[MagicRat]

I have suggested on the AF in General sub forum that a snowmobile section would be welcome.(or else the riders can hijack the Deusenberg forum!

I remember those rear mounted tanks. I thought its a useful feature, but maybe not the safest in a crash.

Also, those Rockwell engines!! I had forgotten, but my friends dad had one years ago, it was a 400, too, I think.

The 1968 Motoskis I rode had single cylinder Hirth engines (317 cc and a 292cc) on big rubber mounts. They shook around like crazy on the rubber at low speeds.

A lot of the old machines used the bogie wheel system in place of sliders. They were excellent in rough terrain, for durabulity but had a rough ride. Essentially you got 18 wheels hitting each bump instead of one slider assembly.
However, they never needed snow for slider lube and never got as branch or stone stuck in the slider, chewing it up......

I could go down a paved road on one, going from one trail to another. I had someone sit on the back of the seat and we could get the skis off the pavement and go down the road (as you say, just in a straight line)

Even into the late 1980's, my brother's company (they did a lot of winter surveying in northern Canada) used then-new Ski-Doo Elan sleds.
Those commercial Elans were straight out of 1969, with a long track, bogies, etc, (even though Ski-Doos recreational sleds were light years ahead in technology by then. )

Those sleds used bogies because they were so much better in deep woods than sliders, where there simply are no trails, and you have to drive over fallen trees, bushes rocks etc all day.

I rode my bogie tracked Motoskis on private land, where there were no trails. They were great at zipping through the fluffy deep snow, where theyre were no bumps anyways, so suspension did not matter.
Whenever I try that with a modern sled, I end up getting stuck, the tracks were too short and the machine was too heavy.

Still, a bogie machine on a well-used trail is brutal. No wonder the guys on the old sleds are always standing up!