Reliable sources tell us scores of Polaris executives are in route to Roseau to let 200-300 some people go. That number likely includes people from places other then Roseau, but it’s still a big number and not something we like to hear about any manufacturer. I’ll update later as news comes. One thing is for certain, Polaris is in for a tough time under current management.

Here’s the official line from Polaris:

“This was not an easy decision; however, we’re facing a tougher external environment in the ATV, international and snowmobile markets and need to realign resources throughout the organization,” said Tom Tiller, CEO, Polaris Industries. “This is part of a three-pronged initiative designed to make Polaris more competitive over the next 12 to 15 months and we are confident that these changes will allow us to better invest resources into the competitive ATV business, adjacent markets and new product opportunities.”

The staff reductions include 53 salaried positions and 24 temporary, intern and contractor positions worldwide. This represents two percent of the total Polaris workforce of 3,500.

Mark Kemmerer (you may remember him as owning the stunning original condition Yamaha SSR) found some new treasure. He snapped this photo this morning after walking out to the shed three times just to see if it wasn’t a dream – and he got it for FREE! Mark recommends getting to know your local sanitation engineer. They come across this stuff all the time. Mark’s local sanitation expert found this excellent 74 El Tigre and just like that, it was at Mark’s house. It’s still out there!

When a couple of sleds are this dang sexy, I just can’t help throwing a picture up. These are both in the Snowmobile Hall of Fame. I believe both belong to The Krueger family. Thanks to Loren Anderson for sharing the photo – including the top secret one I cannot show just yet….

Speaking of the Hall, the latest issue of Supertrax magazine has a blurb on the Jerry Bunke 1978 440-X RXL in the hall of fame. It features a GREAT photo of the sled (That’s your poster hall of fame! Sell copies of that photo!) but the story has some details incorrect about the sled. I hate to get nit-picky about this stuff, but I can’t let it go…… For the record, what is pictured is not a “1978 Starfire”. It is in fact, a 1978 440X RXL (that’s why the RXL logo is on the hood!). It is one of only 3 made. It does not have a 1978-1979 hood on it. That’s a 1978 hood. The 1979 hood had a windshield, and a 3-tone blue paint job. There. I said it. I feel better.

9/14/2006

The photo is vintage writer Hal Armstrong on his original 1972 Polaris ATX 335. He’s wearing his dads original suit from 1971. You likely recognize Hal’s name from many of the articles he’s written for snowmobile magazines about vintage snowmobiles – including one in the current issue of Snowtech on the Brut.

Hal picked up this sled in October of 1971 with His dad. Pop Armstrong was the western Canada sales rep for Polaris at the time, and he worked out of the Polaris office in Beausejour, Manitoba.

Hal got to travel down with his dad to Roseau in the Polaris sales van and they actually got to watch it get assembled! The sled was then loaded right into the sales van. Hal and his father raced that sled for two years. Hal took a 4th in Junior 340 in 1972 with it at Beausejour that year.

The sled was later used for trail riding, hauling moose out of the bush and even driving it in the summer in the muskeg pulling a skiboose to get minnows. This was prior to ATV’s. One guy would sit in the skiboose the other drove the sled. The swamp would keep the sliders cool. We would drive it into the small lake where we had our minnow traps. The minnows were dumped into a plastic garbage bin and the guy in the skiboose would sit with the garbage pail between his legs so they would not spill. The sled was fired up and they dragged the skibosse back to the road.

The sled is totally restored now and Hal always takes it to the Lake Belwood Vintage Rally in Fergus, Ontario each year.

Watch as this guy runs his 71 Ski-Doo down a busy city street – in the dead of summer. Way to go Jimmy Tomczak!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udm8JxfM7k4&eurl=http://www.vintagesleds.com/archive/Q4-2-2006.php

For vintage restoration guy and collector Dave Larsen, the lure of the 72 ATX 500 was just too much… again. When Dave found this one all alone in a wharehouse and looking for a new home, he just couldn’t resist. I think this is the 3rd one for Dave, and he’s really excited about driving this one this winter.

I like the ATX 500’s so much that I had to get another one as well… my best memories of vintage riding over the last six or so years have been on an ATX 500 or 335. They just start so nice, sound so cool and run so well. Plus them big “bug-eye’ headlights really get attention on the trail.

	Dave Larsen’s got another ATX in the garage…
	And I’m expecting this one any day…

Vernon Boyd’s ‘69 Challenger 300

Vintage sled enthusiast Vernon Boyd took on this Challenger – and lived to tell the tale!

