I rode behind Brian at one of his several trips to Togowotee and I’ll never forget one day on the way back to the lodge I had all i could do to keep up and he was leading the way witch is the hardest part. He just made it look so easy up there. Super guy…
Around 2008 I went to Togwotee on a Brian Nelson sled trip. The last night in lodge ballroom Brian talked about his I-500 days. Both on Deere and Cat. Brian was a first class guy with his sled excursions and awesome hearing about racing days. Was a great night.
Do know if they used the same motors back then ? I have a 77 340 deere that runs great ! I own an arctic cat 91 700 wildcat with a suzuki motor but i think cat ran kawasaki motors back in 77. My 340 deere uses kawasaki brake parts that i bought for my motorcycle and have not used yet so i put em on. With plenty of snow that john deere runs good and not too rough considering the suspension is so outdated. But that 340 motor really runs good so I'm wondering who made it.
Brian raced the 1977 Cross Country Cat with a special tuned version of the same 340 Suzuki liquid they used in the 77 Z 340 oval racer. You aren’t far off. Cat phased in the Suzuki Spirits for 1976 for trail sleds. 76 XC Cat used a free air Suzuki 340 twin. They weren’t very successful. The 77 was much improved. For trivia masters the last Cat sled sold with a Kawasaki was the limited build 250 twin 1976 Lynx. This was made from leftover 1975 parts. I think they made less than 1500 of them. Styled to look like a 1972 EXT but a very tame 20hp single carb FA twin with single plug heads. Basically a 250cc version of the same 340 engine Kawasaki sold to JD for later Spitfires. Super rare sled. They didn’t sell well and cost almost as much as the 340 Jags.
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You look at the absolute pounding these guys took ditchbanging sleds with a few of inches of suspension over a couple of long days. Today's riders with 13"+ travel, heated seats and power steering: "I'm not gonna ride this month because the trails haven't been groomed and it's a little bumpy."
If you ever saw a John Deere Liquidator in person you would understand why they stood up to the battering they took..............they were built like a tank, everything was reinforced.
You are 100%. I was JD factory mechanic in Alberta Canada. That Kioritz KEC-340RS/24LC was bolted to a hefty aluminum belly pan and tunnel. The Liquidators were the first LC utilized in the cross country circuit. Those “Dators” only totalled a production of 600 units.
They came out of nowhere with a huge factory effort. There were rumours they rented a lodge to train the drivers in physical fitness - a full court press. Nice to see but hard for amateurs to compete.
Lots of room for Improvements back then.. Kind of Impressive what John Deere Engineers came up with .. It also looks like they had a Professional Team going there..
Kenric Sukalski my neighbor from mindoro Wisconsin he raced Arctic Cat snowmobiles a quite a few times in the Winnipeg to Saint Paul it was from mindoro Wisconsin he always wore a blue helmet that said the wild child on it his name was Michael Wild and a couple of times he finished the race with one ski
If I have the facts straight John Deere had an all out Factory Cross Country race Team for 2 years.. After that they offered Support Money to Private John Deere racers..
And the info used on this clip was flawed. Not 2000 miles. Just 500 miles. Sponsored by the St Paul winter carnival. From St Paul to Winnepeg one year and Winnepeg to St Paul the next. I was part of two of these. The first year we raced a JD 340 S and the second was a JD 340 Liquidator.
With the money JD put into this year, as shown by the number of Deere racers at the starting lines, it would have been a shock...not to have so many wins.
@@crushthis123 The entire chassis and suspension are designed by JD, Comet primary, JD designed the secondary. Liquid cooled Kioritz engine designed specifically for this sled. The later deeres used Kawasaki engines, the rest was JD
