History of the Snow-Trac ST4 In 1954, Lars Larsson, the chief design engineer for a Swedish farm equipment company, AB Westerasmaskiner, decided to develop a machine to take him and his brother on fishing trips in the winter. The company put his snow vehicle into production in 1957: the Snow-Trac. It rode on two rubber-belted tracks, had an enclosed seven-passenger aluminum cab, and was powered by an air-cooled Volkswagen engine. Its unique steering apparatus was based on a "variator" which the company had designed for a combine harvester, and was controlled by a conventional steering-wheel. The wide-tracked ST4B enjoyed a few years of popularity as a ski-area grooming machine, especially in the New England ski resorts, and was chosen for transportation and grooming at the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, Japan. Aktiv-Fischer AB acquired the Snow-Trac production line in 1969. Production of the Snow-Trac ended in 1981. Aktiv (pronounced like "octave") continued to make snowmobiles, and a small open-cab snowcat called the Aktiv Trac. Contact: warren@snow-trac.com © Copyright 2005-2020 Warren Jones. All rights reserved.