16 Wide on the King, Help me out please

[Perk]

I do a project on my sled every fall....keeps me sane until the snow flys. I have done almost everthing imagineable to the old king. So I had to dig pretty deep this year to come up with something.....Now I have a delima.

Sled runs great and I have zero complaints. But I thought I might go to the 162 x 16 x 2.5. Problem is, I already run the 162 x 15x 2.25. It works well, but I figure more is better. Until I saw the weight of the x 16 x 2.5! That thing is around 13 lbs heavier. I am curious what you guys think. Will it be worth all of the extra rotating mass to go to 1" wider and .25 on the paddles? I think my sled can pull it but I am not sure I will see much gain with what I expect to lose in track speed.

I also want to do a bdx prolite bumper kit, but I am waiting to see some pics and get some feedback on here. Sounds like there were some issues with the earlier kits (see Sandman post). Any input is appreciated.

Thanks in advance for your help all!
--Chris

 

[Reeb]

I had a similar dilema when I went to a Extreme. However, I removed every 2nd clip, got happy with the holesaw(3-4-3 pattern) and removed the rubber guides that didn't have a clip to support. I can't remember what it saved, and it wasn't down to the same weight of the old track. I can't remember a number but I thought it was 6 or 7lbs. I went from a Challenger 151x15x2 to a 150x16x2.5

One of the best mods done to my sled. Top 5 changes for sure.

 

[Rush44]

You could always gear the sled down a notch if the sled has trouble maintaining track speed on the climbs. I've been toying with that idea after I saw what great outcomes some of my other buddies had after gearing their sleds down.

I decided to add a 40 shot of NOS instead... problem solved.

 

[Reeb]

Gearing down should be as automatic as clutching when it comes to tuning in a sled. The entire drivetrain is related. I gear a stock sled down from the get go. No n/a sled hits 80mph trackspeed.....so why are we geared even higher? Unless you're big on drag racing. Case in point, try meadowracing at 10,000ft versus 1,000ft. the sled geared down will beat the stock sled hands down.