153 on trail

[Snowbound98]

Ordered driveshaft saver from Travis over at Barn of Parts. That was something I wanted to do last year after I changed my driveshaft bearings. All I have left to do is put that on and install a clutch kit, that was also suppose to happen last year.
I decided against putting on overload springs. My #2 kid is 13 now so I’m back to going solo!! I am thinking about adding a set of idler wheels to help extend the life of the hyfax and maybe even give me a few more quarts/mile of fuel. Couldn’t hurt. My brother’s XTX has them on his 141.
Last trip up we also swapped out the oil tank on my dad’s Apex. The factory tank was weeping a little at the seams where they joined the 2 halves together. Kinda of a crappy design all to save a buck I’m sure. We went with the billet tank. Very nice unit if I say so myself.

Also replaced the snow flap with a blue one, new battery while we were changing oil since we were there going in after the oil filter and replaced one outer steering heim joint because it had excessive play in it. He should be good to go this year again.

Thought that the old Jag had another chaincase leak, I just replaced a few parts in there and a new gasket because we couldn’t keep oil in it. This summer it had a big oil puddle under it. Chaincase was still full, found out the oil tank was cracked at the nipple for hose fitting. I couldn’t find one all summer, when I finally did they wanted $100 for it. No way! I laid $100 for the sled. So I pulled it off and washed it really good then plastic welded the crack and siliconed the fitting back in. Another one that’s good to go for the kids first season riding his own.

Another project I managed to get done while up, we got this old Toro for nothing and figured we could at least use parts off it because we have its twin already. Put the electric start on our other one and the air box assembly because ours was missing. After looking at it closer, it seemed to be in decent shape. The engine was garbage and I rebuilt the auger with new bearings and resealed the gear box. Installed new belts and picked up a HF Predator engine for $99. So now we have 2 blowers up there to cut the driveway time in half.

I came across this ‘07 Nitro with 4800 miles on it and figured it would be a good investment for my oldest son to step to from the Jag. Plans didn’t work out when I was up north Thanksgiving weekend to go pick it up but I’ll try to grab it on my way up for New Years.

For now, my sleds sitting there waiting for me all cleaned up and looking pretty while I wait for the snow to drop. C’mon already!!

 

[littledawg]

I have to use my 15 MTX on trail more now that my kids are driving their own. Some of the things I’m gonna do to make this more trail worthy is:
Throwing on some SLP MoHawk with 6” 60* carbides.
Adding a sway bar
Swapping out the 20/50 gears for 20/40. That’s just so my brother isn’t pulling away from me on his XTX
Definitely clutching. Most likely use Thunder Products kit.
Rail stiffeners and overload springs
160# center spring
Replacing DuPont slides
Camoplast backcountry 153x15x1.75 track
Rear bumper with tunnel support
Front bumper with skid plate

How did this set up work out for you! I'm in the process of doing the same thing to my 2016 MTX 153. Waiting on my clutch kit from Thunder products and my new shocks as I'm going to a 42" front end. how did the 20/40 gearing work? what kind of top end are you pulling with that set up. not sure which way to go yet! change out my 7" drivers to the 9" and leave the stock 21/49 gears to start with. interested to hear how you did.

 

[Snowbound98]

How did this set up work out for you! I'm in the process of doing the same thing to my 2016 MTX 153. Waiting on my clutch kit from Thunder products and my new shocks as I'm going to a 42" front end. how did the 20/40 gearing work? what kind of top end are you pulling with that set up. not sure which way to go yet! change out my 7" drivers to the 9" and leave the stock 21/49 gears to start with. interested to hear how you did.

