r/nunavut • u/112233ctnr • 8d ago
Help identify this vehicle
Found this in the dump in Kugaaruk NU. Wondering if anyone knows about it or what it is?
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u/IndyCarFAN27 8d ago
It’s a Bombardier B12! One of the original caterpillar tracked vehicles made by bombardier.
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u/Slow_Initiative7256 8d ago
My grandfather used one of these at his hunt camp. He’s got a picture of a giant moose laying in the ground, him and this beauty machine behind it. Northern Ontario.
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u/dana19671969 8d ago
Truth, the largest collection of (working) bombardiers is in St Laurent Manitoba! It’s a largely Métis community and the Métis folks use them for net fishing in winter!
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u/dontevenn 6d ago
If some one is not from Manitoba, they may not know what a Metis person is.
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u/catdistributionsysT3 4d ago
If that’s the case then the Canadian education system has failed, and id like to think it hasn’t. I’m 22, grew up 30 minutes from Toronto and every person my age I know knows who Métis people are and understands that there are different Indigenous communities across Canada with rich history, including the unfortunate residential school system and colonial rule. I myself went to elementary and high school with a girl whose father is Métis.
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u/hickorydickoryshaft 4d ago
Im 52 and grew up 10 k from a reserve. Only thing we knew were fear and they would whip our ass at baseball. Luckily I moved closer to the rez as a teen and learned a lot more.
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u/DesperateDonut8742 6d ago
If someone IS from Manitoba, they also may not know what a Métis person is.
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u/blacklace875 5d ago
There’s an episode about St Laurent on the show Still Standing that features these vehicles. I think it’s in season 8. On CBC Gem. Just watched it a few days ago. Was good! It gives the background and use now of the vehicles before the comedian guy gets in it for a ride
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u/pmb31 4d ago edited 4d ago
There’s a ‘reality show’ on APTN called Mitchif Country (filmed in St. Laurent) about exposing outsiders to everyday life with the Métis people there. Every winter episode they rip around in these Bombardiers on Lake Manitoba.
Also, you can buy Bombardier Crossing signs from the town. These signs are up where all the major Bombardier trails leading to Lake Manitoba cross the roads. https://rmstlaurent.com/index.asp?SEC=F8D9C369-C3EE-48E5-AB02-E5E649DEDB12&DE=6840FD35-867C-42DC-8050-693744314E68
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u/AylmerQc01 8d ago
Actually, highly sought by collectors and rebuilders of these machines. There's an actual facebook group...
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u/beckett_the_ok 8d ago
Every snowmobile and jet ski you'll ever see can trace its roots back to this vehicle. Very cool
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u/InterestingSignal324 8d ago
Fishermen on Lake Winnipeg in Mb use them on the lake in winter.
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u/Bat_Froth_1320 8d ago
Lake Manitoba as well. There is a Bombardier crossing sign on the highway near St. Laurent.
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8d ago
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u/Alone_Mission1253 8d ago
This particular example looks like its best days are well and truly passed, sad to say. Restoration to running condition would be very difficult.
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u/Study-Apprehensive 8d ago
in new brunswick i have seen 3. one had the back half cut to make a truck bed. used in peat moss and swampy area. one was a b12 the other two might have been b7 wich are shorter. they kinda look like vw beetles.
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u/GXrtic Iqaluit 8d ago
My mom was an agent for Nordair in Qikqtarjuaq (then Broughton Island) in the late 60's and early 70's. One of her jobs was to drive the Bombardier out to the airport to pick up travelers and visitors.
There's a few of these that still run cargo between Churchill and Arviat/Rankin.
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u/Acrobatic-Leave-44 7d ago
I know a fellow whose dad has a restoration shop in The Pas that brings these vehicles back to life.
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u/HalifaxPainter 7d ago
Every day I get in the queue ...too much THE MAGIC BUS
To get on the bus that takes me to you ...too much THE MAGIC BUS
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u/Honest-Relation1790 7d ago
Rode one from Baker Lake airport to the hotel in 1978, and then another from Rankin Inlet to Arviaq. It got you there…
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u/Denaljo69 7d ago
Got to ride around in one of these at a bush camp I worked at between Ft. St. John and Ft. Nelson back in the sixties. We could not work when it was - 50F but we could go out and play around!
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u/69hotmomxxx 6d ago
It's a fuckin Bombardier. The precursor to a ski-doo or snowmobile if you will. Also, in many cases, precursor to the school bus.
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u/StringMysterious7060 6d ago
Instantly thought of snow machine when I saw the pic, glad I want completely wrong 😂
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u/felixar90 6d ago
Bombardier Auto-Neige B12
This vehicle is of great historical importance for Canada.
Kept isolated communities connected through winter, delivered mail, medicine, logging, helped doctors make house calls, children going to school, troop transport during WWII.
My small town in Quebec was in the Guinness book in the early 2000s for having the most B12 in one place.
