My sled made it through the summer...

[hanson]

If anyone wants to dig through the archives, you'll find that I had a seized motor come fall on my 2002 Cat ZR600 EFI last year.

Good news is, it is running and purring like a kitten this fall. I haven't got my EXT running yet but it'll need a carb cleaning and new plugs for sure.

I spent a few minutes this weekend putting a RAM mount on my handlebars for the handheld GPS. While I don't have it yet, I'll be running a Lowrance H20 this winter w/ Lakemaster chips. While not a big project, it has gotten me motivated for a few more now. Specifically the luggage rack and a tank bag. Gonna need to swing by the Cat dealer sometime soon and order them up.

[Paul Waldowski]

Chris,

You will love having the chip on the dash. Talk about saving time and effort drilling holes I added a tank bag and the end of last season and really like it. Nice to be able to spread a map out and run with it in order to get the big picture, not to mention all of the storage that it adds

[hanson]

Paul-

I tried explaining to my dad while I was doing this how I would have the super detailed Lakemaster paper maps loaded in my GPS and there will be an icon that indicates where our location is in relation to the contours & structure.

I said no more cross referencing between the GPS coords & the paper map GPS grids.

Man, did his eyes light up!!

[mamohr686]

Mabie next time you will have to get a ski-doo so you won't have to worry as much about rebulds. Just ribbin ya hanson. Anyway I've had trouble running my handheld magellen GPS outside in extreme temps. The LCD gets super slow and the built in maps really bog it down. One of my other fishing partners has his GPS inside of a trail map bag and he puts a hand warmer to keep the GPS from getting too cold. Also what kind of power sorce are you using, batteries or do you have a 12V plug in? It is kind of fun to see that the speedometer on the Cat's are so far off when you compare them to true GPS speed.

[Paul Waldowski]

Mark,

Can't speak for Chris, but I haven't had a problem with my H2O getting sluggish at all. I have mine mounted on the dash plugged into a 12 volt outlet. When I'm not using it I bring it in the fishhouse with me. My outlet is powered by a Marucm battery mounted under the hood of my sled.

[Macgyver55]

You must get good warm air under your windshield if it works ok. It really doesnt matter what kind of device you have with LCD. If they get cold, the screen response time slows down. Its the nature of the beast!

[hanson]

Quote:

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I haven't got my EXT running yet but it'll need a carb cleaning and new plugs for sure.

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The EXT is now alive for the winter as well! Yippee!!

Put a new set of plugs in, about 15 pulls at full choke to bring the fuel back up the lines and it purrrs like a kitten.

Still have to pull the carbs and clean them before I take it for a ride but I was happy to see another running sled.

This one has always been a finicky starter. Now it should be 4-5 pulls at full choke to spark it off. Not too bad for a 15 year old sled.

[Steve Foss]

Fired up my Yammie 1980 Exciter 440 an hour ago. Ran sooooo finnnnne! There were a couple problems, of course. Drained the gas, replaced it. Put in new plugs. Looked over all the belts, linkages, track, carb, etc., checked to make sure the injector tank was full of that wonderful Amsoil., all looked good. Popped in a little starter fluid to help her along and she fired right up and smoked, smoked, smoked! Throttle stuck wide open so had to turn her off and lube up that linkage. But she ran sweet and smooth after a minute.

And I'll tell you, no one up here on Finn Hill in Ely is going to complain if someone runs a sled up and down the road. We all have them here!!!

1980 Yamaha 440 Exciter. Old, sure, the year I graduated high school. But she hardly weighs anything, almost never bogs down (and when she does I can lift her out and move her), and that 440 on a sled so light is scary it screams so fast. All I got it for was to haul my ice fishing trap around (thanks Chunkytrout!), but golly, the Exciter sure is exciting.

I'll be out for the third weekend in a row on ice up here, this time with the sled hauling the trap. A little Shagawa (right down the hill from me), and I hear Vermilion is on fire right now for ice 'eyes.

Ahhhhh, feels good not to live TOO far south.

[Xplorer]

Fired up the 2 sleds a few weeks ago when i took them out of storage (man, i miss my bigger garage at the old house) but had to fire them up again yesterday after affixing the fine trail stickers Actually sat down and had an celebratory beer toast, as they had their 10 year anniversary this year (a pair of '96 Polaris Trails) Need to throw a new set of plugs in them, and have a couple loose bogey wheels to tighten up, but other than that ready to roll. Even went out yesterday and found that with a little ditch riding i can hit the trial right from the house, and may be able to take a 4wheeler trail right to it (need to do a little "Xploring" this weekend on foot with GPS to make sure) which would be nice.

I was out on a nearby lake yesterday (10" of perfect solid black ice) and will be taking Xplorer Junior out there tomorrow for a little gill/pike fishing and may take the sled to pull the Otter and putt around the lake when he gets bored watching tipups and a bobber.

STF, I'm gonna try and get up opener weekend for a day, not sure which yet. Got the laker rods cleaned up last night and the tackle checked over.....laker fever sets in