Anyone Else Getting Their Sleds Ready ?

[chaffmj]

54 minutes ago, AlwaysFishing23 said:

Yep! Ended with about 3-4” schools shut down and everything. Major storm on its way. What a joke... 

 

Well I would have to agree with the weather people. Up here in Ely it is still coming down and at least at my house we have over a foot already! Thank god and leech   that it didn't start till 7:00pm last night.

[leech~~]

2 hours ago, chaffmj said:

 

Well I would have to agree with the weather people. Up here in Ely it is still coming down and at least at my house we have over a foot already! Thank god and leech   that it didn't start till 7:00pm last night.

 

Yeah, sorry but I don't pray for snow that far north.  It's wasn't me this time!

[knoppers]

20 hours ago, leech~~ said:

IKR!  This whole winter so far has been plans started and scrapped because of the weather.  I have MLK day off and thinking of heading up by Orock to buzz around a bit to get the sled on some snow and grab a burger at the Refuge after.

 

they did groom the trails on Thursday here, so with the 4 inches on top it should be OK. I will wait for next Friday, and head up to palisade to ride. looks like they got about 8 inches of new snow.

[leech~~]

Went up above Brainerd fishing today,  wow was I surprised at the amount of snow up in the area.  I haven't seem that much in years. May have to go back up just with the sled!

[knoppers]

I was out riding Friday from my place in palisade rode north to hill city. lots of snow, and great trails. it was waist deep, lakes are now good for travel.

[leech~~]

18 minutes ago, knoppers said:

I was out riding Friday from my place in palisade rode north to hill city. lots of snow, and great trails. it was waist deep, lakes are now good for travel.

 

Yeah, we didn't find any slush on the lake we were on. 

[AlwaysFishing23]

Had a couple of hours to burn yesterday afternoon and did a 70 mile run. Trails were alright other then they’re rock solid hard pack now. But good enough to put some a miles on! Ended up having to run and grab a few set of slides as the old ones are wore pretty good. Now I’m trying to get them replaced but what a pain to do! The old ones don’t want to move. 

[knoppers]

I always spray WD-40 inside the grooves before installing. I will clamp a old vise grips onto the slide after it is outside the small window, then hit that with a mallet, and they seem to pull off good.

Edited February 7, 2020 by knoppers

[AlwaysFishing23]

Thanks knoppers! I just finished this project up about an hour ago. Took about 3 days with a few hours each, I don’t have a heated building so turns out the slides were froze on. But with a torch I was able to melt the ice and use a punch and hammer to remove them. Pretty straight forward. I needed to replace the bolts that hold them on but that’s minor. Have to watch track tension now as well. 

Edited February 7, 2020 by AlwaysFishing23

[fishingstar]

track tension and rear suspension setup will cause slide to wear out.

[AlwaysFishing23]

14 hours ago, fishingstar said:

track tension and rear suspension setup will cause slide to wear out.

Sled has almost 4800 miles on it and as far as I could tell they have never been changed..... track tension is perfect. 

[knoppers]

I will change them every 1000 miles or less, depending on snow conditions. I have only 1000 miles on my current sled, but the last two years with great snow conditions it will be fine for the year. I will replace them for sure before next year.

[AlwaysFishing23]

Noticed yesterday went for a ride down the trail and the sled seemed to stop really quick like something was binding when I let off the gas. Pulled over and looked everything over and it all looked ok. It seemed fine by the time I got back home after a few miles all was fine. Track tension was and is great. Maybe because the old slides were wore down so much the new ones caused a little drag? 

Edited February 10, 2020 by AlwaysFishing23

[Walleyehooker]

To break in new slides they say to run down a hard pack trail or one with little snow on it to heat them up then pull off into snow and let them cool 

[Macgyver55]

Make sure your brakes are releasing too!

[AlwaysFishing23]

Thanks guys! It seems just the new slides are causing some drag. Been to busy to ride the last few days but loaded up my sleds to ride this weekend and took a buss around the yard and all seemed fine again. I’ll keep an eye on things and see if anything changes. 

[knoppers]

same as walleyehooker said, new slides hold up better if they are annealed first, so getting them hot, then cold is best. once they get hot, there will be drag, like a brake is on.

Edited February 14, 2020 by knoppers

[AlwaysFishing23]

Thanks knoppers! Exactly what it was like. Kept thinking track was cranked up on tension ( set perfect) or the chain or the belt was messed up but nope. I was out this morning (-10) and after a while I could feel this drag. Just didn’t feel right. Kept looking for an issue but came up empty. Let the sled cool for a while grabbed the otter and headed out. All seemed fine and normal there and back (7 miles each way). I figured the new slides were causing some resistance and getting hot since where I was riding it wasn't kicking up much snow, Since everything is rock solid. Another thing I should mention is when I stoped to look for an issue I thought I had a quick wiff of what smelled like hot or burning plastic. Not a rubber. It was cold so I was all bundled up but it had me worried that something was up, but it sounds like that’s just part of the process of breaking in new slides? 

Edited February 15, 2020 by AlwaysFishing23

[AlwaysFishing23]

Put a fair amount of miles on today on the sleds and never had the slides getting heated up issue at all so fingers crossed I’ve them broke in now. 

[knoppers]

I did a quick 2 hour ride today, still got 73 miles on, some of the areas like ditches and lakes I was running hot and this was in aitkin county. they need some fresh snow as everything has gotten hard, the trails were fine, as the groomers have it busted up with plenty of loose snow for lube. I overheated riding across my lake, I have a 137 inch track, so it needs more powder. once I hit the shoreline area, I found plenty of powder to cool things down.

[knoppers]

well my season ended today, rode my lake for 20 miles on friday to get the stabil run through the system, then hit the car wash today to get the road salt off from trailering all winter, and its put in the back of the garage till next year. it was another good year of riding, can't complain. now its time to get the wheeler out.

[knoppers]

what? no one riding. come on, some of you must still be out riding, lets here about it. my co-worker rode last weekend in IF and said it was great. he his riding again saturady on the north shore, and the reports I have seen look good for riding. what else can we do now? I was thinking about pulling my sled out again for something to do.

[Wanderer]

I haven’t seen many sleds being trailered in the past couple weeks through central MN.  And sadly I haven’t been in the northern half of the state much at all the whole winter! 

[AlwaysFishing23]

I just got back from the day up north and it’s a night and day difference. Trails are pristine and like mid winter. They just got a couple inches of fresh powder the other day. LOTS of enclosed sled trailers going north. I would have loved to have had my sled in tow but instead had the Lund in tow. 

[knoppers]

getting the itch with this early snow. was looking at the sled and thinking of getting it ready, but its too early, I will wait another 3 weeks or so. I was up at the cabin in backus today to pull out the dock ( in lots of snow) and noticed there have been a few people out in the ditches already. ground still not froze, so only about 4 inches on the ground, but I did shovel a good 8 inches off the deck today, way to early for this.