With probably half of the US population living where there’s at least a chance of snow if not too much snow, not to mention most of Canada and other countries, too, it’s that time of year again on Barn Finds to check out a snowmobile. Or, depending on what part of the continent you hail from, a snowmachine, or even a sled. This rare.. whatchamacallit is a 1963 Polaris Sno-Traveler K-70D and it’s listed on eBay with a current bid of under $2,000 and the reserve isn’t met. It’s a rare one so I’m not surprised that the seller wants more than two-grand for it. It’s located in Fenton, Michigan, in the triangle between Flint, Lansing, and Detroit; an area that knows a thing or two about snow with an average of three feet of the white stuff coming down every year.
My hometown gets around seven or eight feet of snow a year and I grew up calling a plastic disc that you ride perilously downhill until you crash into a tree a sled, but now most folks refer to snowmobiles as sleds. This is a rare one, whatever you call it. Polaris Industries was founded in 1954 in Roseau, Minnesota, another area that knows a thing or two about snow, and an area that knows a thing or two about making snowmobiles. Edgar Hetteen was an owner of a hoist and derrick company in Roseau, MN and his employees made what became their first snowmobile in 1954. A second model, the Sno-Traveler, came out and in 1960 Mr. Hetteen took three weeks off to test three of these newfangled machines across Alaska. When he returned home he found that the board wasn’t happy with him for that so he resigned and founded a company that went on to be Polaris’ chief competitor, Arctic Cat, in Thief River Falls, Minnesota. Talk about a giant in the snowmobile industry in the US!
The Sno-Traveler was a workhorse as most snowmobiles were in those early days. The hot-rod sled industry didn’t really start until the mid-late-60s or so. This particular machine/mobile/sled was specially made for the Bell Telephone Co. in Allentown, Pennsylvania, according to the seller, who also lists the snowmobile on their website for $2,950. It was painted this special gold color at the factory which was pretty unusual. It turns out that the machines didn’t work too well for checking remote phone lines in the winter so it was put into storage. It was found by a Bell big wheel in the mid-70s and was put into use at his camp in the Poconos (we all have one of those, don’t we?) for his kids to mess around with.
It soon became clear that there were much newer, lighter, and easier to handle snowmobiles on the market so Goldie was once again put into storage at a dealer in Moscow, PA. The current owner found Goldie three decades ago in that storage warehouse and “cleaned the carb, replaced the battery, installed new points, and condenser and with simple push of the electric start button she started up and ran perfectly.” It still runs perfectly according to this YouTube video. Ahh.. that sound, there’s nothing like it for us vintage snowmobile lovers. The K-70D was a two-seater and as you can imagine, the track is more for traction than for comfort.
This should be Kohler’s 9.5 hp and this whole machine is supposedly all original right down to the unusual gold paint and it sure sounds like it runs great. This model has electric start, too; something that we never had on our old snowmobiles in the 1970s and early-80s. Have any of you snowmachine / snowmobile / sled buffs heard of the Polaris Sno-Traveler? I’m sure that anyone into the vintage snowmobile scene has. Would you keep this one for display as the current owner has done or would you ride it?
Tried to buy one just like this in northern Mich. about 10 yrs ago,( the old guy was going to restore it someday) needless to say his kids scraped it after he passed. Brought tears to my eyes. Love the old sleds……
Wife just reminded me it was more like 20+ years ago! Time flies.
My first sled was a ’70 Mercury 250 ER and looked identical to the Mercury in your picture. I rode it once around the yard then had to park it due to economics. I just sold it to my supervisor at work a year and a half ago- his pockets are deeper than mine so hopefully he can restore it. He would love yours, as well as the Polaris!
Just got this a month ago. The gentleman that owned since new kept in pristine (besides the dust) condition, properly taken care of all the mechanicals before storing for the summers. All it needed was a good cleaning & fuel. Waiting for snow & a way we go
They had tailpipes out the back did they not ?
Hopefully someone at the dump or scrap yard saved it.
We had one like this one but a little newer a guy gave us… we later gave it to a friend of ours who restores them
Just like cars there were alot of snowmobile makers back in the day.
My unc made an air boat style snow scoot in his shed.
Memories.
Looks comfortable, in that breakdown in the middle of nowhere way…
Being around this machine, if you weren’t careful, you’d be short a few fingers pretty quickly. Nothing like sleds of today but, still neat looking.
