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


Yellowknife said:
It fired up at or below -30 C for you without being plugged in?

Yes, I doubt it was above -30C in the shed. Day time highs were -32C or so and lows were -42C and the shed is just that.

I have 1300 km on it now, and its only seen 91 Octane. I will take out the video camera one of these mornings this week. Were still seein freezing cold.

-Steve
 
BV1,

That is interesting cuz I had a hard time last weekend starting both days, and it was in basically the same condtions.

But......... I did discover later that my battery cables were lose so that might have something to do with it.
 
^^
Did it end up running for you last weekend? Sure was cold eh :)

I just started mine and shut it off to see if it would start, too cold to enjoy riding lately.

-Steve
 
Ya it was really cold out. I did get it started both days. On Sat it requred alot of cranking. On Sunday I used a heat gun on the oil tank.

I'm hoping that the loose battery cable was the problem. If not I'm going to get the coolent heater installed next time it's in for service.
 
Well I got my rack! I will install it Friday evening and take pictures. I sized it up outside for the heck of it, and it's going to be the perfect size to take full advantage of the tunnel on the Mountain Lite. Anyone wanting a rack for their Mtn Lite will want to see this! Stay tuned!!
 
Rack Installation

I ordered a rack from www.royaldistributing.com

Part Number: 12-361
Price: $137.95 Canadian

4 bolts. 4 holes. That's it.

I drilled the 4 holes and tightened the rack down with bolts and locknuts. There's quite a bit of flexibility on how far away from the exhaust, or how close to the exhaust you mount the rack. Since the rack itself is raised, you can mount it right up to the exhaust if you want, and your gear will be clear enough overtop of the exhaust gases that anything in the rack won't melt. I positioned the rack where I did as a trail basis. It's ideal, in that I can put fuel in the rack and even strap a bag in between the bars on top of the tunnel itself. I kept the rack install as far back as possible to allow for extra capacity, and to avoid placing the rack in the way of the rear tool box.

If I thought this thing did wheelies before, with 5 gallons of fuel way back there, she's going to pop up for sure! LOL

Enjoy the pictures. Looks a little wonky, but for the distance I cover and no fuel stations in the middle of the bush, I needed a rack. I've been depending on others to carry spare fuel for me up to this point, and carrying my gear on my back has sucked! Next on the agenda, finding a hitch that will fit.

Drill Holes:
PICT0001.jpg


Begin Mounting Rack:
PICT0004.jpg


PICT0005.jpg


PICT0007.jpg


PICT0008.jpg


PICT0009.jpg


PICT0011.jpg


PICT0012.jpg


PICT0013.jpg


PICT0014.jpg
 
February 3, 2006 Ride

Went exploring with the GPS down some old Seismic Trails. Found some great powder and had a great day of riding. It's been a very cold week since, but -40 or not, Saturday and Sunday some of us are riding. Here's a few pics from last weekend...

Stand on your sled?
Allan.jpg


Get pushed off...lol
RayAllan.jpg


Seismic Station, one of many...
SeismicStation.jpg


Ray on his AC...
Ray-1.jpg


Mark's Polaris died this week...engine needs rebuilding...
Mark-2.jpg


and...Lindsay on her new rev...
Lindsay2.jpg
 
Nice pics, YK, as always..

I would be concerned about carrying gas or anything heavy of the like in the
rear most section of that rack. I think that the weight combined with the leverage, adding moguls, and you're going to find problems with the mounting crop up quick. Not sure on the integrity of the tubing that you are mounted to, so keep a close eye on it all.

Not dissing your work, just an observation.
 
Yeah I'm speculating the same thing...the rack may have to be moved towards the exhaust, or I may just stiffen the tunnel underneath if I have issues, that being said, the tunnel is far stronger than I thought. I was jumping up and down inside the rear rack. I'll start with smaller loads, 2 or 3 gallons of fuel, etc and see how that goes. The tubing is mounted fairly well, and I went through the tunnel as well on the two front mounting bolts.
 
I just got back from my first trip from the UP of Michigan and experienced much the same with this machine. I am a backwoods boondocker rider and this machine is incredible. Great flotation, awsome bottom grunt, nimble handleing in the deep. The thing I don't like is the build up of snow in the footwells and the ice forming on my pants. I am goint to cut much of the handle off of a rubber mallet and put it in my back pack to smack the underside of the boards to ger rid of the mess. Other than those 2 things I think it is the best sled I have ever taken in the deep woods, Lenny
 
Today's ride featured cool temperatures and sun!

