Maggot snowmobile thread

[Gerome]

Alright, who has suggestions on how to get radiator fluid out of my crank case? I didn't listen to Kidwoo and remove all of the radiator fluid before pulling the cylinder cans on my motor. I guess some dish soap, water and some brushes should be good enough, followed by a coating of two stroke oil before I rebuild it. Or should I use some parts cleaner too? The cylinders look great getting them back from the machine shop though.

[Wapow]

Mopros need to get someone who's not a fucking illiterate bro brah to build their website. But they had some pics in their first incarnation of a website lost among the incoherent word puke that showed a setup that did this. I mean you have to be able to position those brackets to do the same thing I did, I don't see why you couldn't.
The biggest difference with mine is that it's kind of narrow. You might have to narrow up the rack but there's nothing about that layout that's that different. The cfr and mopros are pretty wide so the tips of skis clear the tunnel when stacked together. But you can for sure cut the bars and narrow up a mopro version.

god that website sucks though

We have run individual skis on each side using CFR racks for at least 10 years. We run them facing backward, so the the tails go along the tunnel, inside your boots. You can position the twin tip to not interfere (i.e.. put it forward). We're Running MoPros on the newer sleds, because it is a superior product, in every way IMO. The design of that rack allows us to run our skis paired, out of the way off the back (facing backwards), so no need to have the skis along the tunnel anymore (unless you prefer that or when it is super whooped out). I also call BS on anybody who says they can ride a sled just as well in ski boots. Ski boots will thrash your sled and your sled will thrash your boots, if you're actually sledding and not just riding up a flat road to access a touring spot. It's especially shitty for beginners, who don't know how to carve. Nothing like having your boot slip off the edge when you're tractoring along on the high side. Sled bang is real.

[shafty85]

WRT the mopro vs cfr rack, couldn’t you just mount the cfr rack further back to eliminatedki conflict with feet if so desired? I have flat tail (4frnts) so not a big deal when I’ve tandemed with the gf, or are there other reasons you find them superior? Thought I read somewhere earlier in the thread how it’s preferable (at least for that mag) to keep the skis as far forward as possible to reduce the likelihood of snapping skis if you roll, etc?


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[cmcrawfo]

Yes You can ... there are also different variations on the CFR racks. Most allow two skis to be mounted, off the tunnel, out of the way.

Checked out a mo pros in the wild the other day, seemed like it would be ok ... but I am heavily biased to CFR.

[pano-dude]

Alright, who has suggestions on how to get radiator fluid out of my crank case? I didn't listen to Kidwoo and remove all of the radiator fluid before pulling the cylinder cans on my motor. I guess some dish soap, water and some brushes should be good enough, followed by a coating of two stroke oil before I rebuild it. Or should I use some parts cleaner too? The cylinders look great getting them back from the machine shop though.

Rags, stuff them in there and soak it up. I wouldn't use soap and water.

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[skibrd]

Well I didn’t get a sled in the fall, my roommate offered to let me use his Dragon to learn to ride. We finally got out today and it was easy as pie, total cake, never rolled the sled, never fell off, never face planted on a groomed road, never had to get the shovel out to dig the sled out of a hole after I got stuck and tried to rev my way out digging a bigger hole...

Yeah, that shit was hard. I spent all afternoon digging the sled out, finally stopped putting the shovel in my backpack and just strapped it to then rack. Funniest part was we were tandem riding, one on each side (Canadian style?), on a groomed road, we came around a blind corner a little quick, and two hikers were on the back side of the turn. Well my roommate was the throttle man and let off the gas fast. I wasn’t ready for how quick the sled would stop, and face planted on the road in front of the hikers. Also when I fell off, I pulled the sled over, tossed my roommate off and the sled was on its side. Total carnage, but we were all laughing at how dumb we were.

I’m hooked. Going to seriously start looking at sleds again. His 155in Polaris Dragon felt small though. With my ski boots on, just a little kick and I was able to get the sled up on edge. It was hard to find the correct balance point for turning on the flat ground with 12-18in of wet heavy snow we were on.

[Gerome]

Hmm, yeah, I suppose it would be bad to remove the oil coating on the internal crank case and possibly remove oil from the bearings during my rebuild.

Well I didn’t get a sled in the fall, my roommate offered to let me use his Dragon to learn to ride. We finally got out today and it was easy as pie, total cake, never rolled the sled, never fell off, never face planted on a groomed road, never had to get the shovel out to dig the sled out of a hole after I got stuck and tried to rev my way out digging a bigger hole...

Yeah, that shit was hard. I spent all afternoon digging the sled out, finally stopped putting the shovel in my backpack and just strapped it to then rack. Funniest part was we were tandem riding, one on each side (Canadian style?), on a groomed road, we came around a blind corner a little quick, and two hikers were on the back side of the turn. Well my roommate was the throttle man and let off the gas fast. I wasn’t ready for how quick the sled would stop, and face planted on the road in front of the hikers. Also when I fell off, I pulled the sled over, tossed my roommate off and the sled was on its side. Total carnage, but we were all laughing at how dumb we were.

