Yellowknife's 2006-2007 Season Odyssey on his Mountain Lite

[GypsyRoots]

No update on that part, it has not been released yet...

On another note, looks like one of my intake air pressure sensors is pooched! Sled is running like crap, showing code 13. I had it all thawed out and apart and checked everything visually, but can't get it to work properly.

Dealer is going to wipe the codes clean and test the sensor tomorrow morning. Looks like it might be down waiting for a sensor to be ordered...it doesn't run very well with the sensor not working.

Hey YK! I know you have the service manual and that you have probably already looked at it...but I figured it couldn't hurt to post.

Pages 7-9, 7-11 & 7-28 have info related to your problem...

Hope you get up and running soon!

GR.

 

[OST]

I really enjoy your posts Yellowknife ... thanks for takin the time ... too bad with the truck window and the stupid no-start of the sled ... did the driver wear his helmet to stay warm?

 

[Yellowknife]

Day 4: Well, day four was a rest day for my brother, and a yell at the phazer day for me. I put both the Gade and the Phazer in the shop and gave them both a full tune-up, top to bottom, only to have one problem - that problem was with the Phazer, and an air pressure sensor that is toast! It will run, but not very well, so I dropped it off at the dealer hoping they could fix it before we leave for Blachford Lake Lodge on Thursday morning. More on that in a second.

Day 5: Well, no Phazer to run right, so I 'steal' papasled's sled. lol

Gotta love mama and papa, always there to bail me out of a tight spot, lending me their only working sled...very, very nice of them. They're welcome to my sleds, provided they are actually working!

Anywho, today we rode 215 km's from 10am to 4pm. It was a great day of riding. We had fresh snowfall overnight that continued through the day, off and on. But the day didn't start without its share of 'usual' problems.

I picked up papasled's sled and took it home. I loaded up both sleds with spare fuel. Well, time to stiffen the suspension. Papa's sled, no problem. Renegade? Well, I almost lost my fingers when the spring let go off the adjuster block! I was cursing, all my tools 15 km's away at another house, and my truck in the shop for a new window and no transportation to get to my tools.

Okay, so I find a wrench and a rachet. Two seconds into 'trying' to loosen the bolt, the rachet snaps in half. Yes, in half. Holy old and cheap batman. Plan B - swear some more, then find another rachet. Got one and fixed the spring, finished loading up and we left. Phew!

We started by touring around Yellowknife Bay...

This is the causeway between old yellowknife and new yellowknife lol

This is the Snow King's Castle that he builds every year for kids...

These are some of the house boats on Great Slave Lake/Yellowknife Bay - hey, no property tax...

These are the planes at Air Tindi on ski's...

So we continued our ride outside of city limits to Jennejohn Lake...

Then over to Reid, then Hidden, and had lunch...

This is a...well...you guys can think of a name to call him...

He's definitely adopted. Okay...onto other things...we continued our riding to Prelude, Prosperous, then Walsh for 5 seconds, then Banting, down to Walsh at the south end, then Vee Lake, then around to Berry Hill...time to fuel up, etc....

Then from Berry Hill we went down to the west and ran the road back to Vee Lake then over to Walsh and across to Tartan Rapids, including some small hill climbing...

Someone can't ride in a little bit of snow it seems...LOL

So we end the day before Ford Closes so I can pick up my truck, new window and all. Looks good, then go to see if the Phazer is fixed. Well, theirs more problems...

Just like Papa said, not only am I waiting on steering components that will be warrantied from ice buildup and bending things from poor design...it also turns out one of the motor mounts came loose, the bolt spit into the primary clutch and damaged the sheaves, so they've ordered a new clutch on warranty as well...man...if its not one thing its another...I've had over $20,000 in warranty claims in 2.5 seasons on my Renegade...looks like the Phazer wants to give the Gade a run for its money...but that's not the only problem, as I figured, the air pressure sensor was fried, but, the good news is, the clutch is still operable, the motor mount is fixed, and in the morning they are taking another sensor off another new unit on the floor and sticking it on mine so I can take the Phazer on the Blachford Lake Lodge trip.

Knock on wood, but what else is going to break this week?

I'll have reports on Day 6 and 7 on Friday night. Cross your fingers for us! Nobody's got hurt yet. LOL

 

[rfabro]

Fun to read and look at! Thanx

 

[indy2007]

I love your posts and also great pictures! Thanks, Wilky! That twin otter on skis isn't Artic Sunwest Charters by any chance is it?

 

[Yellowknife]

That twin is Air Tindi, Sunwest was behind us in that pic. Glad you guys are enjoying the pics.