And it was a chance to test the new rack. I loaded the rack with my back pack, and placed a 3 gallon fuel can on the tunnel in between the bars...
PhazerLoadedRack.jpg


With our rough trails up here, it proved to be interesting to say the least. The problem in fact was NOT that the tunnel isn't strong enough, at least at this point in testing...the problem is that the suspension is too soft!

I had everything set as stiff as it goes, and in the rougher trail, you can see how easily this would happen...
GregBottomedOutPhazer.jpg


I was bottoming out too easily. The fuel is as close to the front of the sled as it can get, so there's two options here. Drive very slowly in rough trail until I can dump my spare fuel into the gas tank, OR get stiffer springs and/or shocks.

I'm impressed at how strong the tunnel actually is, but the suspension is way too soft at best to handle that kind of weight back there. Next ride I'm only going to put 2 gallons of fuel back there and see if that is much better. Sure is nice not to have to carry the bag on my back though!
PhazerVentureMXZ.jpg


PhazerLoadedRack2.jpg


And no, the fuel can does not even get warm with the exhaust blowing directly on it. The fuel is a good cooling agent, as someone said earlier.

My buddy just purchased the one in the middle...
ArjunSteveGreg.jpg


And the little guy gettin cold, but he was tough for -30 C!
ArjunSteve.jpg
 
Sunday, February 11th Ride

Today we began our ride at -37 degrees. Little did I know, I was in for a pile of problems with the Mtn Lite at those temperatures.

I've ready a couple people complain that snow gets into the engine compartment and freezes their steering.

That's exactly what happened to me today, 100 km's out of town. I was none too impressed to say the least. I could not steer the entire ride home. You can imagine how much fun that was.

Typically, snow enters the steering area (which it shouldn't be able to, but the design is crap) and the snow melts, then the water drains out the belly pan/skid plate.

At -37, its too cold for that water to drain, so it just builds up, to the point of no longer being able to steer. I've sent the following pictures to my dealer, and I will be looking for 2 new tie rods and 2 new steering boots under warranty after the failure I had today with the steering.

See for yourself...this is a design problem, I wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary, the only difference was the very cold air temperature.

Check out the bent tie rod...
BentTieRod.jpg


BentTieRodFrozenSteering.jpg


Busted steering boot, filled with ice!
BustedSteeringBoot.jpg


Excessive buildup under steering rod, causes the rod to bend during suspension action...
FrozenSteering.jpg


FrozenSteering2.jpg


FrozenSteering3.jpg


FrozenSteering4.jpg


FrozenSteering5.jpg


FrozenSteering6.jpg


I also lost a few of those cheap plastic screws that hold the plastic assembly on the front. First off, that plastic plate in the front doesn't do much. The gaps between it and the cowling are so large that snow enters the engine compartment. On top of that, above the plastic plate there is a large hole that snow can fly up into and also cause buildup in the engine compartment, right on top of the steering components.

Here's shots of the airbox...the moisture in there is from the engine oil breather venting hot air into the airbox, causing frost build up and ice formation. Yamaha really needs to put that somewhere else.

MoisturizedAirbox.jpg


MoisturizedAirboxLid.jpg


These are the trials of having a first year sled, but man, it sucked trying to get home with no steering capability.

Otherwise, we did have some fun, here's a few pics!

AllanRayLunch.jpg


Ray-2.jpg


Check this out, a downed powerline!! Extremely dangerous, I'm going to report it in the morning, there's one section across the lake where it could sevor someone's head if you don't know its there! We got lucky going slow when we seen it. On one stretch of it, the wire is at neck level.

RayDownedPowerLine.jpg


RayLunch.jpg


Sunset...
RaySunset.jpg
 
Most awesome photos, YK!

On a serious note, your sled maladies really suck. I did read elsewhere about the icing problems on the steering and other suspension components, so you are not alone. I hope you don't get the runaround from Yamaha, such as "we did not design the sled to be driven in such extreme cold conditions..."

You are right: they need to fix the design in all the glowing problems this sled had. This includes the cold starting, tunnel hole, and all the gaps in the front end. Its too bad, as the motor and the overall fun of the sled is like nothing else on the market right now. MAYBE, Yamaha just needs to put a more traditional lower belly pan type system on, perhaps even a different chassis.

On a sidenote, i really like that 3 gallon gas jug you have..not like one I have seen in my parts. Looks low profile and somewhat of a skewed shape? Any idea who makes it?


Wish you luck getting your sled woes rectified. Looking at the way the inside mount is for the steering rod, some difficulty looks to be on the ajenda for getting it out of there...?
 


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