get a grip

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For 20 years, nothing much happened to track design. When the industry switched from cleated to full rubber tracks in the late 1970s, the basic design pretty much stayed the same.

Tracks were 15-inches wide, with a 5/8-inch straight rubber rib across. If you wanted more traction, you called a traction company and bought studs.

When track changes finally started, it was in the mountains.

Hill climbers started to add deep aluminum or plastic L channels across the track to power them up the steeps. At that time, mountain sleds were specials built by enthusiasts. Then, Ski-Doo took an interest in the market and came out with the Summit, and other OEM's quickly followed, bringing pressure on the track manufacturers to develop deep lug mountain tracks. This new development eventually spread to the trail sleds, as power grew from 100 hp to 120 hp and now 150+ hp.

One of the leaders in that development has been Camoplast, which makes innovative track designs for trail to crossover to mountain sleds. Not only does Camoplast make replacement tracks, but it now supplies most of the OEMs.

Track configurations
Trail tracks start with the 1-inch profile HackSaw models, to the popular 1.25-inch profile RipSaw track, which is now standard on most '08 high-performance models to the crossover on/off trail Cobra model with a slightly taller 1.352-inch lug.

The serious crossover/ditch banger segment sports even longer lugs, including 1.5- to 1.75-inch models. These give good traction in deeper off-trail snow, but can still be ridden on the trail. This segment includes a 1.5-inch RipSaw, the Free Ride for Yamaha Phazers and the 1.75-inch Challenger and Back Country trail/mountain tracks.

For serious mountain riders, the Challenger mountain/powder tracks range from 2- to 2.5-inch lug height and from 121- to 174-inches in length. Mountain tracks feature staggered partial paddles protruding from the ribs with ridges on the ends. A new Finger track has longer protruding knobs for competition hill climbing in order to give better grip in marginal areas, somewhat like a motocross tire does.

Lug design on the RipSaw and HackSaw trail tracks varies between smaller cupped segments to knobs and fingers to give good traction in a large amount of snow and on hardpacked trails, plus to provide good side bite in corners, a key in hard-trail riding.

Studs pre-installed
A couple of years ago, Camoplast introduced its Ice Tech series with studs molded into the lugs. Its Ice Claw and Ice Ripper are based on the HackSaw and RipSaw designs, with studs already added. These are the same studs used in automotive snow tires back in the 1970s, before they were outlawed because of the damage they caused to roads. There are up to 250 studs installed into the lugs, and they are intended as a safety feature to help stop on icy patches.

The first models met with mixed acceptance, so this season, Camoplast introduced a taller and sharper carbide stud in the Ice Tech series. These are intended for riders who want a safety margin on ice, without having to go through the work of studding their own tracks. That's not a big deal to some snowmobilers though, so Camoplast also offers a RipSaw with stud holes molded in place to make studding a little easier.

Studs still top stopper
We are in the process of testing a 1.065 Ice Claw track, and so far the lug design has proven to give good traction for both accelerating and stopping on hardpack trails. When it comes to stopping on ice, the molded in studs are definitely much better than no studs at all and greatly improve your safety margin. Compared to a track with 96 to 144 studs, the stopping power of the molded studs seems to fall about halfway between the studded track and a track with no studs.

Camoplast is aware of this, but this is fresh technology, so improvements are already being made. There are some really aggressive wedge shaped carbide studs used on rally racing cars on winter roads, and as development continues, I'm sure that the concept will improve on snowmobile tracks.

I also talked to Robert Musselman, president of Woody's, another top traction product maker, to get his opinion. Woody's experience is that as lugs get taller, they also bend more, and as a result, the molded in automotive style studs lose some effectiveness under braking. Conventional traction products have 40 years of development behind them and are hard to beat when it comes to control on hard ice.

Forward traction on hardpack and loose snow is now vastly improved with the new lug designs, but control on hard ice is still the specialty of traction product makers and their studs, especially for performance sleds. If you are a moderate tourer, and hate to stud and maintain tracks, you should seriously consider the molded-in studs because they do give you a much better stopping advantage on glare ice. If you can order the studded track on a preseason deal, it would be worth it.

Clip configurations
Another thing to look at when you choose a track is the clip configuration. To reduce noise under the old acceleration test procedure, manufacturers eliminated track clips. Instead of a clip on every crossbar, manufacturers went to a clip on every third crossbar, and sometimes closed the "window" in between. This quieted the sled, but also often increased friction.

Now, that the test procedure is changed to a stationary test, this is no longer necessary, and I prefer the one clip per crossbar design because it wears better and has less friction. I also like side support on at least a third of the clips, to minimize the chance of derailing.

Other points to consider:
• If you want to install a track with taller ribs, be sure to check tunnel clearance. Older machines especially may not have enough clearance.

• "Porting" the tracks is now a popular procedure to remove weight. This works in the mountains to get rid of snow buildup inside the suspension, but it also weakens the track and should not be done on high-speed tracks.

Weight reduction is a continual goal, and Ski-Doo managed to take 4 lbs. off its new track for the XP models. This was accomplished by using a new single-ply design and further spacing out crossbars. A lighter track not only has less rotating mass to accelerate and stop, but also has less unsprug weight, which contributes to better suspension performance.

The engineers at Camoplast are excited about their new single-ply technology and the Ice Ripper traction program. It's impressive that the company continues to be active in developing new designs, not only for trail sleds, but also for racers in all forms. As a result, Camoplast dominates the market, and could, as others have done before them, rest on its laurels and concentrate on reducing costs of already tooled up models.

I don't see this attitude at Camoplast, which seems committed to continue developing and improving the snowmobile experience with better performing and safer tracks, to the point that Camoplast is pushing the Big 4 to change their sleds to accommodate new track designs.

Some snowmobile manufacturers have long been indifferent to providing enough tunnel clearance for effective traction products, but the new attitude toward improved control as a total package on the latest performance machines bodes well for the future.

How safe?
Perhaps all these new lug designs have instilled a new level of confidence that sometimes can be deceiving. We find the same among owners of 4-wheel-drive cars who have fun passing lesser equipped mortals on snowy days, just to get a ticket for "driving too fast for conditions" and an accompanying warning from the police officer that even if you have 4-wheel-drive, you don't stop any faster than a 2-wheel-drive car.

I just reviewed the snowmobile accident statistics from the Wisconsin DNR for the '06-'07 season, and in 65% of fatalities, the victim hit a tree, 10% hit a car, 10% were hit by another snowmobile, 2 people drowned and 1 hit barbed wire. You'll note that 60% of the victims had a high alcohol blood level.

The Wisconsin DNR also records if the victim was registered as having taken the Wisconsin Snowmobile Safety certification. Only 12% had attended the safety course, the other 88% had not, which certainly says something in favor of education.

The main conclusion from the study would be that except for the 8% who drowned, the rest went out of control and hit undesirable objects. All of which brings me to reinforce my preference for using at least 96 traction studs and good carbides on the skis. Perhaps in the future, accident investigators should note if the victim rode a snowmobile with studs installed. Statistics show that at least 50% of snowmobilers stud their tracks.