Re-modeling your old Sled into a Powder Weapon | FreeRider Projects
So your dad is gonna be buying a new sled, and getting rid of his old 1996 MXZ 670, in fact he's had it for 10 years, and has only put on 2,500 km, I know that's embarrassing for him. So he makes you a sweet deal, $1,000 cash. Who wouldn't take that offer? The only problem was, it needs a new track, a new seat, little bit of work on the brakes, then she's good to go. The only problem is, all your friends go powder riding in 4FT of snow, and you know an old 121 isn't built to handle that kind of lifestyle, so what do you do? Easy, everyone assumes that the bigger the engine, the higher the horsepower, the faster you'll go in any condition, but their all wrong. If you want to increase performance on a sled, never start at the engine, start at the track. It's a similar concept as winter tires on a vehicle, you don't go buy bigger and better brakes, you buy winter tires to increase traction and prevent slippage. Same applies to your track.
Before going out to buy a new track, we did a bit of research first. Most of our riding is up in Northern Ontario so we get quite a bit of snow when we're boondocking off the trail, but not as much as they do in the mountains out west. We do quite a bit of trail riding, but thats mostly to get to the boondocking locations, thats when the fun starts. So we needed a track that was flexible to both riding styles. We recently picked up a new 2016 Summit SP 600 ETec with a 146" track with a 2-1/2" lug on it, a true powder sled. There are many benefits to a longer track, but too long is just a pain in the ass if your not doing hill climbs all the time. Balance is key, just like anything else in life, the 146 track length offers great aggressive features in the powder, but still balanced enough to handle cornering on the trails. A 2-1/2" lug is definitely way too aggressive for trail riding however, works like a dream once you hit the powder.
So after all our research we decided to go with a 144, which is the only skid available for this generation of chassis. We looked on KIJIJI to find a skid, but could only find a 136 skid. We then found some aftermarket skid extensions from Royal Distributing however, we could only find extensions that go from 121 to 136, and 136 to 151. Luckily we know some people in town that could help us machine down the extensions to get it go from a 136 to a 144. While all this was happening we had found a distributor down in southern Ontario that sold Camoplast tracks at wholesale price, so we ordered a Camoplast Crossover with an 1-1/2" Lug, it offers great traction on and off the trail. Ok I know your thinking, Whoa stop right there, there's no way that track is gonna fit in that tunnel, it's gonna get ripped apart. Don't worry, we worked all that out. The cog has already been geared down to a smaller size, and we raised the tunnel up by an inch. We also bent over a few of the original back section of the tunnel, to make sure that the track doesn't rub on anything, and also added a tunnel extension and snow flap. Now all we need is some snow to put the modifications to the test. Stay tuned!
In addition to basically converting this sled to a Summit, we thought why not go a little further and modify the seat to look more like a Summit seat. Instead of buying a new aftermarket seat we re-shaped the old seat, by making it shorter in length and removed the lumbar rest at the back. We also modified the back light to be put back into the back of the seat to save a little extra money. We thought of adding an LED bar at the back of the tunnel, similar to current models, however to save money we decided not to do it. Maybe after accidentally kicking the light and breaking it a few times we may have to consider re-locating it to the back of the tunnel. We visited a local friend who reupholsters snowmobile seats, and he gave us a good deal and his work turned out great.
A few other modifications were made however, overall the important changes were done to the skid and track, costing us $1,000 for the sled, then an extra $1,300 in modifications to bring it up to speed against a Summit. Its performance is yet to be tested, but we're very excited to get this sled boondocking.