I apologize for the late reply, I’ve been moving and haven’t had much time for anything.
I didn’t change my gearing. I planned on it but the season came up too fast and it didn’t happen. I like having the lower gearing for coming off the corners. Where I’m riding in Wisconsin the trails are twisty thru the woods and it helps me keep up with my brother on his XTX because he gets thru the turns better so he can keep his speed higher than I can into and thru the corner but coming off I can pull on him slightly. My top speed is roughly 86MPH with my 21/49 gearing. Switching to 21/41 should improve that to about 102MPH top speed. I didn’t know they had a 9 tooth driver in a 3.0 pitch. I believe they are a 2.86 so that would require a track change. But 9 tooth and stock 21/49 would put you right at 105MPH. You could always go to a 24/50 from an RTX or LTX which would net you 96MPH with your 7 tooth drivers. They do make an 8 tooth 3.0 pitch like what’s in the XTX and that with your stock gearing would give you 98MPH.
I bought the Black Diamond Xtreme 40” spindle kit that lowers the upper arms by 5” and supposed to be an improvement but I haven’t put that on yet. I wanted to go to 42” front but I still wanna be able to lay it over for off trail.

 

[TRF Viper]

I have a 2015 MTX 153. This is what I did- full set up from Excell motorsports- intake ,exhaust, clutching, 1.75 backcountry track 21/41 gearing= 93mph and it works great.

 

[Snowbound98]

I don’t know about any of you guys or where you’re at but this has to be the worst and the shortest year in the past 8 seasons. The snow came extremely late, never gave us a really good base in northern Wisconsin and was gone before we knew it. Very sad.
Our first trip up was last weekend in January and we were sitting on about 5-6” of snow with maybe a 3” base. We couldn’t ride by the house so we ended up trailering to Lake Tomahawk and rode toward Arbor Vitae and around Boulder Junction. People were reporting trails beat up toward Mercer so we stayed to the east of there. Decent, but nothing to write home about.

Mid day we were getting hungry so we ended up in St Germain and one of my favorite places to eat, 19th hole, but they only had a limited menu and it wasn’t the same experience. But trails got worse the closer to town we got.
Headed back out of St Germain back towards Arbor Vitae and looped around back to Lake Tomahawk.

The next day was Langlade county system where trails were great like always because they do an excellent job maintaining them. Buzzed around without any major stops beside fuel and a burger. Hoping the snow was coming soon we packed everything away before heading home for the work week.
We didn’t have any running water during that trip. The pump line was frozen which ended up being a simple fix, was just the heat trace under the house. Picked up a new one and repaired it first thing next trip up but the sad part was, we had water when we first got back up so it must have thawed the day we left from having the heat on in the house. We even tried a torpedo heater under the house for a few hours but that didn’t work.

When we got back home we had more snow than what was up north. My dad’s car was buried at my brothers work because of the idiot plow drivers.

 

[Snowbound98]

The next weekend, first weekend in February we got some snow. The first round was about 4” and then another 5” the next day.

It was just my brother and I. But you can see we ended up with about 9” after all was said and done.

We put on maybe 200 miles between Saturday and a few hours on Sunday. We spent some time trying to lube up his lower ball joint and I installed a few idlers to spread the load off my slides. Also installed a lower front shock shaft on the skid with one that is suppose to be a better quality part. I heard the horror stories of people breaking theirs so I was just being proactive.

 

[Snowbound98]

We were back up the weekend of the 12th with the kids and the brothers girlfriend. This was the cold weekend. We seen -23° on Saturday for the low but mostly it was -17° / -18°. Had to get everybody extra geared up. Heated face shields for the 2 that didn’t have them, even picked up some handlebar gauntlets for the kids and her sled to keep their hands out of the wind. My brother pulled the 4 place and I the 2 because we were 5 sleds and didn’t want to cram the extra in the trailer. Figured it was better having 2 vehicles rolling in that cold just in case something happened.
First day we dropped at the north end of Tomahawk and rode the Northwoods passage around our old stomping grounds but quickly found most of our normal watering holes were closed. Ended up at a place called Thirsty Giraffe for a much needed warm up and food and beverages. Short ride back to the trucks where we loaded up in record time to get out of the cold and headed back home.

