Sasquatch Works | Heavily modified 1980 Tucker Sno-Cat climbing a hill in Utah's Uinta Mountains @sasquatchworks4504 | Uploaded March 2024 | Updated October 2024, 2 hours ago.
This is our Thundercat project, and it’s the most comprehensively modified Tucker we know of. The original owner was the Canadian Broadcasting Company, and it lived in Western British Columbia. Originally ordered as a 1544 with long front tracks and a factory installed six-way front blade, it was equipped with a Chrysler 318 Industrial and New Process 5-speed manual transmission. Incidentally, the name is not from the children’s animated cartoon series. Military aircraft get names like F-4 “Phantom” or F-15 “Eagle”, and I think perhaps the coolest name is that of the Republic F-105. It was called the “Thunderchief”, and the name is evocative of serious power. Since this is a snowcat after all, we changed it to Thundercat.
We installed a GM 8.1 liter Vortec engine and an Allison AT545 4-speed automatic transmission. We replaced the rear mid-length tracks with long ones, and performed the damper wheel upgrade to the carriers. Eaton E-Lockers are installed in both front and rear. We stretched the rear frame 12”, and moved the front axle and fifth wheel plate forward 2” for oil pan clearance. We made a new bed that’s 18” longer and 6” wider than the original. The bed's deck is constructed of extruded aluminum planks and the sideboards are Philippine mahogany with seven coats of hand rubbed tung oil. The firewall was replaced with one of polished stainless steel. We added a new stainless steel hydraulic fluid reservoir, new hydraulic winch in the rear, new aluminum radiator with two electric fans, three new Derale thermostatically controlled remote fluid coolers, new instrument panel, new gauges, new switches, some auxiliary lights, new seats (with seat heaters), new upholstery (to include sound deadening mat throughout the cab), a new one-piece tilting hood, new ceramic coated exhaust and new paint. We completely re-wired the machine, and perhaps the singular feature is we replaced all the Tucker factory rubber hydraulic hoses with custom bent, rigid steel lines, using only short lengths of rubber hose when flex concerns warranted them.
As an example of the attention to detail, the new gauges are AutoMeter Sport Comp series gauges. We wanted a hydraulic fluid temperature gauge, but AutoMeter doesn’t offer one. So they built us a temperature gauge with no function (such as “Water” or “Trans”) on the gauge face. I had a local graphics company make up some “HYD” labels, and then shipped the gauge and labels to a company in California who took the gauge apart and installed the new label. Then, they put it all back together and did a beautiful job of it.
This is our Thundercat project, and it’s the most comprehensively modified Tucker we know of. The original owner was the Canadian Broadcasting Company, and it lived in Western British Columbia. Originally ordered as a 1544 with long front tracks and a factory installed six-way front blade, it was equipped with a Chrysler 318 Industrial and New Process 5-speed manual transmission. Incidentally, the name is not from the children’s animated cartoon series. Military aircraft get names like F-4 “Phantom” or F-15 “Eagle”, and I think perhaps the coolest name is that of the Republic F-105. It was called the “Thunderchief”, and the name is evocative of serious power. Since this is a snowcat after all, we changed it to Thundercat.
We installed a GM 8.1 liter Vortec engine and an Allison AT545 4-speed automatic transmission. We replaced the rear mid-length tracks with long ones, and performed the damper wheel upgrade to the carriers. Eaton E-Lockers are installed in both front and rear. We stretched the rear frame 12”, and moved the front axle and fifth wheel plate forward 2” for oil pan clearance. We made a new bed that’s 18” longer and 6” wider than the original. The bed's deck is constructed of extruded aluminum planks and the sideboards are Philippine mahogany with seven coats of hand rubbed tung oil. The firewall was replaced with one of polished stainless steel. We added a new stainless steel hydraulic fluid reservoir, new hydraulic winch in the rear, new aluminum radiator with two electric fans, three new Derale thermostatically controlled remote fluid coolers, new instrument panel, new gauges, new switches, some auxiliary lights, new seats (with seat heaters), new upholstery (to include sound deadening mat throughout the cab), a new one-piece tilting hood, new ceramic coated exhaust and new paint. We completely re-wired the machine, and perhaps the singular feature is we replaced all the Tucker factory rubber hydraulic hoses with custom bent, rigid steel lines, using only short lengths of rubber hose when flex concerns warranted them.
As an example of the attention to detail, the new gauges are AutoMeter Sport Comp series gauges. We wanted a hydraulic fluid temperature gauge, but AutoMeter doesn’t offer one. So they built us a temperature gauge with no function (such as “Water” or “Trans”) on the gauge face. I had a local graphics company make up some “HYD” labels, and then shipped the gauge and labels to a company in California who took the gauge apart and installed the new label. Then, they put it all back together and did a beautiful job of it.
