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Long track skid/suspension options?

So I did some measuring on the Arctic Cat skid (it's from a 2009 M8 153). The width of the front arm on the stock Phazer skid, including the flange widths of the bushings, is approximately 15.100". The front arm of the Arctic Cat skid measures 15.780. Overall length of the AC skid is 61-3/4" from front of plastic rail tip to the very back edge of rail, with the stock Phazer MTX skid measuring 59" end to end. It is also worth noting that the stock Phazer skid rear wheels are about 7" in diameter, vs. 8" for the Arctic Cat.

I've attached a couple of pictures showing the configuration of the front arm on the AC skid. The second picture shows what would have to be taken off the arm width to make it fit in the Phazer tunnel, the calipers are set at 15.100. Depending on your fabrication skill level, there are probably many ways this could be accomplished. Personally, I'd probably machine off the necessary amount from each side (maybe a little more, so I could weld on a cap to close the tube ends) and then add a cross bar below the mounting eyes of the front arm (where it mounts into the tunnel) to reinforce it a bit more. I did see a picture of a Phazer with this same Arctic Cat skid mounted in it a while back, so I know it's been done, but I don't know what that person did to make it work.

Regarding the driver size and clearance between the heat exchanger, there is approximately 1-7/8" clearance between the stock Maverick 144 track lugs and the heat exchanger, with the 8-tooth drivers, which measure approximately 6.220" in diameter. I also measured a 9-tooth driver (also 2.52 pitch) and it measured right at 7.00" diameter. Unfortunately, I do not have any 10-tooth drivers here to measure, but using the 9-tooth driver and Polaris 159 x 2.125 lug track, you should still have approximately 1-3/8" clearance between the tip of the lugs and heat exchanger. Calculating for a 10-tooth driver based on the actual sizes of the 8 and 9 tooth drivers, the 2-1/8" lugs on the 159 track would still have just under an inch of clearance to the heat exchanger.

Now if you really want to go all out, a 3" lug track (for example, the 156x3 "X3" track from Camoplast) will still have approximately 1/2" of clearance, when used with a 7-tooth driver (3.00 pitch). I remember there being at least one other person on here (you'll have to search back a bit in the Phazer Mountain threads) who put a 3" lug track on their machine. Even at 1/2" clearance, it doesn't sound like much, but I measured the clearance on a stock Ski Doo XM (154 x 2.5 track with T-motion) a while back, and it was also 1/2". There are a lot of theories on the 'correct' amount of clearance, but I don't know that any one is 100% correct, or that it works best ALL the time. I think it's more likely that there are compromises to be made everywhere, and sometimes the gains of other mods will offset the drawbacks you run into along the way.

Finally, there are a couple of other people on here that have put a 159 on their Phazers, I'm sure you'll come across their posts if you dig back a bit in the Phazer Mountain threads. I don't remember exactly how they did their conversions, but it would be worth looking for just to get some other ideas.

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I have 3" pitch/7 lugs and 162"/2,5" (or was it 3"?) Power Claw. No clearance issues. My skid is about 61" (extended Mtx). Moved back 2" down 1" and has 9,5" wheels.

As I remembered it the Phazer has very wide shims between the mounting points on the tunnel and the front arm. My guess is that you don't have to cut the Artic front arm at all. But if you have to I would've cut it in the middle (up and down) and welded it together with a support tube. Shim it to the rails on the downside. You will probably have to extend the tunnel and make new mountings for the skid like I did. I welded them in but I've seen that others just bolted them on.
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I actually have the tunnel off my Phazer at the moment, so I could flip it upside down and try to drop the Arctic Cat skid in there to see how it actually fits. Unfortunately, it will be a few days before I can get to it.

Also, a quick way to identify which Powerclaw you have is to look for the smaller, narrower 'finger' lugs on the opposite side of the track from the wider 'paddle' lugs. The 2.25" and 2.6" Powerclaw tracks have the smaller fingers, the 3" does not. Apparently, the idea with getting rid of the fingers was to prevent them disturbing the snow more than necessary, which leaves a more 'solid' piece of snow between each of the wide paddle lugs, increasing traction. Supposedly it makes a difference, but all Powerclaws seem to be excellent performers. :)
 
Well, I had a bit of time (and dry weather) to get that Arctic Cat skid and the Phazer tunnel out, and took a few pics of how the front arm fits. The front arm of the skid is definitely wider, but not all that much. I lined up one side of the skid flush with the inside of the tunnel (first picture) and you can see about how close it is on the other side (second picture), which looks like about 1/4" (6.35mm). The tunnel is tapered (narrower towards the top) so there is actually a bit less space up where it would mount than what you see at the bottom, but I still think the width of the arm could be trimmed off to make it work.

