Maggot snowmobile thread

[simple]

Pro tip: for stubborn bolts (primary for one) go for a ride and then remove the bolt. The heat from your ride will help.

[Ville]

50km to wilderness plus little bit touring. Good day!

Lähetetty minun FIG-LX1 laitteesta Tapatalkilla

[crashidy]

50km to wilderness plus little bit touring. Good day!

Lähetetty minun FIG-LX1 laitteesta Tapatalkilla

Awesome. I love it. Where are you located? Great to see sled stoke from everywhere. So many different places.

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[Ville]

Awesome. I love it. Where are you located? Great to see sled stoke from everywhere. So many different places.

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Kilpisjärvi, Northern Finland. Only place in Finland with proper skiing

[pano-dude]

Took advantage of some great rebates and picked this bad boy up

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[crashidy]

Took advantage of some great rebates and picked this bad boy up

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Sweet dude! I'll be out at DW on sunday and Monday (10,11). Swing on by for some laps!

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[teamdirt]

Took advantage of some great rebates and picked this bad boy up

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Swap that rear bumper out if your carrying skis on the back. You want to put the adventure rear bumper on as it extends longer past the upper drop out on the tunnel of the sled, will give it more strength. I folded and cracked my tunnel with a HD tow bumper and skis on the back right at the drop out for the upper track wheel. Nobody manufacturing tunnel stiffeners for this sled as of yet....

Get ready to be tipsy! Lol

[nortonwhis]

Anyone got some sled skiing tips for me?
Heading to a zone up a mellow logging road with my girlfriend. Have only 1 CFR ski rack. Shes small so i was thinking have her in front sitting.
She skis, is she gonna be ok wearing her ski boots if we have to switch to side by side tandoming or is it a death trap?

Anything else to look out for?

[BCMtnHound]

Anyone got some sled skiing tips for me?
Heading to a zone up a mellow logging road with my girlfriend. Have only 1 CFR ski rack. Shes small so i was thinking have her in front sitting.
She skis, is she gonna be ok wearing her ski boots if we have to switch to side by side tandoming or is it a death trap?

Anything else to look out for?

Tandeming with ski boots will work on a nice trail, but the more techy the trail gets, the harder it becomes. Should be no worries on a logging road. 20km up a logging road with ski boots is OK, get off the road grade on techy trails or the trail is BRAPPed out and ski boots suck.
My 6yr old rides squirrel in front of me, but I don’t care for someone larger than her in front of me. I suppose for short distances and not taking off packs, reverse squirrel works, but I prefer trad or tandem.
No advice on the rack issue. If she can’t get her own sled, better at least upgrade your rack and probably the tunnel stiffeners to handle you both. Mind overheating the sled on steeper grades, and dial the suspension appropriately.
And if the distance is short, maybe try a tow rope.

[cycology1]

Swap that rear bumper out if your carrying skis on the back. You want to put the adventure rear bumper on as it extends longer past the upper drop out on the tunnel of the sled, will give it more strength. I folded and cracked my tunnel with a HD tow bumper and skis on the back right at the drop out for the upper track wheel. Nobody manufacturing tunnel stiffeners for this sled as of yet....

Get ready to be tipsy! Lol

got a pic of ur setup? wish the mfgs would add a few lbs in name of strength

[pano-dude]

Swap that rear bumper out if your carrying skis on the back. You want to put the adventure rear bumper on as it extends longer past the upper drop out on the tunnel of the sled, will give it more strength. I folded and cracked my tunnel with a HD tow bumper and skis on the back right at the drop out for the upper track wheel. Nobody manufacturing tunnel stiffeners for this sled as of yet....

Get ready to be tipsy! Lol

Skiis are retired, only snowboarding and pow surf now but I hear ya. Lots of tunnel hanging out there. Need a few extras yet, like a fucking windshield. Jesus it's cold still!

I've ridden a couple gen 4 and then tried an alpha, after that I knew the gen 4 was the right sled. Cats feel bulky up front and I've had a king cat and a m 7.

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[eldereldo]

Skiis are retired, only snowboarding and pow surf now but I hear ya. Lots of tunnel hanging out there. Need a few extras yet, like a fucking windshield. Jesus it's cold still!

I've ridden a couple gen 4 and then tried an alpha, after that I knew the gen 4 was the right sled. Cats feel bulky up front and I've had a king cat and a m 7.

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How long did you try the Alpha for. ? I’ve only owned Cat, few times I tried a Doo it felt like it didn’t want to go where I wanted it to go. Pretty sure it has nothing to do with the sled and everything to do with how I go about riding it. I think that it would take a season to really get used to how different a Doo rides, same thing going the other way. Got to say though, that for sled skiing having that big track is probably the way to go, especially if you are a beginner.

