The Rockmeister Express

[4strokelover87]

Dang!!! That's too bad, Rock!!! Sorry to see you're now back in DISassemble mode....atleast the chaincase, driveshaft, etc doesn't all have to come back out!!! Good luck with the relocation!!!

 

[Rockmeister]

Never, ever land your sled like this...

what would be especially concerning would be if you also saw your track in front of your bumper like that!

Hahahahaaa! No kidding!

 

[Rockmeister]

Dang!!! That's too bad, Rock!!! Sorry to see you're now back in DISassemble mode....atleast the chaincase, driveshaft, etc doesn't all have to come back out!!! Good luck with the relocation!!!

It's ok, like being on the Starship Enterprise with a new woman...
Talk about unexplored territory... lol

Will let you know how it goes tonight!

 

[kinger]

Good luck Rock, get that baby ready and drive the snot out of it in MI!

 

[04rxw10]

Rock I have numbers for snow on sunday now they are calling for a minium of a foot of snow.

But I know you your heading north to ride.


OH ya Rock the WHOREDOG Express looks good

 

[westbaycustoms]

i am in the process of installing extroverts, i do have a m10 , not that that makes a differance with my ?, the front shaft/mount point of the suspension is very close to the stock drive has anyone had problems with extroverts hitting

 

[Rockmeister]

i am in the process of installing extroverts, i do have a m10 , not that that makes a differance with my ?, the front shaft/mount point of the suspension is very close to the stock drive has anyone had problems with extroverts hitting

Did you read the thread you posted in?

The reason I say this, is because the topic was just covered prior to your posting.
More info will be forthcoming.

 

[niko]

check out my old posts on the reverse e brake its all there!!

 

[Rockmeister]

Re-locating skid back 1".

Shows the major difference in the suspension bushings from skid to skid.

The left is an oil impregnated bronze bushing from the doo skid.
Right is the thin plastic bushing from the Yammi skid.
The long bushing on the left also helps locate the hole and to get the bolt installed when installing the skid, without risk of damaging the threads.

Drilled out all rivets and removed the prior installed mounting plates.
Fabricated new mounting plates for inner/outer front mount, and outer rear mount.

Removed factory inner front mount plates.

You can see where the wear is from the thin plastic bushings giving way and allowing the front arm to rub on the mount.
These mounts have a great feature, they help align the front arm when installing skid.

Test fitting the left rear mounting plate.

Can use the existing mount bracket using one of the existing holes as a mounting hole.

New outer rear stiffener plate.

This will re-enforce the tunnel and give the mount a finished look.

Inside view of left rear mount after riveting.

Had to cut 1/4" off the top of the plate after moving the plate back, due to the angle of the tunnel.

Almost finished with outside of left rear mount.

The new stiffener plate covers the existing holes in the tunnel and stiffens the assembly.

New outside front mount stiffener plate.

The angle matches the existing angle of the tunnel plates.
This plate ties together the tunnel, heat exchanger, and the new inner plate.
All stiffener plates are 1/8" 6061 aluminum, unless otherwise noted.

New inside front mount stiffener plate before rounding of edges.

Rounding the edges helps prevent the plate from cutting through the tunnel material.

Inside stiffener plate of left front mount.

Note how I re-used the factory guide/plate.
This makes it much easier to install the skid.
Doesn't hurt to make it a bit tougher either! lol
This plate overlaps with the factory stiffener plate at the front outside of the tunnel and the new outside stiffener plate, tyeing them together.

Outside view of left front mount with new stiffener plate.

Decided to go with a larger stiffener plate, probably wasn't needed, but just in case.
Finally found some large head Stainless Rivets!
Yeah! Tough.

Test fit the skid.
THIS was fun...
By myself...
In the middle of the night...
Look at alignment...
Raise sled a bit...
Too much... dammmmm...
Down a bit...
Get back down, look again...
Too much...
Adjust again...
Oooo! Got it!
(Didn't happen in this few cycles in real life... this is the short story...)
Now... do it 3 more times... :exc:

Cycled suspension to check for possible interference. Looks great!
Installed shocks and torqued all fasteners.

Re-located the rear most of the two sets of idler wheels at the front of the skid, to the back of the skid in front of the rear wheels..
This evened out the idler spacing for now without requiring more wheels at this point.
Will see how it does on the test ride!

Checked track tension, took for test ride, re-adjusted track tension.

Buffed out spots in paint.

Hmmmm... What else... Think that's enough for now!

 

[Rockmeister]

check out my old posts on the reverse e brake its all there!!

Thanks niko!
Appreciate the ideas!

Hey Jake! You riding yet?
I am...
Ditto for Scott...

 

[Rockmeister]

ON THE SNOW!!!

Steve 05 RX-1 and myself went out Saturday trail riding, had a blast
Trails were mostly great and the suspension did well!

Few things need fine tuned on it yet...
Definitely need heavier springs, these do ok for now, but have the preload at max to compensate for the load of the sled.
So the rear suspension is stiff in the small stuff, and a bit soft in the rough stuff. Think with heavier springs and lighter preload, can reverse this.
Overall, the skid is a huge improvement!
It was about comparable with the mono skid, at a lower weight and without fine tuning yet.

Will check with some friends with doos and see what they think. Ideas?
Anyone have some doo springs I can try or would suggest?
Is slightly underdamped, unfortunately the guy I purchased the skid from had lied, and it didn't have the rebuild-able shocks, anyone have some?

Still, it does very well! Pushed it hard, with no issues!
Also did great in powder, noticed no trenching, just climbed right on top.

Notice a few other things.
After riding Steve's sled, my throttle pull is hard, his was finger light.
Will figure that out this week.