By Vernon Macht, Boyd, Minnesota

I bought this sled for $50 from a guy in Duluth, Minnesota, off of Ebay back in 2002. It took me two years to completely restore it because I took every bolt and part off of it and did it right.

The sled was not in too bad of shape—there weren’t any dents, rust or hood damage. I had the seat recovered. The biggest challenge was finding headlight covers and a windshield, until I found out about Cannon Classic Sleds Jeff Haugen—a guy in Minnesota that reproduces many different vintage & antique snowmobile windshields and headlight covers. Luckily, he had a windshield, windshield lower black trim and headlight covers.

The decals were made by a local shop. They took pictures of the old decals and copied them out on a computer and matched them perfectly.

The motor needed the points cleaned and set and a carburetor kit. It runs excellent. The only driving it gets is from my trailer to shows. I take it to the show in Waconia, Minnesota and Millbank, South Dakota, and pull it to parades and car shows.

I enjoy fixing up the old sleds but it gets kind of expensive so I do a little at a time. The biggest cost of restoring is the body work and painting. I get them professionally painted because I feel I can’t paint well enough.

I have also restored a 1971 Johnson Rampage. My dad’s first sled was a Johnson so that is why I am into them. I have 10 Johnson sleds that all run. I picked this sled because I have never seen one fixed up at vintage sled shows and this sled was only made in the year 1969. It is the only sled that Johnson did not use their OMC engine, but used a single cylinder JLO 300.

Thank Vernon for the story and the information!

Scott Hebert sent in this fantastic story and information on his favorite sled: The 1971 Mustang. I just had to share it:

In 1971 Polaris made 2 Mustangs out of their line up, a 488 and a 398 with the numbers on the hood. Pictured is a 398 Fuji twin fan. It has a 20 inch rubber track with double cogged drivers with the drift skipper suspension( para rail). The only year with this track. Not a speedy sled(35-40) but sure does ride nice. On the back is the polaris lunch box that is molded to fit the gas tank and mounts on the back bumper with a ring that goes around the gas cap. The lunch box was available as an assecessiory only in 1971. Something else unieq about this sled is the seat has a raised back section like a 2 up seat for the person riding on the back and there is also a storage compartment under the seat. This sled was really made with the family aspect in mind.

The sled in the picture is 100% original and has nothing painted. It was purchased in Canada, north of Regina, Saskatchewan in a small town called Melfort. It came from the son of a Polaris dealer who now owns the dealership and wanted to sell the sled which had been in the family since it was new. 1973 was the last year polaris made a mustang but 1971 was the begining of the end for the red, white and blue which Polaris was known for. This was the very first sled i had bought after my father in law had given my kids his 70 TX.

Thanks Scott! Great story!

By Justin Frederick
West Concord, MN

This snowmobile is a 1970 Polaris TX400 Playmate. It was produced for only one year. There were two different versions of this sled. There is the sled you see in the picture, and then there was the Polaris Playmate Racer, they are both almost identical to each other. The Polaris Playmate pictured is just the typical trail version with a large engine that the factory built for the public.

This little sled had the engine options of 294cc (300TX) 398cc (400TX) and a rare option of a 432cc (also considered a 400TX) free air. This sled actually has larger cc’s than that. It is close to 500cc’s and it is a little twin. It is running the stock TX series clutches and Mikuni carbs on it. This sled new had the option of the stock Polaris trail pipe, or for those people who did not mind going deaf in their right ear could get them with the twin fish pipes with stingers. This machine has those twin pipes, and yes my right ear is a little more deaf than usual now….but for a great reason!

If you look at the picture you can see it really resembles the stock 70-71 Polaris TX’s, only smaller. It has small ski’s on the front, a smaller version of its big brothers tank in the rear, but it has the same size hood on it and gauge pod with the headlight in it. The handlebars on this sled are also a smaller width than the normal TX series, with it’s smaller version of the dash and a little utility box also.

For those of you who swear you have seen this little sled somewhere, I bought it from Ed Webb’s auction, that is why you see the number on the windshield of the sled. The sled was on e-bay three different times. I wanted the sled EXTREMELY bad, I have always wanted one since I knew they existed, I could not afford it due to the fact I was in a career change; it almost broke my heart the first time it sold on e-bay, and I did not get it. The first time it sold for over $4k, but the auction winner did not pick it up due to personal issues. Back on the shelf it went. The second time it sold for a little more than $3k, but this auction winner did not like the condition of the track (it is weather-checked) so back on the shelf it goes – again. It sold the third time for a little under $3k to me, and I loved it even more when I saw it in person. I took it home and made it run great not caring the condition of the track or what it looked like. I was soooo proud to own this machine that I have always wanted. I cleaned it up and got it running and went out and rode it around a little then parked it next to its big brother in the garage…the 71 TX.

