Posted by David Sherman on Tuesday, October 11, 2005 at 9:04PM :
In Reply to: You Might Be Right posted by Marty on Tuesday, October 11, 2005 at 8:42PM :
They have the standard hand brake on the tranny, but basically you can't find snow steep enough that you'd need to use the brake. It slows down right away when you let off the gas. A Tucker with narrow tracks sinks in at least a foot unless the snow is hard-packed, so it has plenty of rolling resistance. It is a little strange to not have a foot brake.
Most of the drivetrain is mopar except the custom transfer case, which is a very simple aluminum-cased gearbox with no internal clutch or speed changer. I'm pretty sure the axles are Dodge corporate rear axles, like on the 1/2 ton 2WD pickups. I'm not sure whether the diffs are welded up or are left open, but I've never gotten a track to spin.
I've heard of trucks being converted to sno-cats, but this is the first sno-cat converted to a truck I've seen. I imagine it would be a really worthless one since the Tucker frame and body are more like an airplane frame (square thin-wall steel tubing with an aluminum skin) than a truck frame.