My steering still has a slight "grab" to it, think one of my shims is tight, will need to look into.

Steve's' gf graciously puts me up for the night.
Here I am fully expecting simply a warm couch, and am ok with that.
I get there and she has me all set up with a real full size mattress, comforter set, the works!
Thank you! *bows to her*
I fall over dead, if I snored, only the rest of the world knew about it...

Woke to this Sunday morning...

Gotta love it!
Steve's NOS rocket on the left, Rockmeister Express on the right.
Good thing you have Nitrous dude... lol

What a great way to start your day!
Radically better than Folgers...

Sent a message to Superman, managed to save him from a day of C-mas wrapping drudgery and drug him outta the house... lol

So off Steve, Rockmeister, and Superman go!
Superman takes us cross-country to a location we all knew, but Superman knew the way cross-country.
What a BLAST!

We are flying across a looooong virgin field of 18" + powder...
Awesome!
This is the stuff Snowmobile dreams and Videos are made of...

End up doing alot of great fields and pipelines with tons of powder.

That's Steve waaaaaaaaaaay over there on the pipeline.

Is snowing pretty good.

Steve doing some great carving, he was throwing the RX-1 around like it was nothing!

Best pic I got and it doesn't do him justice.

Left to Right, Superman, Steve, and the Rockmeister Express.

You just HAD to see Superman on his Phaser Mountain...
I have no pics of him riding, and I'm not sure anything but a video would do him justice!
He is poetry in motion in the deep stuff, it's like watching an incredibly choreographed dance, he just "flows".
Fascinating to watch him.

Thanks a bunch guys! Had a blast as always!

Ya know... even a bad day snowmobiling, really isn't all that bad, and this was awesome!
We did find out why he goes by Superman...
He can fly! Or leap! Or something! LMAO

Superman took us to a play area with large bowls, couldn't help but dive into one!
It swallowed me... lol
After a bit of digging and stomping down snow, Steve helps me drag the sled around and I climb out the other side. Thanks dude.
Haven't really been in a bowl since NY, pretty cool!
Superman laughs and says "look down there".
I look and it's a bowl 10 times the size (depth anyway) of the one that just ate me!
Hmmmmm... Not today...

Steve holding me up again... LMAO

Get out of my way! I have a bowl that wants to eat me! laffin
Note the "What now?" look...

Gotta love this...

How's that for inviting?

Noticed a major ice build-up under the tunnel from the under tunnel exhaust.
The arrow shows a bit of it hanging in this pic.

It got worse than this.
Probably had 100lbs (guesstimate) of ice on the skid and in the tunnel.
Will have to figure out how to run the exhaust out from under the tunnel...

Few notes:
New Green Silver Green primary spring got my RPMs to about 10,400 at 80MPH+.
(Was 9800 or so, at same speed, with old spring.)
At speeds lower than that, it is about 9500 or so.
(Not gonna look too long at the Speedo/Tach at those speeds... lol)
Steve believes he has the solution for the low RPM at full throttle at lower speeds, with the weights, going to try that next.
What have you guys run into?

Still have the slight stumble off idle when nailing the throttle, it has something todo with the jetting/tuning, is NOT a dirt issue.
Ideas?

Did a working field test of the new handwarmer controller this trip.
Just plugged it in, and it worked perfectly!
Nice having warm hands...

Should have field test units out hopefully yet this week.
Most of my parts came in while I was gone.
They have to be military spec parts for the temperature range we operate in.
Not cheap or real easy to get, but necessary to guarantee operation when you need warmth the most!

Next, fine-tuning mods, and other new mods!

 

[kinger]

Awesome post Rock!

Not much to add for some of your questions but the stumble off idle and when you punch it might come from your needles, I adjusted mine to 3.5 clips to compensate for a lean pop at low rpms through town and it did that stumble not much bout a 1/2 second blah, then rip. I moved them back to 3 clip position and its gone but the lean pop is not at 5000 rpm...phuck it I just run over 5000 rpm now LOL


On you rskid I had similar issues with the edge and found it was 1/4" off from perfectly level, relocated the front arm and viola fixed all issues.

If you find your spring works on doos with guys bigger then you before spending the money try to check for level in relation to the tunnel. This is hard to do and will require some guess work. I laid out my skid on the cement and measured where the rail leaves the ground from the curve near the front and marked that spot. Then I had to bolt mine up wth no track on and make sure the rail was touching the ground with even pressure from that point back. (LED flashlight will help see gaps) This is still not perfect because the skid coudl be touching but it may not have equal pressure on all spots, but i figure its good'nuff. ahicks may be able to give you some tips on centering and mounting the skid if you need more. He hasne't done a doo but did a poo skid like mine was.

On the controller, woo hoo! My hands froze this last weekend and cant wait!

 

[rxrider]

Exactly where are you dumping the exhaust?

 

[kinger]

Hey rock how loud is that exhaust the way you have it set up, like insane or just a mild increase? I would love to get rid of my exhaust after getting it stuck this weekend. God dang that thing is heavy in 4' of snow!

 

[Rockmeister]

It is reasonably quiet, more throaty than stock.
Has a street bike sound to it, but deeper.
Without the baffle it is too loud though.

Rode with Steve this weekend, he has a Hindle exhaust, it is much quieter than the Hindle.

Would wait until I get the ice issue fixed.
WIth the icing, there is no weight loss gain, was much heavier with the ice build-up.
Am thinking piping it out back to each rear corner maybe that would cut down the icing issue.

Looking to have a Bar Warmer Controller out to you by the end of the week!
With Christmas and all, it's a really busy week!