Combine the constant push for lighter weight and higher power engines, something's gotta give. Like cylinder skirts. Crossing my fingers that mine either makes it without issue, or breaks at the end of the season for Polaris to warranty.
That was what this weekend looked like for us. Finally got out for the first time in two years by our place in Iron River. Had a lot of fun. My beater 1991 Indy Classic 500 ran great - that thing is beat to shit, but it just won't die. It's heavy as hell for trail riding in the woods (and I am sore as hell now), but I'm spoiled by the electric start and reverse. My wife's sled was recently rebuilt, but she needs something bigger. A 370 is just too slow. We do have a spare sled - a 1990 Prowler 440, and I took that to breakfast this morning. Starts and rides fine, but dies at idle. I suspect there might be something in the airbox, but it's got one of those airboxes that's halfway up under the bars, so I wasn't going to do anything with it this weekend. I'd really like to get some nicer sleds, but until I can build a decent garage up there (and the boy is old enough to ride with us), they're stored outside on the trailer, so I don't want to invest too much. If someone steals them, I'm not out very much money now, and I'm not interested in hauling them home either. Saw at least five snowmobile trailers broken down on the way home today. Pack those bearings people...
I was able to get out to the Lakewood, WI area with my neighbor last weekend. We got in 150 miles on Saturday. The trails were awesome in the morning, but prety beat up by the time we got back in the afternoon. The highlight of the day, we saw a wolf. I wish I could have got my camera out quickly, didn't get a pic of it. My sled seems to run great, but I will need to look at the clutch, it stuck engaged one time. And I need to do something about the darting, which was pretty bad. It did a complete "lane change" on me a couple of times. Under heavy throttle it's extremely stable, let off the gas and it fishtails, sometimes wildly. I plan on checking the alignment and adjusting the suspension for my weight. I hope I will get the chance to do that and try it out yet this season. I may get dually carbides as well. And yes, electric start and reverse are awesome. As well as adjustable heated grips and thumb lever. Well enjoy the red x. Can't seem to get this pic to work. Bear with me, I will fix it when I get a chance.
150 miles in a DAY?? :eek1 I think we did about 200 all week. Check the ski alignment and camber on the front end... that's usually the cause of darting around on the trail. I'm assuming you've still got a sway bar in too... getting rid of that on my 900 helped a ton off-trail, but did make it tippy on the trail. I clean the guts of the clutches every year... pull the helix out of the secondary and wipe everything down with some rubbing alcohol on a rag... scrub the sheaves on the primary with rubbing alcohol and blow out the guts with compressed air. Don't spray it down with cleaners, the phenolic bushings in there won't last long if you do that. Another thing to look at... pull the weights out (wedge a wrench between the spider and outer sheave to take the pressure off the weights then pull the bolts out and yank the weights out of the clutch) and check over those bushings. If they're worn out and the weights can shift over to one side or the other, the clutch will hang up on those as it backshifts. If those bushings are shot, it might be worth going through all the bushings. You can get a rebuild kit for not too much $.
Thanks for the advice Snowmule. The service manual I just got calls for zero toe in or out- the old sleds I'm used to called for some toe out. I'll have to lay a tape on it and see what it's got. I believe without clutch tools, I can only take the primary apart so far. We'll see how that goes.
Some great sled pics, good to see some people getting out there. Took a few inmates up to camp last weekend and had a couple of good days of riding. ADV-Group pic Evilclown,internalcombust,Mzcountryboy, Gonemad ,2t
Gotta love those old steamers, they remind me of my dad's Evinrude snow machine like the cops rode in Minnesota, they had one little gumball on the hood, a ticket book and police stickers, no radios We didn't have any trouble out running them around town on our TNTs, TXs, Scorpions, Rupps...goood teenager fun, back in the days when they had real snow
Usually want a little bit of toe-out (about 1/8" per side) to take up play in the heim joints. http://backcountryrebels.com/showthread.php?t=25878 And camber alignment: http://backcountryrebels.com/showthread.php?t=26888 With the clutch ... right, you'll need some fixturing and tooling to break it down all the way, but you can pull the bolts off the outer cover and remove the spring, the sheaves will drop together giving you a little easier access to the internals. Weights come out real easy with the cover/spring off, or wedge a wrench between the spider and sheave to get the spider off the weights. Need a clutch puller to get the clutch off the PTO end. Good tool to have anyways. You can pull the helix out of the secondary with a couple of bolts, which gives you access to the rollers inside. Wipe it down, blow that out with compressed air and check everything over. http://backcountryrebels.com/showthread.php?t=18526
Went snowmobiling last weekend for the first time. My friend Geoff loaned me this to ride It is an Article Cat F8 SnoPro. I liked it so much that on Monday, I bought this. A F8 SnoPro RR Heading North this coming weekend for first ride on my new sled. Very excited.
