Test Pilots/guinea pig letter to Yamaha...

[Studroes144]

I do hafta agree on the belt dust. I continue to get belt dust, it isn't as bad as what it used to be, but I am not experiencing any type of slow speeds of lose of power. Could very well be the problem tho.

 

[journeyman]

144 The only difference between our sleds is your clutch set up so please share your setup. I put the 4th wheel kit on and an extra set on the outside in the middle of the rail. I have hit 95 one time with this sled but usually runs around 90 MPH. I also have the DuPont hyfax on the sled. My sled runs 8750 RPMs and I hit the rev-limiter ever once in awhile on takeoff but only on loose snow.

As long as your rpm is running close, a clutch kit will not benefit you for top speed, depending on how it is setup it will help you gain in the low-mid range pull. Top speed is ultimately about how much power you have and how freely your sled rolls. Being these sleds have more weight to them than the 2 strokes and the hp numbers are just average I've found the sled really needs some assistance in rolling freely. I know one of the big discussions before anyone even took possession of their vipers this past fall was what they were going to be able to do for top speed. Many guys didn't think they would even do 100 because it's not a low to the ground, fast chassis, which it isn't, if you talk with the cat guys they will tell you the same thing. With the 800 sleds they are able to get faster speeds because they have the extra hp to get over the speed hump. The DuPont slides and extra wheels helped mine a lot but the biggest reason I needed those was because the suspension is so stiff which drastically slows the sled down. With the softer torsion springs on mine that certainly helped both the launch of the sled and the speed because it was able to transfer weight better and when trying to get top speeds I had enough weight that I could get the suspension to sag a bit, center shock also should be loosened up for better speed. With that shock set soft along with the front shocks softened up it changes the approach angle of the track. The steeper the approach angle, the slower you will go, this causes a lot of rolling resistance. With the shock loosened up and as long as you can get some sag in your suspension the approach angle of the track will be much flatter thus resulting in not needing as much hp to push the track past that speed hump. I will say that the D&D clutch kit (or any other good clutch kit) makes the fun factor of the sled go up because it is actually putting the power and torque of the engine to the ground much quicker and shifting the clutches out faster resulting in the mid range increase

This might be the big ticket right here. As we know no matter what you buy there are really no two machines made equally. There just simply is going to be some minor differences. Any of us that has been around awhile have had the same machine as a friend or relative and one will be faster bone stock. That being said IMHO I think Yamaha has been more consistent in their tolerances than some others. Likewise I have never thought of Cat to having great quality control. We have a machine shop at my work and one of my co-worker friends is an avid Yamaha snowmobiler. He always pulls his skids, jackshafts, driveshafts, clutches...etc.. and trues all of them up on the lathe to gain a free rolling chassis. He has always told me that Yamaha's parts are more consistent than brand X. So being Cat built this machine ,other than the engine, there may be allot of inconsistency in the mentioned parts leading to the performance being all over the map.

 

[YamahaTim]

Very true!!

To bad we didn't get together this year as we live real close to each other. There are a few guys on here that are super close. Hopefully next year!

 

[journeyman]

Yes, looks like the season is pretty much done around here other than an occasional sloppy spin. I don't have any other plans of traveling either.

 

[YamahaTim]

Yes, looks like the season is pretty much done around here other than an occasional sloppy spin. I don't have any other plans of traveling either.

Neither do I. Just thinking to get to tether next year with the people around our area. Crap now I can't wait for next year!

 

[Studroes144]

For anyone that doesn't mind traveling come to beautiful tug hill and ride our trail system..we will be riding sled yet into April. It doesn't happen often that we have a winter like this one but many people have taken advantage of it. Last year on the first day of spring we go 2 foot of snow over night after we had lost basically all our snow. Prolonged our riding season by 2-3 weeks. Hoping for the same this year!

 

[journeyman]

For anyone that doesn't mind traveling come to beautiful tug hill and ride our trail system..we will be riding sled yet into April. It doesn't happen often that we have a winter like this one but many people have taken advantage of it. Last year on the first day of spring we go 2 foot of snow over night after we had lost basically all our snow. Prolonged our riding season by 2-3 weeks. Hoping for the same this year!

That would be a cool trip but not feasible for me or my group. The UP of Michigan is still good as far as I know and that is about a 6 hour drive for us. I already did that in Feb. so any traveling for me will have to involve the wife and kids......to a warm place though.

 

[YamahaTim]

For anyone that doesn't mind traveling come to beautiful tug hill and ride our trail system..we will be riding sled yet into April. It doesn't happen often that we have a winter like this one but many people have taken advantage of it. Last year on the first day of spring we go 2 foot of snow over night after we had lost basically all our snow. Prolonged our riding season by 2-3 weeks. Hoping for the same this year!

That would be a cool trip but not feasible for me or my group. The UP of Michigan is still good as far as I know and that is about a 6 hour drive for us. I already did that in Feb. so any traveling for me will have to involve the wife and kids......to a warm place though.

