We’re getting hammered by snow here in the upper-Midwest, again, much more than usual with a record February snowfall. At the beginning of the month we were 18-inches below normal and now we’re way above normal. Calling this normal is abnormal in my opinion, but it makes for some great snowmobiling. This vintage snowmobile is a late-1950s Polaris Sno-Traveler and I believe that it’s either a very early Trail Master or a Ranger. It can be found here on eBay and thankfully the seller has just now added a few additional photos. It’s located in Riggins, Idaho and the current bid price is $810 with no reserve.
The early Polaris Sno-Traveler Trail Masters were made on the shorter Ranger chassis but shortly after they were lengthened 18-inches. This example has the boxy seatback of the Trail Master and it’s shorter than normal. The model number lists the engine as an O-13 which is an Onan 12.9-hp twin and that would be correct for a Trail Master. This one doesn’t appear to have the original engine but this is an important piece of snowmobiling history and it should be saved. On a side note, the seat padding isn’t missing, there wasn’t any. No lie, it was cold steel that the rider sat on. Some owners added their own padding as cushions weren’t available from the factory until the early to mid-1960s. Some of us have enough seat padding on our own. These snowmobiles came in red or blue and this one has faded to pink over the decades.
This contraption on the rear of this Polaris isn’t an ice fishing derrick for hauling up the big one, it’s a tripod winch which allowed this heavy snowmobile – which often got stuck in deep snow due to its weight and having the rear engine – to basically get itself unstuck. You would winch up the back end and put sticks or something under the rear of the sled and pull ahead. I know, it seems weird but this was the mid-1950s and snowmobiles were just coming onto the market. They were still decades away from evolving into the evil insect-looking crazy, luxury, fast machines that they have today. This sled would tow up to 1,500 pounds. I wrote about a newer Polaris Sno-Traveler back in November of 2017 if anyone wanted to see the difference a few years made in the infancy of the snowmobile industry.
The holes were cut into the sides for weight savings and also to let the snow flow freely so as to not stop up the “tunnel” in deep snow. The snow also lubricated the slides. You can see the track through one of the holes in the photo above. Not that a person ever wants to get run over by anything, but you can see the iron cleats on the track. Yeah, that wouldn’t be good. Here’s an old video on YouTube showing a later Polaris Sno-Traveler Trail Master in action in Alaska. This is a very worthy restoration project that almost anyone could do. These were pretty simple machines and they were basically handmade in the early days so there wouldn’t be as much worrying about finding that oddball tail light lens or something like that which you’d have with a later model. Have any of you owned a 1950s snowmobile?
What a find, and great write up. Just as a quick accolade to the writers, we are very priviledged to have writers who take the time to research this stuff.
Looking at this machine, one has to think, ok, you had to start somewhere. Like a Model T to a modern Corvette. This was the 1st attempt to downsize snowmobiles, which before this were converted cars or sleighs with airplane motors. It looks home made and it’s odd to think these actually came off an assembly line. Think of the testing and engineering that went into this. I’m fully confident, some enterprising and loyal Minnesotian will step up and save this. Even though I believe the snowmobile was invented in Wisconsin, Minnesota reigns supreme as the snowmobile capital of the world, and Polaris made a huge name for Minnesota, and those folks are mighty proud of that, and should be. To me, snowmobiling is the most fun you can have with your clothes on, and while this is a nasty winter, it slows down life considerably, but with the cold and the abundant snow, you can go almost anywhere without fear of “going through”.( the ice, that is) and it’s a blast.
These were for a different time, and built solely for short distances, unlike todays snowmobile “highways”, where one can cover several hundred miles in a ( long) day, these opened up a new ways to have fun, or even save lives in winter, and this is how it started. Looking at the “related finds”, you can just see how they progressed, all the way to that sleek Harley Davidson. Yup, H-D made sleds at one time too. Thanks Scotty,,,
Polaris might have started in Minnesota, but they sure a’int there now. A sad reflection of our times. Even John Deere once made snow machines, seems like everyone did. Of course, we had more reliable snow then, just like we had more reliable employment. Funny you mention snow, I sit here a half a mile from the Mayo Clinic in snowy Minnesota, and three days after our last blizzard, we still have a third of our work force unable to make it in. Unusual weather indeed. Global warming? Climate change? Just randomness?
Hey Doc! Good to see you back on here. How is that 356 handling the Midwest snow this year, or do you have her tucked in for the winter?
Funny because my son and daughter in law both work as design engineers at Polaris…. Their portfolio has expanded and their stock is rated as a strong buy. In the past several years their investment in Indian, Rinker, Klim, Larson to name a few will help increase their viability and survival. If you haven’t riden one lately, you should…
Hmm, you sure about that? I come up with “Polaris Industries”, Medina, Minnesota”. John Deere snowmobiles were made in one of my hometowns, Horicon, Wis. They were ok sleds, but the Yamahas killed that. The best Wisconsin sled was the Mercury Sno-Twister, that Yamaha copied ( it seemed) for the early Exciter models like I had.
