Here's a positive handwarmer post

[APEXLIGHTNING]

Its not a upgrade problem installation. I have an 07 and they suck ! I will be trying the foam cure this week.

I agree !!

I have an 07 apex and the heaters are awesome! i wear the yamaha short goretex gloves and i was constantly turning the warmers down all day. ended up just leaving them at two bars and that was plenty warm. the temp outside was between -25 and -15 on saturday when i was out

 

[87gtNOS]

Let me add, my father has a 93 SX and he was constantly telling me his were TOO hot!

 

[FLYBOY]

Updated Bars are Great

-25c, 06 Attak with medium windshield

New handlebars installed--grips were hot on full-turned them down to 1/2

Thin leather snowmobile gloves. No problems now

I think the medium windshield helps alot. My Kodiak 4 wheeler grips get hot but when exposed to the wind with no protection they feel cool.

THINK SNOW

 

[Riceburner]

06 Apex GT . Wifes sled.

Mid height windshield.

0 F , -17 C Today

She said the new bars work great. She turned them down to 1/2.

Rice

 

[blackattak]

Finally got some sled time in. 370 km (230miles). I found the hand warmers to be great. The only time the tips of my fingers were cold were after we had to stop to take the belt off a Warrior that quit on the trail (the guy said that he heard 2 backfires & the engine warning light came on, he shut it down & couldn't get it to start or even turn over again, he checked his fuses & said they looked fine so we aren't sure what the problem is). We were running in -15 C weather with windchill of about -25. It was a colder than normal weekend & still ran the hand & thumb warmers at 2 or 3 most of the time. I have bought the Powermadds with the additional mirrors & will install them this week. I bought these to ENSURE the wind stays off the tips of my fingers & I wanted mirrors. Overall I was very satisfied with my heaters on my 07 attak.

 

[monsterattak]

I never went to the new warmers as i figured that this might be the case. I think what most of us have found out is that the only way to keep your hands warm on the attak or apex is to get the wind off your hands first and foremost and then you have to get the rpms up. Yamaha definitely screwed up the voltage regulation to the warmers and should have more juice heading their direction at much lower rpms. The engineering process was thoughtful as i imagine a japanese engineer sitting in his office thinking " well at this rpm the machine will go this fast and the wind will do this and at this temperature their hands will be warm...." Since this engineer likely has never seen snow or temps below zero he screwed the pooch....

My opinion is that this is a voltage regulation issue and would have cost yamaha HUGE money to have us bring them all in and get new electronics installed and since it was probably late in the 07' planning when they really discovered the warmers were an issue they just did the best they could without redesigning electronics... hence they gave us a little more heating element with same problem of not enough juice....

My fix: A combo of all the great ideas everyone on this board came up with.

Neoprene washers in between hooks and bars

Handguards w/rox extensions

and moved brake and throttle controls about .25 inch in ,towards the middle, away from heating elements to keep more of my hand on the heat

keep the rpms up and its fine.... drive slow and freeze.... My money says its 08' or 09' before its completely fixed and it will just so happen to come with a boost in HP for the engine...since they aint gonna dig into this motor and electronics and fix anything as long as they are sellin like hotcakes.....

just my 2 cents.... yell at me if you think i'm stupid.....

 

[baknblk]

All you guys are lucky you can ride and test the new grips. When my dealer called Yamaha for the handle bars they were on back order but mountain bars were available so I bought those. I like the mountain bars because they are a little taller and have the grab handle, hopefully not so much taller that my hands are exposed. In my opinion one of the problems is the gage guard for a windshield, when I went to a mid windshield my hands did not get as cold. Years ago when my Vmax4 was my main sled my hands would be hot on one side and frozen on the other, it also has a worthless windshield. Although, right about now I would be happy to be complaining about bad hand warmers.

 

[MNfarmdude]

Have an 07 and the warmers suck. Has anyone considered fusing them directly to the battery?
Wondering if they are not getting the voltage thru
the reostat on the handlebars?

 

[Mikecam]

My 07 RTX didn't heat as much as I had hoped and that is with the handguards. I did foam my bars and I feel it helped a little. This past weekend I warmed up the RTX and my old Ski-doo side by side and the Ski-doo bars were HOT!!! compared to the RTX. Once you get the RTX moving above 5000 rpm's then the heat comes on but if your hands are already cold they will have trouble warming up , more so in the fingertips. For foaming I bought low expansion at Home depot. I taped a rag over one bar end and then stuck the foam in the other end. Held the trigger down til it came out real good on the other side. Then taped a rag on the bar with no rag and went to bed. Next day I cut off the extra foam coming out the holes in the bar ends. I do wear gloves and will now keep a spare pair of mitts with me as I believe with mitts there should be no problem, other then trying to get to the brake with two fingers. Lucky the 4 stroke have so much engine braking. LOL

 

[monsterattak]

I really think they just didnt curve the voltage regulation properly and it does not give off enough juice at low rpm.... if I keep the wind off my hands mine are plenty warm..... stock windshield doesnt cut it....

 

[nobody]

hand warmers

I never went to the new warmers as i figured that this might be the case. I think what most of us have found out is that the only way to keep your hands warm on the attak or apex is to get the wind off your hands first and foremost and then you have to get the rpms up. Yamaha definitely screwed up the voltage regulation to the warmers and should have more juice heading their direction at much lower rpms. The engineering process was thoughtful as i imagine a japanese engineer sitting in his office thinking " well at this rpm the machine will go this fast and the wind will do this and at this temperature their hands will be warm...." Since this engineer likely has never seen snow or temps below zero he screwed the pooch....

My opinion is that this is a voltage regulation issue and would have cost yamaha HUGE money to have us bring them all in and get new electronics installed and since it was probably late in the 07' planning when they really discovered the warmers were an issue they just did the best they could without redesigning electronics... hence they gave us a little more heating element with same problem of not enough juice....

My fix: A combo of all the great ideas everyone on this board came up with.

Neoprene washers in between hooks and bars

Handguards w/rox extensions

and moved brake and throttle controls about .25 inch in ,towards the middle, away from heating elements to keep more of my hand on the heat

keep the rpms up and its fine.... drive slow and freeze.... My money says its 08' or 09' before its completely fixed and it will just so happen to come with a boost in HP for the engine...since they aint gonna dig into this motor and electronics and fix anything as long as they are sellin like hotcakes.....

just my 2 cents.... yell at me if you think i'm stupid.....

Did you take that memo from Japan off my desk !! LOL

 

[**sj**]

since the beginning I've thought the windshield is a big factor..

I'd love to see a poll of windshield height to warmer satisfaction

 

[monsterattak]

Here is my setup front view and my fingers stay toasty warm with 06' bars and neoprene washers at hooks. i rarely run warmers above half unless i am driving under 25 or 30mph for a long time....

as you can see in the pic the extended handguards pick up where the windshield falls short. this is with a 3.5 riser as well.....

 

[Doug]

I also have a strong feeling that the grips are not given enough voltage at low rpm's, and that along with the wind issue is why they suck. I am not happy with my 07 Attak, and it has the mid height windy.

I am now wondering if the alternators on these sleds is big enough. Why else would you have to be so worried about voltage management at low rpm's when the sled is already running?

 

[monsterattak]

Even a Positive Handwarmer post can't stay positive for long.... Yamaha loused this one up pretty good. You can bet when they fix this one it wont happen again very soon......

I am happy with my machine with the slight mods.... Its all good.... and heck if you're fingers get chilly once in while just hit the gas and warm em up and be thankful you're riding the cadillac of snowmobiles.