 

[indy2007]

Right on. Arctic Sunwest flys fuel, etc. out to Howard's Pass. Howard's Pass borders the Yukon-NWT border. It is where my wife works. Met a few of the pilots for Sunwest in our pub awhile back. Good bunch of guys!! I sure would like to sled out in that area! Again,Yellowknife, fantastic pics!!

 

[Yellowknife]

[quote name='Carolla' post='1191924' date='Mar 11 2007, 06:39 PM']
WOW !!!! That ice build up is BAD !! Yellowknife, I thought you covered the tunnel opening? How is it still icing?
....And what ended up being wrong when it was at the dealer?
[/quote]

Yep, the tunnel is closed, but the heat from the muffler alone still causes a huge mess, especially in deep powder. The swirl of snow collects around the muffler and melts, then forms ice further away from the muffler heat. It totally sucks, its a horrible design especially for a mountain sled. Put it this way, I will not buy another sled with a rear exhaust design like that, I don't care how good their motors or chassis are. It's too much of a hassle and a mess!

Okay, so here's an update to the end of the trip with my brother from Day 6 and 7:

The trip began by picking up the Phazer from the dealer...Carolla...there's lots wrong with it, most of it are problems that other people are having. First, the steering area fills with snow and it damaged the steering rods and boots. I'm waiting for new parts on that. Then one of the motor mount bolts came loose. The nut flew into the primary clutch and damaged it, so a new one of those is on order as well. 3rd, an air pressure sensor for one of the cylinders died, and they took one off a new unit from the floor to fix that, I was happy they did that so I could still take it on the trip, even with a damaged clutch and steering, it was still operable.

So we got the Phazer and trailered to Reid Lake...

We arrived and were greeted by the staff, its a beautiful lodge. They are pretty popular up here. The drive from the trailered area on sled was just under 90 km's (56mi)...

First thing we did was eat!

Then we headed out on the Thor Lake trail to Great Slave Lake down the East Arm and drove all the way to the East end of Blanchette Island...

Here's some abandoned quarters where they used to mine Berillium, and they will probably be re-opening in a year or two, and that's gonna make sparks fly I'm sure with environmentalists here...

This is Great Slave in the distance coming off the hill...

These are the cliffs, or the start of them along the East Arm of Great Slave Lake. Deepest Lake in North America or something like that? Not sure...

The Big Lake was rough...drifts like cement, it was slow going...we were half way back to the lodge when we realised we lost some gear off the rack of the Gade...so I take the Gade and race back to find the gear...it was almost all the way at the island where we turned around. I should be dead after riding 120 km/h on those cement drifts with the Gade. I swear I was in the air more than on the snow with that machine.

Back at the lodge, Rodney can't handle riding that much I guess...

That night was a great supper and hot tub relaxation. The next day we had breakfast and headed for unbroken trail...an old winter road...the snow out in this area is insanely deep by Yellowknife standards, we gave up and turned around after 3 miles of trail breaking...the Phazer sucks at breaking trail because it is too narrow....an awesome boondocker, yes...a trail breaker in tight quarters? No. It's too tippy and I get stuck when I end up heading right for the trees!

On the way back...

Now the Gade, It can break trail better than the phazer and stay on its two ski's...but we didn't bother swapping, we wanted to hit another trail, which turned out to be unbroken as well. The winds picked up to the point of freezing exposed flesh so the camera's were put away unfortunately, but the powder riding was amazing...5 feet of bottomless snow, I was in boondockers heaven.

That afternoon is was time to say goodbye to the lodge. I had to say bye to my good friend...

We headed back to the truck and the trip ended with only one thing broken...

Yes, a log jammed its way through the boggan and now I have a massive hole in it that needs repair.

I swear I should have my own segment on Snowtrax to make you all laugh with my mishaps.

Day 8, Rodney was too tired to ride, and his flight was leaving that afternoon. After he left, I was back on the sled that night heading to the wall tent, where Mama and Papa and Nate joined us on Sunday. I think I have a couple pics of that, but have to upload them later. There's a massive story behind this trip, but it didn't involve me and there's no pictures to support it. Basically 2 of my friends went to the tent without me Friday night and didn't have very good weather and no gps or maps, they got lost from 10pm to 5am before finding an old teepee to spend the night in. Upon daylight they found their way to the tent. Quite the experience for them. I say its charma...cause one of these friends is the one who left me stranded after my sled went through the ice last year and I had to rescue it and myself when HE was supposed to be out looking for me.

hehehe...what goes around....

 

[jp@weknowsnow]

more awesome adventures from YK!!

 

[Yellowknife]

ugh, I think my starter is fried!

 

[Yellowknife]

Yep, starter needs to be replaced. the housing came loose. That's all I know.