I’m hooked. Going to seriously start looking at sleds again. His 155in Polaris Dragon felt small though. With my ski boots on, just a little kick and I was able to get the sled up on edge. It was hard to find the correct balance point for turning on the flat ground with 12-18in of wet heavy snow we were on.

I call sled skiing snowmodigging.

I think one of the nice things about a Polaris sled is its handling. You can essentially carve turns by shifting your weight around. I have a 151 length sled and have ridden 155 and 161 lengths. My sled is an RMK that is older than the Dragon. The Dragon front suspension turns better than my sled. I wouldn't necessarily suggest going with a longer track unless you know you'll be in really cold wintry snow all the time, mostly because I've never really noticed a difference between my sled and the longer track sleds.

Also, a tip about digging out the sled, particularly getting the front end from being 'high centered'. If you can bounce the suspension then you are well on your way to being un-stuck.

[skibrd]

I think one of the nice things about a Polaris sled is its handling. You can essentially carve turns by shifting your weight around. I have a 151 length sled and have ridden 155 and 161 lengths. My sled is an RMK that is older than the Dragon. The Dragon front suspension turns better than my sled. I wouldn't necessarily suggest going with a longer track unless you know you'll be in really cold wintry snow all the time, mostly because I've never really noticed a difference between my sled and the longer track sleds.

Also, a tip about digging out the sled, particularly getting the front end from being 'high centered'. If you can bounce the suspension then you are well on your way to being un-stuck.

Thanks for the tip! I thought I’d have to manhandle the sled more, but I was amazed at how little weight and muscle I really needed to put into it to get it to carve. Now granted I was doing huge (50-75ft radius) figure 8s and some smaller carves.

My back, chest and arms are definitely feeling it today. Time for some skiing rehab and maybe back on the sled Friday or Monday

[shafty85]

Haha, yeah - my upper body was in shock the first day of sledding/digging/lifting.


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[shafty85]

I'm trying to remember, different builds had slightly different features. You shouldn't really adjust the throttle cable for idle. I think the ptek motors were different but they might still have idle screws on those, super easy. They're on top of the rack, two of them, and pretty obvious from what I remember. But I always had to bump mine up on my old rev when the carbs were 'dirty'.

I would just clean the needles/jets/ports/bowls/floats in your carbs and then make sure everything is in spec for your elevation and go from there.

To follow up on this there is an idle screw - a single one for both carbs, so just the one adjustment required. though the mechanic did reset the tps again (was 10% off...), synched the valves on the carbs and leaned the mixture up a tad. Was idling between 16/17 and 21 this past weekend, so more in the right range (will continue to tinker with the idle to get it to sit more consistently at 2000)

[kidwoo]

Alright, who has suggestions on how to get radiator fluid out of my crank case? I didn't listen to Kidwoo and remove all of the radiator fluid before pulling the cylinder cans on my motor. I guess some dish soap, water and some brushes should be good enough, followed by a coating of two stroke oil before I rebuild it. Or should I use some parts cleaner too? The cylinders look great getting them back from the machine shop though.

Shop vac with a piece of tubing taped into whatever fitting you have on the end.

don't ask me how I know

[eldereldo]

Going to be in the Creston area from Saturday to Saturday, bringing the sled along, anyone around there who wants to ride? Willing to drive some to meet up for a day.

[bbergey]

Switching up the conversation - I’m fairly new to snowmobiles (other than riding over the years whatever sled a friend has extra) - thinking of getting one.

a snowmobile tour joint nearby sells off their rental sleds every year. They have the Polaris Indy LXT 2 seater (engine is the fan cooled 550). Track is 144. Probably 1” paddles? Studded. They use them to ride trails here in VT. I’m wondering if it will go uphill, in trees, in 2’ of pow and sometimes 3’. We don’t usually get more than 3’ of pow - freakin New England freeze/thaw cycles.

What I’m looking to do is climb around the woods near my house and other places (Green Mountains - 500-1000 vertical, sometimes steep... I could switchback some). If I ride a sled out to where I want to go the skinning is much easier. Do I need to go to a much longer track with deeper paddles to go uphill in trees? Or should I consider a four wheeler with tracks? Should I simply not consider the rental Indy LXT? If any of you fine folks live in New England and have a sled meeting what I need, I’d be interested in your price!

[eldereldo]

A 1” track sled will NOT go uphill in a foot of powder unless you have a huge run at the hill, no trees in the way and a short hill. Add a passenger and forget it. As an access sled on a groomed or packed relatively flat trail it would be fine.

[bbergey]

A 1” track sled will NOT go uphill in a foot of powder unless you have a huge run at the hill, no trees in the way and a short hill. Add a passenger and forget it. As an access sled on a groomed or packed relatively flat trail it would be fine.

Good to know how important the paddle depth is. Will 2 inch cut it or do I need to head towards 3 inch?

