KRISTI snowcat - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

KRISTI snowcats were 1950s/1960s tracked vehicle

Tracked vehicle

A tracked vehicle is a vehicle that runs on continuous tracks instead of wheels...

s suitable for snow and other terrain and produced originally in Colorado

Colorado

Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...

and then later in Washington.

KRISTI - Propeller Drive before Track Drive

According to the introduction, contained in the operators manual:
The development of the KRISTI snow vehicles began in early 1947 in the form of a very unusual snow plane. This propeller driven vehicle utilized a control by which the operator could tilt the machine from side to side in effect raising one ski and lowering the other to negotiate up to 45 degree side slopes and permit high speed turns without skidding. This tilting and edging of skis after the manner of a skier was called "Ski-Action". Since it could do a "Christie" up or down hill, the trade name "KRISTI" was adopted.

The Kristi snowplane featured a revolutionary change in ski handling concepts. As stated in the manual, the design was inspired by snow skiers who angled their skis to affect a turn (this angling of skis is called a Christie) and it allows for both higher speed turns and greater control. The theoretical advantage of the Kristi system in a snowplane would make for safer and faster turns on frozen lakes. The photos of snowplanes clearly show stationary mounted rear skis and a turning front ski, the Kristi design improved on this design by allowing the skis to carve their edges into the snow as traditional snowplanes's rear skis will skid laterally during a turn. The major advancement of the Kristi tilt ski system apparently made no impact on the commercial or amateur snowplane industry as it did not appear to be used in practical application. Perhaps because of the mechanical complexity of the original design, no snowplanes are known to exist that employ the "Christi Ski Action" concept.

KRISTI's Track Driven Vehicles

KRISTI was technically interesting, but the company failed to produce quantities of snowcat

Snowcat

A snowcat is an enclosed-cab, truck sized, fully tracked vehicle designed to move on snow. Snowcats are often referred to as 'trail groomers' because of their use for grooming ski trails or snowmobile trails...

s to compete with other North American or European snowcat

Snowcat

manufacturers. According to the July 1964 issue of VOLKSWAGEN FOREIGN CAR GUIDE magazine, author Alan Arnold indicated the KRISTI had a unique ability to raise or lower its tracks individually which had the effect of raising one side of the vehicle to keep the vehicle level while crossing side slopes. Further, the front or rear of both tracks could be raised or lowered so the snowcat

Snowcat

's cabin could remain level while climbing or descending slopes.

KRISTI was commercially built in Colorado. The original KRISTI company offered 3 basic models. The models were the KT2, KT3 and KT4. Total production of all the units combined, over the entire 12 year life of the original company's lifespan was lower than 1 year of production of commercially viable snowcat

Snowcat

s from Tucker Sno-Cat

Sno-Cat

The Tucker Sno-Cat is a tracked vehicle or a family of tracked vehicles for snow conditions.Different models have been used for expeditions in the Arctic and the Antarctic during the second half of the 20th century...

, Bombardier

Bombardier Recreational Products

Bombardier Recreational Products or BRP is a Canadian company that traces its roots back to the year 1942 when Joseph-Armand Bombardier founded L'Auto-Neige Bombardier Limitée in Valcourt in the Eastern Townships, Quebec.In 2003, Bombardier Inc...

or Thiokol

Thiokol

Thiokol is a U.S. corporation concerned initially with rubber and related chemicals, and later with rocket and missile propulsion systems...

all of which were produced in North America during the same time period. The company changed ownership and moved to Washington and continued production. Production was always on a small scale, and the products were innovative. The most refined of the Kristi snowcat

Snowcat

s was the KT7, which was last produced and the least successful commercially with only 4 units built and 3 of them were prototypes that failed. The KT7 was designed and produced after the sale of the company and after it moved to Washington. It is possible that additional KT2, KT3 and KT4 units were manufactured by the new owners in Washington state but it is unlikely since the designs had not been substantially upgraded by the time the new owners purchased the company. A slightly smaller version of the KT3 was called the KT2. Both the KT2 and KT3 were powered by Volkswagen

Volkswagen

Volkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer and is the original and biggest-selling marque of the Volkswagen Group, which now also owns the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, and Škoda marques and the truck manufacturer Scania.Volkswagen means "people's car" in German, where it is...

air cooled 4 cylinder engines, it is reported that a small percentage may have been powered by Porsche

Porsche

Porsche Automobil Holding SE, usually shortened to Porsche SE a Societas Europaea or European Public Company, is a German based holding company with investments in the automotive industry....

engines. The KT2 and KT3 shared mechanicals and even shared the same operators manual. The VW engine developed 32 horsepower.

