John Deere-Polaris connection?

[Liquifire 4/6]

I was just browsing through my Histoire de la Motoneige book and noticed some interesting info in the John Deere section. The author states in french (I used Babel Fish to translate) something to the effect that John Deere had first approached Polaris and inquired about having them build snowmobiles for John Deere before deciding to invest in their own sled production facilities. It does not state why they didn't strike a deal with Polaris.....and I'm glad they didn't. This is the first I've ever heard of that story. Can anyone in here confirm that it actually happened?

[Jekyll]

JRC,

Would you have any insight here?

Later,
Roger

[Mr. Deere]

Do you have the whole article you could post up?? Might be a interesting read.

[Liquifire 4/6]

Do you have the whole article you could post up?? Might be a interesting read.

I suppose I could scan it to post. But it's all in French.....and I'm not sure if it's OK to post text from a fairly recently published book. I wouldn't want to get into trouble over copyrights. If anyone in here understands French, I'd strongly recommend you buy that book. It's by Pierre Pellerin......somewhere around 600 pages and tons of info and pics. I never had any inclination to learn French before I laid hands on this book, but for two years now, I've been sort of going through it and doing my best to understand the text, often typing the info into bable fish to make sense of it. And I'm even beginning to kinda get a little grasp of reading it now without resorting to the translation site.

[b00stinGTP]

I have found that online translators are actually very poor at translating. I speak fairly decent German and for fun I will type in sentences into online translators and have them try and translate it back into english.. and it never turns out anywhere near right half the time.

[Mr. Deere]

Ok Pete I understand. Whats the book about all Polaris and Deere Snowmobiles???

[Liquifire 4/6]

Ok Pete I understand. Whats the book about all Polaris and Deere Snowmobiles???

There's around 8 pages pertaining to John Deere sleds. The book covers every brand I ever heard of and a whole bunch more that I hadn't. Quite a bit of coverage on European makes that we've never seen here too.

[Mr. Deere]

Nice Wonder if there is an English Version. I wouldn't mind reading it.

[Liquifire 4/6]

Nice Wonder if there is an English Version. I wouldn't mind reading it.

Bob, I actually picked this book up from the author himself. I traded him an old sled for it about 3 yrs ago. He is from Quebec and is a sled collector and I think he said he runs a snowmobile tour operation in the winter months. During the summer, he is a spray plane pilot. That's how he ended up in my neck of the woods. He's a fascinating individual. He told me his plans are to eventually write an English version and he had already been compiling more information at that time and had predicted the newfound information would likely mean a couple hundred page thicker book. I don't think it's out yet and I sure hope he hasn't dropped the idea cause it'd sell like wildfire.

[Mr. Deere]

Good I would like to read it. French would be too hard.