Bristol Bush Swamper

[Morgoth]

Recently I ran into this site whilst in conversation with an accquantance. You see, he was talking about argos. When I told him I used to build Bush swampers, I picked this site as it had a conveinient pic.
The early 80's were way to much fun. One good thing about the low tech era meant more time doing fun stuff like building up 4X4 trucks etc.

[Mike]

Hi Morgoth, welcome to the site. When you say that you built Bush Swampers, can you elaborate on your involvement and tell us a little more about it? It sounds like you may be the go-to guy for any Bush Swamper questions.

[Morgoth]

As I mentioned it was in the early 80's. The owners of the machine shop I worked at, bought the rites of a 16 wheel ATV from a trapper in NorthBay Ontario. Said trapper made the machine because at the time there was nothing out there to suit his trapping requirements. We began producing the Bristol Bush Swamper just a few kilometers from Bristol Machine Works in Sudbury Ontario. We built 6 at a time for a few short years until the 4 wheeler ATV came along and put us out of business. At the time I was just a kid but was at least I was returned to the main machine shop prior to BBS production discontinuation and actually prior to the development of the Grizzly. The early model chain case was hand fabricated as were many other components. I remember later chain cases and axle hubs were cast aluminum and much easier to work with. If anyone needs parts etc. I suggest contacting Bristol Machine Works in Sudbury ontario. They should still have the CNC programs for many of the production parts ( I must have run off a million of them). They should have the machine tools etc to help out. It was 21 years since I left Bristol so I'm only using by best guess. I believe they have a web site.

[Mike]

Morgoth, thanks for that information. To a Bush Swamper owner, that is a lot of good information, especially when there is so little documentation about them online. I copied your posts from the introduction thread out to the forum for better visibility / searchability from other Bush Swamper owners.

[Morgoth]

I'm glad to help out, 21 years is a long time. I still have a friend or two at Bristol but I'm glad I moved on. I took on a machinist aprentiship there, obtained my journeyman status, C of Q and got out of Dodge. I am now a nuclear mechanical technician with OPG but unable to utilize their machine tools for personal use. Sport bikes are now my passion but I will always look fondly back to my youth, 4X4's, BBS etc. The best part about BBS was when we had to pre-strech the chains in the chain case. Once the machine was built and ready for pre-strech, we put each machine through a **** load of challenging and difficult trials. We had a swamp behind the shop, a huge pile of hydro poles next door and a series of mogul type piles of dirt to challenge the bush swamper. I remember many other machines challenging the BBS but NONE ever measured up. These things made argo's look and perform like junk. The cost to produce the BBS was in the end it's demise. You could get a 4 wheel atv for about half the cost.