Interestingly, Kristi also built custom tilt bed trailers used for hauling the KT3 which used the same tires and wheels on the trailer as on the KT3.

Various different sales brochures make different claims about the transmissions used in the Kristi KT3. It is therefore possible to find a KT3 with either 8 or 9 forward gears, and either 4 or 3 reverse gears. The units with 8 forward/4 reverse had a High-Low range ratio of 7:1. All used joystick controls in a V shaped arrangement that were centered under tachometer.

Specifications from the sales brochure for the KRISTI KT3 stated that it was 11' long, 7'4" wide and had a height of 5'9" with an empty weight of 2095 pounds. The KT3 was configured for 5 passengers and imparted 0.46 PSI of pressure onto the snow. It had a maximum cargo/passenger capacity of 1,500 pounds and a towing capacity of 2000 pounds. With a fuel capacity of 20 gallons of gasoline, it claims 15 to 18 hours of operating time and a top speed of 20 mph.

The KT3 sales brochure claimed the ability to climb a 100% grade with full load when not on the snow. It claimed the ability to climb a 70% grade in snow conditions with a full load and in soft snow it claims the ability to traverse a side slope with a 60% grade. The Kristi action adjustable track suspension will hold the cabin level on slopes with up to a 25% grade.

A larger Kristi snowcat

Snowcat

was produced and designated the KT4 and the KT4a. The KT4 had a fully enclosed fiberglass body while the KT4a was an open version and "a" designated that it was an amphibious unit capable of floating and crossing streams or ponds. Fred W. Crimson's book, U.S. Military Tracked Vehicles (ISBN 978-0970056719) referred to the KRISTI KT4a's protopype as the "Water Walker" due to its amphibious capabilities. The KT4 and KT4a units are very rare and less than 5 are known to exist of a total production that was probably under 20. The KT4 was powered by a Chevrolet

Chevrolet

Chevrolet , also known as Chevy , is a brand of vehicle produced by General Motors Company . Founded by Louis Chevrolet and ousted GM founder William C. Durant on November 3, 1911, General Motors acquired Chevrolet in 1918...

Corvair 4 cylinder gasoline engine.

A prototype model built on a modified Chevrolet

Chevrolet

1/2 ton pick-up truck frame was built and designated the KWT. This unit still exists and is in storage. The KWT, according to the prototype's announcement pre-sales brochure, was built for ranchers and farmers as a heavy duty all terrain vehicle capable of hauling and towing loads into remote snowbound locations. It also was designed to be capable to be driven on the road with the tracks removed. The KWT never reached the production. The engine specified was to be a 250 cubic inch, or optionally a 292 cubic inch, 6 cylinder gasoline powered, Chevrolet

Chevrolet

engine. A brochure announces it would use conventional steering when driven as a wheeled vehicle but does not indicate how it would steer as a tracked vehicle

Tracked vehicle

A tracked vehicle is a vehicle that runs on continuous tracks instead of wheels...

. This prototype vehicle still exists and is currently unused and in storage and owned by a private antique vehicle collector.

KRISTI Washington, New Owners & the KT7

KRISTI eventually changed ownership and they moved to Washington. A Kristi-Washington KT3 brochure shows the later model KT3s were equipped with a 53 hp VW engine, or alternately with a Porche (sic) engine. The brochure offers both new and remanufactured KT3 models for sale from the Washington facility. It lists the top speeds of the KT3 at 20 mph when powered by the VW engine, and 25 mph when powered by the Porche (sic) engine. Kristi of Washington developed a new model called the KT7 snowcat

Snowcat

, of which only 4 were built and only 1 was successful. The KT7 used a Ford Angelina gasoline engine. The industrial engine has a 104 cu.in V-4 configuration generating 80 hp. While never produced, the brochure also offered a V-6, 171 cu.in. engine as an option. The engine was mounted in the middle of the snowcat

Snowcat

with the driver and front passenger forward, and the rear passengers aft, facing the rear. There were access doors on either end of the KT7 and the rear and the front look nearly identical save for the headlamps. An early original brochure announcing the KT7 actually shows its designation as a KT3a and calls it an "improved KT3" but the production brochure has it designated as the KT7. The KT7 was tested by the FAA for use in Alaska but failed to achieve a 20 mph speed requirement; the sales brochure claims a 15 to 25 mph speed "depending on transmission/engine options." It is believed that this failure doomed the KT7, and ultimately lead to the demise of the company in the early 1970s. Photos of the only known restored KT7 Yetti are posted on this page, this unit is the last KT7 produced and is serial #004, it is also the only unit that was modestly successful.

