Maggot snowmobile thread

[kneedropper]

Not yet, but I think the four stoke may be the call with the right deal. If I dive in and want to go nuts sledding I figure I'll jump on something newish next year. I just want to keep the mechanical hiccups to a minimum and I'm not trying to access zones they don't have a ton of traffic, yet.

[jamesp]

jong question - does this mean your crank shaft is bent, or are the bearings that the crank shaft run on (main bearing?) fkd?

[fivefourtwo]

Could be either I think. Hard to say until it is apart.

[cmcrawfo]

I get a kick out of ads which say "never used for towing," as if towing/riding two-up is somehow bad for the snowmobile.

Bad for the BELT, sure, I guess (if belt alignment is wrong), but, ummm, I'd rather buy a sled from someone who skis vs one that has been WOT all over the hill all of the time.

Iain

Agreed. The dealerships seem to think the same thing... and give you hard time about shocks and such. As if, 2 x 175 lb skiers (traveling up hill one way) are harder on a sled than 1 x 300+ lb sledder rooping all day

As with all of my equipment, I wish manufactures would just outright accept that sled skiing normal use and design their products with that in mind.....

[el hefe]

Clutches seem to go a lot quicker with heavy sled ski use.... Not that I would know otherwise (no sled skiing) but that is what I have heard. Seems like everyone in our crew had their clutches redone last year.

[Mannix]

Certain years (08ish?) of skidoo primaries did not like idling & were prone to doing weird stuff, but that's fixable. Not sure on the other brands.

I can't see why the clutches would care either way, they don't know - they just know they're spinning at X rpm and they need Y units of burst force to expand/contract.

I've got about 5500 miles of sled-skiing spread over 4 different sleds. The only one that had any clutch issues was the brand new one - driven started pushing off the jackshaft for some reason. Warranty. Weird. That one is a skandic, too - they intended for it to tow shit. The others have MILES on them - 4500 on one, 5500 on another, then 1800 on the third.

Dunno, and I'm a big guy. Some of my skiing partners are 200+. More weight = more work = more wear, sure, but I think I'd have had way, way more clutch trouble than I have (one instance) if sled-skiing were hard on clutches.

Running boards, yes. All of mine are bent a little. Seats? Sure. Ski boot buckles rip seats. Tunnels/general cosmetics, yup, see "ski boots."

Engines/clutches don't seem to care, IME - sure, they HAVE to, more work/weight/wear, but it is in the noise, IMHO.

One thing, though - a LOT of people seem to underestimate how much routine maintenance these contraptions require. I'm at my local sled dealer's shop a LOT, and I see a fair number of the local skier-sleds there.

TWO of them are well kept. One is owned by a pro (auto) mechanic, no surprise. The other one, not sure what he does, but he has an 08 XP, absolutely beat to hell, but 3k miles +, sled never misses a beat - hilarious, the sled looks like shit (sorry, MP, if you're reading, but mechanic-friend praises him - "the sled is in every year for maintenance, he does the stuff it _needs_, duct tapes the rest, and it seems to work!"

Contrast that to the number of broken skier-sleds I see in there, "you skiers are idiots, you just ride stuff til it won't move ever again!" Heh. He's right, though.

Sleds = maintenance. Gotta take stuff apart, clean it, make sure all is right in the world once in a while, and if you do that, they tend to pretty much behave.

The first time I cleaned the clutch in my 99 670 - which was "brought in for service annually," according to the previous owner (bullshit), I was utterly shocked when I sprayed the inside of the drive clutch with brake clean and a huge chunk broke off.

Oh.

That piece of the "casting" is not, it is accumulated belt dust and crap 1/2" thick. I see.

It was shiny, though. The clutch worked a WHOLE LOT BETTER after that.

Clutch tools are cheap - for about the same price as one clutch-cleaning, you can buy all the tools to do it yourself. Absolutely not rocket science. I clean mine 2x/year, could probably up the interval to 3x/year and not feel like I'm wasting time. They get _dirty_.

/rant



Iain

[cmcrawfo]

One thing, though - a LOT of people seem to underestimate how much routine maintenance these contraptions require.

"you skiers are idiots, you just ride stuff til it won't move ever again!"

Sleds = maintenance. Gotta take stuff apart, clean it, make sure all is right in the world once in a while, and if you do that, they tend to pretty much behave.

You nailed it! I think half the sled skiers I ride with don't even own wrenches.

[el hefe]

^^^Hey now!

[cmcrawfo]

^^^Hey now!

Last I looked, your I tool box consisted of a large standard slot screwdriver, a lighter and a bunch of allen keys ... mostly from Ikea furniture or wake board bindings.

