The first commercially successful snowmobile was the Eliason Motor Toboggan. Carl Eliason built his first prototype in Sayner, WI in 1924-1926 and obtained patent # 1,650,334 in 1927.
After producing and selling the Motor Toboggan in Sayner for 15 years, he sold his patents in 1940 to the Four Wheel Drive company of Clintonville, WI who continued development and manufacture until 1963. In 1947, production was moved to FWD's plant in Kitchener, Ontario where the Model C and D were produced until the new model K-10 was introduced in 1951. The K-10 was the first Eliason that looked like a modern snowmobile though it had a rear engine. FWD sold Model C Motor Toboggans to the US military during WWII, (the G174) and to power companies and many conservation and natural resources departments after the war.
The Eliason Motor Toboggan was far ahead of its time as it weighed only around 500 lbs and could travel at 30 to 40 mph depending on the model.
Many sources credit Polaris Industries with the first, practical, production snowmobile, but upon examining pictures of the early Polaris snowmobiles, it's obvious that they were simply a copy of the Eliason K-series that had already been in production for over four years. They exhibit the Eliason rear-engine design with wooden toboggan "runners" extending down both sides of the drive track, and even used a steering wheel instead of handlebars, as did the Eliason. These features are clearly evident in this picture of an early 60s Polaris.
Polaris continued to manufacture the Eliason-style rear-engine / toboggan-runner design into the 1960s while the Ski-Doo, introduced by Bombadier in 1959, began the new era of front-engine snowmobiles with only the drive track supporting the rear of the sled. FWD ended production of the Eliason in 1963, while Polaris changed their design to copy the new, more successful Ski-Doo.
External links
edit- http://www.eliason-snowmobile.com/ Eliason Motor Toboggan.
- 1927 Patent
- 1943 Patent
- http://www.northern-wisconsin.com/museum/ Vilas County Historical Museum