There's an old saying: "if some is good, more is better." And that's exactly how one Jackson, WY, snowmobiler views the length of his snowmobile track.
Ted George, who's been involved in snowmobiling longer than most care to remember, decided last spring that the more track you can put in the snow, the farther and higher your sled will go in the mountains. So this past summer he went out to build a 189-inch track for his Polaris 800.
George took a Polaris 166-inch Series 4 track and basically cut 26-inch strips to use. (He can make six track inserts from one Series 4 track.) Each strip is added to another 166-inch track with 10 button head bolts and modified Woody's backer plates on the outside.
He also removed the side lugs that weren't clipped (about 50 lugs each side) to keep some of the weight off. So, starting with a 62-pound track and removing 100 side lugs and clipping the windows while adding 26 inches of additional track, his overall track weight only increased by 5 lbs.
He then added a 13-inch tunnel extension (the side plates are from Skinz) and Ice Age rails. He changed the rail kick-up from 3 degrees to 1.5 degrees (since the length of the rail is now considerably longer). Other than the rails, the rear skid is totally stock.
Since the track doesn't throw as much snow to the stock heat extruders, an additional cooler was added to the back of the tunnel.
This winter George has three 189-inch tracks on the snow, logging in more than 350 miles without any issues. All of the miles are strictly backcountry.
Although George isn't planning on making any tracks for public sale, he wanted to take on this project in hopes of garnering some interest from track manufacturers to make extended length tracks for that market of hardcore backcountry riders.
"It's absolutely amazing where these tracks will go," George explained. "It works. It will go anywhere and will run with most all modified sleds."
For more information, you can
contact George at (307) 733-5959. d