There are two things that you can never have enough of on a snowmobile-storage and fuel. That's why you see red plastic gas cans and all sorts of bags strapped to the tunnels of a fair number of the sleds in a parking lot.
It may not be pretty, but it's the best you can do when you're trying to pack enough things with you to extend your day's ride as long as possible. The trouble with this is that whenever you need your fuel or something out of your bag, it pretty much takes a major production to remove all the bungies holding things together.
This past winter we discovered the Powder Keg, a rigid storage container designed to quickly attach to your tunnel and keep its contents easily accessible, yet dry. And its unique design allows you to stack it on the Fuel Keg, making the process of packing additional fuel and storage simple.
Since every ride is different, we were looking for something that would be convenient to attach, or detach, depending on our needs. The Powder Keg and Fuel Keg are both designed with the same latch system that allows you to use either one or both at the same time. In fact, you can stack multiple Fuel Kegs on top of each other if your fuel requirements are extensive for any given ride.
When preparing to go on an overnight ride where we would be traveling to a resort some 90 miles away via snowmobile, the Powder Keg and Fuel Keg were just the perfect attachment to the Ski-Doo Summit. On this particular ride, we actually stacked two Fuel Kegs on top of each other with the Powder Keg on top of them. This gave us about 4.5 gallons of extra fuel, plus room to pack any overnight supplies. It is easy to remove and bring inside after the ride so your contents don't become one giant frozen mass.
The design of the Powder Keg is perfect for snowmobiles. It is shaped to fit on top of the tunnel, about four inches tall and contains around 2.2 gallons of fuel. (New designs feature 2.75-gallon tanks plus a 40-ounce stainless bottle for extra oil or whatever.) This allows the fuel to be dispersed, maintaining a low center of gravity. Even when stacked up two deep, the Powder Kegs don't throw off the balance of the sled.
The model we tested featured an older style latch system that has since been upgraded. (If you own the older style latches, you can mail them back to Powder Keg and they will upgrade them with the newer latches.)
This past season the Powder Kegs were designed to fit the newer Polaris and Ski-Doo models. The company expects to have a model ready for Arctic Cat this season.
The Powder Keg retails for $239.95 and the Fuel Keg retails for $119.95. The products are guaranteed for one year against breakage due to normal use or manufacturing defects.
For more information call Powder Keg LLC (888) 758-7307 or www.powderkegllc.com.