Howard, Polaris may have a shiny headquarters in Minnesota but look where the actual manufacturing is. It is not the world we grew up in, all that I am saying. Just like Detroit is not what it once was, though GM still has a fancy building there.
I’m quite certain that this early Polaris would have been originally powered by a single cylinder 4 stroke Kohler.
Some sites claim the O13 was powered by a 9.6 hp Clinton motor originally .
Clinton? The old ‘Arrowhead’ engine. Now that’s an engine I haven’t heard about in a long time. Our go-kart had a 2 1/2 hp Clinton in it. We had a bale elevator on the ranch that was powered by a 2 hp Clinton two-stroke. There were some Clinton engines around but not nearly as numerous as Wisconsin, which reigned supreme for most of my younger days…
Ed, if you look at the photo of the tag/plate on the auction it shows “O-13”, which is a 12.9 (13) hp Onan. I also looked on several sites and consulted the snowmobile bible trilogy which I own, formally known as “Snowmobile History” in 3 volumes by arguably the world’s authority on all things snowmobile – Pierre Pellerin. Volume 2 devotes 85 pages to Polaris. There was a K-95 (9.5-hp Kohler) engine available but the O-13 was a 12.9-hp Onan and this one is labeled as an O-13.
The C-9 and C-10 were both Clinton engines in 9 and 10 hp and were also available. It all comes down to the tag photo that I went by.
From when men were men, winters were winters, and sleds were sleds.
Lets not forget the women, they were pretty womanly back then too. I think everything was better back then. Hey, I got an idea, lets all go back in time and be young again! Except for a few low spots in the mid sixties, my life has been great and I would like to do it all again.
Good write-up Scotty! I don’t know where you find these but I sure enjoy reading about them.
The old image sure has changed. The first snowmobiles I remember seeing out west were the OMC Sno-Cruisers, and that was in the mid-60s. Ski trips through the Marias Pass to Whitefish, MT didn’t reveal any personal snowmobiles until at least 1965. I well remember the Nodwell that the ski slope ran for a few years until they got a Tucker SnoCat. But those were much bigger. Dad bought a Sno-Cruiser in 1967 and we ran the skis and track off it for several years. Then Dad sold it. By that time I was running a Yamaha GP433 and most of my friends were running Arctic Cats or Skidoos. Then we would get a few winters similar to the early 60s when there was hardly any snow. Then a high volume snow year, then another slack year. Some accuse climate change but after reading over 100 years of Dad’s and Grandpa’s journals, the weather hasn’t changed one bit…
I’ve come to a similar conclusion , geomechs. I think we just forget. A humans lifetime is a blink of the eye unfortunately. One would hope that the advances in technology will over time ameliorate the effects of industrialization on the climate.
All that said this Polaris is so primitive I’d think you have to have a humongous behind to cushion the ride :)
I was a Polaris dealer for more than 10 years (had a chance to get in on the initial stock offering and I would have, but I was broke.) and learned things about the Sno Traveller that I had never heard before. Great job on the write up. After many years of being in number 2 after Bombardier, the Polaris snowmobiles have risen to the best on the market again this year. There are no finer sleds available, and that is saying a lot!
This is a very rare sled in great condition for a restoration and I’m not surprised to see the sale end at $3600.00!. Perhaps Polaris bought it themselves as the same $800.00 bidder stepped up at the end.
We romanticize the past while not realizing that today (being taken for granted) will be the past by tomorrow. Work was not ideal back then and this machine is cool looking boredom. I would love to restore it but bumbling on and on about job security (Often dirty and dangerous back then) and small town life (With it’s problems too) gets old. We are lucky to be alive in a time when anyone in the US has access to machinery, tools and free software to do almost anything they can imagine. I could go on Craigslist and buy the sheet metal tools to replicate this beauty. I could design the entire thing in free CAD software and build it if I wanted. I do in fact do that in real life. “When men were men”? Yeah, that comes with its own problems too.
I had one of these, got it for my 10th birthday, November 1964. It had the reverse gear, long track and was powered by the single cylinder Kohler engine. It was slow, heavy, and got stuck in deep or soft snow, frequently.
My dad paid $100 for it at the time. I was so happy when we ‘upgraded’ to a ‘modern’ Base-model Scorpion, due to the lack of fun found in operating this Polaris
At one point in MN there were 23 different snowmobile manufacturers now there are 4? Someone made the comment that Polaris is no longer in MN, they still are in MN to some degree but we all need to understand that Polaris has GROWN UP. We will see in the not to far future where their military contracts far out distance their recreation division. Polaris is not even close to the company they were 10 yes ago, they are growing at rates that a snowmobile company could never imagine! It’s fun to watch 😁
Says it sold for $3600. Is that even possible for something like this in this condition?