Snowmobiles....

Topic: Snowmobiles.... (Read 2189 times) previous topic - next topic

Snowmobiles....

February 25, 2007, 08:13:24 AM

Who has 'em and what do you have.

I am currently working on restoring a 1975 Arctic Cat El Tigre with a 580. All it needs now is a windshield, some little stuff, and new seat and a paint job.

Just got it running last night. Man is this thing FAST. Drove around the house for an hour last night jumping the piles of snow on either side of the driveway from the plow. I cant wait to get a dumping of snow on the road so I can see just how fast it goes on smooth ground.

Snowmobiles....

Reply #1 – February 25, 2007, 09:23:12 AM

1988 john deree spitfire
2 stroke 240cc
new crankseals, skis, windshield, and handwarmers. got to rid it once now it sits under a cover in maine waiting for snow.
My dad has a old tnt 440
and a el tigra not as old though

Snowmobiles....

Reply #2 – February 25, 2007, 09:41:05 AM

funny thing. My grandpa had 2 Arctic Cats w/leapord skin seats (El Tigres?) back in the '70's, and that's what I started riding on. Now he has an 80 something John Deere Spitfire...like new laying dormant in his garage. I had a '76 Ski-Don't Olympique. Gave that to my bro, and so now I'm in the market for an Elan. My dad had a Sno-Jet. Today's sleds, though nice, are way too expensive to me.

PS: If I had a way to post old "slides" , I'd show all the snowmobiles from the '60's that were raced across the street from my grandparent's house. Some neat pictures there.

Snowmobiles....

Reply #3 – February 25, 2007, 09:43:03 AM

96 Ski-Doo MachZ, got to say you need to hold on, got V-force reeds, Crankshop silencers, The best I've done this yr. is 117mph 1000ft...........Let it snow man.......Rod

Snowmobiles....

Reply #4 – February 25, 2007, 09:44:05 AM

I've had plenty of snowmobiles. Past sleds:

1977 SkiRoule 340 - first snowmobile I ever drove, I bought it for $300 without even knowing what it was like to drive one, it broke down first time I ever drove it (crank seals went bad). Had to nurse it back to the camp by squirting fuel directly into the carburetor with an oilcan. I fixed the crank seals, then the pull starter mechanism broke, and parts were no longer available for the Sachs engine, so I put a Kohler 440 in it. Somebody stole the 440 out of it, then came back for the rest of the sled two weeks later.

1976 SkiRoule 440 - Really bad shape but worked very well, I drove this one for about a year, then took the engine out of it for the engine swap above

1974 Arctic Cat Cheetah 440 - This machine was absolutely MINT, not a crack in the plastic, not a blemish on the (factory leopard print) seat or belly pan, but my GOD, it was unreliable. The Kawasaki engine in it was so hard as hell to start (both physically hard to pull the rope and requiring many, many pulls) that I installed an electric start system. I even rebuilt the engine after a mouse got sucked into a carburetor, and it was still hard to get (and keep) running. Even with the electric start it was so hard to start it would kill the battery, then I'd end up pulling the cord anyway.

1976 Ski-Doo 399 Olympique X 2 - these two sleds were boring and slow but extremely reliable and would go anywhere and were easy on fuel

1978 Arctic Cat Pantera 5000 - just as mint (but not as nice looking) as the Cheetah, but this one ran very well. Probably due to its Spirit 500cc engine instead of that old Kawi junk in the Cheetah. The only thing I didn't like about it was it was free air cooled, meaning riding it at anything close to freezing or above was out of the question.

Current sleds:

1996 Ski-Doo Formula III 600 Triple - Crazy fast, but HEAVY. I got this one stuck two years ago and it took me two hours to dig it out. No good at all in deep snow, but get this sucker on a straightaway and hold on! I've had it to 90MPH before chickening out (90MPH may not seem fast, but on glare ice with trees only a few feet away and your ass 6" off the ground, believe me, it is).

1979 Ski-Doo Everest 440 - The only factory electric start snowmobile I'd ever owned, and the only one that didn't really need it. The battery is no good, but I didn't bother replacing it because it's so easy to start by hand. The old thing is like a mule - slow and stubborn, but gets the job done. Sadly, although the engine works perfect and the plastic and seat are mint (the seat was recovered just this year), the actual metal chassis of the thing is beat. This may be its final year.

Snowmobiles....

Reply #5 – February 25, 2007, 09:46:52 AM

Started with a old rupp 340, then moved up to a rupp nitro 440 (105mph on bogey wheels!), at some point I had a arctic cat cheetah, a raider, and finally a blizzard 9500. Boy do I miss those days!!

Snowmobiles....

Reply #6 – February 25, 2007, 01:15:04 PM

1980 Yamaha Enticer 340 ET
1979 Yamaha Excel 300
1978 Yamaha SRX 440 (Fan)

1996 Ski doo MXZ 600

The yamaha's are all reliable and slow, the ski doo is fast and expensive to run. And I've ran the 600 up to 100mph one; at 2:00am across falcon lake, under a full moon (after I ran the trail once to ensure there were no pressure ridges or open water).

