Bolens Diablo Rouge and Hus Ski Discussion Forums

Here is a couple of pics of Hus-skis racing that I saved off of the internet.

The could even be the 400 I drive today. WOW Great photos!!!

I spoke with Henriot Filion today and unfurtunately he will not be able to attend the event in Alliston. Henriot was 22 yrs old (now 72 years old) when he started to work for HUS-SKi and did prototype testing, construction and SNOW TRAVELLER testing in the very first years of HUS-SKI development. One story he just told me was about testing the SNOW TRAVELLER on the private property of the McOuat family, their Manitou Club near Lachute Quebec. The engineers from West Bend were present and in the lodge at the time when Henriot and Hank Murry took two machines out for a test. They took the machines a bit north of the club and planned to return by the road. It was severely cold so they taped the throttle wide open and steered the machines with their feet. This was a rather unrecommended procedure but got more exciting as they raced down the road , side by side each of them trying to grab the other's machine and steer it off coarse. Eventually Hank succeeded. Henriot's machine flipped over, dumped him off then rolled over and continued down the road without a driver. The high snowbanks keeping Henriot's machine on the road. Hank stopped to pick up Henriot then tried to catch up to the wayward machine. When the West Bend engineers looked out the window, they saw one machine go past at full speed without a driver and Henriot and Hank following behind on the second HUS-SKI. Eventually Henriot and Hank caught up ,Henriot jumped over to his HUS-SKI and continued their testing. It was a wild time in the backroads of Quebec!!!!

You Crazy Canadians!

Thanks for fillin me in on how to put the pics on here Sean! Ive been wanting to put this pic on here for awhile. The owner of a local watering hole was putting on a parade for the 'HUSKY" dog sled races that were held up here in da U.P. and he knew that i had a fleat of Hus-ski snowmobile's so he came up with an idea to hook them up to an old santa's sleigh that he had. So i went there just to see how we could do it and this is about how far we got, it was really fun but on the day of the parade it was like 50 degree's and all the snow was gone!! So it didnt happen which he was alittle bummed cause he thought we were makin CNN.. LOL

Thats some good stuff bro, sure wood have been nice to show up that day with our own Hus Ski dogs to pull that sleigh. Lovin it!

WHY CHAMPION SPARK PLUGS

Jim Anderson had worked for OMC, Lawnboy division and he knew that Champion had a special deal for (OEM) original equipment manufactures.
We signed a comtract with Champion to be our exclusive supplier and they sold us one spark plug per machine for $ .06, yes six cents. The plugs came packed 144 per case in a double walled carton with dividers to seperate each plug. Each plug also had a sleeve to protect the threaded portion.
The plugs we purchased for resale came in regular Champion boxes, cost us $ .50 and sold for $ 1.00 retail.
Champion made these OEM deals in the belief that if the machine had a Champion then most people would buy a Champion as their spare and replacement plugs.

Ed

THANKS
A huge thank you to everyone responsible for the Live on Skiis event.
Thanks to those who let me ride their machines, looked at my small album, brought me a video of the Chalk River Run, asked me questions, commented on my forum page and contributed to one of the best weekends of my Hus-ski life.
Thank you Bruce for providing this space.

Ed

Hi Ed

It was really great meeting you at the Alliston Hus Ski /Diablo event. I really enjoyed all the stories you told me about hus ski development. I particularly enjoyed the story you told me about how the diablo rouge design came about. That the owner of FMC and the car designer who designed the Avanti car got together to sketch out the design of the diablo. I think that is a really neat piece of history in developing the diablo rouge.

I am sure you have many more interesting stories about these machines.I look forward to reading them on this website. I also hope to meet you again at another hus ski / diablo get together in the future.

Sincerely,
Snocatpete

Thank's Pete,

I just want to clear up some of the things you said so we don’t confuse anyone.
Knight Carson was the General Manager of the Bolens Division of FMC Corp., the manufacture of lawn and garden equipment.
Carson had a friend Brooke Stevens who was a famous industrial designer. I think his best-known project was the design of the Studebaker Avanti. Google him for more info.
Industrial designers or stylists work with the product engineers who actually design the nuts and bolts of the product.
I believe Brookes had an artificial leg and he was a pilot and owned a six-passenger twin-engine airplane. He and Carson would fly to Montreal, visit the plant for a couple of hours and then go out to party. He and Carson were food and wine aficionados. The first couple of times we met, Brookes had flown Knight to Montréal for the food and wine. They always went to Chez Bardot where the cost of dinner and wine, for two was about the wholesale selling price of a Hus-Ski or three weeks of my salary. Chez Bardot was the most expensive restaurant in the Province of Quebec, if not Canada.
The engineers in Pointe Claire, Quebec came up with the tracks, engine, height, width, length and other engineering details of the Diablo and Brookes did the styling.
David LeMay who worked for Bolens chose the name and Brooke's designed things like the hood, chrome bumper and so on.
This could be the reason why many people think the Diablo was designed in the USA.
All Diablo’s were built in Pt. Claire, Quebec, at least until I “LEFT” in March 1968.

Ed