I'll be getting it back with the old starter till the new one arrives, and the new steering components are installed and the front end has been sealed with silicone to prevent snow from getting in, I will be interested to see how they did that when I pick it up in the next day or so. Still waiting on primary clutch to arrive. I'm really soaking up the warranty that's for sure.

 

[Yellowknife]

Well here's a couple pictures of the new front end being sealed off so that snow can not build up in the steering area, and after ample testing at warm temperatures, it works, however the true test will be next year at -40...and by then, I may have a new Yamaha Part on it to cure the problem, once that part is available that is.

See the white silicone...

Another shot...

Another issue possibly related to the new steering components is that my steering is very hard to turn, and it is very loose. This is the second time the steering has come loose like this. Of coarse now I have to dismantle the airbox and everything else around it to get at the steering components because that Frame A Protector is no longer removable with the silicone around it.

Driving the sled with the rear tunnel hole covered in 0 Degree Celcius (32 F) temperatures has the plastic hot, but not melting...yet. Stay tuned on that one. It does get hot at the warmer temperatures.

I have to install the rear suspension stiffeners, I picked them up yesterday, only available to Canada from what I hear. The suspension is far too soft even at its hardest settings, especially with a rack back there, a back pack, and 10 litres of fuel. Man a bigger fuel tank would be nice.

Not much else to say, engine is running great, and this thing doesn't miss a beat in the warmer temperatures and in the deepest powder I can find (flatland powder)...it takes its time to crawl through it, but it makes it! Momentum helps in the speed department through the thick snow.

Topping 5,500 km's (3,400mi) on her now, with about a month of riding left if all goes well. I've also put another 1,000 km's on the Gade, so I'm well over 10,000 km's (6,200mi) of riding this season alone.

We had our winter carnival (Caribou Carnival) last weekend, here's snow sno x racing pics from that...

And of coarse other riding adventures...

Throughout the spring/summer on this thread I will be updating it with various video clips from my 2006 - 2007 season. It'll be entertaining during the warm summer months.

 

[OST]

Great picture of the nests on the cliff Yellowknife.
Good to see you'e getting in plenty of time on the 2 sleds.
I've got half the miles on my sled as you do this season ... hope we get another three or four weeks of riding in.

 

[sniperviper]

Another issue possibly related to the new steering components is that my steering is very hard to turn, and it is very loose.

Take a look at your lower a-arms/ball joint are connected to spindle. It has been some problems with this parts causing steering hard to turn (have this from a yamaha mechanic) He told me that they had changed some lower a-arms cause of this problem and he also adviced me to lube all ball joint in the stearing.

 

[Yellowknife]

Thanks for the tip sniper, will do.

Ride Updates:

Week of March 24 to April 1:

Well, my buddy Chris came into town from Calgary to ride the Renegade for a week. I was off work, and we did the Caribou Carnival as you seen in the pictures, and each day we rode the sleds to various places with both the Renegade and the Phazer working at the same time. Who'd a thunk it?

Chris learned to ride on my 800cc, and had never driven a snowmobile before. What a sled to learn on, go big or go home right? Well, he did great...for the first few days anyway...then there was this moment...

Yes, he's not too impressed with himself in that photo. Seems he forgot to turn the handlebars and ended himself into a pile of branches! Good news was he was okay, and so was the sled. It was a humbling experience, and funny to boot.

Later on that day we were riding the North Arm in amazing amounts of snow. I have never done so much boondocking in one season in all my life, it helps having two sleds, no down time!! I recommend it.

Friday rolled around and we decided to trailer out and head to the wall tent. What an adventure, yet again.

Greg had something happen that I have never seen before in my life on a sled, and I'm curious to know if any of YOU have ever seen this. Our dealer has never seen it either. Take a look...

Yes, the secondary drive clutch heated up to the point of actually melting the aluminum (without breaking the belt) and completely sevoring the outer sheave of the secondary clutch. Greg said he was riding, could smell his belt suddenly, then had a black poof of smoke and stopped the machine. All we could say was thank god for clutch covers because that secondary could have smoked him right in the body.

Here you see the outer sheave busted off, totally sevored...

This is what remained of the secondary...

Unreal. His belt was in better shape than anything...

How the hell do you explain that? The dealer isn't sure...you would figure that perhaps the secondary was out of alignment, and the belt heated up to the boiling point...but at that stage the belt should slip and burn or break, instead the secondary started to melt until it became so weak that the outer sheave busted off. Unbelievable...just add it to the pile of experiences for the 2006 - 2007 season right?

Today was the Yellowknife Poker Derby...

The weather was windy, but we had a good turn out, 55 sleds.

And I am exhausted. 3 weeks off in the month of March really is tiring, but all that powder riding is worth it.