Good to see the differnt types of sledding shown here, been pretty crappy winter around here so Ive only got a few hundered miles on riding from my door. We did get north for a week a couple weeks ago for a good ride, ya we get 150-200 miles a day as well, mix of bush trails, logging rd.s and lake running. Mines in the middle, pre "angry bug" look Pull up to the dock at the marina for fuel Cheers, Todd
We got another foot or so of snow in the past two days, and today was perfect and sunny for tearing it up. Short tracks got nothing on tracks that have an extra 5' to 'em, so I had to pack myself a trail to get to the top of the field... but damned if I didn't get there After tearing things up (going downhill, so's I wouldn't get stuck) and making a bunch of laps and generally feeling like a Snow Hero, and after getting stuck 3 times (3 times you're out, time to go home) I headed down. Gotta watch out - sometimes you see some cool shit like a frozen wave: Mother Nature treated me well, and I had to stop here to get a pic of the rainbow that was shining like a field of diamonds reflecting in the sun. Doesn't show up on this pic, but each of those bright spots in the snow was a rainbow of color. Stunning! Of course, stopping in deep snow on a short track 'bile means... yup.... I was stuck again Snorkel snow, face shots all day - standing up
3 pages back....time to move it up. Last weekend This is how you pull of a 230 mile day.... that and getting on the trail at 6:00 am.
I was able to get out again this weekend. It was probably the last hurrah for this season for me. I went up to a friend's place near Wausau, WI and we got in about 60 miles Saturday night and about 130 today. He did break down but luckily it was in his back yard so he used a back up sled. We were the first ones out on fresly groomed trails this morning. We found a spot do do some sweet jumps. Don't laugh SnowMule. This is big air for me! My buddy Scott: Scott also did a little inadvertent ghost rider while playing in a field: 2twisted, love your pics. I need to up my photo game a little bit I see.
Thread needs moar mountains. Not a lot of pics this weekend, just Dogmeat and I so we did more riding than stopping for pics. Lots of exploring at Rabbit Ears. 37 miles on saturday ... kicked the crap outta me. Good spot for lunch. Finally made it up to buff pass... 7.5ft on the stick Blast on the trail back to the truck ... Dogmeat got a room in Kremtucky, I camped out friday and saturday night. Cook some burgers while the neighbors got the campfire going Oddly, the crew next to us was from my neck of the woods too, turns out we live about 5mins away from each other. Sunday we poked around by the Ears Then wandered around towards area 54 This is where things got stupid - Pulled a couple of long-ish sidehills in deep snow (I my Pro ) and ended up back in rather dense woods, dropping down into a drainage. After consulting Google Earth, we found the trees only got thicker and we'd have to snake through the steep drainage about another mile north to get somewhere we could make it over where we wanted to go. Marked the spot in the GPS, there's some great play areas back here... but not when we're already tired from 2 days of riding.
Snow is melting fast,prolly get one or two more weekends of riding before the mad rush to get the bikes all tuned/spooned n ready. An old ice fishing pic from the late 70's or early 80's, Brassua lake, Me.
Up to the Ears again. *All* the way up to the ears. Found the trail to the top this time. We were looking too hard two weeks ago. Looking towards Area 54 Standing on the head of the bunny. Boondock through the trees Play around in Area 54. First time I've been back here with the Pro ... it eats up the sidehill a lot better than the old 900 did. Down into the valley at the bottom for lunch Red tracks to the north are from two weeks ago. 002 is where things got stupid and we turned around. The valley is 1/4-mi from 002. So we headed that direction. Found the "easy" way through this time! We were too far west. Rode back to 002 and played around back there a little more, it is a fun area. Back through to the valley near 54. It was easier going down than it was coming back up. Looking up at the continental divide And back down into the valley at the rest of the group. Sun's going down, start heading back to the truck stop and play on the drifts along the way.
I spent a couple of hours in the garage messing around with my clutch. Looks like the primary needs to be rebuilt. Found a guy near me from a snowmobile forum that has tools & parts to rebuild it. Also got some sad news, my "Polaris guy" neighbor with a cabin up north is moving. :-(