It took a trip to Alaska for Peggy and Richard Liekweg to find their Allis-Chalmers snow tractor. It was 1999 and they had heard rumors about a half-track snow tractor. After locating the tractor at the Top of the World’s Highway, they knew they had to add this amazing vehicle to their AC collection.

“They got mail from an airstrip. There was no electricity, no phone,” shared Peggy, who is from Iowa Falls, Iowa.

After correspondence to and from the frozen North, the Liekwegs purchased the tractor. Next on the agenda was buying an enclosed trailer to pick it up. The vehicle turned out to be an Allis-Chalmers M7 snow tractor; it was built to attach to an M19 trailer, and the combo was used as a rescue vehicle for downed aviators by the U.S. Army Air Corps.

The snow tractor is a mixture of AC and Jeep components. One of the special things about the tractor is the track system (half-track). Besides the tracks, the tractor and accompanying M19 trailer tires could be switched with skis.

It was April before the Liekwegs could get their prize, because of impassable roads. Traveling through Canada, Customs was not a big problem, Peggy shared: “We headed out and told the border guard we had a snow tractor.”

Once the tractor was back in Iowa Falls, the restoration process began. They were able to get information from service manuals. Finding parts was a hard task. Putting it together was eased a bit because their son, Brad, is in the body business.

“We did as much restoration to make it as World War II-like as possible,” Peggy said.

Like the tractor, they were able to find the trailer in the Northwest Territories. They actually purchased two of them to make one. “With two trailers, we had one part of everything we needed,” Richard explained.

The display they have shows how the wounded would be transported to safety. “They needed two litters; one was on the floor and one was hanging. We found a mannequin at a store in Marshfield, Missouri. Richard came in and saw it and bought it in the morning,” Peggy said.

The injured aviator’s electric flight suit plugs into an outlet. “We didn’t have the plugs or footwear, but we restored it as perfect as possible for the military,” Richard added.

The Liekwegs had their amazing snow tractor and trailer at this year’s AC Father’s Day show in Homestead, Iowa. While there was an amazing array of Persian orange on display, the stark white snow tractor attracted a lot of attention. This was the only snow tractor the Liekwegs have ever seen, and there were only 291 models produced during 1944.

Readers with questions or comments for Cindy Ladage may write to her in care of this publication.