skis

One more important part to a snowmobile is its skis they turn the snowmobile. The width of the ski can make a big differnce on how the snowmobile handels. With a wide ski the snowmoble will float on the snow better so it wont get suck as easly but to wide and the snowmobile will not turn as well if you dont plan on getting in to deep of snow then you dont need wide skis but with deeper snow wider better.

oil

Every two stroke moter you eather have to mix oil in the gas or put two stroke oil in the resivor. Every snowmoble makeing company has there own oil such as Polaris, Yamaha, Artic cat. But they also have a few differnt types of oil such as synthetic and mineral oil and then your startard oil. Then you have brands such as Ams Oil. I would tell anybody to run the same brand of oil as the mechine is and run what the manual or what the previous person was, if you mix two differnt brands of oil they may have a bad effect and jell and you could burn down your moter.

Storage

Now that the season is starting to come near its end anybody with a snowmobile should be getting ready to store their sled for the summer.  Several things can be done to prep the sled to make it easyer to start and get going the following season. First things first, fuel gas over a period of time will go bad and will no longer work.  We do have seveal things we can do to prevent this from happening.  The first is Stabil this is a oil based product that is simply added to your gas to extend its life.  Then we come to my favaorite Avation fuel, airplanes require a higher octane fuel 100 Low lead. Most pump gas is 91 octane with no Lead. Avation fuel or  av gas never goes bad so adding a small amout of this to your gas and running it through the system will help extend your fuel life.

 Then the last thing is the track since it rubber just like a tire if a tire sets in one place to long or under the wrong conditions it will rot. Your track is the same way the best way to save your track from this happening is by lifting the whole rear end off the ground even if it is only a few inches just so none of the track is touching the ground this will greatly extend the life of your track.

snow conditons

This was the last week of snowmobiling for the season in  sperfish. The groomers ran for the last time today. The temp was well into the 60s so the snow was sticky and it was not good conditions for rideing. The trails were icy in spots and the snow was crusy, that didnt make a very good day in the hills.  This season was not good from the stop the hills never got enough base. This was not a good way to end the season.

sled of the year

The 98 artic cat powder special was named sled of the year by Sno West magazine.  It is 599 cc engine rated 105 horse.  It came out with a 136 track with 2 inch paddle. It is a twin cylinder 2 stroke engine. It also came out with EFI and came with extra wide skis that gave more flotation. They got rid of the trailing arm system and went to the double- wishbone AWS V suspension this gave the sled a smoother ride. Then they made the tunnel deeper to give more suspension more travel. This is the snowmobile I ride and so far it has been a really good sled whenever I start it up it never takes more than 3 pulls on the rope and it handles amazingly well in the powder I would recommend this snowmobile to anybody.

fuel

There are two different ways to get fuel into the cylinder of a motor. There is carburation and fuel injection.  With carburation everything is manual, it does not require any electricity.  EFI or electronic Fuel injection requires electricity to regulate the fuel.  Carburation is nice because of the fact it is way simpler to work on, but it does require more work to make it run properly because temperature and elevation can make the motor run with too much fuel (or called rich), or not enough fuel ( or lean) if a motor is to rich it will be very unresponsive.  If it is running to lean it will run good but will ruin a motor.   The nice thing about EFI is it will automatically compensate for temperature and elevation, but is more complex to work on if something goes wrong.

Moter sizes

This week I will talk about the difference between a twin and a triple engine. Twin meaning two cylinders, triple meaning 3 cylinders. A twin produces good power and they are light. A triple has one more cylinder so it has more weight. In the snowmobiling weight is not your friend because it will make you sink in the snow. The triple is good for getting into some powder and trail riding they have lots of power so they can pull around the weigh better. The twin has good snap to them and they have less weight.

This week I will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of two and four strokes.  A four stroke has four strokes; the first is the intake a valve open and allows fuel to come into the cylinder. The next is the compression stroke the piston drops and the both valves close, then the ignition stroke the piston starts to move back up and (if it is a gas engine)  the spark plug ignites the fuel after is the exhaust stroke the exhaust valve opens allowing the gas that is made to flow out.  In a four stroke engine the oil is put in the crank case were the moving parts are, so the oil and gas are separate.  In a two stroke engine the gas and oil is mixed and only has one valve the intake valve.  The gas and oil are mixed in a two stroke the gas first flows through the crankcase to lubricate the moving parts then past the piston into the combustion chamber. Then the exhaust freely flows out; this is gives a two stroke more zip. Since two strokes don’t have oil in the crankcase they don’t have oil in the crankcase and don’t have the extra vales and springs and ect. In the snowmobiling world lighter is better, the two stroke doesn’t have as much runtime as a four stroke but they have the quick response and are cheap to rebuild. A four stroke is heaver but has more runtime before a rebuild. But the rebuild is about twice as much as a two stroke.  The newer four strokes are getting to have a quicker response time all the time and are way more efficient.

http://www.animatedengines.com/twostroke.html
The link above shows a two stroke in motion.

This week I will be talking about the advantages and disadvantages of a snowmobile with a short or a long track. A track is what moves a snowmobile forward. The longer the track the more power you can get to the ground. Short track snowmobiles are fun for the trails because they can go fast but the track doesn’t hook up as well. A long track snowmobile is fun for the powder because it can put more power to the ground. The paddle length can also make a difference the deeper the lug on a paddle the better it hooks up in deep snow. So if all you are doing is riding trails a short track with a length like a 121 would be good. But if you are planning on getting off the trail get a sled with a 144 or longer with a 2 inch paddle.

In this blog I will discuss the different types, and brands of snowmobiles. I will discuss the different types of gear and upgrades that can be bought for a snowmobile and if it is effective or not. I will also talk about some of the people who are in the top of the snowmobile world and what brand they go with.