Prototype 1978 Liquifire?

[WinnipegStPaul9]

Bill,

If Mike had a sled like that, I never saw it. Several of Mikes former sled reside in my barn, but that does not mean I saw everything he had.

-Joe Rainville

Looks like you missed this one Joe.

DA

[MARK S]

Does anybody know were Mike Hudziak "spelling" is.?? If so ask him if this was one of the sleds that he purchased from Mark in SW, Minnesota in 1999- 2000..He came down with his pickup first to pickup a NOS 78 CC in parts along with different engines etc etc.Then he sent a semi down to pickup the sleds.The 295/s that was on the semi I believe went to Matt. IF???? This is the sled that mike got from me It ended up at the dealership I worked at in the early 80's "CURL IMP"..I will stop there until we find out if this is the one.If it is, I will test JRC memory tank.....Mark

[Horicon Joe]

The pictures I posted were taken in Mike and Andy's dad's barn. Andy Hudziak owned them. I looked the sleds over a while ago. The 77 tunnel with the running board gussets cut short struck me as something the factory would not have done. It appears to me that someone wanted to put those decals on and cut it just
so they did not have to go over the gussets. Also the poorly masked off area around the Mfg tag looked like something done hastily. The tag was the only thing left I could see for sure that was interesting. I never saw one under a hood of a sled like that. I saw a number of them on the side of the tunnel where they would be highly visible at the factory for identification and that also struck me as odd. Here is a shot of the most recent tag I saw that was put right over the Ser no tag
in order to make sure it was not mistaken for a stock sled.

[MARK S]

Joe, what I remember on the one I had that sticks out is.. It looked like a 78 l-fire.The serial # location was wrong,The numbers stamped were not of the 78 year series, Hood was faded black/gray "never had clear coat" Tag on motor base plate said PROPERTY OF HORICON wish I would have taken pics of all the sleds grrrr... Mark

[Horicon Joe]

Mark ....... this is one of the sleds you are talking about that he got from you.

[Wildfire II]

I'm with Horicon Joe on this. I have never seen a exp tag on the bulkhead. I don't believe Horicon would put them there and I have seen alot of exp. and proto sleds. Right now I m in the process =of tracing the X number on the tag. Dick Teal might be able to come up with the build for that number. The rest of the sled does not look like something we would have tested. ED

[MARK S]

Horicon plate was like the one on first page picture # 4.."might even be the sled??" It just doesn't get any better than this!!!!!! WOW!!! The guys that built them and tested them are ONLINE telling us about them..Mark..

[Wildfire II]

Message from Dick Teal

ED

I don't Have a copy of the X793 engineering order to set the time but we would have used 1976 production sleds(1977 Model Year) for prototypes.
The other thing I can say is that any engineering prototype sled would have had a rivited on serial number. The stamped numbers were put on the tunnel on the production line, we made the X number plates in the prototype shop. we never dictated where the X number plate was placed on the sled but we required one before they left the shop. Dick



My take is a lightly used test sled made it to the employee sale. All test parts would have been removed and replaced with production parts to make it legal for sale. The X tag may have been overlooked, should have been removed. I see nothing experimental on this sled. Who knows what had been done with it over the years. Ride it and enjoy (when we get ever get snow) ED

[Wildfire II]

PS Are there holes in the pan where a license plate would be. (show side view of pan)

[jd_decalguy]

Joe, just wondering does the hood have the proto/photo shoot ( Large grill ) or the std. grill??

Kenny on Chris's computer

[strokerb]

The side of the pan does have two small holes. Attached is a pic. The numbers hand stamped in the pan in front below muffler are SSF 050 5182

Maybe this is normal on the 78s but the dash is the same as used in the 76-77 sleds but where the headlight switch would be, it was never cut out and the headlight symbol and the wording were ground off and someone tried to peen it to match rest of plastic. Pic attached.

Is this a dator lite suspension or something else? The front suspension hinge looks similar to a dator lite but looks to have a factory brace underneath it. Pics attached.

The hood is fiberglass (kind of crude on inside but maybe all are) and the grill is missing. The layers are fiberglass, light grey, dark grey, black, florescent orange?, grey and then black. Don't know for sure if it is the original hood to the machine. Tunnel and Pan only have black paint, no green.

[strokerb]

Talked with Dick Teal earlier tonight. Very nice guy to chat with. He believes the sled IS a prototype/pre-production sled for the 1978 model year. It should have been destroyed but somehow sneaked out.

Looked through a 1978 operators manual after talking to him. The pre-production sled pictured also has the serial number tag in the 1977 location with the liquifire decal covering it along with the gusset cut short to clear decal. The tag hidden on the bulkhead and not on the tunnel could have been due to photo shoots. The serial number on the tunnel of this sled was never registered with Deere.

The pre-production suspension pictured in the operator manual is also the same one found under this sled. (The dator lite suspension pics I've seen have not had the gusset under the front hinge.) Also in the pic, notice the dimples punched into the floorboard, but no hole through the middle of them can be seen-same as this sled. '76/'77 tunnel floorboards were smooth and production '78s had the punched dimples with holes through them in the same location and pattern as this sled.

Any chance of finding one of those big hood vents to put back in the hood? This thing is definitely worth restoring!

[TASKY]

Someone once said they had a line on that big vent hood. I cant rememberabilia who though. I am not sure how it ever panned out. I am sure they are reading. I will leave it up to him to get in touch with you.

[deere memorabilia]

This is a very neat sled, By restoring it you will destroy any history it has. Once it is repainted, it will be nothing more then a sled we can all build out of a cyclone chassis and dater lite suspension. It is your sled and you can do what you want with it. With some cleaning and a few parts you would have a very nice piece of Deere history.

[TASKY]

Well said, Moves like Babler