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Sure-Footed: Two 1970 AMF Sur-Trek 8×8 ATVs

So, if anyone is chipping in on my next birthday present.. (Hello? Is this thing on?) These two, super cool 1970 AMF Sur-Trek 8×8 ATVs are located in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada and here on eBay with an unmet starting bid of $4,000 Canadian, or $3,012 US dollars. These rigs have been in storage for years and they might as well be in my garage, or yours. Or, mine..

American Machinery & Foundry Co. sure made some funky-cool machines in the 1970s. Here is a quote from a brochure for the Sur-Trek, “Eight wheels are better than six. No joke. In hills that a six-wheeler can’t manage our eight-wheelers kick and bite and scratch their way to the top. And consider the psychological edge it gives you when you’re surrounded by six wheelers. Not mere on-upmanship. Two-upmanship”  Dang, my vehicles only have one, two, or four wheel drive, just think how inferior I feel! They sure look like fun little vehicles for driving through almost anything; here is a YouTube video of one in action.  Am I right, or am I right? These crazy crawlers will go about 30 mph on land or 2 mph in water and will climb a 45-degree slope.

Both of these ATVs will need work to get them back on the trail, or the stream, again. They are both pretty complete and they come with a few spare parts and four extra wheels. Here is what a decent one would look like and what these would look like again after a bit of work. Yes, these things will seat four adults ! Four, small, thin adults! The average male is 5′-9″ tall and the average female is 5′-4″ tall, neither of those would be a problem here. But, with a total weight capacity of 750 pounds and with the average American male weighing in at 196 pounds, that’s not going to work if you plan on taking three of your buddies along for a ride. You’ll have to mix it up with a couple of 166-pound average-weight women to go along once you’re done restoring it. You’ll have enough left over for 26 pounds worth of bug spray and towels to dry yourselves off with.

Since my weight is well under the average by a few.. dozen pounds, that shouldn’t be a problem here. But, since my height is well over the average height by 8 inches, it probably isn’t going to be super comfortable for me in there; but I’d make it work. This is what it’ll look like in here once it’s restored . I’d still want a pad on the seat which it would have come with when it was new. These vehicles have a 13-foot turning radius so it’s not like your zero-turn lawn mower. There are two forward speeds and reverse so you can back out of your driveway, like this guy  does before tearing around his yard in the snow.

Here is the JLO 300cc (295) two-cycle, air-cooled engine that powers this whole thing. This engine has 20 hp turning a whole bunch of gears and cogs and wheels and shafts, and heads, when you drive by people in boats in the middle of a lake. This is basically a snowmobile engine so parts and service should be a breeze. A lot of snowmobile makers needed a way to keep their crews busy during non-winter months and they came up with these wacky machines in the 1960s and 1970s, like the Arctic Cat Cub seen here on Barn Finds about three weeks ago. Electric start will keep things simple as will foot pedals for accelerating and braking. The Sur-Trek is about 10.5 feet in length, has 7.5 inches of ground clearance,  and weighs 700 pounds. You’ll need that info when you line up a shipper to have these delivered to my house. I have never seen one of these before but now I won’t be able to get them out of my mind! Would you fit in one of these, and if so, how would you use these ATVs?

Auctions Ending Soon

Cool but too much work needed to get trail worthy along with the cost of transporting them back to Missouri it’s not feasible for me. My son just called me last night for my birthday and told me about a combined auction / flea market / garage sale a small town near him is having that has a Honda Odyssey Pilot dune buggy that I would love better than these as I’ve had 2 in the 80’s and they were a riot to ride. I guess they have old cars / trucks / crafts and the usual garage sale junk.

Thought I had one of these: https://www.google.com/search?q=gi+joe+adventure+team+atv

All of a sudden cant get the Banana Splits theme song outta my head!

Exactly! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtD4mn9CeH4

I remember a couple of local ranchers having units like these. Apparently they didn’t hold up quite as well as hoped. Of course bear in mind that, coming from a ranch myself, ranchers’ equipment could be well abused. We had ranch hands that could break our TD9 and D4 crawlers when performing such mundane tasks as feeding cattle during the winter. I’d be tempted to tackle a project like this but then, my hands are full.

These things take up a whole garage, you would have to have a very specific use and a lot of room for these toys.

Never seen these things before, I learn something new every day. I have no idea if the price is fair or not, and not like something like this shows up often enough to have any sort of comparison for reference.

But, would be the most awesome campground or event machine I could imagine. With todays tech, im sure the drivetrain could be updated or improved on easily. @ thumbs up just simply for cool factor.

Cool but overpriced. It could easily cost a couple grand each just to get them going again.

Stacy David restored and upgraded one of these on his show several years ago, then blastwd through a swamp with it. I’m less than 6 hours from Regina…wife would kill me though. She hates anything from Saskatchewan

My uncle worked for AMF in York PA back in the day. He had one of those new from the factory. It was neet to see in motion but totally unreliable. If you wanted to go out on Saturday, you started working and fixing on Wednesday.

Are these Sur Treks still available ? If not I’m thinking of scratch building one for a proto type and then putting them back on the market

Steve, I have one in montana.

Do you still have a Sur Trek??

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Motorized Freak of the Week: The AMF Sur-Trek

May 14, 2014 Brian Lohnes BangShift XL , XL Off Road Feature , XL Videos 2

This week’s Motorized Freak is a slick little 8×8 amphibious vehicle produced by AMF in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. It would make one bitchin’ pit vehicle at the dragstrip.

We don’t know tons about them but we’ve uncovered the technical info from an old sales brochure. We’re thinking that the guys in sales and marketing at AMF saw this little critter for the first time and asked, “Is this a joke?” How big could the market for these things be?

