And although Deere didn’t have an exclusive engine supplier, it did have an arrangement with Kawasaki, which used nearly identical engines in its own Kawasaki-branded sleds. That second generation of sleds didn’t go over snow so much as it plowed through it. Where heavy-duty meant heavy iron in the world of tractors and combines, the world of snowmobiling meant light-footed for over snow performance. The two-up Trailfire achieved 30-plus miles per gallon in a magazine-sponsored fuel economy run over a 20-mile course. Among the first entrants was the Trailfire. Learning from their errors and sensitive to a new world (for Deere & Company) of criticism, Deere engineers totally revamped the product line and brought light and nimble handling models to the snows. It had been Deere’s goal to strengthen its sleds, but the company went overboard and made them heavy, bulky and poor handling. Well, that second generation, often referred to as “bridge busters,” didn’t innovate in the weight department. While Deere’s initial “400” and other early models could be called copycats of Ski-Doo, future models showed innovation. And wanted a sled to capture buyers’ attention.īy the mid-1980s when John Deere decided that lawn tractor production rather than snowmobile production provided more sensible profitability for its Wisconsin-based Horicon Works factory, the agricultural products giant had planned to introduce a strut type front suspension for its fourth generation of sleds.

It was not coincidental, but John Deere didn’t have an exclusive engine supplier or an eager-to-own fan base of snowmobilers and Ski-Doo was king of the snows. The early 1970s saw John Deere enter the snowmobile market with sleds that channeled Bombardier’s best-selling Ski-Doo Olympiques of the period.

The John Deere snowmobile experience lasted about a decade.

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