Pre-fab tube chassis for Apex - Interest?

[kinger]

Hello everyone,

I am toying with the idea of making sort of a pre-fab chassis out of 4140 chromoly that would allow anyone with a apex to swap over your drivetrain, motor, etc into a lightweight, strong tube chassis. It would probably utilize new body work from a Polaris pro or something like that to expand options to get carbon fiber panels, etc, as well as new front suspension based on a pro geometry as well so that expands the options we have for shocks/service, etc. The rear tunnel would be based on the viper 2 piece design but only come with the front half and that is it, allowing the builder to customize the length of the tunnel with either OEM or aftermarket tunnel replacements. This has been done before and not a new concept but they were all geared to Mountain set ups, this would be more for the die hard loyalists that have beat their stock chassis to a pulp and don't want buy a new one.

This would not be a 'kit' but it would try to do all the hard work so that a builder could start the swap themselves. It would still take some effort and talent to complete a build like this but this would eliminate say 200-300 hours off of a 400 hour build project.

The end would be a 4cyl sled probably in the 500-550lbs range and we get to keep that same great sound, reliability, and potential we all love.

Would anyone be interested in buying these raw chassis for around $4000-6000 each? I would probably limit the chassis to around 5-10 per year in order to ensure they are perfect from a quality standpoint.

My guess is this would be a $10-12K build for each person doing the builds for additional stuff you need to buy that you can't get from your apex. If you then sell those parts from your apex not used in the build it may get you back into a less then 10K sled. It all depends on the builder. This combo was picked because the parts are easy to source and there are many aftermarket options as well.

Thanks!

 

[HighSpeedLowDrag]

I have wanted to do this for a very long time, when Yamaha quit building sleds for me in the 98 model year the Redline chassis looked like the only acceptable replacement. However Polaris front suspension is still designed from automotive textbooks and not even close to meeting snowmobile requirements.

 

[gsxr]

Hello everyone,

I am toying with the idea of making sort of a pre-fab chassis out of 4140 chromoly that would allow anyone with a apex to swap over your drivetrain, motor, etc into a lightweight, strong tube chassis. It would probably utilize new body work from a Polaris pro or something like that to expand options to get carbon fiber panels, etc, as well as new front suspension based on a pro geometry as well so that expands the options we have for shocks/service, etc. The rear tunnel would be based on the viper 2 piece design but only come with the front half and that is it, allowing the builder to customize the length of the tunnel with either OEM or aftermarket tunnel replacements. This has been done before and not a new concept but they were all geared to Mountain set ups, this would be more for the die hard loyalists that have beat their stock chassis to a pulp and don't want buy a new one.

This would not be a 'kit' but it would try to do all the hard work so that a builder could start the swap themselves. It would still take some effort and talent to complete a build like this but this would eliminate say 200-300 hours off of a 400 hour build project.

The end would be a 4cyl sled probably in the 500-550lbs range and we get to keep that same great sound, reliability, and potential we all love.

Would anyone be interested in buying these raw chassis for around $4000-6000 each? I would probably limit the chassis to around 5-10 per year in order to ensure they are perfect from a quality standpoint.

My guess is this would be a $10-12K build for each person doing the builds for additional stuff you need to buy that you can't get from your apex. If you then sell those parts from your apex not used in the build it may get you back into a less then 10K sled. It all depends on the builder. This combo was picked because the parts are easy to source and there are many aftermarket options as well.

Thanks!

Good Day , did this idea ever go forward , I sure like the idea !

 

[trailanimal]

I would be interested, sounds like a great retirement plan.

 

[gsxr]

for sure