David - I thought you might find this email interesting

My father was in the snowmobile business in upstate New York during the care between 1963 and 1973.

He started out as a Moto ski and AMF Ski Daddler dealer in 1964.  He handled Moto ski until 1969 when he
became a distributor for Snow King (what a piece of junk).  Late in the season of 1969 we saw an ad for
a machine called the Eskimo.  We contacted the manufacturer in Canada and they promptly brought two
machines to my father’s business.  They were a lime green and made from aircraft aluminum, very light.

 One was powered by a 20 hp sachs and the other 25hp.  The interesting thing was in regard to the 25hp
machine, deep snow could not stop it.  I witnessed it cutting through 3 ft on the soft stuff passing a light footed ski doo and MS 18 moto ski on a grade.   My father made arrangements to become the distributor
for this sled, but the company had internal disputes and our contact left the company to start a new
snowmobile business.  The sled was called a Norway and the initial prototype was a putrid maroon
and purple color.  My father said it would never sell based on the color.  They changed the color
to lime green slightly different from the Eskimo in order to avoid any legal issues as Eskimo was in full
production.  The name was changed from Norway to Northway.  My father outfitted a 1970 Northway
with a prototype Ord fuel injection system on a 293cc sachs engine.  This sled could out run a 399 ski doo
Olympic and a 398 Polaris Charger.  The USSA would not let us run in the New York state championship
and barred all other Northways as well.  We were forced to run in the open class. 

I read an article on one of the vintage snowmobile site regarding the history of Northway and it was
correct that an investor came along and hired a design team that was far superior to any other team,
including Ski doo.  For the 1971 season they introduced a radically redesigned sled that had many
unique features such as, a cowl that open like a car hood, a totally enclosed engine, a padded dash,
two up seating.  They retained the aircraft aluminum chassis.  The initial production used primarily
CCW axial fan cooled engines.  The problems that year included bogie wheel separation, over heating
due to the poorly ventilated cowl and engine problems (CCW 440CC only ).  In 1972 they solved these
problems and introduced the Kiekaffer engine with CD ignition (fouled plugs were a thing of the past).

 My father exited the business in 1973.  Northway created a business venture with a recreation company
in Buffalo New York and started building, 6x6 atvs and three wheelers ( they were an accident waiting to
happen ).  The only funny story I would like to relate to you involves the AMF ski daddler.  If you know
anything about this sled, in the early years the cowl looked like a grey crate.  When my father told
them that he was no longer going to carry this brand he elaborated to the salesman while standing
in our kitchen that the sled was too drab and needed to be redesigned, and “for god sakes change
the color”.  My dad liked the color orange and pointed to the 60’s era vinyl kitchen swivel chairs 
and said “I like orange”;  and by 1969 or 1970 they refreshed the design and the cowl was now orange.

IN OTHER EMAILS, DALE WROTE THIS ...............

My father was the original distributor for Northway as I explained in my first email.  I remember Louis 
Baulanger, he visited my parents regularly.  He was the original contact that my father worked with and
when he left Eskimo snowmobile company he went to work on the Norway (later became northway).

 My Mother told me that the lime green color picked for the Norway came from a salad bowl in our kitchen.

 As told in my first email the original Norway prototype had
a purple upper cowl and a maroon lower section (ugly). 

My father was a Moto ski dealer and purchased the sleds from Dufrane.
 He sold Moto ski sleds from 1965 to 1968.  In 1967 he had 50 brand new Moto ski’s on a truck 
in a crate and sold everyone of them before he even unloaded them. 

The Northway was probably as reliable as anything else in it’s day,
but they were not highly engineered and did not have the development budget like ski doo.

My dad decided to exit the business due to low profitability. 
He also saw the writing on the wall when you had to start registering 
your sleds and you had to take a safety course if you were under 16.

He had no regrets in exiting the business.
My father was in the timber business so he went back to what he knew best.

Dale k.

IF YOU CAN HELP DALE FIND AN ENGINE,
PLEASE EMAIL DALE.
 

THANKS DALE FOR THIS GREAT HISTORY!

 EXPO-SNO
VINTAGE SNOWMOBILE SHOW

DAVID'S SLEDS