I was thinking about doing a DIY guide on installing better boards but I left my camera at my house when I went to the garage to install mine. However I can offer some advice to anyone thinking about doing this as it is a great upgrade.
One issue was the fit of the BB or rather the differens in size of the original running boards, tolerences must be high at the yama factory... The bolts that holds the outer edge of the running board up front (next to the bold that holds tha plastic trim in place) came very very close to the edge of the betterboard on one side. Also since these holes are threaded you have to mark them up on the betterboards and drill them before riviting the BB in place thus making it more dificult to get them lined up tight to the tunnel as you get your alignment from how you drill these holes..
Cutting in you sled is a bit nerve wracking, I used a plasmacutter but if I would do the install again I would leave the plasmacutter at home and just use a large drillbit 8mm and drill all corners and then just use a sawblade or a small electric saw to "connect" the drilled holes, this would make for some nice and strong corners.
I cut out square boxes for every hole in the betterboards leaving as much support as possible, the result is a very strong board but considering how firm it is I'm quite sute one could have just made a big hole and had the exact same result.
So
1 - Mark up your boards using the betterboards as template
2 - Cut hole
3 - Drill out rivets and trim edges
4 - Align boards and mark outer forward bolt holes (3 in toatal) pay atention to detail as this is where the board attaches to the forward outer support..
5 -rivet board, rivet down first, then use a pice of wood and a clamp to press the tunnel support to the tunnel if it's not a flush fit and rivet to tunnel..
It took way longer than I expected but was mainly due to the plasmacutter not doing a good job on the aluminum but expect a full day and you should be ok
No more snowbuildup on the runningboards, yay!
sorry about the bad pictures, will get some better pictures this weekend when the suns up and Im not at work..
One issue was the fit of the BB or rather the differens in size of the original running boards, tolerences must be high at the yama factory... The bolts that holds the outer edge of the running board up front (next to the bold that holds tha plastic trim in place) came very very close to the edge of the betterboard on one side. Also since these holes are threaded you have to mark them up on the betterboards and drill them before riviting the BB in place thus making it more dificult to get them lined up tight to the tunnel as you get your alignment from how you drill these holes..
Cutting in you sled is a bit nerve wracking, I used a plasmacutter but if I would do the install again I would leave the plasmacutter at home and just use a large drillbit 8mm and drill all corners and then just use a sawblade or a small electric saw to "connect" the drilled holes, this would make for some nice and strong corners.
I cut out square boxes for every hole in the betterboards leaving as much support as possible, the result is a very strong board but considering how firm it is I'm quite sute one could have just made a big hole and had the exact same result.
So
1 - Mark up your boards using the betterboards as template
2 - Cut hole
3 - Drill out rivets and trim edges
4 - Align boards and mark outer forward bolt holes (3 in toatal) pay atention to detail as this is where the board attaches to the forward outer support..
5 -rivet board, rivet down first, then use a pice of wood and a clamp to press the tunnel support to the tunnel if it's not a flush fit and rivet to tunnel..
It took way longer than I expected but was mainly due to the plasmacutter not doing a good job on the aluminum but expect a full day and you should be ok
No more snowbuildup on the runningboards, yay! sorry about the bad pictures, will get some better pictures this weekend when the suns up and Im not at work..
kodak
TY 4 Stroke Junkie
Looks good, I used snow eliminators similar product same result no snow build up but after 50mm of rain last night no worries about that for a while anyway.
