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ANOTHER Sidewinder Bent Tunnel

I called my dealer in East Jordan, Michigan and they talked to their rep who told them to submit it. No promises but he is hoping to get it covered. The only issue is my dealer is 4 hrs from my house so its going to be a week or so before I get it in.

Be sure to call Yamaha customer care to bring this issue forward to them. The more complaints they get about this the better chance we have of getting our issues resolved.
 

I have a new 2017 BTX with same issue. I had read about some known issues with tunnel bending on this site, so I attempted to be proactive to avoid this issue without success. I installed a 28" tunnel rack that I had assumed would sufficiently strengthen the tunnel. First ride after ~40kms tunnel was bent both sides. (brakes side was the worst) This was on a groomed trailed. (Rough that day). I carried one 10L can of fuel and a Yamaha tunnel bag on the back. In the bag I had the usual essentials, water, lunch, extra gloves, clothes, first aid kit, tools, belt,etc..
Sled is currently in with dealer, who is speaking with Yamaha to see what they will cover and how they will repair. In my mind this is a defect in materials or a design issue. My opinion is that Yamaha should cover this under warranty. I will have to wait and see. My main concern here is if they do replace the damaged parts with in kind parts what is to prevent this from happening again? I ride mainly in back country and there is no option but to carry gas and supplies. This sled was not designed as a trail sled and should be able to meet the needs of the riding style it was designed for. There are some aftermarket AC bumpers that could potentially resolve this issue but I could not find anything from Yamaha. In addition I need a tow hitch as some of the areas I ride we need to carry supplies and fuel into back country camps/lodges as our base camp.
AC Bumper.JPG
AC B_PWR Bumper.JPG


I have done some research and this is a known issue on the AC chassis and AC must have solved it as the equivalent AC sled does appear to have the same issues. See attached sales picture from AC. No issue with mounting gas can.
Please keep the posts and the remedies provided from Yamaha going. This is an emergent issue and needs viability.

I have been riding Yamaha for 15+ years now and have not once had and issue with carrying gas or supplies on my sled. This is the first sled I have that has not had a Yamaha chassis though. Beside this issue this sled is an amazing upgrade to my old sled, 2013 Nytro XTX . Much lighter and easier to maneuver.

AC M8000.jpg
Brake side damage.JPG
Brake side damage 2.JPG
Gas side damage.JPG
BTX Tunnel.jpg
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To me this does not look like a bent tunnel. If the tunnel was bent you would actually see it on the side of the tunnel. This looks like the running boards bending or the suspension bracket is giving way.

I have the AC tube running boards and tunnel supports on my viper mtx with no issue like this. I carry gas and everything I need for the backcountry.
 
Yamaha "Customer Care" were a waste of time. The local Yamaha representative deemed it was not Warranty so therefore their hands were tied. They would not allow me to speak with a manager. No satisfactory explanation provided by local Yamaha rep on his ruling and they will not provide contact details so you can speak with them.
I spoke again with my dealer and they offered a solution. They would provide me with the replacement parts to put it back to stock. (Would end up with same issue), or provide me with a reinforcing bumper to solve the tunnel strength issue. I went with the later. See https://www.b-pwr.com/en/home/90-arctic-cat-rear-bumper-hill-climb-edition-153.html. I put this on in addition to tunnel rack from , http://www.canadasledparts.com/product/104/ , which I had installed when the tunnel bent. Rogue Concepts has some great looking solutions as well.
Hope your dealer is as good as mine. (Atlantic Recreation, St. John's, NL, Canada) Provided at no charge third party parts to solve issue independent of Yamaha. This should work. Have another big cross country trip planned for next week ~1500KM. This will test the setup.
 

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I will tell all you guys who are looking for warranty resolve,if you have anything installed aftermarket on your sled it will void the warranty no questions asked...this includes gas tanks unless its made by yamaha!!!hope this helps
 
Just an update from last season. First day on 1500 Km ride the tunnel bent again. Same spot on brake side of machine. Had to take the 10ltr can off and empty into the machines i was with. Also had to shift any items I had on my tunnel bag off to the FreeRide's and other machines in the group. It was stronger than stock but still had a weak point just above the suspension drop bracket. During my ride I meet another 2017 BTX rider, so I walked over to ask him if he was having any issues. Before I could ask I looked at his sled and saw the exact same issue. This guy only had a small watertight clothes back with a one night change of clothes. So in my opinion this is not an isolated issue. If any one else has a similar problem I would appreciate info on how it was solved.

Very frustrated to have bought a Backcountry machine which you can not take Backcountry as you can not carry anything.

Need to find a long term fix for this issue. There does not appear to be anything that I can find available on the market or on this site. I will most likely need to custom manufacture something. Any ideas are welcome.

Yamaha Support (None) - Spoke with dealer again and they were surprised, but there was nothing else they could do. I called Yamaha Canada to report the issue and get support. They advised that if the local Yamaha rep (located in NB) would not support it, then there was nothing they could do. In addition they would not let me speak directly with the rep. Extremely poor support in my opinion. Was stonewalled by Yamaha Support rep on the phone. Been a loyal Yamaha rider for almost 20 years. Still own a number of Yamaha machines, 2 sleds, 2 ATV and 1 motorcycle. If anyone from Yamaha Canada actually read these posts I would be glad to hear from them and get there opinion on this issue. Could be the last Yamaha I buy. Sad to say that the Bombardier sleds are more robust then the Yamaha/Cat. However the same issue does not seem to be a problem on the Cat equivalent sleds.
 
Sucks, clearly not designed to hold the extra weight and once the bouncing starts that leverage point doesn't hold... Kinda sounds like the old bent sub-frame issue on the Nytro several years back. They are aware it's an issue but don't want to warranty it.
 
This makes me nervous about my new sled. I bought a new Arctic Cat M8000 153 back in March so I only have about 150 miles on. Like you I carry gas and a gear bag when I head off into the mountains. I cant have the tunnel bending when I'm 20 miles deep in the bush.
 
This makes me nervous about my new sled. I bought a new Arctic Cat M8000 153 back in March so I only have about 150 miles on. Like you I carry gas and a gear bag when I head off into the mountains. I cant have the tunnel bending when I'm 20 miles deep in the bush.
No doubt I just made a bracket to fit a lynx style fuel tank to my 153 High Country 2017 not sure I should put it on now
 
Has Yamah resolved this issue for anyone? I have two weekends into a new 2018 xtx se 141 about 670 miles on very well groomed trails. Dropped it with the dealer and I am waiting for an answer.
 
all these reports and iv not had any issue with my 2 btx tunnels yet and im not easy on them
Do you carry anything on the tunnel part? That seems to be part of the problem. At least they made them fairly easy to replace.
 
guess i don't really carry much of anything yet, either way puting supports on over the summer
 


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