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2019 Ascender Engine Fail

I think they got every thing beat when it comes to ski's , All though I haven't tried the newer Arctic cats.
True!
Grippers are great.
So far, the '19 are good.
Still thinking about putting the grippers on to see if there is a difference.
Maybe only 1 gripper......

[emoji12]
 
How long did you own one. Might not be for everyone but it does seem out of the brands most like the feel of the pro the best. They could be snochecked with Walker Evans Remote resevior shocks which are a huge improvement over the standard WE's. I would love to try and Alpha and feel I would actual fee somewhat at home on it with little time.

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Newest RMK i owned is 2004. Sold it in 2013 with less than 1,000 miles on it.
Still own Polaris trail sled.


Ridden lots and lots, friends, family's and demos....
Ride primarily with Polaris.
All of which have been pretty reliable sleds.

I can't see spending $14k on a sled and then have to replace the track and suspension. Another $4k+....!

U need to spend a day swapping back and forth on RMK and Mtn Cat.
U will see a significant difference in the shock/suspension. I don't care which one u prefer for overall handling. U will be disappointed in Polaris shocks, even the high end option.



[emoji12]
 
I lost a cylinder on my Alpha yesterday. I'm guessing I'm somewhere in the 3-5 hour range. I'm going to swap in new spark plugs momentarily and see if it was just a fouled plug. Motor is starting up and running fine, less one cylinder.

What is the deal with the snow ingestion on these? Was this fixed from 18 to 19 mountain cats? When I pulled off my top hood today, there was some milky oil with beads of water sitting just on the inside of the gasket lip, engine side. Is this something I should be concerned about? It could just be condensation.... Was anyone doing anything to seal up the air intake? Where should I look for problems? I can say that I was rather paranoid, and inspected to make sure the hood was on correctly a bazillion times before taking the sled out on it's first ride. Airbox/hood mating was square and in all of the way...

I rode the sled in wet mashed potato snow that was 3.5' deep, with no base. I will say it was scary powerful and an animal. The 3" track pulls like a freight train, and the alpha skid works really well. Will update when I run new plugs.
 
181.3 miles
15.0 hrs
One time when i shut the sled off at 2,200rpm. It took 3 pulls to start it.

One time when i was changing songs, (cruising down the trail ~45mph) i hit the kill switch, pulled it back up and hammered the throttle on the straights, hit 76mph let off for a corner and seen code 1600 and 1603. Lost hand and thumb warmers.

Shut off sled, restart, codes are gone.
Warmers work fine.



[emoji12]
 
problem fixed

I completed the following sequence:

1. thawed out the sled overnight in garage.

2. started sled, confirmed sled only firing on one cylinder.

3. removed plugs, burned off residue with torch.

4. replaced both plugs (after cleaning).

Sled fired right up breathing on both cylinders. Ripped around the property, appears to be running fine now.


I was riding just above sea level when it choked yesterday. I wonder if the fuel mapping is a skosh rich for Alaska and our lower elevations in Southcentral.... So far here is my honest quick and dirty pros/cons of the sled:

Pros:
Motor pulls hard (even when in break in)
Suspension works really well, and is pretty effortless to ride.
I'm not ridiculously sore after my first ride of the year.
3" track pulls like a freight train (especially combined with the A-1 suspension), even in snow with no base.

Cons:
Clearly runs rich enough on break in to foul a plug.
Little things like insulation coming loose under the cowl and getting annihilated by the clutch
The goggle bag appears to be worthless, anything I put in there ends up soaked. Price to pay for snow over the bars I suppose...
 
My 01 Polaris 800 went over 10,000 miles. Finally totalled it out but engine still ran.

So did my 2001 800 RMK BUT the 2002+ used different cranks (probably some stupid cost saving/supplier change). Many of my friends newer ones had failures.

Correct that and the fact that whey had to add Exhaust valves because it was the "in thing to do" marketing hype maybe. The dam valve port was so big I believe it didn't do the rings any favors either. After I got my 01 XC set-up right (keep roller clutch clean, adjust throttle cable and oil cable) I went from loosing to beating MXZ 800 and ZR 800's.
 
Newest RMK i owned is 2004. Sold it in 2013 with less than 1,000 miles on it.
Still own Polaris trail sled.


Ridden lots and lots, friends, family's and demos....
Ride primarily with Polaris.
All of which have been pretty reliable sleds.

I can't see spending $14k on a sled and then have to replace the track and suspension. Another $4k+....!

U need to spend a day swapping back and forth on RMK and Mtn Cat.
U will see a significant difference in the shock/suspension. I don't care which one u prefer for overall handling. U will be disappointed in Polaris shocks, even the high end option.