[nortonwhis]

Tandeming with ski boots will work on a nice trail, but the more techy the trail gets, the harder it becomes. Should be no worries on a logging road. 20km up a logging road with ski boots is OK, get off the road grade on techy trails or the trail is BRAPPed out and ski boots suck.
My 6yr old rides squirrel in front of me, but I don’t care for someone larger than her in front of me. I suppose for short distances and not taking off packs, reverse squirrel works, but I prefer trad or tandem.
No advice on the rack issue. If she can’t get her own sled, better at least upgrade your rack and probably the tunnel stiffeners to handle you both. Mind overheating the sled on steeper grades, and dial the suspension appropriately.
And if the distance is short, maybe try a tow rope.

Great, thanks bud! Tow from the bumper?

[riff]

Quick story from yesterday: a buddy and I were returning from a day of skiing, he’s on my spare sled. There’s a few avalanche debris piles on the road to ride over, he states some nerves after barely making it up that morning....
Short story is that things got out of hand and I watched the sled drop off the road right at dusk into a 400’ deep drainage with fairly steep slopes. It sent a thirty foot cliff, landed right in the fall line and made it through a bunch of trees(whew), turned over once and pancaked on an old abandoned brushy road. It had dropped at least 200 feet of vert. Hood and windshield destroyed, but skis/steering and track looked ok. A plug wire was ripped off, so i rigged it the best I could and it starts on the first try!
An hour later I’d axed my way out the road and had it back on the main road. Unbelievable- I thought it was gone forever.


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[Mannix]

Nortonwhls - towing from the bumper is how most tow. I *hate* towing, personally, but I know a fair number of people who do. I agree with bcmh, short distance, towing is ok (ick), but...eh. I pretty much never tow.

Hell, yesterday, a guy came up to me, "hey, can you go get so and so?" Three people, one sled, belt grenaded up here, sled owner and third in the party were way down there, guy up here with beltless sled did not know how to change it. Fortunately, it was in a pretty busy area, so it worked out - not like I was the only person to go get him - but yeah. The only belt I've had _disintegrate_ was when I was towing. I've ruined other belts, but that was the only one that turned into many pieces. I hate towing.

I'm not so anti-tandem in ski boots, though. I'm nowhere near the best snowmoblier, evarrr, but I can get around ok at this point, and anything "techy" enough to make ski boots undesirable is *way* beyond what I'd want to tandem up - IMHO, any realistic up road for tandeming is doable in ski boots - if a trail is so ghastly that the _boots_ are the limiting factor, good luck finding another person with the skillset to join you on the sled and not ruin the trip.

The terrain you can Canadian up is kinda limited to the least experienced person on the sled. Sorta; if the less-experienced LISTENS (or responds to elbows), you can get away with some stuff, but, eh, yeah, ski boots suck in general on snowmobiles, and snowmobiles TRASH ski boot shells, but the only time I bother even entertaining the idea of changing boots is when I'm going out on a road building mission - I'll pack the ski boots, skis and skins Just In Case. Otherwise, I can get everything done in ski boots at this point.

It takes a while to get proficient at the whole damned thing. A CFR rack is a good start - once we got to the point that we could actually get around on deeper days, the load/unload became the time-eater - the cfr helps there.

I like to kinda hook the backside of the toe lug on the edge of the rail - you know how you walk down stairs in ski boots?

you know, huddled over, one step at a time, clinging to the railing and blocking the whole damned flight?

no, not like that - middle of the foot on the edge of the step, pivoting on the middle - put the middle of the foot on the rail, toe pointed at the track, maybe forward a bit, it works pretty well, you can pivot back and forth, as long as the foot can't slide around too much, it is not bad.

and if it is a lot of work, you're doing it wrong. It is actually pretty easy most of the time, once you figure it out.

good luck. tres fun.

[eldereldo]

Never ridden a sled in ‘real’ ski boots, only touring boots, which aren’t to bad since you can unlock and flex your ankles. Having said that I went back to snowboarding for pure sled laps and only use touring gear if we are just riding in then climbing. Even at that probably going to get a split board setup as it is way easier to ride in snowboard boots, or ride a snowboard in sled boots.

