This is a 1979 Chrysler Sno-Runner and amazingly it’s still in its original factory crate, it’s currently being offered for sale out of Omaha, Nebraska by its first owner who has kept it preserved for over 40 years.
We featured a Chrysler Sno-Runner just last week on Silodrome, though that was a restored and running example. Normally we wouldn’t feature two of the same vehicles so close together but it’s always hard to resist a vehicle that remains untouched in its factory crate.
For those who have never seen a Chrysler Sno-Runner before, it’s essentially a snow bike that was developed by Chrysler in the late 1970s as a way to potentially help the company earn more money as they entered one of the most dire financial periods in their history.
This is how the Chrysler Sno-Runner looks when taken out of its crate and assembled. They’ve been gaining in popularity in recent years due to the simple winter fun they offer.
The Sno-Runner was designed to capitalize on two things, the wild popularity of leisure vehicles like three-wheelers, jet skis, and snowmobiles, and the fact that every day across the USA significant numbers of people walked into Chrysler dealerships with money in their pockets.
The simple design of the Sno-Runner and its low cost to produce were considered fundamental to its potential success. It has a frame that consists of a single length of tubular aluminum that doubles as a 1.3 gallon fuel tank, and it’s powered by a single-cylinder Chrysler Marine engine with a displacement of 134cc.
The vehicle has a padded seat designed to accommodate one, tractional handlebars up front that steer the front ski, and a twist grip throttle paired with a brake lever that slows the rear track. There’s a second ski mounted under the rider in front of the single rear track, which is referred to by Chrysler as a “chain drive gripper track.”
This crated Sno-Runner comes with a an owner’s manual, a parts catalog, and a period advertisement.
The Sno-Runner was designed to be quickly dismantled for easy transportation thanks to a series of quick-release disassembly pins. It’s said that once it’s been disassembled you can easily fit it into the trunk of a car with plenty of room to spare.
The sample you see here remains in its factory crate and as mentioned in the introduction it still belongs to its original owner, who has now decided to offer it for sale. It will be up to the new owner if they want to keep it as-is or assemble it and ride it.
If you’d like to read more or register to bid you can visit the listing here on Bring a Trailer.
Images courtesy of Bring a Trailer
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
