Maggot snowmobile thread

[Girardeau]

Thanks. Sled is stock except for a can and an adjustable riser. I'm 5'9" and the stock doo bars are WAY too tall. The black bars were just a bandaide to get through the rest of the season when the stock bars broke.

[simple]

Even more impressive. Side hilling skills though tight trees.

[tobytortorelli]

2 sleds for sale in Bellingham, Wa area.
http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/snw/4520816933.html
http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/snw/4518071232.html

[chiller]

Looking for a rack to carry both skis and snowboards. Both the cheetah and tiny mo pro look nice. I've used DIY racks the past few season but have always been impressed by Cheetah's racks. Any input appreciated.

[Mountainman]

http://www.porttackracks.com/

[chiller]

^^looks like a quality rack. The accessory list has a snowboard rack and ski rack but no mention if they are the same rack that Can carry both without swapping out for longer ratchet strap. The cheetah has dual use straps but it looks a bit hectic where as the tiny mo pros accommodates the two via the yoke and not the strap hardware.

[powder11]

If youve got an XM, Skidoo has a ski/board rack for the Linq system. Seems a bit less $ and bulk than the CFR rack. The advantage to CFR is ability to strap all sorts of other crap to the rack. CFR also makes a quick release if you want to remove for slednecking around in deep pow.

[chiller]

Polaris but yea looking for a rack too for carrying gear. Going to Give the tiny mo pro rack a try.

[Dhelihiker]

Just save your time and $ go CFR, you eventually will.

[Mannix]

Just save your time and $ go CFR, you eventually will.

Pretty much. I futzed around with homemade racks, eventually bought a CFR. Much better.

I currently have homemade racks on both of my sleds - one is gigantic and cumbersome and makes the sled about 16 feet long, but it is AWESOME, holds 2-3 pair of skis and/or 2 skis, 2 boards. It is strictly an access sled, though.

I did stumble upon a REALLY freaking rad homemade rack, though. If you can weld, it is a slick design. Basically, two 1.25" aluminum tubes going across the rear of the tunnel (pic below). Rear tube is the "shoulder," front tube is the "hand," if you were carrying skis over your shoulder. Affix with long Voile rubber straps.

Not as fast as a CFR, but fast enough, and we TYPICALLY do the skiing off the other sled, so this rack is pretty much for transport only - although it is not fidgety, at all. Slide skis in, the tubes hold them in place, thread long strap through a hole/around skis, pull tight, do a second for good measure, go.

Tips do eat up a little running board space, but not terrible (less than a CFR). Skis are horizontal - no threat of hooking a tip while laying the sled over. Rack is not in the way, at all. I mounted it as far back as I could, tunnel is fine, although only 500 miles on that sled.

I like. Short, right answer, though, the CFR is the way, especially if you're just starting out - it is enough of a gong show at first just trying to make all this crap work together, the last thing you need is gear falling off the rickshaw.


Iain

[chiller]

This is about a hundred bucks cheaper then the CFR, 5yr warranty on yokes. Had a good chat with the owner. I always seem to gravitate towards things that are adjustable, for good or bad.



Really wanted attachments that could handle both skis and boards without swapping anything out

[pano-dude]

This is about a hundred bucks cheaper then the CFR, 5yr warranty on yokes. Had a good chat with the owner. I always seem to gravitate towards things that are adjustable, for good or bad.



Really wanted attachments that could handle both skis and boards without swapping anything out

cfr has this option

http://cheetahfactoryracing.com/coll...ki-bracket-kit
really can't beat cfr. why spend thousands on a sled and cheap out on a rack.

[chiller]

^^ I agree, that's why I'm not doing a DIY rack even though they have served me well on my older sleds. But the cfr rack is 600.00. The tmp rack runs 500.00 for multi use yokes and large rack. After talking with him on the phone he offered up a demo rack that knocked the price down even more. it's always a balancing act it seems

[Mike_Records]

I've been using a less beautiful version of one of this rack for years, Mannix has seen it. Its strong, can hold 4 pairs of skis, and is fast. But, it sticks out from the sides of the tunnel and is a bit of a hazard when I fall off, starting to think about a redesign. I want to move the attachment points in so they are fully behind the seat, but this will push the centroid of the skis back on the tunnel. I've heard a lot of concern in the past about putting too much stress on the tunnel. Has anyone actually experienced significant damage to their tunnel from a ski rack back there? The tunnel shape is basically like a beam, and people rail on their tunnels all the time when towing, moving, and getting their sleds unstuck. I could easily reinforce the tunnel with some angle iron or the like. I think I'm most worried about some sort of damage via twisting which would be harder to reinforce and protect against.

[kidwoo]

Just save your time and $ go CFR, you eventually will.

Only if you're not as awesome as I am at making a rack.

I'll get some pics tonight. It does some things that CFR finally started doing (single pair along the running boards for punching trail and riding unhindered).

But I spent like 90 bucks, have used it for three years and have zero interest in buying anything else.

[Mike_Records]

I'll get some pics tonight.

Pics or it didn't happen! I wanna see it!

