Vintage sleds were show pieces again at park Saturday

by Dan McClelland

For lovers of old snowmobiles there wasn’t a better place to be Saturday than the Tupper Lake Municipal Park when the Tupper Lake Snowmobile Club again hosted its Vintage Show and Swap Meet.

The main organizers again were club mainstays Kelly and Reese Fleury.

Working the reception table Saturday morning Mrs. Fleury said that about 55 sleds had already been registered and more were expected to arrive later in the morning.

This was the fourth year the club has staged the autumn show.

“Our best year was 2019 when there were over 60 sleds” exhibited by the North Country restorers and owners of the early snowmobiles. She said the club skipped the event in 2020 during the first year of the pandemic.

Reese and Kelly figured their turn-out this year would have been even better, had their date not conflicted with a larger snowmobile show in Syracuse that same weekend.

The show offers competitions and prizes in a number of classes: modified, restored, unrestored, trail, race, etc. “Unrestored” means nothing has been done to them- all of them are original, event the paint jobs.

Matt Braman of Bolton Landing brought along his two turquoise Scorpions- both 1965 models, along with a yellow 1961, now equipped with a diesel engine, which he added. All three were single-cylinder sleds.

Matt was comparing notes that morning with Kelly and Reese’s son, Andrew, who brought one of his older sleds to exhibit. His dad, always the avid collector, probably entered a half dozen of his- most of them between 1964 and 1970. One of Reese’s sleds on display was a single-ski, twin track 1964 Ski-doo, his oldest sled. He said this week he’s done some modifications to it.

Matt showed on his cell phone a photograph of a page in the Sears catalog in 1965 which showed Scorpions for sale for $699. His two turquoise sleds was the color of some of the Sears appliances in the 1960s and 1970s.

Scorpions, also sold by J.C. Penney, were made in Minnesota right into the 1970s, he noted.

He said he has a number of John Deere and other older makes at home. Among them is a 1959 or 1960 David Bradley, an ice sled also sold by J.C. Penney.

His small Scorpions were considered two-seaters, even though the seats measured little more than 30 inches long.

In those early sleds, the seat cushion was most of the suspension.

Frank Matthie of South Colton re-decked his trailer in plywood and installed a new axle to bring his sleds to the show.

“I had more to bring but I didn’t have room,” the collector told us. Frank that day brought his 1979 Yamaha Exciter 440, which is all original. He also owns a 1978 Yamaha, which is also original. He did bring on his double trailer his 1972 Yamaha 340- also in original condition. One he bought in Watertown and the other in Ohio. He brought along the bill of sale for one.

It was an invoice for the 1979 Yamaha showing a purchase price of $2,200. After the allowance for a trade-in for an older Exciter 440 of $800, the balance was $1,400.

How long have you been collecting? we asked him.

“Too long,” Frank said with a big smile.

Chris Potter and his son, Dakota, also from South Colton, brought several sleds including a 1977 Skidoo RV, which they entered in the trail muscle class. According to Dakota, “his daddy built that sled from scratch” four or five years ago. Said Chris, “it was basically a pile of parts when I got it.”

They also brought a 1972 Skidoo TNT Free Air, which was originally white.

Chris said he has been building and restoring sleds for the past ten years. Dakota has helped on some recent rebuilds.

At home he has 11 more vintage sleds and six newer ones.

We asked him how Mrs. Potter likes all the sleds around their house and he said she’s okay with the current number, but that may change if he buys any more.

Dakota was still very excited by an event earlier that day on their way to the local show.

As they were heading down Route 56, about a mile north of Sevey’s Corners. Chris spotted a female moose standing near the guard rails. After a moment or two a bull moose emerged from the forest and both crossed in front of them.

“This was the best Saturday, ever!” exclaimed Dakota.

Howard Newberry from Silver Creek, N.Y., south of Buffalo, brought along several sleds which included a 1981 Skidoo Citation 4500 which was unrestored. He also brought a 1973 Raider 44T and a 1972 LVI Raider 400, both original and both with two-cylinder engines in the rear and both twin-tracked. The Raiders were made by Leisure Vehicles Industries of Detroit, Michigan, which only made them from 1971 to 1975.

Howard owns about 15 of them and he says he rides them all still today. The Citation is registered in New York State and the Raiders he only rides on vintage sled events and they have registrations for that, he noted. He has about 30 sleds in all.

He opened up the hoods in the back to show off the engines there.