In the third picture, you can see the steel reinforcement plates as well as the stock front arm mount bolt locations. It's possible that if you set the skid back far enough, you may be outside of these plates, which would give you a bit more available space inside the tunnel, but you'd probably want to put some kind of reinforcement on the outside of the tunnel to make up for it. In the fourth picture you can see the mounting bar (aluminum bar with tapered ends, with two wheels on it) for the rear arm of the skid. It is not located where it would actually be in relation to the tunnel because the rear scissor link is not installed, but you can see that the aluminum bar is wider than the tunnel and has plenty of room to trim a bit of each end if necessary. Hopefully this helps!

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I just remembered one more thing that may be of interest, a list of different rear suspension weights, some driver diameter calculations, etc. This is from the Four Stroke Solutions site, and a good bit of information to check out when you get a chance:

http://fourstrokesolutionsllc.webs.com/snowmobilerelatedtech.htm

Interesting! Guess the Nytro 144 skid is closest to the Phazer 144 (didn't see Phazer in the list)? It's not as heavy as I thought. But, on the other hand, the Powerclaw 161" is instead a lot (twice?) as heavy as the original 144".


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I weighed the 144 skid from my Phazer, and it was right at 65 lbs, so pretty close to the Nytro. Still about 20 pounds heavier than the Arctic Cat 153 skid, mostly due to the two large steel springs that Yamaha uses. Regarding the track weight, I got the stock 144 Maverick track at 46 pounds, which doesn't sound all that heavy compared to some of the larger tracks, but I know some of the newer 'single ply' tracks are much lighter. For example, a new Camoplast "Conquer 2.8" in 162 x 15 x 3.0 pitch (9335M) is also 46 pounds! I don't know for sure what the 162 Powerclaw would weigh, but I'm guessing around 65 pounds.
 
Sounds about right. I was amazed how heavy it is. Felt more heavy duty - more like rubber, thicker too. The stock was more plastic and light.


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I really appreciated all the detailed responses here. I ended up snapping my wrist in 3 places last year and everything went to a standstill. I am going a slightly different route this year. Im picking up a 2010 mtx with a boondockers turbo on it on Saturday., and then selling my phazer to help pay for it. There doesnt seem to be anything for information on those kits since they only made 100 of them. Its quite frustrating. I even emailed boondockers asking for owners manuals, install instructions, anything that would help. They never responded.

Anyways, I wanted to thank everyone again. I am sure I will end up stretching this mtx out and a lot of what has been posted might come in handy
 
I have a boondocker phazer in the garage. I can take a look in the morning and see if I have any of the info on it. It's a nice little kit and makes the phazer a lot of fun. Have had a couple of issues and learned some things along the way.
 
Our biggest issue has been with the way the manifold runs under the tank and over the reverse actuator. Working it hard on a warm day and we melted the reverse actuator to the point where the sled didn't know if it was in forward or reverse. Was an interesting 15 mile ride home as it kept trying to switch between them. Also melted a whole through the 1st layer of the tank. Otherwise just some minor things. I run a head shim, keep it at about 7 pounds and cut a little race fuel just to be safe. It's a lot of fun
 
I just remembered one more thing that may be of interest, a list of different rear suspension weights, some driver diameter calculations, etc.

For potential future searchers, or maybe even myself down the road, I am going to quote that information just in case they move the page or something.


@Snowmixer 's 144 Phazer Skid ... 65lbs


Arctic Cat XF7000/Yamaha SR Viper stock 141" ...43lbs

2014 Arctic Cat XF7000 with 153" rails, BDX swing arm kit, 2 idler wheels removed and ice scratchers added...38lbs

Yamaha pro-action Viper (w/136 Mountain Max rails)...74lbs

09 Yamaha Nytro XTX 144", stock (all idler wheels attached)...74lbs

Timbersled Nytro 144", ice age rails, Float X rear shock, 2 wheel axle, (stock 8" Cat wheels), stock Yamaha upper wheels and skid mounting bolts...36lbs

Timbersled Nytro 144", ice age rails, Float X rear shock, 4 wheel axle (stock 8" Cat wheels), Yamaha upper wheels and skid mounting bolts...37.5lbs

Arctic Cat 153" with float shocks, minus boggy wheels, with ice scratchers Thanks to hugger70mtnmax for spec!...43lbs

Yamaha Nytro 153" pro-mountain, all stock, including stock drop brackets....74.7lbs

Yamaha Nytro 153" pro-mountain, same as above, includes front shocks...78.7lbs

Timbersled Nytro153" Yamaha rails, Timbersled drop brackets, Includes Fox Float 2 front suspension shocks. Thanks Lone Viper!....46.2lbs

Yamaha 2010 MTX 162", stock including factory ice scratchers...58.5lbs

Timbersled 162", Wahl 4 wheel anti-stab kit, sidekick scratchers, 2 wheel kit Timbersled upper wheels...34.6lbs

Timbersled 162" same as above, except with Exit piggy back front shock, (4.3lbs)remote resi rear shock (7.0lbs) Thanks to tapex_07 for 162" specs!...45.9lbs

Note: weight specifications were measured using a digital scale. They are for general information purposes only. Specifications may vary from sled to sled and may change without notice.
 


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