Brand New? 1979 Chrysler Sno Runner
Coincidentally enough, I was just at a huge vintage snowmobile show today in the upper Midwest so when I ran across this 1979 Chrysler Sno Runner listing, I couldn’t resist. The seller has this one posted here on craigslist in one of the last places on the planet that I would ever expect to see one listed for sale: Cave Creek, Arizona. They’re asking $3,000 and given the current values, that’s almost a shut-up-and-take-my-money price. Here’s the original listing in case someone nabs this one right away.
That’s one thick seat! I have a Sno Runner like this one but now that I think about it, they’re basically all exactly the same other than a few rare yellow ones so everyone who has a Sno Runner has one like this. Although, maybe not exactly like this because this one has never had gas in it or been started, according to the seller. Chrysler started making them towards the end of their pre-bankruptcy era beginning in the late-1970s. Having failed to sell the US Army on their usefulness they started selling them to the general public in 1979.
I doubt that Chrysler really thought that a vehicle with a three-inch-wide track and a tiny 7-hp engine would save their company from bankruptcy. They ended up selling them until around 1982 at the latest and then dumped the rest, around 4,000 or so, to a Minnesota-based company called COMB Liquidators. Do any of you remember these catalogs? I sure do. The company basically put Sno Rabbit stickers right over the Sno Runner stickers and sold them for $288. I see a couple of things missing or other possible flaws with this “brand new” Sno Runner. It appears that the foam air cleaner is missing, it goes on the end of the carburetor on the bottom left of the photo above and they’re still available for around $25. And unless they’re reflections or something else, the first photo shows some rub marks on the paint as seen in this enlarged image.
And, some of the flat black engine paint appears to be worn, and… Well, that’s enough and they aren’t big issues, of course, they’re just something that I noticed since I have an almost perfect one for a reference. The frame is the gas tank and it holds about 1.3-gallons of pre-mixed gas since this 134 cc West Bend engine is a two-stroke and they are smokey little devils. I just started mine the other day and killed any mosquitoes that weren’t already dead from the single-digit temperatures. Have any of you owned or ridden a Sno Runner?
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Comments
Cannot see this beast supporting the weight of a full-sized adult or anyone over 100 lbs in anything but hardpack.
had 2 of these rode them a lot and finally let them both go for $500. good on hard pack, bad on ice!
Don’t you just love the authors optimism,,”in case someone nabs this”,,,today, there are probably 7 people in the world that would want this, the author, me, and possibly 5 more,,especially in Arizona. I bet a northerner relocated, and brought the Sno-Runner with. Why? People is the craziest people. Never ran,,,bad news. The crank seals on a 2 strokes dry out, and no air filter, I doubt has compression.They only made about 400 million of these motors, in West Bend, Wis. so parts or a motor shouldn’t be hard to find. They powered everything from ground pounders to Rokon trail breakers, and these( Scotty has 2 out of 3, not bad, unless he got a ground pounder, and I wouldn’t doubt it)
The biggest obstacle with these, is deep snow. They weren’t designed for that, and on a lake, frozen for best results, or a packed trail, they save a lot of steps, the original intention. I know it looks odd, but can you imagine the designs that didn’t make it, and HAD the military used these,,,well, that would have solved Chryslers problems( for a while), didn’t pan out that way. These were made at Chrysler Marine, in Hartford, Wis. which was the old Kissel plant. After West Bend, and Chrysler, it became Force outboards, and then became a part of Mercury Marine, but the little town ( now a city) of Hartford, Wis. had some big names, you know who took care of that.
It seems that everybody who has one of these is,
or was,trying to sell it.
By 1979, the glory days of snowmobiling when there had been nearly 200 companies building them, was coming to a close. Here is what killed the all but four snowmobile companies left. Several years of little snow fall, stupid environmentalists and the housing boom. There was simply very few places to ride anymore. Luckily, I live in the Poconos and we ride where ever we want. Scotty, bet I will several of these Sno Runners at the Great Eastern Whiteout in 2 weeks.
Posted 5 days ago and still available.
As i was reading snd scrolling down the page on this sno-runner, i saw an advertisement about putting WD-40 in you gas tank for better fuel mileage….is this legit?
Saw that ad, plus so many on how to wipe your BUTT! , what do we need those for?
these snow runners are the funniest things to ride . I think we all who have one should get together and enjoy them
Didn’t the Beatles have something similar in “Help!”?
I’ve had close to a dozen of these, I’ve fully restored several of them, just fixed some up and I had one that was NOS it had all the factory paper work attached to the handle bars with the registration info. There is a place in Michigan that was still selling new ones he had bought all the parts at auction.
They are a lot of fun to ride, I would take them out after a snow and ride around the neighbor hood, also would take them out on the lake for a ride.
looks like a lot of fun……for the original 288$ but for 3000$ i will have to pass ….
Don’t be fooled guys, go to Bring a Trailer and see what they go for. This is about the cheapest you will find. If this was on BaT it would be an easy $5k.
No foolin’
I have 2… they are a ton of fun, and anyone who says otherwise has never ridden one. That little 820 motor makes a ton of power, and these will move just about anyone.
Even beater, non-running versions are selling for 1k these days. At 3k, this one seems more than reasonable.
I purchased this and now listed on ebay for auction. It’s all original completely unrestored never wrenched on and never started. Everything is there except the air filter as mentioned and unseen to the eye the track flap had become extremely brittle some are missing other chipped or broken and the remaining ones very brittle otherwise like new old stock.