Snowmobiles....

Reply #7 – February 25, 2007, 02:36:56 PM

Got a 92mach 1 up north,haven't used it in years,trail passes are to expensive now.
Should be getting some snow tonight from what i hear ron,have fun.

Snowmobiles....

Reply #8 – February 25, 2007, 03:43:27 PM

yeah the freezing rain has started and the snow is on the way. just got done riding it but now the fuel bowl screws on one of the carbs have come loose on it and the bowl is just hanging, so it might be down til tomorrow if I cant find the screws for it in the chasis.

**I was wrong in the first post. It has the arctic cat spirit 5000 motor in it. (500cc not a 580) **

Still plenty fast enough for me this year. :)

Snowmobiles....

Reply #9 – February 25, 2007, 06:41:32 PM

A website i made when I was 14. Lots of misspelling n such. The only sled I still have is the '75 Sno Jet Astro SS. It's in boxes.

www.angelfire.com/ia2/sled

Snowmobiles....

Reply #10 – February 25, 2007, 07:35:12 PM

Funny how many brands of snowmobiles there used to be, but now there are only SkiDoo, Arctic Cat, Polaris, Yamaha and Kawasaki (and I dunno if Kawasaki even still makes 'em). Back when I had my old SkiRoules I had a shop manual that mentioned dozens upon dozens of names, including Harley Davidson (I actually worked on a Harley snowmobile once), Evinrude, John Deere, Ski Bee, Snow Bee, Ski jet, Snow Jet (and any other combinations of the words Ski, Snow, Bee, Jet, etc), Chrysler, and many more. This manual even listed several snowmobiles with rotary engines. It's nice to see a few people here owning such pieces of history (Rupp, Sno-Jet, John Deere, Ski Roule, etc).

Gunkel - your 105 on bogey wheels statement reminded me of a trip gone sour - of my two Olympiques, one had bogeys and one had sliders. We had 'em both on a lake with absolutely no snow on it, buzzing around for hours, doing donuts, power slides, pirouettes, etc. We then stopped for a smoke, and when we tried to go again the slider one wouldn't move. I revved it up and the clutch closed up, but the belt wouldn't turn. We used the bogey one and towed it as far as the s of the lake, but as soon as we hit s we couldn't tow it anymore because of the snow (the lake was bare but the trails had snow). We left it overnight and were gonna go back with a 4-wheeler to tow it out. Turns out we didn't need the tow - the next day I rolled it on its side to see if I could find the problem, and discovered the track welded to the sliders! A few whacks with a log to break the "weld" and it was good to go. Turns out slider suspension snowmobiles actually need snow to work good, and without it the sliders will melt!

I found a pic of my Everest, taken a week ago after the seat recovering and a fresh paint job on the belly pan and skis, getting ready to hit the trails for the first time this year. I thought I had a pic of the Formula but can't find it anywhere, and it's over at the cottage now. I was out on it today, probably (and hopefully) for the last time this year. The weather is getting milder, finally.

*EDIT* Found the Formula pic, had it hosted on my website from back when I bought it (so the pic is a few years old):

Snowmobiles....

Reply #11 – February 25, 2007, 08:35:28 PM

i love my old deere, thing runs like a top. Just sucks cause im so light, i get no traction with it, it digs in, but its a blast.

Snowmobiles....

Reply #12 – February 25, 2007, 08:38:00 PM

man, that Formula is awesome. Very nice.

Snowmobiles....

Reply #13 – February 25, 2007, 11:04:03 PM

Speaking of odd snowmobiles, we had a Massey Ferguson sled (yes the tractor company) and a johnson (of the now bankrupt OMC, sold off to Can Am) when I was a kid.

I've never had a sled with bogey wheels, are they faster? Around here we never have a lack of snow, so sliders last forever.

Snowmobiles....

Reply #14 – February 25, 2007, 11:27:37 PM

I think bogeys are more geared toward "workhorse" sleds. I also think they're an older suspension technology that isn't found under many (if any) newer machines, kinda like leaf springs and drum brakes on cars. Any machine I've ever had 'em on was a smaller, slower machine (the 340 Ski Roule and 399 Olympique). They're certainly more trouble pr0ne than sliders - I'd never ended a season without losing half the bogeys and having a bunch of broken springs. Even now I am always finding bogey wheels on the trails that others have lost.

1 Wld Bird - the Formula looks nice but it's a devil. It's heavy, cranky, and sucks dollar-a-liter fuel down like it's going out of style. I wish like hell the ed thing had a real windshield, too. It was the first "modern" sled I've owned and it will likely be the last. The old Everests, Panteras, Cheetas, Olympiqes, Blizzards, etc may not be as sleek, fast or pretty, but they were more fun. I enjoy driving that old Everest more than the Formula - the windshield alone makes a huge difference, and I can pick it up and toss it around easily, unlike that Formula...