Hyfax - What's wrong with this picture? What's the solution?

[ReX]

Great news. Only thing I'm not sure of is why the 06's with there flap (straight down) also has problems with the hyfax wear. I do know that next time out I'll bend the flap down and see what happens. Thanks Rex.

We never had any trouble with the 06's (monoshock) for hyfax wear and we put a lot of miles on them (including this season).

I still think the 1" track and ride height must play a big part in the rapid hyfax wear I was getting with my 07 RTX (ProActive). With the ripsaw and lower ride height you may not need to touch the snowflap.

 

[Mikecam]

I remember reading you had to change a bushing on the front cross member. Any chance it was throttle side. I changed mine and put on about 200 miles and thought I would have a quick look. It's broken the flange part off again and on the same side. $50 each, last set was under warranty but this is getting stupid.

 

[ReX]

I remember reading you had to change a bushing on the front cross member. Any chance it was throttle side. I changed mine and put on about 200 miles and thought I would have a quick look. It's broken the flange part off again and on the same side. $50 each, last set was under warranty but this is getting stupid.

I think the throttle side lost the flange first and then a few 100 miles later the other side lost the flange.

I tried to replace them, but couldn't get any bushings since they were all back ordered. I had some custom machined out of oilite (oil impregnated bronze). They'll probably last the life of the sled and only cost me $40 for the pair. If I recall correctly I specified an ID of 25mm, an OD of 27mm, and a flange thickness of 2.5mm. McMaster-Carr sells a bushing that is close, except the OD is 30mm and has to be turned down to 27mm.

I guess there must be a problem with these failing prematurely. I don't see any reason mine broke like they did.

This season I didn't bother doing any warranty repairs (except the chaincase). I figured it wasn't worth the hassle and just repaired these minor things myself (front pivot arm bushings, idler wheels, hyfax, clutch alignment, sagging torsion springs and all scheduled maintenance).

 

[northernattak]

I have an 06 attak, changed tracks to fully clipped 1 3/4 finger track(challenger) replaced stock drivers with external/internal ski-doo 9 tooth and replaced sliders after 3200 km.

The big problem with tracks is not being fully clipped. the friction between rubber to plastic is much higher than steel to plastic as well the
yamaha drive system has to be so tight not to ratchet in deep snow

Go external drivers and fully clipped track, you won't be sorry.

also have a fully clipped 136 ripsaw I will sell. 1500 km on it.

 

[ReX]

If you read back through this thread you'll see my track is fully clipped.

I still can't fully explain why my sled was having such bad hyfax wear when others weren't.

At the time, the conditions weren't great, but they weren't terrible. My track was "just" tight enough to not ratchet much (still once in a while). My snowflap was stock. I still suspect it was something to do with setting up the sled with a slightly higher ride height that lead to both the need for the very tight track and ultimately the worn hyfax.

What I did and I can now say without a doubt it 100% fixed the issue was install anti-ratchet drivers so I could loosen off the track and then bent the snowflap down a fair bit so it sits lower. Both of these definitely made very noticeable improvements.

We just got back last night from doing the loop from Kirkland Lake, Timmins, Chapleau, Hornpayne, Hearst, Cochrane, and back to Kirkland Lake and almost all of the riding was either on virtually solid ice (refrozen snow), rock hard snow, or in the worst case mostly bare ground with patches of rock hard snow/ice every 20-50 feet. To be honest, most of the conditions looked awesome and were great to ride on. There just wasn't enough loose snow/ice chips to lube and cool the hyfax. There was only about 50 miles or so that I would consider very poor conditions.

My rad fan probably ran 25% of the time and 100% of the time when the conditions got bad, but my hyfax survived with a about 3mm left (before wearing through) and my engine temperature light never came on while riding (once after a short shut down, but then it went out after about 3 seconds of idling).

The Apex ER (fully punched and clipped Ripsaw with 48 studs) I was with on the other hand didnt fair so well. 3 pairs of hyfax worn out (2 right through), a pair of skis (worn through) and an overheating light that came on several times on the trials. After the 2nd pair of hyfax went we loosened off the idler wheels and made sure they were tightened at the lowest position and this helped a lot after that (hyfax wore to probably 0.5 to 1mm before breaking through and stopped there).

We put on over 1500km and my sled and I are still ready to go sledding if there was snow (although it appears my sled now doesn't really need much snow...).

 

[Mikecam]

Well Rex looks like there is a god. lol Very happy to hear she finally performed as intended.

 

[Another Phase]

We have done that same loop a number of times, usually last week of March to wrap up the season. Every year we run into the same type of snow conditions you are talking about.

After the first year, three of us installed ice scratchers to aid in cooling and lubrication. These things work. The next year, the guys with scratchers had no problems in the mornings (until the sun softens up the snow). The guys without had to buy sliders in Timmins and Kap at the Yammie dealers.

BTW we just did the trip week of Mar. 5th. We decided a few weeks early would be better this year and it was fantastic. Quite cold, but best trail conditions we have seen. only bad spot was the 20 km just going into Missinabie.

 

[ReX]

Well Rex looks like there is a god. lol Very happy to hear she finally performed as intended.

Yep, I'm very happy with my sled so far. For some reason I consistently got at least 10% better fuel economy than the ER as well as out performed it (probably at least partially the extra studs & shorter lug track).

Overall my RTX simply performed flawlessly on this trip in every way.

I still have to do a thorough inspection, but I had a quick look over it last night (including track, hyfax, wheels, studs, skis, carbides, oil level, chaincase, etc.) and everything I checked looks like its been ridden on some marginal snow conditions (skis/carbides especially), but is still in good shape.

The only thing I found so far (but I doubt really matters) is there are many small chunks of rubber missing from the inside center of the track from hitting the shock eyes. Structurally the track still looks perfect (no cut fibers, signs of stretching or loosening off). I forgot to look at the limiter straps last night (reading here it seems some 07 RTX's have been breaking them).