Ramblin Roy's Ramblings

March 2003

  Ramblin Roy’s Ramblin on down the road. This time, the muddy road. Yes, all that snow we wrote about last month being conquered by the Eskimobile has now turned to mud. Pretty good how I can predict those season changes, especially since I’m a Minnesota native. Not like my sister-in-law, born and raised in San Diego, telling my brother how to drive in the snow.

   To make his Eskimobile a year round answer to the challenging roads, John Swansen first made his track system easily removable. But then the vehicle was no better than a stock Model A, so, he developed paddles that bolted on the wheels. Now the car would paddle it’s way down the deeply rutted muddy roads and still run smoothly on firm surfaces.

   What came next was a complete departure from the Eskimobile, dubbed the Stiltmobile. By mounting narrow, 4 : inch wide, tires on 44@ to 54@ diameter wheels, an otherwise stock vehicle could negotiate all but the worst off road terrain. To answer those needs John and brother Hank, my great uncles, developed the Snow-Tank.

   While neither the Stiltmobile nor Snow-Tank were the commercial success the Eskimobile was, Swansen Machine had plenty of other sources of income. They had become a Case tractor dealer, customer-threshing operators with multiple machines and crews plus built wheeled vehicles from wheelbarrow’s, two-wheel trailers, for wheel wagons to modified tractors and threshing machines. In fact, they also made farm tractors on their own design from surplus truck and car parts.

   The tractors were of particular interest. Seems Case had a serious deficiency in the engines they used (not unlike the 4100 in the Cadillac line - sorry, I just had to say that now that I’ve lost two of them in three months). Swansen converted these tractors to GMC six cylindered much more powerful and reliable tractors called the Lincon. They also produced tractors named Linkin’s from surplus car and truck parts, primarily Ford, due to their availability, similar to the Eskimobile. There are a few of both these models being restored by another shirttail relation, Mark Eggert.

(Eggert was John’s mother’s maiden name - small world.)

   When WW11 came along the small community of Almina Wisconsin’s young and able-bodied went off to war. This left the company virtually without a work force and it was dormant. By the time the war was over John’s age and health caused him to never reopen Swansen Machine Company. After his death in >48 Dora Swansen, John’s daughter, shown in the photos of Alma’s 100th anniversary parade in 1987, auctioned off the company’s assets.

PostScript:

   Remember the Oct issue where I stated, "The most interesting part was going around listening to the stories, there’s one behind every car and no two are the same,@ and the Dec. issue where I talked about Cadillac’s in the custom car/hot rod ranks.

   Well, see the top of page 7 in the Jan. issue. The ‘82 Fleetwood Brougham pictured there is back with two more Interesting clippings; The HOT ROD legacy from HOT ROD MAGAZINE and the ‘02 REAL STREET ELIMINATOR from Car Craft.

   The first article will put a lump in your throat. The second is the results of an all out competition between a Camaro , Trans Am, Caprice and the Caddy. “And THE WINNER is - THE CADDY. After relating to that reality, realize it won on performance, not craftsmanship or comfort. Proof positive, your Cadillac or LaSalle is what you make it.

   Also see Roy’s pictures.

 Roy Boone, Club Columnist