Blackstar

The triangle of Timmins/ Kap and Cochrane seems to be getting the biggest amounts with Hearst and Kirkland Lake on the outsides. I seen several posts on Facebook yesterday of people trying to book accommodations in Cochrane and everything was full except the NAI. Then people were asking how bad is the NAI? lol

I've been watching the radar for the last 24 hours. Looks like the heavy rains travelled deep into Quebec. Kirkland Lake seems to be on the edge getting rain, freezing rain and snow. Its been snow on the north side of Kirkland Lake. Cochrane is getting hit hard with snow right now. Englehart got heavy rains this morning.

Yes, sir.

It stayed colder overnight. Didn’t go to pluses until after 10am but it’s +9 now. The rain stayed south, nothing until this evening now and looks to be closer to 5mm than 10mm over night. Still calling for 10-15cms snow for tomorrow. Found a crack in my trailer frame yesterday AFTER picking it up from getting it safetied. Tires not tracking straight so decided to try putting the 2 sleds in my 12’. All loaded up for Thursday.

What a mess of weather. Currently -7 in Kirkland Lake but the temp is on the rise. +2 by 9am Tuesday, +8 by 2pm, Rain starting around noon. Temps staying around +7 overnight, +5 at 6am Wednesday then the cold front moves in and temps plunge to -14 by noon Wednesday. Rain changes to freezing rain around 6am Wednesday, then changes to snow at 11am. Snow heaviest from 11am to 2pm. What a roller coaster!! No thunder storms for the far north but there is a chance across southern Ontario as far north as Sudbury. We are still planning to drive up on Thursday leaving here by 6am. I don't think I'd try the drive Wednesday with a trailer outback anyways.

A few years ago, a buddy of mine bought a wrecked Polaris RMK from an auction. It was brand new with 10 kms on it. One A-arm mount had been ripped off and a bunch of broken plastic. He paid around $2500 if I remember right. Cost him $1500 in parts. But he said it took him about 30 hours of wrenching to get it apart and back together. The front members were bonded together and the worst was getting those pieces apart. He planned to keep it but then he put it up for sale. The original owner bought it back when he seen the ad. The guy was from Sault Ste Marie. He had crashed the sled on the first ride on a power line outside Wawa. He had hit a rock and Broke his leg

Oh, I agree. I have a friend who was loading his XP on to a tilt trailer. The carbide caught the edge and sled stopped dead. He said the spindle moved back over an inch. He tied the sled down and pulled it back as close as he could get and rode it. Trust me. This was all going on in my head when it happened.

You know she’s been riding with me a long time. Usually she just wrecks her sled….lol I forget how many times I fixed that F6 of hers. That thing was full of duct tape and hot glue. I had to trade it to a dealer. I didn’t feel right selling it privately.

That was the first thing I did at the scene. Ed rode the sled home 50 kms or more and said it drove fine. It didn’t pull or dart. It felt the same as it had all day. I realigned the skis after the steering parts were changed. I’ve ridden it twice now and no issues. 120 kph on the railbed and it tracks straight and stable. I ran a bar across the rear of the tunnel and measured back from the top and bottom of the spindle and it was within a 1/16.

Technically, the proper fix is to write off the sled. A dealer would never do what I did.

Doo wanted $6 per rivet and the kid at the parts count said they only had 19. So I buy a few and figure I will go to a fastener place and buy a bunch. Fastenal, nope. Bolts Plus, nope. I went to Spaenaur here in town which has virtually every fastener you could think of and he had something close but only in stainless. The guy at the counter was very knowledgeable and he told me I should go buy the proper ones because it really is a specialty piece. So back to the dealer. They had 19 of the 6.4 mm and 20 of the 6.5 mm which was another part number from the tunnel rivets. All were the same length. I have a lot of time into this as you can see.

Another thing you can see in the pictured. I assumed the parts were powder coated then assembled on to the tunnel. They are not. The only parts that are pre coated are the footrest supports. The tunnels are built raw then they go to powder coat at the factory because that’s how they seal up the steel rivets so they don’t rust.

Ya, lol, and that was what I was told to do. But I was worried it would look like crap. There is no way you’re going to press and hammer that out without damaging the powder coat. Then you’re touching it up with spray paint all the time.

Before I started the repair, I took a ton of measurements and they all checked out. I can’t believe it’s not tweaked either. The other sled is straight too which was the one I was really worried about. All she got was a scratch on the A-arm.

I made a couple of calls after it happened. I decided not to follow the advise I was given, which was to hammer it back out as straight as I could and not get too far into it. Instead I took it all apart. I now understand why I was told not to. It’s not an easy job. The tunnel and all the parts are aluminum but most of the rivets are steel. Some I drilled out, some I hammered out, some I had to grind the head of. All the while trying not to damage any of the powder coat that would be visible. I ordered parts (footrest, roller, tierod, lower body panel), waited a week, Doo shipped the wrong footrest, ordered again, another week, got the right one this time. Lots of problems even placing the order. Technically, Doo doesn’t list a part number for the roller (the roller is the out edge of the runningboard) on any sled with Smart Shocks because the wiring runs through the inside. I ordered one for an MXZ 137. I also bought 30-6.4 mm and 20-3/16 rivets from Doo as listed in the parts diagram. The parts only come with a few predrilled holes so I fitted everything up using 1/4 and 3/16 stainless bolts. Then drilled the rest of the holes, cleaned all the holes. My buddy powder coated all the parts including the rivets for me in satin black. Another thing I learned. 6.4 mm is 1/4 inch and 1/4 inch rivets require a heavy commercial riveter. My buddy lent me his air riveter but 3/16 was the largest tip. I had to buy a manual heavy rivet gun from Princess Auto. It’s all back together again. I bought a detailing brush and painted the inside of the rivets. The 3 stainless screw heads at the rear are the attachment points for the Smart Shock wiring cover. It has to be removed to service the shocks. Someone had already replaced the rivets with raw ones.