On a side note, inspected my tunnel and did notice a small deformity/bulge in it. No idea if this is related to stress from my ski rack. Regardless, gonna reinforce the tunnel a bit with the new rack design.

[Shadam]

cheapest board rack ???

when I carry 3 boards its best to use a 3rd bungy ...



1 board doesn't get in the way when sled dancing if I have it pushed back so front binding is against back bungy.
2nd board I put on bindings down, they sit well no matter the shitshow, but it does try to catch my boot going side to side ...

crossing creeks or ditches it can contribute to the stuck by hanging up in the snow lifting track off snow.

its a great set up for in spring keeping sled cool. I grab a great big chunk of snow/ice and wedge it under the board on tunnel and she'll never over heat ...

[chiller]

That's the spirit!!

[Dhelihiker]

Only if you're not as awesome as I am at making a rack.

That goes without saying

[kidwoo]

Sorry about the lag. Got tied up in some bike stuff.

This is on a 2010 Arctic Cat M8, 153 tunnel. I used a big UHMW block I bought off ebay for 40 bucks, Some 1.5" angle aluminum from the hardware store, some freebie old rental snowboard bindings from a local shop, and some ghetto rental ratchets. I had to track down some superlong ladder straps that were rubberized but I needed them to fit skis and a snowboard. The rails I got from a sled rack company called vortech. I just shortened and redrilled them.

Overview:



The angle aluminum is riveted into the same holes for my cooler. I drilled those out and put in some steel ones.

Trail breaking mode:



This is the big thing about premade racks that bugs me. Mounting skis along the running boards while ALSO allowing for a double up mount. To me this is absolutely the most important part. I've seen racks that allow you to do this along the tunnel, but then they can't carry another pair of skis. But ski boot SHELLS go in the snowboard binding baseplates while I break trail in my ski boot liners sitting in some old snowboard boots.



But I've ridden all day long like this, rolling the sled out of holes, sidehilling all day, jumping off cornices, hitting hips........ Shit is out of the way. You barely notice the skis are even there. This isn't new or anything but I can't stand bobbling around with a CFR rack with a pair of skis hanging way off the back. A friend of mine broke two skis with a CFR (Hi VC! ) when the rockered tips caught just doing little dinky pow turns. I don't want shit hanging off the back of my sled when I'm punching trail in deep snow. Or just banging on a bunch of whoops for an hour down a road.

To help the tunnel mount, I put in a smaller piece of angle aluminum in the footwells to hold the tips, just to keep the skis snug.



Room for go juice



Gettin laps mode. Snowboard boots I rode out in go on, two pairs of skis along the tunnel, not sky high in the air so rolling the beast goes easy and doesn't fuck skis up.





Boards go in the deeper slots of the plastic blocks






Still room to grab the bumper






But anyway. That was just shy of a hundred bucks. Used for a while now and I have zero need for a 500 dollar rack that still doesn't do the things I want. The tinymopros and CFRs are good ready made setups but I'd still be changing things on them to get the tunnel mounted stuff setup for riding out in fresh snow.

[Mannix]

But ski boot SHELLS go in the snowboard binding baseplates while I break trail in my ski boot liners sitting in some old snowboard boots.

duh.

That might not be new to you & your clever friends, but it is new to me.

fkna duh.

Thanks!



Iain

[powder11]

Cool design. I like how the aluminium angle iron doubles as a tunnel stiffener. Patent that shit.

[chiller]

Sweet! The angles remind me of the tmp. Seems that would really help strengthen the tunnel

[kidwoo]

duh.

That might not be new to you & your clever friends, but it is new to me.

A few years ago I did the full boot swap.

..........once. I couldn't ski my feet were so pinched. I just found a snowboard boot that's a size bigger than what I'd really wear and it works pretty well with intuitions. It's even colder where you are so that must be brutal.

Sweet! The angles remind me of the tmp. Seems that would really help strengthen the tunnel

Yeah the angle plates on theirs looks like a tunnel support too......which I like.
The blocks on mine are pretty much the exact same shape/idea as the tmp but my rack sits about 4-5 inches lower in the back. So it's definitely not similar to the ski angle on the tmp. That's the kind of picky shit I'm talking about though. I don't want those bigass fins sticking up off the back of my tunnel when I'm not riding with skis, OR have the skis sticking up that much when I am. Having them angled up like the tmp or CFR racks does make getting to the bumper just a tad easier but that's literally it. If I get stuck with skis on, you can still get two people on my bumper, you just have to reach one arm over a pair. That's about the only real downfall of mine, but keeping things tight when rolling the sled is more important IMO. And by the time I have two pairs on, we're riding a packed track anyway so it's rarely an issue until we fuck up a tandem climb.

If I were to buy a full deal and didn't want to mess with making one, I'd definitely buy the tmp over anything else. Those things do look really really good and way more low profile than the cfrs. I think you could easily modify the tmp ones to do the double duty carrying setup like mine. You'd have to get the rear blocks further out though. That's what makes it work. They look parallel as is.

[Mike_Records]

You put a lot of thought into that one, nice work kidwoo, and thanks for posting all the pics.

Hoping to have my new rack done this weekend. Will post pics.