In 1970 Polaris also made the Playmate TX 300&400 Racer. The trail TX had small ski’s little handle-bars and a steel tunnel and a dash panel. The TX Racer had the normal TX ski’s on it, it also had the typical TX handle-bars that were bigger, and it had no dash panel. It did have a belt guard on it though. The tunnels on these fine little machines were aluminum, the engines in these machines had the “performance” enhanced Fuji’s in them with larger ports and running HD40B tilly’s on the engines. These sleds came from the factory with fish pipes on them. Both sleds had the 12″ track on them that was cleated and both had the wide front end with the typical TX hood on them.

Polaris in 1970 was out to beat the competition. They had a playmate in 1969 and a good race sled also, but in 1970 they wanted to dominate. So they decided to build this outstanding little machine with a huge engine. At first this was a superb idea, a little machine, with tons of Fuji power, but out on the track this was a different story. What happens when all that power is applied to a little 12″ track? Total mayhem and one hell of a wild ride! The Playmates did o.k. but they got more injuries and wipe outs then checkered flags and the Playmate Racer was never to be built again.

I will be bringing this little TX400 Playmate to shows to ride around. I barely fit on the machine, but it is the funnest little sled in the world to run around on. If you happen to see me, stop and say hi and take this one of a kind machine for a ride for yourself and just see how much fun it really is.

Oh, and be sure to bring an ear plug for your right ear!

THANKS JUSTIN!

By Grant Nelson

I’m not a big John Deere supporter. It could be my perspective is mere sour grapes born of the fact I can’t afford their shade of green. There is however, one small exception when I really do like ‘Deere products.

In 1975 my brother, David, was working in Fordville, North Dakota for Casement Implement. Casement was a John Deere dealer and had a new product to sell, the snowmobile. The Horicon Works (part of John Deere) began development of Deere’s first snowmobile in 1969 followed by the first production model in 1971. The first models were the 300 and 400 (my parents purchased a 300) and were followed in 1972 by the JDX4, JDX8 and 600. The 1971 snowmobile line also introduced a new marketing phrase, “nothin’ runs like a Deere. “ It’s seems a little crazy that a huge agricultural company would produce recreational vehicles, but consider that John Deere already had a network for dealers, parts and service departments that needed Winter work and the concept gains sanity.

Brother Dave drove both a JDX8 and a 295S racing model in the North Dakota in Langdon, Grafton and during Hatton Days. Dave trained by driving from our place in Viking to Fordville. John Deere later began “Enduro Team Deere” to champion their snowmobiles on the racing circuit. Going to school at Viking (Minnesota) Elementary, one of our holidays was to load the school into buses and watch the International 500 snowmobile race. In my class of 28 there were twelve Arctic Cat fans, eight Polaris fans, four Ski-Doo supporters, three pulling for Moto-Ski and me. In 1976, Brian Nelson won the I-500 on a John Deere Liquidator and brought me vindication for those years of teasing I suffered by those with no vision. Brian Nelson immediately gained status with me formerly reserved for Alan Page of the Minnesota Vikings. Brian currently conducts tours in Montana and Idaho from his home base in Spicer, Minnesota and was inducted into the Snowmobile Hall of Fame in 2000.

The John Deere snowmobile meant freedom for me. I loved the farm but a little distance makes you appreciate what you love. I could only drive around the section but there was enough snow so I could drive anywhere on that 640 acres. Nights spent on an inland sea of snow fired my imagination and taught me how your perspective changes and mind clears without the rattle of life and work. Starting a snowmobile before advanced electronic ignitions required determination and commitment but great reward awaited those efforts. I remember topping out the speedometer at 45 miles per hour on a long stretch of field road. Today you would be left behind at that speed.

My wife and I don’t own a snowmobile today although we both have a snowcatting history. Lisa’s family made long rides with campfires and food but today we stay close to the farm. The reality of the situation is that after moving snow and feeding cattle I’d rather ride our corn stove than a snowmobile. But I still have some pictures, some memories and that great day in 1976 with Brian, the Liquidator and twenty-seven dumbfounded classmates.

(Writer’s note. I found that John Deere 300 in my dad’s shed and just about have it ready to go. I also have a complete John Deere JDX-8 that needs some attention before it can hit the trail!)

Thanks Grant – great story!