-9975).

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