This is how we will win the cold war

So in reading up on Crosley history, we come to find out that one of Powel Crosley’s efforts to win World War II for the Allieds, along with motorcycles, three-wheelers and the Crosley Pup (and, oh yeah, the proximity fuse), was an experimental snowmobile.

This is not that snowmobile.

Instead, it appears to be something built by the proprietor of Rig All Tool and Die (or is that Riggalls – it’s spelled both ways) in Utica, New York. Riggalls is now Rig All, a crane and specialized fabricating company, as it has been since 1962, though it’s been in the same location for an unknown length of time before then. Just prior to a recent move to another location, Ryan Williams, an employee at Rig All, saved this contraption from the crusher. “Nobody knows who built it,” Ryan said. “All they know is that it hadn’t moved from that spot in 35 years.”

He said the original Crosley engine and transmission are gone, replaced with an Austin or an MG engine and transmission, connected by an ultra-short driveshaft to a narrowed Crosley rear axle. On the ends of the axle are Crosley mechanical brakes and then gears that drive chains down to each skid. Ryan said the whole thing steers “like a bulldozer” with separate brake cables going to either side of the axle. The tracks are made up of long chains bridged with wooden paddles and rubber sheets.

Up front, a fiberglass nose cone replaces the stock Crosley sheetmetal. “The craftsmanship is immaculate,” Ryan said. “Just from looking at that, you wouldn’t think it was homemade.”

Ryan’s agreed to send along photos as he restores this unique creation. In the meantime, if anybody can clue us in on who exactly built this rig, let us know in the comments.

It’s all kinda like the American version of the SnowFootCar. Kinda.

(thanks, Jim and Ron for passing this along!)