Think we’re kidding? Here’s a direct quote from the sales material:

“Eight wheels are better than six. No joke. In hills that a six-wheeler can’t manage our eight-wheelers kick and bite and scratch their way to the top. And consider the psychological edge it gives you when you’re surrounded by six wheelers. Not mere on-upmanship. Two-upmanship.”

Yes, they were reaching.

The vehicle sat four people in what appears to be complete discomfort. It was broken into two sections, articulated in the middle, that made climbing and turning easier as well as making the thing more maneuverable.

Here’s the technical skinny. The diminutive beasts are about 11 feet long, 50 inches wide and 37 inches tall. It’s completely amphibious with a sealed hull and is capable of driving on just about anything, up to and including the lunar surface.

It sat four adults and had a weight capacity of 750 pounds. In today’s world of super sized people that’s about two.

It’s capable of 35 mph on land and a blazing 2 mph on water. It’ll climb a 45-degree grade and hang on to a side slope of 29 degrees. We’d rather not test those figures.

Automotive controls were on tap for the driver with a normal steering wheel and brake and gas pedals. It uses a two-speed transmission with a reverse gear, using its eight-wheel drive in a push/pull arrangement. All eight wheels are driving all the time.

Steering is accomplished by moving the rear section to push the front where you want it to go. The sales literature mentions it being similar to “boat tiller action.” The turning radius is 13 feet according to AMF.

Power is provided by a 295cc, 2-cycle, air-cooled, JLO engine that makes 20 hp. The engine has electric start but also a pull cord in the event you are sinking and your starter has shorted out. We’re guessing you’d get a full afternoon of fun out of the six gallon fuel tank. The whole thing weighs 700 pounds unloaded and we’re guessing that the fiberglass the body is made out of is pretty thick.

Hit the link here to see the groovy sales brochure.

Hit the link here to see one being restored.

Brian Lohnes

2 thoughts on “ Motorized Freak of the Week: The AMF Sur-Trek ”

We used to use the 6×6 variant for duck hunting in our local swamp. Ideal rig for where a boat wont go and a quad wont float.

Leave it to Stacey. He finds anything with a engine and beats the HE$$ out of it. Love that.

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Vehicles with six or more wheels

AMF Sur-Trek 8×8

• 29 May 2020
• Amphibious , ATV , On-trek

The Sur-Trek was distributed by American Machine & Foundry, this ATV 8×8 is composed of 2 articulated fiberglass trays, powered by a motor 295 cm3 of 20hp mounted in the front of the rear tray. It is equipped with an electric starter and a pull rope in case. Its headlights are retractable. It has a tank of 23 liters.

Steering is done by moving the rear tray, not like a classic ATV.

The wheels are fitted with balloon tires which allow the Sur-Trek to float. It is comfortable on all summer or winter terrains. You can attach a small boat engine to the stern. On land it can reach a maximum speed of 50 km/h. It can cross slopes at 45%.

It can carry 4 people or 340 kg with the pilot. Transmission is automatic, 2 forward gears, a back.

• Length 3,20 m
• Width 1.27m
• Height 0.94m
• Weight 270 kg
• Turning radius 4.00m

It was sold 1700 USD in 1969

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1970 One-A-Kind AMF Sur Trek 8-wheel drive ATV

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Thread: 1970 One-A-Kind AMF Sur Trek 8-wheel drive ATV

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This is a one of a kind AMF SUR Trek 8-wheel drive ATV. The serial number is 10. It is a concept from AMF. It has a 440 Kohler twin cylinder engine that runs strong. The other models were single cylinders. The original owner worked at AMF. This one was modified for sale for the military (which didn’t happen). All new rims and tires. Complete canvas top was replaced this spring and has zip windows for a totally enclosed ATV. Please email me if interested ([email protected]). Price: $6,000.00 OBO Screenshot_2017-09-16-12-51-35.jpg Screenshot_2017-09-16-12-51-47.jpg Screenshot_2017-09-28-13-43-31.jpg Screenshot_2017-09-28-13-43-45.jpg Screenshot_2017-09-28-13-44-20.jpg

Hi. Where can i found serialnumber on my Sur-Trek ?

Originally Posted by trucommmotosports This is a one of a kind AMF SUR Trek 8-wheel drive ATV. The serial number is 10. It is a concept from AMF. It has a 440 Kohler twin cylinder engine that runs strong. The other models were single cylinders. The original owner worked at AMF. This one was modified for sale for the military (which didn’t happen). All new rims and tires. Complete canvas top was replaced this spring and has zip windows for a totally enclosed ATV. Please email me if interested ([email protected]). Price: $6,000.00 OBO Attachment 16536 Attachment 16537 Attachment 16538 Attachment 16539 Attachment 16540 I know this thread is over two yrs old and as much as I'm interested in the SUR TREK itself I'm even more interested in why there was absolutely no interest from anyone in buying this or at the very least commenting on its uniqueness. This is probably the 3rd or 4th listing that I've came across in the classifieds like this that drew absolutely no significant attention. Is this sold or taken down from the site or whats going on with this??

Originally Posted by Cupwalker I know this thread is over two yrs old and as much as I'm interested in the SUR TREK itself I'm even more interested in why there was absolutely no interest from anyone in buying this or at the very least commenting on its uniqueness. This is probably the 3rd or 4th listing that I've came across in the classifieds like this that drew absolutely no significant attention. Is this sold or taken down from the site or whats going on with this?? If you are interested you may wish to contact the seller direct, I don't believe they come on all that much. As far as the no interest, IMO, that should be shown and not driven as it's too nice but to each his own. Getting someone to purchase a higher dollar ready to go machine appears hard in this bunch, especially one that may be more of a "look at that !" than a "look at that go !" machine.

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