Plastic Push Pins!!!

[yamahinn03]

Finally got snow to ride around home, was up north for the week before. Rode Thursday nite left home got about 2 mi out an felt alittle slip, hmmm, kept riding, got worse, lots of snow dust an drifts, thought maybe just snow comn in, clutches gettn wet. Got worse to the point had to stop an sit for a couple seconds before I could go again. Got to destination called wife to bring new belt from garage, forgot to put spare on sled, oops. Ride home same thing
Took sled to buddies shop last nite to thaw out. Went over today to clean clutches an figure out what was goin on. Put on stand an the first place looked was undeneath. Huh problem found, skid plate gone, snow was coming in fromthe bottom. Luckily my son was out riding today so I called an told him to watch for it. He called me back 5 minutes later an said he found it!!
I hate those plastic push pins!!! All good now!!

 

[Mountaintech]

That scenario is starting to become more frequent nowadays, especially back east.

 

[Hooray!]

If you are going to run the just the stock skid plate (aka snow protector), you can get some c-nuts at the local hardware store and put in ss bolts, done, no more stupid push pins! You were lucky to find it. I just added a 3/16" aluminum plate over mine between outer accessory skid plate as there is zero protection from a hit with the snow protector. MountainTech makes a beautiful machined skid plate as do a few other guys here, BOP has one as well. Another Nytro weak link... but love these sleds once sorted.

 

[yamahinn03]

Pic of the one you just added would be great!!

 

[Hooray!]

Pic of the one you just added would be great!!

See page 8 of my front end + rebuild thread and there are more details. Pic below is what I bought at local Ace hardware and decided not to use the Yamaha skid plate install kit. It uses those star style nuts that end up spinning when you tighten them and are a pain to remove second time. The Ace c-nuts and 1/4" ss bolts and fender washers work great.

 

[Mountaintech]

See page 8 of my front end + rebuild thread and there are more details. Pic below is what I bought at local Ace hardware and decided not to use the Yamaha skid plate install kit. It uses those star style nuts that end up spinning when you tighten them and are a pain to remove second time. The Ace c-nuts and 1/4" ss bolts and fender washers work great.

View attachment 145458

Those are U nuts and the fasteners that Yamaha uses are known as rivnuts. Ace sells the U nuts in 6mm which work good with 6mm stainless buttoned fasteners.That keeps everything metric. The plastic skid plate is still inadequate however.

 

[Hooray!]

Those are U nuts and the fasteners that Yamaha uses are known as rivnuts. Ace sells the U nuts in 6mm which work good with 6mm stainless buttoned fasteners.That keeps everything metric. The plastic skid plate is still inadequate however.

U Nuts, agree (thinking "C") The stock snow deflector is just that, not for protection and even the Yamaha skid plate is junk. Must be 3/16" plate or better, your skid plate is a prime example of how to do it.

 

[Mountaintech]

U Nuts, agree (thinking "C") The stock snow deflector is just that, not for protection and even the Yamaha skid plate is junk. Must be 3/16" plate or better, your skid plate is a prime example of how to do it.

Thanks. Very important to protect the lower edge of the heat exchanger as well. Snag that and pull it back and the sled is a write off.

 

[Deeppow16]

Thanks. Very important to protect the lower edge of the heat exchanger as well. Snag that and pull it back and the sled is a write off.

I can tell you that it really sucks when that happens. Even your skid plate wasn't a match for the stump I found but it was a hell of a hit. I more so landed on it instead of running into it. I think if I would have run into it instead of landing on it then it would have saved my sled.

 

[Hooray!]

I can tell you that it really sucks when that happens. Even your skid plate wasn't a match for the stump I found but it was a hell of a hit. I more so landed on it instead of running into it. I think if I would have run into it instead of landing on it then it would have saved my sled.

I saw your pics last year of that stump! Crazy hit. I just made a homegrown 3/16" alum plate sandwich between snow protector (useless) and the factory skid plate. A few vendors here with CNC machines have done a fantastic job, mine took me a few hours Saturday to fabricate. I think I extended back only 1/2" over that lip, maybe could have gone another 1/2"... but I think I am protected. The U-nuts I installed last year worked great with the 1/4" ss hardware, solid now.