Dale Lowes' customized two-seater snowmobile sure turns heads!

By Ken Johnston
Editor

Did you see something that made your head turn on Saturday in Baudette or Rainy River? Chances are it was Dale Lowes’ customized two seater snow mobile.
Lowes’ bought the 1978 Ski Doo Alete two seater snowmobile off the internet from someone north of Brandon, Manitoba. “It was just junk when I got it but I thought it would be neat to restore.”
He began working on it at Lowes Lumber in Sleeman in September of 2006. “I stripped it right down and started rebuilding the front end first with a grill off a 2004 Jaguar.”
He made a customized hood out of fibre glass to fit the Jag grill and replaced the square headlights with round chrome trimmed ones from a Dodge Omni.
The original wrap-around windshield was replaced with a square one. The interior has been completely done with newly covered leather seats. The console has modern gauges and an in dash CD player with the speakers mounted on the roll bar behind the seat.
Bullet styled chrome mirrors accent both sides and doors that open with push slide catches like an air plane.
There is trunk space in the front as the 400 cc motor is in the back.
The two seater also features a dual track for driving. “It was in pretty good shape. I only had to replace a couple of bogeys on the tracks,” said Lowes Saturday.
He took a car roof rack and customized it into a spoiler.
He made his first trip with the sled from his 2nd St. home to his son Darren’s, just north of Rainy River and back last year; taking his grand kids for a ride.
On Saturday he decided to take it to Baudette and back. While it was parked near Willie Walleye in Baudette, countless snowmobilers pulled up and checked it out.
“The most asked question of the day was, ‘How fast does it go?’” Dale said it is more of a cruiser than a speedster, noting that they were cruising at about 20 miles per hour on Saturday to and from Baudette. He later ended up at the former Lowes Furniture building and again people stopped to check it out.
The machine also has electric start and reverse and an antenna for the radio on the CD Player. Lowes has renamed it the D’ALEte (getting his name into the name) and says it is “Sleemanbilt, not Peterbilt.”
Lowes has also customized a Lawn Tractor to be like a Gator. “I call it a Dock Buoy and used it at the cabin to haul stuff from the dock up to the cabin.”
He is also working on a customized chopper style trike.
He enjoys this hobby and is not sure what he will be working on after the trike, but he knows it will be something fun.
All photos except the "before shot"
taken by Ken Johnston