People were tougher back then,,,
Back in the 60s snowmobiles started showing up in the ranching country. I saw some strange contraptions and this one is a total miss; a local semi-retired farmer handiman started selling OMC ‘Sno-Cruiser(s)’ in the ’66s. Several ranchers (my dad included) got talked into buying one. t seemed like a great idea to rip around on it checking cattle and having a little fun without having to saddle up a horse. Then the spring of ’67 hit (dropping 6 ft. of snow in two major blizzards) and we were hard pressed to find adequate equipment to get to the cattle and feed them. The Air Force and Air National Guard showed up with several Chinook helicopters which were dispatched to ranchers from the foothills to the Sweetgrass Hills, to Central MT. And even into Canada. After that Dad went down to Great Falls or Missoula and bought a well-used Sno-Cat which we used for several winters.
My first snowmobile is still my only snowmobile: ’69 Arctic Cat “Panther”, complete with “faux-leopard” skin seat.
A “one-lung-er” it; goes about 15 MPH down-hill. Clearly it isn’t to be classed among these early sleds – But I still love it.
I don’t know anything about snowmobiles,
but this sure looks cool!I can’t believe how much
they have changed since 63.This seems to be in great shape,
and I would only want to drive it sparingly,
to keep it looking so good,must be very
hard to find vintage snowmobiles in very good shape,
Also Iam sure that old parts are probably not too easy to come by
unless you had a very popular brand?Really cool winter toy!
Thank you,Barn finds for always expanding my knowledge of machinery
of all types and styles,THANK YOU BARN FINDS!
It’s amazing to see how primitive these were in 63. I had to look in the mirror to see if I was being born the same yr.
Thanks, Scotty, great write up. It’s kind of like looking at a Model T. Had to start somewhere, and if you look at it, the principle hasn’t changed all that much. Living with winter all my life, I’ve had maybe a dozen sleds over the years. Snowmobiling was a simple sport when this came out. Family fun, putt-putting down the trail. It opened up a whole new world on how to pass winter and for some, got them into town when all else was shut down, maybe even saved a life or two, or brought a new life into the world. Sure has changed, like the Model T and new cars, but this is a great find, and I’d make the vintage sled shows circuit with this. I bet it’s still pretty reliable, just not too fast, and that was fine.
Hi Rube. When you mentioned getting into town when everything else was shut down rminds me of a story: My good friends lived on a farm and one winter found themselves stuck at home in a blizzard. All would’ve been well except that they both smoked at the time and ran out of cigarettes. Ronnie drug the snowmobile out of the shed and braved life and limb to ride the 8 miles into town so he and his wife could keep from killing each other. It was right about the time when the movie, ‘Cold Turkey,’ came out. They both quit smoking a few years later and often joked about that mercy run into town….
There was over 200 different brands of snowmobile back in the days
About the same time this was running around Allentown we just started selling Fox Trac Snowmobiles in Allentown. I still have one in an old chicken coop
Man – I would love to see a pic of the Fox Trac you have.
Bill, the Mercury 200 and 250’s did have the mufflers under the seat and the exhaust exiting out through a downspout in the back. Helped keep the riders tushies warm!
Neat ride I don’t know if u would use it breaking down in the middle of winter and the middle of nowhere sucks!
I’ll stick to my 154″ summit 800 twin that sounds awesome and feels like you climbed on a cruise missle!
What is the summit 800 ?
Google it. ( hint,it’s a snowmobile)
Arctic Cats were similar in design, both were interesting, but primitive for the time. Bombardier introduced the first “modern” snowmobile in 1959, with a number of features still used by the industry today.
Nice old machine but probably really slow and hard to steer.
I believe, this model, with turned up skis in back, has reverse. These weren’t cheap, with many models at around $1,000 dollars.( or $8,277 today!!), so that limited sales quite a bit. My 1st sled was a 1969 Polaris Charger, single JLO, would only run with the hood off, and for just a couple years newer than this, they really changed a lot. http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL1460/7544512/19830659/401377670.jpg
Reverse?
-So did the Mercury ‘ER’ models (which stands for Electric-Start and Reverse iirc), one of which is pictured sideways up above in user Bmac’s inaugural post…
Since the Mercury’s engines were 2-cycle, the operator simply flicked a Dashboard Switch from “F” to “R” to a second Starter Motor then keyed the Starter Switch to fire it up backwards, then shut it back off to change back to using the “F” Starter to go forward again. Better wait for the engine to stop rotating before you engaged the 2nd Starter Motor into the Ring Gear though!!
(Please don’t ask how i know that…)
Centrifugal-pulley transmission didn’t work while running backwards tho so speed in Reverse was limited – a good thing!
Auction update: this rare snowmobile sold for $2,950!