Saturday we ended at a park and ride in northern Langlade county and rode to Summit Lake up thru Elcho and to Pelican lake. By the time we got back it was that -23° and we were happy to be loading the sleds for the day. Everyone was troopers though, I must say. Nobody complained, just happy to be out enjoying the trails.

Sunday we dropped just down the road a little ways from the house and made a big loop. Put on the most miles that day. Wanted to be back at the trucks by 7pm but we got turned around somehow on the trails and took us a while to find out where we were. We ended up riding from Parrish to Rhinelander and back around. Made it back to trucks by 8:30 and we were happy to be done for the day.

We left for home Monday morning and I got a speeding ticket on my way thru Madison. Says he paced me at 88 but I had my cruise set on 80 and my detector never went off. Oh well, not like I’m gonna travel back and forth trying to fight it. I’ll just pay the $250 and caulk it up to all the things I haven’t got caught doing.

 

[Snowbound98]

Made the trip again this past weekend with the wife. She gets limited time off from USPS where she works but always puts in for at least one weekend to come ride with me. It wasn’t looking good as we were traveling north.

When we got to the hose it looked like it dropped another 3” or so but it was 43° when we got there.

We did some riding towards Summit lake on Friday but the trails were thin and the roadsides were bare. We were riding on mud some of the trails. This wasn’t ideal. Didn’t do many miles like that. Ended up going back to truck and drove into Antigo for some dinner and then headed home. I checked on my newly installed idlers to make sire things were ok and they seemed to be. I also added some tunnel flares I got from the clearance bin at Polaris/Yamaha of Antigo.

My brother and dad came up Friday night so Saturday we decided the only place left to ride was in Langlade county. Started off ok, got a little further north than we wanted into Pearson and the trails turned to mud and water holes. Came back south towards Antigo and the trails were good at best, decent at worse. Can’t believe a matter of a few miles in either direction the trails were mud but we stayed on snow covered trails all day and had a good day riding despite it being 47°. I was in a light Carhart jacket and jeans both days riding and using my dual sport helmet with single pain shield. I knew it was over after that weekend.

Sunday morning put the sleds away and packed up and headed home.

Once again, Madison got me. This time it wasn’t speeding. We stopped for food and blew a heater hose. Stupid plastic quick connect fitting busted at the firewall. We were stranded in a parking lot and the closest parts store was just over a mile away. I hitched a ride with a good samaritan to the parts store and back. Wouldn’t let me pay him a dime either. So I put the hose on and filled up the coolant and the hose leaked at the fitting. It was the wrong part! I was able to use the clamps off the new hose, cut my broken hose and rig it on just to limp to back to the parts store. They didn’t have the right part but they did have the quick connect fitting in a 5/8” with a barbed end so they refunded me for their hose and I was able to piece it together with the new fitting and my old hose. Another gallon of coolant was needed though. We made the 5-1/2 hr trip home in just shy of 8hrs.

 

[maim]

hate those plastic coolant couplings. look at them wrong and they fail.

 

[Snowbound98]

Might be time to let this sled go. Just over 2200 miles and with the way the sled market is right now I can still get a good buck for it. I really wanted to put a turbo on it this summer but I might just go to a sidewinder and be done with it. It might be about the same cost putting the turbo on mine as it would to sell mine and buy a winder. It’s time to start the whole breakdown of the skid to check bearings, pull the chaincase cover and clean it out, pack the driveshaft caliper bearing and clutch side jackshaft bearing and tighten the steering so I may as well get a new sled and start fresh doing that one. What do you think is a fair price for this one? If I could get $6 or $6500 it’s going. I see them listed for $7 with more miles and less parts. All my extra parts will be included with sale.