[emoji12]

I would love to do that. I am hoping to get some time on a Alpha this year. Never noticed an issue with the shocks. My 2012 pro had standard WE that I had rebuilt which made them better. My last 2 SKS 155's have the WE with remotes and they are a noticable difference thant he standard WE. One of my riding buds runs teh $3000 Raptors on his. Really likes them. Mountain horse says if you run Carls, valving on the WE they will ride as well as any of the options out there.
 
You got a pic of the whole rail? I wanna see what part of the rail broke.



Sorry not getting in the middle of this, deleted the picture. Look on Facebook for the rest of the story!



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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Based on what I’m seeing here I wouldnt go for another ride on my Alpha if I had one, not worth being stranded in the backcountry. Get rid of it before you can’t give it away.

This started as a blown engine thread.
Maybe we can make it a dual thread and talk about blown engines and broken rails???
2 discussions. 1 thread.
We'll need some help!
 
Sorry not getting in the middle of this, deleted the picture. Look on Facebook for the rest of the story!



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The dude took his post down on fb. Claims he didn’t hit anything hard but it was hard enough to deform the rubber idler wheel right behind where it was broke. Everything has a breaking point. Or maybe it had a flaw. I hit some stuff pretty hard already and so far so good. All the haters want it to fail. All I can say Is it’s a riot to ride and if ther is an issue it’ll be a quick and easy fix I’m sure. I’m gonna keep pounding on mine. If it breaks, oh well. I smoked a rock hard enough to deform the little idler too, but on the side the shocks mount to. It was a hard hit.
 
Sorry not getting in the middle of this, deleted the picture. Look on Facebook for the rest of the story!



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
U tease.....[emoji52]
U had me pretty excited...[emoji54]

[emoji12]
 
I completed the following sequence:

1. thawed out the sled overnight in garage.

2. started sled, confirmed sled only firing on one cylinder.

3. removed plugs, burned off residue with torch.

4. replaced both plugs (after cleaning).

Sled fired right up breathing on both cylinders. Ripped around the property, appears to be running fine now.


I was riding just above sea level when it choked yesterday. I wonder if the fuel mapping is a skosh rich for Alaska and our lower elevations in Southcentral.... So far here is my honest quick and dirty pros/cons of the sled:

Pros:
Motor pulls hard (even when in break in)
Suspension works really well, and is pretty effortless to ride.
I'm not ridiculously sore after my first ride of the year.
3" track pulls like a freight train (especially combined with the A-1 suspension), even in snow with no base.

Cons:
Clearly runs rich enough on break in to foul a plug.
Little things like insulation coming loose under the cowl and getting annihilated by the clutch

I've got 200 miles on a 19 hardcore around south central Ak no issues. What did you do for clutching?
 
It's so funny how every Axys rider claims the Axys is hands down the best handling sled out of the box.
I honestly tried to like it.
I really don't like the way it handles and the shocks are worse than Skidoo.

Engine really felt good and clutching was not bad. Only a few places it felt like a dead spot. Track is the worst of the 3.

So, what part of the whole sled is the best?

Cat has the best shocks.
Cat has the best track.
Cat has the best clutching.

Ride and handling is purely preference.

Engines are honestly very close to each other.

It would be nice to have Real engine failures documented for all 3 manufacturers.


[emoji12]

I agree summ8rmk.....everybody thinks their platform is “the best”. I ride with Cats (a 2017 MC), doos (xm and gen4s), and other Axyss. Tried to enjoy the other sleds, but I am so used to the rigid Polaris feel and front end, I just don’t bother anymore, unless someone has new model/engine. I find the skidoo’s front ends squirly, and the back ends unpredictable with tmotion, and just big wide tanks. XM is really bad for me....gen4 a little better but not much. The Cat.....can’t find the balance point while on edge; it feels like a very small sweet spot to me, and big like a tank.......but that is for me.

What bugs me is the brand loyalty on here, and the urge to defend what these three manufactures throw at us as acceptable. Polaris potential engine reliability ( though my 800HO has been flawless even under 1500 miles of boost), skidoo’s weak bulkheads and quick fix junk (tmotion, flex track) and Cat taking 6 yeas to perfect a chassis.....All ridiculous...

Dream sled for me; Axys Chassis, Cat Alpha skid, and Doo 850 under boost....now there is a sled. Oh...with shot on the 850 so it starts without strapping the primary!!
 
Sled was just sitting in the garage and one of the paddles tore....
I quickly glued it back together.

These Alphas are total junk.
Bad engines, they won't start and they blowup.
Blowing up clutches
Tunnels breaking off
Breaking rails
Shreading hifax
Ripping tracks.....
e43d72c54be19599e25783a2dd3d458f.jpg


[emoji12]
 
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