We all could just rent a ups DC-10 to fly our sleds out there and we will get a plane ticket and meet our sleds out there...should only be around 5000$ per person. That sounds good

 

[Studroes144]

U guys get a group to fly out and I'll pick u all up at the airport lol. Some of the best riding we have is from the middle to the end of March. Tug hill is a huge snowmobile tourist place in the winter so it's almost dangerous riding on the weekends. Too many crazy out of towners with more money than brains and zero common sense lol. This late in the year and the trails only have mostly locals on them and it makes for some beautiful riding on the 35 degree days when you gotta shed some layers to keep from sweating. Our last trip out last year I wore a thin hoodie, jeans, work boots, my tiny 4 wheeler gloves and helmet and we did 40 miles..trails were pretty much whooped but what a beautiful day that was. My goal for this spring is to put 10 miles on both my sled and motorcycle in the same day and maybe even take the wheeler for a few trips up the road

 

[BIG BLACK WARRIOR]

Back in 1971, before snowmobile clubs and groomed trails, I rode 20 miles on Tug hill on May 1st. It was in the vicinity of High Market. I was riding a 1969 Yamaha 350. That was the latest I ever rode Tug Hill. However I have rode many times well into mid April.

 

[Studroes144]

Yes the highmarket area is always known for their snowfall! The winters are certainly getting shorter and shorter tho it seems..snowmobile prices keep going up, gas keeps going up..all the prices for this sport keep going up and our riding seasons keep getting shorter and shorter..why is it again that we do this sport? Lol gotta love it cuz anything less than that and it wouldn't be worth doing.

 

[MorganKoda]

For anyone that doesn't mind traveling come to beautiful tug hill and ride our trail system..we will be riding sled yet into April. It doesn't happen often that we have a winter like this one but many people have taken advantage of it. Last year on the first day of spring we go 2 foot of snow over night after we had lost basically all our snow. Prolonged our riding season by 2-3 weeks. Hoping for the same this year!

That would be a cool trip but not feasible for me or my group. The UP of Michigan is still good as far as I know and that is about a 6 hour drive for us. I already did that in Feb. so any traveling for me will have to involve the wife and kids......to a warm place though.

We all could just rent a ups DC-10 to fly our sleds out there and we will get a plane ticket and meet our sleds out there...should only be around 5000$ per person. That sounds good

As much as I enjoy meeting new people to ride with, I'm out on the renting of a DC-10

 

[YamahaTim]

For anyone that doesn't mind traveling come to beautiful tug hill and ride our trail system..we will be riding sled yet into April. It doesn't happen often that we have a winter like this one but many people have taken advantage of it. Last year on the first day of spring we go 2 foot of snow over night after we had lost basically all our snow. Prolonged our riding season by 2-3 weeks. Hoping for the same this year!

That would be a cool trip but not feasible for me or my group. The UP of Michigan is still good as far as I know and that is about a 6 hour drive for us. I already did that in Feb. so any traveling for me will have to involve the wife and kids......to a warm place though.

We all could just rent a ups DC-10 to fly our sleds out there and we will get a plane ticket and meet our sleds out there...should only be around 5000$ per person. That sounds good

As much as I enjoy meeting new people to ride with, I'm out on the renting of a DC-10

Ya I was thinking about that...maybe we won't need a DC-10 we will just get a C-130, should only be 4,999 dollars that way per person! Does that sound better?

 

[MorganKoda]

For anyone that doesn't mind traveling come to beautiful tug hill and ride our trail system..we will be riding sled yet into April. It doesn't happen often that we have a winter like this one but many people have taken advantage of it. Last year on the first day of spring we go 2 foot of snow over night after we had lost basically all our snow. Prolonged our riding season by 2-3 weeks. Hoping for the same this year!

That would be a cool trip but not feasible for me or my group. The UP of Michigan is still good as far as I know and that is about a 6 hour drive for us. I already did that in Feb. so any traveling for me will have to involve the wife and kids......to a warm place though.

We all could just rent a ups DC-10 to fly our sleds out there and we will get a plane ticket and meet our sleds out there...should only be around 5000$ per person. That sounds good

As much as I enjoy meeting new people to ride with, I'm out on the renting of a DC-10

Ya I was thinking about that...maybe we won't need a DC-10 we will just get a C-130, should only be 4,999 dollars that way per person! Does that sound better?

As long as there is free booze on the flight I'm in!

 

[YamahaTim]

For anyone that doesn't mind traveling come to beautiful tug hill and ride our trail system..we will be riding sled yet into April. It doesn't happen often that we have a winter like this one but many people have taken advantage of it. Last year on the first day of spring we go 2 foot of snow over night after we had lost basically all our snow. Prolonged our riding season by 2-3 weeks. Hoping for the same this year!

That would be a cool trip but not feasible for me or my group. The UP of Michigan is still good as far as I know and that is about a 6 hour drive for us. I already did that in Feb. so any traveling for me will have to involve the wife and kids......to a warm place though.

We all could just rent a ups DC-10 to fly our sleds out there and we will get a plane ticket and meet our sleds out there...should only be around 5000$ per person. That sounds good

As much as I enjoy meeting new people to ride with, I'm out on the renting of a DC-10

Ya I was thinking about that...maybe we won't need a DC-10 we will just get a C-130, should only be 4,999 dollars that way per person! Does that sound better?

As long as there is free booze on the flight I'm in!

For sure that will be included! There's first class on a C 130...