Just Ride It: Project Mtn Cat

Our take on building a radical Arctic Cat Mountain Cat M 8000

Published in the January 2018 Issue August 2018 Feature Taylor Fisk

Chassis

Chassis design is one of the most important and fundamental pieces of a mountain sled. You can have all the power in the world, but if your chassis sucks you’ll be dead in the water. The Mountain Cat chassis has been very refined over the years, but it still felt dated compared to the rest of the competition. The panels were wide, causing you to panel out and fight you on a sidehill, the chassis was still heavy, and the running boards were slippery. To combat these problems we sent a few texts over to Skinz Protective gear to get our hands on that crazy looking Helium Plastics setup that had the whole industry buzzing. This whole kit narrows the sled up as tight as it can possibly go, and sheds 33 lbs off the sled. On the snow we noticed a significant improvement in how this sled reacts on a steep tree littered slope. No longer do the panels push you down hill and make your track spin. You can finesse this thing wherever you want with ease. To further compliment the plastics, the Skinz free ride seat, airframe running boards, and concept front end work together as a full package to turn the Mountain cat into a tree riding animal. The boards are much stiffer, with more traction, and the seat stays out of the way when hopping from side to side, although there’s not much padding for those trail rides in and out when you want to be lazy. The Skinz concept front end pushes the spindles farther forward to lengthen the wheel base of the sled. It offers completely redesigned geometry to combat the shortcomings of the stock front end. Simply put, this thing rides like a dream. 

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