"New" sled, first Sidewinder

[jzo88]

I want to preface this post by saying that this site/forum has been an outstanding resource over the past few years in terms of troubleshooting and/or general information on Yamaha sleds. Though I am just now creating a profile and creating my first thread, I want to extend my gratitude to those individuals that are active on this site and willing to contribute to the conversations that have been extremely helpful. My family has ridden Yamaha sleds my entire life, learned to ride on a 300 Enticer. We take annual trips to WI or MI to ride the trails, seldom riding off trail (never where not permitted), and never in the mountains.

I recently purchased my first turbo four stroke, a 2018 Yamaha Sidewinder RTX LE with roughly 1,700 miles. No engine tunes but I am already in love with the horsepower, this sled is a monster!

Upon reviewing the master list of known warranty items and issues, I am a bit overwhelmed with where to begin. The previous owner utilized a dealer for annual service including oil changes and chain case oil replacements, only warranty item was tightening the bolts on the turbo mount. I brought the sled in to a Northern WI dealer for inspection and warranty transfer, which I felt was not as helpful as it could have been, only reporting slightly low coolant and chain case oil levels and a missing fuse box cover.

Based on what I have read so far, my initial thought is to open of the chain case and check the top gear bushing and shifting fork pads. I have no indication that the prior owner addressed these concerns. For those that have experience with the 2018 winders, should this be my priority? Are there more pressing issues or concerns with this sled that should be addressed first? The prior owner did stud the track, including the outside without running a 4th wheel kit, which I promptly installed before riding and readjusted the track tension. Stock suspension setup to my knowledge.

Upon my initial short rides on the sled, the power appears to be there. I spooled it up several times going across Minocqua Lake getting 101mph on the speedometer in roughly 1/2 mile distances. What distances are guys finding the sled reach 118mph? I ran into the overheating issue while idling too long at the gas station, seemed to cure itself by speeding a bit more down the trail and finding better snow conditions. The ride was phenomenal aside from occasionally lifting a ski which I feel may be corrected with different carbides. Thank you in advance for your help!

Aftermarket Improvements
C&A Pro XPT Skis (installing Sniper Double Down carbides soon)
BOP Mechanical Power Steering Kit
Thunder Products Belt Adjuster/Removal Tool

 

[jzo88]

 

[Kuzzy]

Glad you like the sled. You will likely run into some headaches next season. These can be mitigated by doing maintenance through the summer instead of 3 weeks before the next season starts lol. Almost everything you run into you will find some answers on this site.

Question about the skiis, I bought some c&a xcs skiis and I fought to make them work but ultimately just went to a different ski. 1h ride and my arms were ready to fall off. Did the bop power steering kit eliminate the heavy steering?

 

[jzo88]

Glad you like the sled. You will likely run into some headaches next season. These can be mitigated by doing maintenance through the summer instead of 3 weeks before the next season starts lol. Almost everything you run into you will find some answers on this site.

Question about the skiis, I bought some c&a xcs skiis and I fought to make them work but ultimately just went to a different ski. 1h ride and my arms were ready to fall off. Did the bop power steering kit eliminate the heavy steering?

Agreed, I always try to be proactive with my off season maintenance so we'll see how much I procrastinate this year haha! When you say headaches, do you know specifically what may be an issue?

I had your concerns as well when I initially purchased the sled and almost bought a new set of Stryke skis as a safe replacement option. Previous owner gave me the stock tuners but I had no intention of putting those back on the sled. I wanted to give the C&A's a shot first though and found that they had minimal steering effort, which I would attribute to the BOP steering kit. More effort than an Apex with EPS but still significantly less than I was expecting. I imagine the Double Downs will help with this additionally since I'm currently running a Woody's single runner. Not sure if there would be a huge differences between the C&A XPT's and XCS's as well.

 

[Confused]

Great looking sled. I personally wouldn't worry about the top gear until after this season, unless you plan on putting on 2-3k miles this year.

I'm sure you have found it but check this thread and start working your way through the items. The old "an ounce of prevention......." prevails with these beasts.

MASTER Sidewinder issues list and known fixes

Curious of people agree we need a master list of issues for SW and any known fixes. Keep adding to this and I can update the first post as needed. If you disagree with a percentage of impact once 2 or more user agree I will update the post. Format: Issue – What happens – Probability of...

ty4stroke.com

 

[fxnytrortxkid]

Xpt and xcs are huge difference. Xcs is a mini snow cross/cross country ski, and the Xpt is a less aggressive version of the razor trail ski. I run xcs on mine and love the fact it always turns. But I wouldn’t hesitate to run Xpt and enjoy little lighter steering.