Howard came with his buddy, Bob Hartloff of Forestville, N.Y. and he brought with him several sleds including a 1969 Polaris Mustang 303 and a 1966 that had been restored which is how he bought them. He also brought his pride and joy- a 1964 Polaris Snotraveler antique sled, which was unrestored.

Bob’s girl friend Sherry Nelson of nearby Bemus Point, N.Y. came with the two men bringing her 1966 Polaris Mustang 247. It was entered in the “antique restored- pre 1967” class.

Bob’s Snotraveler featured brake and throttle levers side by side in front of the seat and a tricycle-style steering unit without padding. The forward and reverse gears were controlled by sticks mounted on the engine. Bouncing up and down on one of the running boards, he showed it had its own suspension. There was no cover on the rear engine, and it came that way.

Howard said the first snowmobiles in the world were made by Polaris in about 1952 and were similar in design to Bob’s Snotraveler.

Bob’s very proud of that winter ride and he fired it up to show us how well it works. It was an easy pull. He said he rides it regularly.

Bob and his family ran a Polaris dealership, Hartloff Polaris in Forestville between 1993 to 2001. He said his dad purchased the Snotraveler used from an original owner in their community. Bob recalls it took a case of beer and a lot of sweet talk to convince the man to sell it to him.

The purchase price for the used sled in the late 1990s was still $1,500.

“My dad really wanted it because he wanted to put it in our showroom. So he kept trying to buy it and the guy wouldn’t sell. “One day he told me to give him some cash out of the till and told me he needed another $40 for some beer. Three hours later he came back three sheets to the wind and told me we have to go pick up that sled. He said he had to drink a number of beer with the owner to finally convince him to sell it to him.

The sled originally came with a windshield and Bob said he could add it back, and still have it remain in the unrestored classification.

The Hartloff family’s dealership was a jumping off point every evening about 9p.m. every winter when snowmobilers would gather there for a ride which often lasted the entire night.

Bob and Howard noted how the older sleds worked better in the cold and dry night air, and you could see very clearly most cold nights. “These old sleds love the cold,” Howard noted.

The two friends admitted there is some value in keeping sleds unrestored, when it comes to showing them off. There are also show rewards for the people who undertake major restorations like Chris Potter did.

Bob said whenever he brings his Snotraveler to a show, he washes it all down first in WD-40, to clean up the original paint. Regular applications also keeps rust at bay.

He also said he rides most of his old sleds, and now with the modern gases and oil they are more dependable now than they once were. Those sleds will go between 15 and 25 miles per hour, top end.

Bob owns close to 50 old sleds, most of them Polaris, of course.

Bob, Howard and Sherry all drove more than 300 miles to attend the show.

David Newton of Potsdam brought two unusual sleds to the show. One was a Hus-ski, that was made only three years- 1963, 1964 and 1965. They were made in La Chute, Quebec.

Originally made with a very wide single track, they had so much trouble with them the company sent out kits to have the owners install twin tracks, Mr. Newton explained.

He said the company later sold out to Bolens (Food Manufacturing Company) of Wisconsin and it made Bolens sleds for three more years. Mr. Newton owns one of them which he displayed Saturday and which he bought new.

Those two types of sleds feature a unique style where the motor and tracks are in a front cab affair and the rider sits on a sled that it pulls.

The Bolens sleds were also twin-tracked.

Mr. Newton brought to the show a display board with photographs the piles of parts from which he rebuilt the Hus-ski sled into the condition it is today.

“I was living in Florida at the time and I called my son and told him I wanted that sled. He told me: ‘really, Dad...it’s a pile of junk’!”

“We did all the restoration work ourselves.”

Mr. Newton remembers that in the 1960s there were probably 50 different companies that made snowmobiles.

In his career David was a machine repair machinist at the General Motors plant in Massena for 32 years. “So tinkering with old sleds comes natural to me,” he laughed. He stays busy these days as he is in the process of restoring a third sled.

Bill Blunden of Carthage, N.Y. brought another unusual snowmobile to the show. It was a 1963 Bonham Spartan that he entered in the “antique/restored” class. The company was located in Provo, Utah and they only made that sled for one year. Bill also owns a 1964 Polaris Comet and a 1965 Foxcraft, which he left a home.

His Spartan came equipped with lawnmower-sized wheels which replace the skis so he can ride it summers on his lawn. “It’s very good at tearing up your lawn and annoying your wife,” he joked.

Bill just started collecting antique snowmobiles a few years ago. Before that he devoted his spare time to restoring antique fire trucks.

He said this is the second time he’s attended this show and the organizers do a great job running it.