[crashidy]

Banging around in waist deep snow finding new places to go in the trees. Sometimes you get very stuck!

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[bbergey]

Banging around in waist deep snow finding new places to go in the trees. Sometimes you get very stuck!

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Holy tree well! Just think how great it was before that moment

[Gerome]

Can someone tell me how all of this goes back together again, please?





The radiator fluid and oil came out of the crank case easily by dumping the crank case upside down, then I wiped it out with paper towels held by one of those flexible claw retriever tools. This engine will be going back together very slowly as I follow the service manual very closely for each step.

[anotherVTskibum]

Switching up the conversation - I’m fairly new to snowmobiles (other than riding over the years whatever sled a friend has extra) - thinking of getting one.

a snowmobile tour joint nearby sells off their rental sleds every year. They have the Polaris Indy LXT 2 seater (engine is the fan cooled 550). Track is 144. Probably 1” paddles? Studded. They use them to ride trails here in VT. I’m wondering if it will go uphill, in trees, in 2’ of pow and sometimes 3’. We don’t usually get more than 3’ of pow - freakin New England freeze/thaw cycles.

What I’m looking to do is climb around the woods near my house and other places (Green Mountains - 500-1000 vertical, sometimes steep... I could switchback some). If I ride a sled out to where I want to go the skinning is much easier. Do I need to go to a much longer track with deeper paddles to go uphill in trees? Or should I consider a four wheeler with tracks? Should I simply not consider the rental Indy LXT? If any of you fine folks live in New England and have a sled meeting what I need, I’d be interested in your price!

Your/your friends' private property, I assume (since there's unfortunately (almost?) no off-trail motorized-legal travel anywhere in Vermont)? Four wheeler or SxS with chains would be my first thought, especially if you put some effort into building access trails during the summer (remove pesky vegetation, etc., to get a clear shot through), get to the bottom of an area, and then skin from there. I'd put a winch on before tracks, but that's based on where I've seen other people take their quads and SxSs, not any personal experience.

[bbergey]

Your/your friends' private property, I assume (since there's unfortunately (almost?) no off-trail motorized-legal travel anywhere in Vermont)? Four wheeler or SxS with chains would be my first thought, especially if you put some effort into building access trails during the summer (remove pesky vegetation, etc., to get a clear shot through), get to the bottom of an area, and then skin from there. I'd put a winch on before tracks, but that's based on where I've seen other people take their quads and SxSs, not any personal experience.

You guessed it - private property to which I have access. Yea, think 4wheeler with chains better than snowmobile?

[anotherVTskibum]

You guessed it - private property to which I have access. Yea, think 4wheeler with chains better than snowmobile?

I think unless you're getting into trail riding as a hobby, you'll get way more usage out of a four-wheeler and, given how rarely Vermont actually has multi-foot dumps, probably still get where you want to go. If you own property, a four-wheeler can be useful in a lot of other ways that a sled won't be.

[kidwoo]

Can someone tell me how all of this goes back together again, please?

One of these days I'm going to stage an intervention and make you buy a different sled.

[eldereldo]

Good to know how important the paddle depth is. Will 2 inch cut it or do I need to head towards 3 inch?

Well a Fan cooled 550 isn’t going to help much either. 2” track on that would be as much as it would enable to spin anyways. Assuming you can even get it to fit. If you can build a gradual enough trail you might be ok. Problem is switchbacks on a sled have to either be huge, or may end up to steep to make it around. Frankly if this is private land I would just settle for using the sled to get to the best place to put in a skin track and use leg power. Or build an old fashioned tow rope lift.

[cmcrawfo]

One of these days I'm going to stage an intervention and make you buy a different sled.

After this motor pops, I be he will be more receptive.

[pano-dude]

Switching up the conversation - I’m fairly new to snowmobiles (other than riding over the years whatever sled a friend has extra) - thinking of getting one.

a snowmobile tour joint nearby sells off their rental sleds every year. They have the Polaris Indy LXT 2 seater (engine is the fan cooled 550). Track is 144. Probably 1” paddles? Studded. They use them to ride trails here in VT. I’m wondering if it will go uphill, in trees, in 2’ of pow and sometimes 3’. We don’t usually get more than 3’ of pow - freakin New England freeze/thaw cycles.

What I’m looking to do is climb around the woods near my house and other places (Green Mountains - 500-1000 vertical, sometimes steep... I could switchback some). If I ride a sled out to where I want to go the skinning is much easier. Do I need to go to a much longer track with deeper paddles to go uphill in trees? Or should I consider a four wheeler with tracks? Should I simply not consider the rental Indy LXT? If any of you fine folks live in New England and have a sled meeting what I need, I’d be interested in your price!

A 144 with 2"track will do pretty good for you. I have a 136 1.25 fan 500 summit rock /ice fishing sled and it has gone a lot of places people never would believe.

Speed and commitment is the key as always with sledding.

Quads are a pita, can they be used in winter? sure but you will be limited on where you can go. And they fuck the trail for anyone else using a proper winter vehicle.

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