Ice/Snow Buildup in Tunnel

[sxmatt]

Anybody found a way to stop the buildup of snow and ice in the tunnel of the 4 strokes. I am not excited to have a lot of weight added to the sled which is already on the heavy side.

Thanks
Matt

 

[Tork]

The rear heat exchanger helps. Even though the Apex has a radiator, I might put on the rear piece to help with that. I have done a bunch of googles to find some sort of coating that ice and snow wont stick to but so far not much luck

 

[KbxSrx]

not that you may want to do this yet, but if you go to an Ekholm one piece tunnel, the rear deck has 'divots' in it, and for whatever reason snow doesnt stick when you do this. We have a huge heat exchanger in them too, same as the tunnel extensions. If you can get some divots in it should fix your problem.

 

[Bakemono]

Does Yamaha install any kind of heat shielding between the tunnel and the exhaust?
If not, that might be a possible solution to at the very least reduce the amount of ice/snow buildup.
Cap'n

 

[ironviper]

instead of putting divets in the tunnel maybe you could rivet a peice of material with divets in it to the tunnel or some kind of non stick plastic or teflon.

 

[yamaha22]

i found after a ride if i put it in rev and back up before i shut it down for the night that it cleans it out real good

 

[Tork]

instead of putting divets in the tunnel maybe you could rivet a peice of material with divets in it to the tunnel or some kind of non stick plastic or teflon.

Draw it and ken will build it! Seriously KBX, what do you think? Could be a good idea. Heat shield is gone I think the 03 sleds had them but they rattled

 

[flyingpig]

How does all this snow build up if the exhaust system is just above the tunnel?

 

[Bakemono]

Flyingpig, I think what happens is the snow hits the tunnel and melts and then in the morning you have all this ice when the water refreezes.
Last winter a few people on HCS complained of ice/snow build-up under their tunnel.
Cap'n

 

[Phantom]

How does all this snow build up if the exhaust system is just above the tunnel?

If it is cold enough (read most of the time) the heat of the exhaust is no match for the snow especially riding in mixed condtions (ie. trails with some powder fields mixed in) the powder gets up in the tunnel and sticks around the exhaust and before it melts you are out on a trail at 60-70 MPH... instant ice.
Last year while at my camp for a month with no garage to deice my sled after a few weeks I gained about 75 lbs in ice before I realized why the sled handling like crap. I wraped the sled in a tarp and used a catalytic heater to defrost the tunnel and all was well.

 

[ecopter]

With the heat/melt/freeze affect by the exhaust in the tunnel, I bet this is a problem. Several times on my SRX (only when it was extremely cold), the ice would build up in the tunnel after melting off of the front heat exchanger. Man, when that let loose it would literally scare the crap out of me.

I suppose I'll fabricate something to carry with me in the trailer that I can attach to a bottle torch and melt the stuff off after the ride.

Jon

 

[Tom-RX1]

wellcome to the rear cooling system every liquid cooled sled i have owned has had the same thing . RX1 has the exhast to melt snow as well so more water thus more ice on all the steel parts .
Tom-RX1

 

[APEX 21]

I had the same issues with my 03 RX-1. When we would stop my buddies same my sled crapped the most snow(dropping snow). I never really had a problem with icing up because I cleared the track of snow before parking it. Hold the rear in the air and spin the track a bit. Once when I didnt clear it, I iced up some of my idlers on a cold Canadian morn.
My old crappy kitties had the same problem, but builded up huge ice chunks that scared the begebers out of me.

 

[Tork]

With the heat/melt/freeze affect by the exhaust in the tunnel, I bet this is a problem. Several times on my SRX (only when it was extremely cold), the ice would build up in the tunnel after melting off of the front heat exchanger. Man, when that let loose it would literally scare the crap out of me.

I suppose I'll fabricate something to carry with me in the trailer that I can attach to a bottle torch and melt the stuff off after the ride.

Jon

Hey Jon, Ron (BLUEDOG) told me you had a nice conversation recently and that you do emergency evac helocopter piloting is that correct? Tell us more about that.

 

[Convert]

There was a post on this problem last year if i recall someone said to spray some silicon on the inside of the tunnel before you ride keeps the snow from sticking