Everyone was ok, thankfully. My friend Ed was riding it at the time. He was stopped.

Nope, the wife ran in to it with her sled. She said she got her lefts and rights mixed up. She meant to grab the brakes but she grabbed the gas by accident. She came in on an angle. Her spindle hit the roller, then the lower plastic and stopped at the tierod.

And now the other issue I’ve been dealing with for the last month.

Riser was on it when I bought it. MPS, Mechanical Power Steering. So after my complaints about the heavy steering on Doos, I started looking for solutions. Dootalk has a couple threads about MPS. From what I can gather, it was first designed for Yamaha sleds that didn't come with EPS from factory by Barn-of-Parts. He later developed the same system for the Doo's. I bought my kit from NateMach900R on Dootalk. He is in Ontario, north of Toronto. $180 shipped. You get all the parts in your choice of raw stainless finish or black powder coat. It is an easy install. Unbolt your tierod, use the supplied nut and bolt to install the bracket in the stock location. Re-install the tierod in one of the 3 holes in the bracket using the spacer. If you use the third hole closest to the outside of the bracket you will need to either bend the tierod bar or grind away some of the swaybar bracket for clearance. I used the second hole and didn't make any other changes, clearance is minimal but it works. I rode Monday and Tuesday with the kit installed and it does make the front end feel lighter. People say steering effort is reduced by 40-60%. I will agree, hard to measure but its definitely noticeable. What I noticed right away is that the shakey/jerkiness of the bars is drastically reduced. Running on the railbed from Shelburne, I ran through frozen ice/ground sections where you would expect your skis to follow the grooves and ruts from the previous carbides but it held steady and the bars felt smooth. In the tighter bush sections around Durham, the sled was easy to steer through corners and you never felt like you were in a fight for control. But, in order to make a turn you need to move the bars farther to achieve the same ski movement. I did bang my knees on the bars a couple times in real tight situations. The turning radius is larger since the skis don't turn as far so things like loading the trailer or turning around on the trail takes more space, more careful planning. Overall, I like it enough to keep it. I will live with the short comings to have reduced effort through the length of a day. If I was riding Muskoka bush trails all the time, it would be a NO, but then I'd probably be on a 600. Open trails, railbeds, fields, big single carbides? Yep, I'll keep it. And these Qualipieces Trek carbides suck. They push in the corners (not a surprise) and you can't back up. That's right, no reverse. I was really disappointed with the Ice Ripper track when moving the sled around. Everytime I put it in reverse it just dug a hole. I got tired of moving the sled by hand. I now realize its the carbides. They don't have a taper for reverse movement and they dig in hard. My buddy noticed it when I was unloading the other day. The skis were tipped up at the front and the spindle area was off the ground as the rear of the carbide dug a trench. But with the MPS I will go back to a big single carbide. Half the money of the Treks.

I was feeling bad about derailing the Abitibi thread so moving my comments over here. After recommendations from Stoney and Used2, It went to Team Vincent today to check seats with one of their employees who understood what I was talking about. We went to their used sled section where I sat on a ‘22 XRS 850, an 850 Backcountry, ‘21 XRS 900 and an 23 XRS 850. The 900 was set up like my Mach bar wise, adjustable riser and 2 inch add on. So was the one 850. I agree that the seat feels taller, firmer so I bought the “Trail Narrow Seat” Part # 860202644. They had 2 in stock. Skidoo website said that they were the only dealer in my area that may have one. I’m not sure why Doo doesn’t know exactly what a dealer has in stock but the website only told me who didn’t? They had 2. I said to grab one for me. Online Price was $559.99, currently 20% off = $447.99 The girl said it was 25% off, price was $419.25. Even better. Those with a short I will see another mod I did last week.

The LXR seat is softer than some of the other Cat seats I believe. But still sits up taller than the Mach seat. Width is similar.

Hmmmm, nothing is simple. I find as the day goes on, I'm more aware of the soft/low seat of the Mach. Whether I sink in more or it just doesn't rebound, I'm not sure. I got a quote to modify my existing seat and they are talking $600-800. I have Trail Wide Heated seat in my wife's Adreneline and it feels the same as the Mach Z. I have her original Trail Wide seat as well and it feels the same. I rode my buddy's '23 900R and it felt slightly taller than mine, but his bars are lower so it throws things off. The storage is not a concern. I don't think there is anything stored in either one right now. With 20% savings, its tempted to buy the Trail Narrow seat and try it. Its around $450 now. Just not sure my wide butt will like the narrow seat. People want $250-350 for used seats and you have to live with the colour. Team Vincent supposedly have one in stock. Ugh......lol

How about sharing about your seat change? I see Doo has all the accessory seats on sale right now, 20% off. Are all the "Trail Wide" seats the same height and foam density? Just the profile differs depending on with or without storage? Trail Wide Seat, Trail Wide Seat with Heat, Trail wide seat with storage, Trail wide seat with storage and Heat. I assume these are all the same foam. Then we have the Trail Narrow seats and the Deep Snow seats.

My buddy can't get away until Thursday now so we are going to stay at Kirkland Lake and do a couple loops from there. Leaving on Sunday.