[cycology1]

Quick story from yesterday: a buddy and I were returning from a day of skiing, he’s on my spare sled. There’s a few avalanche debris piles on the road to ride over, he states some nerves after barely making it up that morning....
Short story is that things got out of hand and I watched the sled drop off the road right at dusk into a 400’ deep drainage with fairly steep slopes. It sent a thirty foot cliff, landed right in the fall line and made it through a bunch of trees(whew), turned over once and pancaked on an old abandoned brushy road. It had dropped at least 200 feet of vert. Hood and windshield destroyed, but skis/steering and track looked ok. A plug wire was ripped off, so i rigged it the best I could and it starts on the first try!
An hour later I’d axed my way out the road and had it back on the main road. Unbelievable- I thought it was gone forever.


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holy crap! my worse sled newbie nightmare! didnt mention how ur buddy stayed on the trail? did he just jump off?

[cycology1]

How long did you try the Alpha for. ? I’ve only owned Cat, few times I tried a Doo it felt like it didn’t want to go where I wanted it to go. Pretty sure it has nothing to do with the sled and everything to do with how I go about riding it. I think that it would take a season to really get used to how different a Doo rides, same thing going the other way. Got to say though, that for sled skiing having that big track is probably the way to go, especially if you are a beginner.

I had a boosted 4stroke nytro that like everyone buys for towing and sled skiing..realized quickly it's not my job to own the tow truck for my bus so upgraded to the 2019 alpha 165...good news I got a smokin deal on a new one due to mistake in rebate by AC (essentially same price as a 19 mountain cat)...bad news is after 200 miles still have no real clue on how to ride the thing. it's not like hopping on a dirt bike for sure

but the monorail tech makes sense..maybe like fat skis or 29er mtb tirez..I bought the 4 year warranty just in case

[riff]

holy crap! my worse sled newbie nightmare! didnt mention how ur buddy stayed on the trail? did he just jump off?

He bailed/got bailed by the throttle bump that shot the sled off the road....he was supermanned out on the edge of the road shouting “i had it! I had it!”
I couldn’t help laughing a little bit.


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[pano-dude]

How long did you try the Alpha for. ? I’ve only owned Cat, few times I tried a Doo it felt like it didn’t want to go where I wanted it to go. Pretty sure it has nothing to do with the sled and everything to do with how I go about riding it. I think that it would take a season to really get used to how different a Doo rides, same thing going the other way. Got to say though, that for sled skiing having that big track is probably the way to go, especially if you are a beginner.

Was only a half hr or so, definitely at nice machine but it just didn't fit right. I didn't like the steering, to much front end but the power was great.
I also wanted the 175, they work very well for tandem riding.

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[Wapow]

He bailed/got bailed by the throttle bump that shot the sled off the road....he was supermanned out on the edge of the road shouting “i had it! I had it!”
I couldn’t help laughing a little bit.

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That's a crazy story! What kind of sled was it? I take newbs out all the time, but I don't let them ride over any difficult spots anymore, mainly because they probably can't handle it and I don't want to deal with unnecessary stucks on the way to the skiing. I also don't want to ruin their day with scary (to them) sled antics. Sleds are incredibly intimidating for some people. I take out rock climber buddies who climb scary runout stuff like it's nothing, who get fully gripped riding a mountain sled on mellow terrain. Blows my mind, but I grew up riding a dirt bike, so the sled made sense to me right away. I also took the time to actually learn to ride (it's actually pretty fun), which most skiers who buy sleds never do.

Also, Riff's story reminded me of a PSA: Don't wear your fucking skiing or boarding helmet when you ride sleds. Your face will eventually contact a hard object when you're riding or even just walking around (or rolling) your sled. My first experience was tripping on a ski loop, on concrete, when having to pull a sled the direction I wanted it to go (skis don't work well on pavement, for the uninitiated). My full face helmet saved my bacon that time. And I'm sure it will again at some point. Imagine having to bail off a sled that has skis in a rack on back, like Riff's buddy. You'll tumble off of hard stuff on that journey, more often than not.

[simple]

Getting a sled unstuck wearing a full face with breath box makes me freak out a bit. Claustrophobia type feeling when breathing hard. Anyone else?

[Wapow]

Take it off, if you're just digging out. I'm talking "when riding" here. That includes rolling it out of a stuck on a slope.

[simple]

Im adjusting the subject of full face helmets. I do take it off. When I put it back on my goggles fog up. Cold air and sweat. Helmets don't have enough air vents.

Most pros don't take their helmets off and I can see why. I can't keep it on and get unstuck like they do. Fuckers must not sweat.

[riff]

Yeah to helmets, i need to be better about that.
The first thing i do when I’m getting unstuck is go down to shirt sleeves. I cook so fast, then fill with rage.
I’ve done the tricky riding bits in the past, and should have this time too- thankfully it all worked out ok.
2000 rmk 700, pristine before the event. Now ready for some reductionist mods, gonna try taking off the sway bars.


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