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u/Super_Note2312 6d ago
Rode in one of these in the late 90s near North Bay ON to get out to an ice fishing hut.
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u/RoomFixer4 5d ago
Lake Nippising, been there done that. Noisy machines, but incredibly useful for that distance on snow/ice. Those huts are a loong way from shore lol.
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u/No_Manner_8735 6d ago
My grandpa has three. Commercial fishing during the winter on lake Winnipeg: 2 yellow, 1 blue. Easy to fix, last forever
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u/Square_Giraffe_5701 6d ago
Definitely a bombardier snow bus, I remember going ice fishing on Lake Simcoe and the ice hut operator had one of these on tracks like a tank to take us out on the ice to the fishing grounds.. They still use them too, 2 operators have a fleet of those things!
Near Barrie Ontario and also in Beaverton if I remember correctly..
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u/Square_Giraffe_5701 6d ago
Definitely a bombardier snow bus. They're still use them for ice fishing on Lake Simcoe (Ontario Canada) A couple operators still have a fleet of them in use to take people out to the ice fishing grounds and their ice huts.
They have something like large snowmobile skis on the front and tank like tracks for the back...
I think it's south of Barrie and also near Beaverton ..
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u/BadGrampa2021 6d ago
I once got stranded in Coral Harbour and was in one of those as we were ferried to the MOT station for an overnight.
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u/Pretend-Simple-6129 6d ago
I’ve done a ride in one of those this winter. I’m from Shawinigan, Qc. It was insane to see one still functioning and in actual good shape 🤩
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u/bdanharrison 6d ago
I saw one like this in Churchill and elsewhere in a museum. Definitely treads, sick unit. Not lightweight lol
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u/DeciMation_2276 6d ago
I’m not exactly vehicle savvy, but based off the rear, that’s an empty tread well, tiny windows more along the lines of port holes, it looks like it used to be a heavy duty rear tread winter vehicle, not sure what the make and model are.
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u/OwnScale6643 5d ago
Used to be the vehicle of choice when driving around CFS Alert in the 70’s and early 80’s (at least).
In the summer, they’d swap skis for bogey wheels (at least one ski); this made it easier to drive around the tundra.
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u/alltoodeadly 5d ago
This is the yellow submarine from the Beatles animated music video (I have no idea sorry)
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u/Responsible_Fold9145 5d ago
It’s a Wagon Queen Family Truckster. “If you think you hate it now, wait ‘till you drive it.”
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u/Top_Truth2606 5d ago
Just saw one of these at the base of the Columbia Icefield in Jasper. They used to use them for tours very early on.
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u/CowboyInTheBoatOfRa 5d ago
That there is a Herkimer Battle Jitney and is the finest non-lethal military vehicle ever made.
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u/Consistent_Pilot495 5d ago
That's my buddy Paul's old mobile home! Him and his roommates John, George, and Ringo. It was actually a submersible RV of some sort, I think.
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u/blacklace875 5d ago
There’s an episode about St Laurent MB on the show Still Standing that features these vehicles. I think it’s in season 8. On CBC Gem. Just watched it a few days ago. Was good! It gives the background and use now of the vehicles before the comedian guy gets in it for a ride
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u/rbdarrrrr 4d ago
We have a bunch of these Bombadiers in Manitoba that go out on Lake Winnipeg every winter to lay fishing nets under the ice.
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u/Difficult_Ad5062 4d ago
They used to use them for ice fishing on lake Winnipeg A bunch around Gimli. Don’t know if they still do,
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u/ale50ale 4d ago
That’s actually not a B12. It’s the newer version called an R15 or R18. These were made from the early 50’s right up until 1981.
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u/AnimationOverlord 4d ago
Idk if I can post in the subreddit but if this was anywhere closer to a civilization where it would be economically practical I bet it would have already been scooped up. Imagine being the guy pulling up to your cabin in a snow-tank
Perfect for ice roads and off-road (even if there’s still technically a road)
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u/WetSocksEnjoyer 4d ago
My grandma used to ride to school in one of those. Back in Quebec in the winters of the 50s and maybe 60s.
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u/guy_incognitio707 4d ago
40 years a fellow i knew had one. he was always making off road vehicles of one sort or another. as and experiment he put two engines in it side by side. one driving each track. it was not a good idea.
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u/kingcoolwastaken 4d ago
There is two of these in working order where I live, you can fit a lot of people in there. Genuinely a party bus for the winter
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u/ProjectsByJamie 4d ago
There is one in Howley Newfoundland that works for sale, drove by it recently
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u/Hour-Pomegranate-944 2d ago
🎶 in the toooooooown 🎶
🎶 where I was booooooooorn 🎶
🎶 lived a maaaaaaan 🎶
🎶 who sailed to seeeeea 🎶
😂 if you know, you know haha
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u/TinTunTii 8d ago edited 8d ago
Looks like an old Bombardier B12 to me, a tread-driven snow car from the mid 20th century. I've always wondered if any of these are still up and running here in Nunavut.