[cmcrawfo]

team meeting

[Mannix]

quite the team. I want the one in the background.

Hey, whose orange XM with the matching orange CFR rack is @ RPM right now, and where'd you get the CFR rack in orange? CFR's website does not show "2013 doo orange" as a color.

looks bueno.


Iain

[fivefourtwo]

Maintenance is overrated. Just pulled my motor out of my xp to true my crank. What a c#$t that was but its got to be done!!

[cmcrawfo]

quite the team. I want the one in the background.

Hey, whose orange XM with the matching orange CFR rack is @ RPM right now, and where'd you get the CFR rack in orange? CFR's website does not show "2013 doo orange" as a color.

looks bueno.


Iain

Huh, it would be neat to see more color variation in their racks.

I am surprised that none of sled companies have ski racks as a factory option yet. I would think that slapping a CFR rack on a SKi-Doo Renegade right from Doo would peak some interest ..... but that brings us back to the discussion about the perception that sled skiing some how voids all warranties on all products.

Our local sled shop sells CFR products ... but like just their beacons probes and packs they are easily 20% over retail.... insert Sledneck/roughneck stereotype here.

[fivefourtwo]

I've got an orange cheetah rack on my sled. It's an arctic cat color but that was all they had left. I ended up liking the color anyways.

[pano-dude]

clutches need to be cleaned and proper belt deflection to work right. if you hit them with an air compressor every couple rides they work way better.

another small trick is to wash your new belts with soap and hot water before using, then 20kms of easy riding before going wfo.

best thing for an old sled is new clutch springs.

[dk_alaskan]

be cautious of Skidoos of the 04 until at least 2010 vintage 800's (the HO and the Ptek). The motors when they have over 2000 miles on them have a tendency to have the lower block fail, causing catastrophic failure. A new short block engine is 2000 plus 700 for the core. Otherwise, these sleds are pretty damned good, especially for a starter sled.

[Tomcat67]

first ride on vail pass. Still thin. Was nice to ride my newish rev 800. The 2001 summit 800 is still goin strong. Did MCB dual ring piston kit last winter.

[Mannix]

Where'd you park?

I went to Jones on Monday, was good for getting some miles on the motor, but that's _it_. The road was half-covered by windfill.

Fun, though. Where was the picture taken?

[Tomcat67]

Shrine pass rd. parked at the main lot. It really needs a foot more to be worth it.

[Tomcat67]

This pic was lime creek rd. just outside blue sky basin

[Shadam]

shit ... some days I clean my clutches daily !!!

my sled was built by a guru ad blessed by god !!!

9509 MILES on her and over 7000 miles on the motor !!!

I doo spend altoa time in the garage ...

my warm up ritual is questioned by many but clearly it works ...

[Mannix]

haha! I can believe daily. My mechanic-friend worked for a hillclimb team back in the...derrr, probably 90s-early 2000s, they'd clean after each run.

I've gotten into my drive after one day to change ramps/weights/spring, and found it to be dirty enough to warrant cleaning.

What's the warm up ritual?

7k on bottom end.....isoflex? do tell!

I'm pretty much convinced the 1k motor is awesome & that not-paying attention to all the stuff AROUND the motor is what gives them a bad rap.

Have an 800etec now, though, the pullcord is a joke compared to the 1000. I think it really is e-start, pulling the rope halfway out just presses the button for you. Half a lazy pull & it lights off.

That's, umm, different than the RT1k. My RT1k will start first pull every time. IF you pull it hard enough.

Iain

[Shadam]

I bought mine off motor teck in golden BC. it was Randy's personal sled. He's the owner and not a young man and I thing part of the reason he got rid of it is he got tierd off pull starting that beast, coz fark its a pull and at the end of a long day its takes alot to pull first time with a big pack helmet etc etc. He told me it was too heavy for him and he paid the price the next day. the other reason is he knew how much I was gunna ride it and how much $$$ he was going to earn from me as a result ...

warm up ritual ...

sell me your sled and I'll tell ya ...

[Mannix]

Hah! It is yours if we can figure out how to make the swap.

I'm going to miss the RT - it really is a pretty awesome skiing sled. I think the XM will be a Just Fine replacement, but yow, the RT just has nuclear power in the midrange, we'd stack three on it and it'd just whisk us to the top without an issue. At half throttle.

They're not without fidgety issues, but some time here and there making sure it is all Right, shrug, it just works.

[Trackhead]

What's the consensus on the newer e-tec 600 on the Scandik SWT as a ski touring sled with the aftermarket 1.75" track?

Will this thing climb moderate stuff unloaded, then be capable of towing 3-4 up a beaten track?