As far as maintenance at that mileage your shift forks should be plenty fine and your top bushing aswell. Just enjoy this season then check top gear, the screws on chaincase roller and tac weld them in, and keep eye on the turbo bolts when you do that service work to make sure they are still tight. That’s the big stuff really. And check all your clamps every season

 

[fxnytrortxkid]

As far as c&a aside from what some consider heavy steering they handle amazing, make sure toe is correct, make sure you have good shock preloads too as far as a balance between center shock and ski shocks. That will help also with things.

 

[jzo88]

Great looking sled. I personally wouldn't worry about the top gear until after this season, unless you plan on putting on 2-3k miles this year.

I'm sure you have found it but check this thread and start working your way through the items. The old "an ounce of prevention......." prevails with these beasts.

MASTER Sidewinder issues list and known fixes

Curious of people agree we need a master list of issues for SW and any known fixes. Keep adding to this and I can update the first post as needed. If you disagree with a percentage of impact once 2 or more user agree I will update the post. Format: Issue – What happens – Probability of...

ty4stroke.com

I appreciate your help, from what I've heard regular maintenance on the chain case goes a long ways in keeping things moving. My thought was to wait until the off season and replace the top gear with the DMC version along with their shifting fork pads just to be safe. One less thing to worry about at that point I would hope!

 

[jzo88]

Xpt and xcs are huge difference. Xcs is a mini snow cross/cross country ski, and the Xpt is a less aggressive version of the razor trail ski. I run xcs on mine and love the fact it always turns. But I wouldn’t hesitate to run Xpt and enjoy little lighter steering.

As far as maintenance at that mileage your shift forks should be plenty fine and your top bushing aswell. Just enjoy this season then check top gear, the screws on chaincase roller and tac weld them in, and keep eye on the turbo bolts when you do that service work to make sure they are still tight. That’s the big stuff really. And check all your clamps every season

Yep, I'm sure the bushing and forks are fine, just thinking it may be better to swap them out with a more sturdy replacement so I don't have to worry about it again for a while. Good excuse to weld up the chain case roller screws while I'm in there!

 

[rtx moose]

Don't think you will have any problems..all these problems you here about I would say the top gear bushing and flat spots on the secondary rollers may need attention..I have 2 sidewinders and I have not had any of the problems that people are talking about..not all sleds have problems!!!enjoy the beast

 

[rtx moose]

Also I have skidoo pilot skis and steering is effortless!!

 

[Kuzzy]

Lots of people use the bop drive shaft saver, I'm one of them. I also run the dmc to gear, but I suspect that the prevost bushing that TD sells is just as good. If you are thinking about doing these things in the future, buy them now, that way if you end up tearing into the chain case you will have them on hand and not be down during peak riding.

Saying that, if you are mechanically inclined, for a weekday evening of putzing around and some oil, and the parts on hand, it would serve you well to pull it apart and get to know things a bit better. The rockerdan sled build thread has a crap ton of good info, you just need to sift through it a bit. He also has some good YouTube videos.

I had about that many km and my top gear bushing was completely shot, and the reverse gear on the center shaft was cracked. I use reverse quite a bit in the first year. Not trying to scare you here at all, tons of people gas and go without issues, but some of us are maybe a bit hard on things lol.

 

[jzo88]

Don't think you will have any problems..all these problems you here about I would say the top gear bushing and flat spots on the secondary rollers may need attention..I have 2 sidewinders and I have not had any of the problems that people are talking about..not all sleds have problems!!!enjoy the beast

It's like WebMD or googling your symptoms, five minutes of reading through the master list of problems and I'm convinced my sled has cancer haha!

 

[jzo88]

Lots of people use the bop drive shaft saver, I'm one of them. I also run the dmc to gear, but I suspect that the prevost bushing that TD sells is just as good. If you are thinking about doing these things in the future, buy them now, that way if you end up tearing into the chain case you will have them on hand and not be down during peak riding.

Saying that, if you are mechanically inclined, for a weekday evening of putzing around and some oil, and the parts on hand, it would serve you well to pull it apart and get to know things a bit better. The rockerdan sled build thread has a crap ton of good info, you just need to sift through it a bit. He also has some good YouTube videos.

I had about that many km and my top gear bushing was completely shot, and the reverse gear on the center shaft was cracked. I use reverse quite a bit in the first year. Not trying to scare you here at all, tons of people gas and go without issues, but some of us are maybe a bit hard on things lol.

Yep, definitely want to open up the chain case myself and get comfortable with it. I've had a number of them apart before, just not one on a Sidewinder. I appreciate the insights though, good to know what others have dealt with on these sleds!

 

[Bigblue1]

Yep, definitely want to open up the chain case myself and get comfortable with it. I've had a number of them apart before, just not one on a Sidewinder. I appreciate the insights though, good to know what others have dealt with on these sleds!

Congrats on new to you sled. I run C&A skis and if you set up properly utilizing small incremental adjustments on center shock you will find the happy zone. It takes some time at first but steering will be easy yet precise. Favorite sled I have ever owned once you figure out the maintenance routine.