According to an original sales brochure, specifications for the KT7 indicate it was 12'1" long, was 8'2" wide to the outside of the tracks, and had a body width of 4'1" and a height of 5'6" tall with the body in the lowered position and 6'4" tall with the body in the raised position. Ground clearance in the raised position is 16" and the weight is 3225# with a rated load of 1800#. Climbing performance is "Up to 100% depending on the terrain surface conditions."

KRISTI Snowcat's Historic Competitors

KRISTI lost out competitively to the Tucker Sno-Cat

Sno-Cat

Corporation, which was also American based and in production during the same period. Tucker Sno-Cat is currently one of the most successful snowcat

Snowcat

manufacturers in the world today according to the Tucker website and still producing machines. Thiokol

Thiokol

Thiokol is a U.S. corporation concerned initially with rubber and related chemicals, and later with rocket and missile propulsion systems...

was another American made contemporary of Kristi that focused on small snowcats, notably the Imp, Super Imp and Spryte models. Like the Kristi KT4a amphibious model, Thiokol manufactured an amphibious version of the Spryte, called the Swamp Spryte. Thiokol sold its snowcat division in 1978 to automaker John DeLorean who renamed the company LMC Logan Machine Company

Logan Machine Company

LMC is both the tradename and an abbreviation for Logan Manufacturing Company - a US manufacturer of snowcats that ceased operation in 2000. LMC was formed in 1978 when John DeLorean purchased the snowcat division from Thiokol...

and produced snowcats under the DMC brand name for approximately two years prior to switching the name to LMC. LMC remained in business until 2000, but changed ownership in 1988. Other notable snowcats of the same era were the Aktiv Snow Trac

Snow Trac

The Snow Trac is a small personal Snowcat that is roughly the size of a modern compact car.-Origins and description:In 1954, Lars Larsson, the chief design engineer for a Swedish farm equipment company, AB Westeråsmaskiner, decided to develop a tracked vehicle to take him and his brother on fishing...

, which, like the KRISTI KT2 and KT3 were powered by Volkswagen

Volkswagen

and PORSCHE engines. The Snow Trac

Snow Trac

was successfully used in explorations in the Antarctic and the Arctic and attained production numbers of 2000 units and only ceased production in 1981 when Volkswagen

Volkswagen

discontinued the European production of the engines used to power the machines. Bombardier

Bombardier Recreational Products

, of Canada, was also successful and is still in business today making aircraft, rail vehicles, snowmobiles, ATVs and watercraft.

While Kristi was commercially unsuccessful, it did outlive and out produce other companies that developed "snowplanes" largely because early in the life of the company they switched production from snowplanes to snowcat

Snowcat

s. The original KRISTI snowplanes were very similar to the earlier Russian Aerosan

Aerosan

An aerosani is a type of propeller-driven snowmobile, running on skis, used for communications, mail deliveries, medical aid, emergency recovery and border patrolling in northern Russia, as well as for recreation...

snowplanes which were developed 30 years prior to the designs from KRISTI. The KRISTI design was more advanced than the Aerosan

Aerosan

, and utilized adjustable ski action to perform higher speed turns and received a patent for its design in 1955. Other competitors in the Snowplane market that failed to transition into tracked vehicle makers when the market changed included the LORCH Snowplane, the STEADMAN Snowplane, the FUDGE Snowplane, the LANSING Snowplane in addition to many smaller manufacturers and homebuilders. Snowplanes are well suited to travel on frozen lakes and snowcovered fields or roads but are not suitable for use in mountains or on rough ground. This limit probably led to their general demise as tracked vehicles are suitable for both types of terrain and may explain why Kristi remained in business for a longer period of time.

KRISTI - Propeller Drive before Track Drive

KRISTI's Track Driven Vehicles

KRISTI Washington, New Owners & the KT7

KRISTI Snowcat's Historic Competitors

See also