Custom Wide Ski Install and Pictures

[stanzuray]

Here's a post that may be meaningless if you're into racing or looking cool on the trail. As my wife said last night when I finished them, "they look ridiculous".
Last few machines I have owned I put these wide skies on. Some store bought aftermarket skies get kinda wide like 10" - 12" but I like them real wide. These 16" ones float on top away from all the rough stuff that busts up your sled, you can stop and go easy in deep snow. I flat out don't ever have to dig my front end out if I ever do get stuck.
Usually use countersunk 1/4" flat head bolts to put the 1/4" UHMW plastic pieces on but this time I used almost all stainless, wide base pop rivets. The smooth bases stick out some but we'll see how they hold up.
They float you so high you need extra skegs on the bottom to steer in deep snow. I've had people follow me in my tracks while I'm breaking trail in fresh snow whose machines and them are covered in snow and fogging up and I'm snow free even though going first.
Wish I figured this out back in the days of the old tippy narrow ski snow machine days where trail breaking was agony plowing through snow and fighting to keep them balanced every mile. Stan

 

[snobill]

WOW that's wide, good work !

 

[yamahamm]

Wow, Think i have to do something like this on my ski-doo nordik 50 1989 mod that i have to ride in the preseason Nice to have a sled that i don't care about (since its a ski-doo)

 

[Mooseman]

Holy mother of skis Batman! That is wild but must work great. Is the steering any harder?

Next mod, a 30" wide track?

 

[stanzuray]

Holy mother of skis Batman! That is wild but must work great. Is the steering any harder?

Next mod, a 30" wide track?

Just got back back from 4 of us traveling for 2 days north of here. Broke out some fresh trail with 2' of snow on some of it and me and another guy just floated on top. One of the big reasons I have them is protection from things buried in the snow off trail. One of the guys with regular skies ran a buried 2" spruce pole through his tub and into his drive clutch - ground the pole up like a shredder for 4" before it stopped engine. No mechanical damage so all okay but that stuff rarely happens with these skies.
Steering seems to usually change and toe in, toe out etc. may need to be adjusted and like I say they operate in the fluff on top not the firmer stuff below so extra skegs (like in pictures) must be added or you'll skid sideways when in soft snow instead of turning. On hard pack they don't do anything positive or negative.

 

[Cubby]

And I thought my 7" Curve skis looked wide

 

[yooper1]

People can say what they want, that's cool.

 

[50mile]

I think a lot of sleds could use those,my ski doo expedition 900 ace,front end drops into every hole ,gully.as long as you are accelerating or going up hill its ok,going down hill or dropping into a creek it nose dives.rider forward position and weight of 4 stroke does not seem to be working out on this utility sled.trail riding ok.

 

[YukonMP]

Those are brilliant. I bet you are never stuck in overflow slush either. I need to build a shop this summer so I can make myself a pair. Well done!

 

[Mooseman]

You should patent those and market them!

 

[50mile]

hmmm...wide skis and a fuel primer......maybe I should have kept mine??

 

[stanzuray]

Here's the latest wide ski I made this season. 2nd set since the one above. All made the same. Sold on them for what I do. Not good for carving across steep side hills as you can't sink that uphill ski. I'll leave that for the young guys that like to race around.

 

[jjmoneysauce]

How's the VK540 been treating you? Mine has been very good.

 

[stanzuray]

How's the VK540 been treating you? Mine has been very good.

VK has been very good. Strong, simple to work on, access and do maintenance. Much more stable than my Venture MP. The deeper lug track is a big traction increase over the older VK models that had very little lug depth.

 

[jjmoneysauce]

Yes, the traction is really good. I put it through a few potentially sticky situations this year, and it powered out of all of them. I saw a video where the powermodz guy put a 1.5 lug track on an older generation model; not necessary now. All in all I am super pleased with its performance and engineering.