 

[Snowbound98]

It’s getting to be that time again! Can’t wait. I decided to hold off on buying a winder for now due to the conditions last year. Gonna be heading up north in a week or so to get my preseason maintenance done. I’m going to put on that 40” arm kit I have and my brother bought new arms for his because he has a tight ball joint. He went with a 38” kit that has replaceable heim joints instead but it doesn’t have any sway bar tabs on the lower arms. So here we go again, time to make him some bolt on brackets for his sway bar. And we will be using the same links that I used on mine since they worked.

At first I cut the tabs from 1/8” stock but then remembered how that got beat off my clamps when my link bolt broke before.

So then I used some 3/16” plate.

I’m gonna leave them unpainted because I’m not sure if he’s getting his new arms powder coated white or leaving them black. So I’ll let him either have them powdered or paint them.

Let’s hope for a good season this year and I hope everyone had a safe off season and you’re all ready to go.

 

[Snowbound98]

While I’m on here I may as well share the tunnel decals I put on this summer. I thought these things would be like installing vinyl wrap but boy was I wrong! These things are thick, don’t stretch very well and hard to get to shrink up around rivets. I removed all stickers and decals from tunnel and cleaned it very meticulously. I probably had 5 hours invested putting these on but I like them. My tunnel was a little scuffed on the sides from my boots and also my kids riding on back. The top of the tunnel was scuffed also from the tunnel bag and I’m not sure I want to put that back on or get something else like a rack system.

 

[Snowbound98]

Finally started my pre-season maintenance. Little later than I would have liked but I’ve had a lot going on. I’m in the process of selling one house and that took up a lot of my time this year. Second thing is some POS bought the property next to mine in Wisconsin and said my new garage is on his property by 8”. Long story short, county was as useful as a screen door on a submarine. They gave me the permits to build this garage based on the lot lines I was given which were straight. This guy came up with angles lot lines which put me over. To keep from killing this guy I decided it was in my best interest to just move the garage. So in my non existent spare time I had to get garage empty and then have Wisconsin power come move the underground lines so I can have concrete poured and quarter turn the garage. Now I’m dealing with contractors that won’t show up when they say and I’m traveling 326 miles to meet them.

Solid line is 1/4 turned which is what I want. I have door on each side to use this garage as a drive thru. The dotted line is how far I would have to come out if it didn’t turn. I have to stay 10’ off any existing structure.

So garage is empty and everything is packed into the attached 2 car and other sleds are in trailer or on 2 place trailers. I can’t go into season this way and these clowns aren’t showing up when they say they will.

So anyway, last weekend while I was up waiting on contractors I moved some stuff around and started on the maintenance.

 

[Snowbound98]

Still have no idea why these pictures turn. It really makes me mad. I tried to turn them before loading them to site but then they don’t turn.

I decided I was gonna install the 40” spindle kit from BDX (Black Diamond Xtreme). This kit says it’s for 14-15 Viper MTX. I started by removing both skis, saddles and spindles. My carbides were shot. I had to order new ones.

I got the bracket attached to the bulkhead on the right side. (Holy cow, it didn’t turn this one!)

After I got the arm on and loosely installed the spindle I noticed a lot of positive camber.

 

[Snowbound98]

Let me back up here a minute. When I removed my upper arms the bolts were 6mmx1.0x45mm. The new arms had 8mm holes in the mount. That was the first flag. But then I looked at my brothers arms he got for his XTX and they were 6mm mounting holes but his sled has 8mm bolts. His arms are from Alternative Impact. His arms are on the right but here is on top.

The bolts and bushings.

So I made the switch just so I could mount my arm and that’s when I found the camber issue. So after all that wasted time I couldn’t dwell on it and moved on. Drained the oil, removed the oil tank and then pulled the chaincase cover.

Not too bad. Last year I sucked out the oil and refilled. I might make that my schedule, every other year just suck it out. The magnets for speed sensor were dirty but I’ve seen worse.

Cleaned off the magnets and covered everything. These magnets don’t look that great. You can see how they are flaking. I’m gonna see if I can get some new ones before my next trip up but I worry about new ones wearing into the cover more that it is now. Thoughts, experience, input?