Aftermarket Aluminum bushings for the Polaris Gripper Skis?

[SixtySevenGT]

Ballist

Do you Know why they Add Ballist to a Funny Car.

Beacuse they are too light and there is not enough mass ( to offset the HP) to allow gravity to give them Traction.

Tell me when your Sled floats away, made you could make delievries to the Space Station.

 

[icr]

Do you Know why they Add Ballist to a Funny Car.

Beacuse they are too light and there is not enough mass ( to offset the HP) to allow gravity to give them Traction.

Tell me when your Sled floats away, made you could make delievries to the Space Station.

You could work for Yamahas marketing department

 

[alt]

Do you Know why they Add Ballist to a Funny Car.

Beacuse they are too light and there is not enough mass ( to offset the HP) to allow gravity to give them Traction.

Tell me when your Sled floats away, made you could make delievries to the Space Station.

Hasn't happened yet but were sure trying. So these ended up at .53# (242.3 grams) less than the stock stuff including the titanium nut and bolt. Not a game changer but it's what it's all coming to....

Dan

 

[jokerman]

Dan, just received them in today's shipment, all I can say is" Quality" Thanks a Bunch!!!

 

[LoudHandle]

Just picked up mine from the PO. They look awesome! Thanks Dan! Will post some pics when I get home.

 

[LoudHandle]

Uploading the pics is fighting me. IPhoto was so much more intuitive. Sorry for the poor photo quality my cell has been thru He!! lately.

Anyway, Quality and fit is hands up awesome! I did pull some weights both before and after install.

Stock steel bushing=36.7G
Alt's TI bushing=20.4G

Both done with a 12 bushing average for accuracy.

Stock ski with all hardware including the stock rubber, ski bolt and washers was=2825G (Two ski average) 6.228#'s

Gripper with ALT's TI wear bars with TI Nylock Nuts, TI ski bolt and TI Nylock Nut, TI Ski Bushings; My own TI Toe bolt and Nylock Nut, tapped 5/16" x 0.065" 6061-T6 aluminum tube w/ 6mm x 30mm TI bolts and drilled aluminum washers for the loop bolt. C&A rubber cut in half and fit to the saddle by cutting small 1/8" deep pies out of the four corners to nest the centering ridges, 1/8" thick UHMW (1 1/8" wide x 4 1/2" long with a 90 degree bend 3/4" long installed to the front) shim under and forward; was=2475G (two ski average) 5.456#'s

A savings of 0.77#'s per ski! All with just a hardware change, no cutting or modifying of the plastic (other than drilling the holes larger for the loop bolt). No Carl's cut yet. If i do, it should easily break under 5#'s.

 

[mountainhorse]

What about spindle weight... have you done anything to cut that back?

Seems you could make the extrusion a bit "less thick"... they make them like slicing bread off a loaf... just make the "slice" thinner. Should be good for weight reduction without jeopardizing strength.

Or ... Knock off a full 2 lbs (one per side) with a set of the PCC CF spindles (if you don't already have them). That would be a full 3-1/2" pounds of unsprung weight cut off... Even more if you run Ti bolts, aluminum rod ends and tubular tie rods...

Is this the year that baby rolls? I know a lot us want to see a sub 400 lb, full of fluids, Pro!!

 

[LoudHandle]

What about spindle weight... have you done anything to cut that back?

Seems you could make the extrusion a bit "less thick"... they make them like slicing bread off a loaf... just make the "slice" thinner. Should be good for weight reduction without jeopardizing strength.

Or ... Knock off a full 2 lbs (one per side) with a set of the PCC CF spindles (if you don't already have them). That would be a full 3-1/2" pounds of unsprung weight cut off... Even more if you run Ti bolts, aluminum rod ends and tubular tie rods...

Is this the year that baby rolls? I know a lot us want to see a sub 400 lb, full of fluids, Pro!!

No CF yet, saving that cost and expense for the final stretch as it is just a matter of $. I have some quite stylish and snow friendly (minimal frontal area) TI spindles drawn up that are 2" taller than the current PRO spindle (and ~5/8" taller than what the AXYS's are) that still save nearly that without being "Fragile" and over priced.

I probably should not have posted this yet but there is a preview of the latest revision.

I also have replaced the CF diagonal tubes of the front structure with thin walled TI tube, Same with the heavy aluminum tubes in the rear structure. And the lower cross tube in my sleds is thin wall TI tube also. All saving some weight while gaining strength. Plans include a TI front bumper and other items yet. My hope is to have the chassis in it's final form this winter and be able to add CF bodywork if needed to get to the final weight. I've been focusing on chassis items that are not cost effective for the profiteer to approach as the market IMO for the Super High End Boutique Builds is quite small. At least I know that I could not afford to hire someone to do the research into what I have done and continue to do just for the fun of it.

 

[Norway]

Dang LH!

Git'R done!!

You gotta put this baby on the snow. You will no doubt encounter some problems with different parts, forcing you to come up with version 2.0

That will not be a defeat, just progress and evolution. Also you will set of wants and needs in other (sick) peoples minds, pushing things further and creating more situations where say Alt Impact can make a run of parts.

Cheers!

 

[SNWMBL]

The Carl's cut won't save that much unless you get crazy with the cut. My hardware is about .21-.24 lbs lighter per ski and just made it under 5 lbs.

- 7/16 .035 4130 wear bars w/ .040 1/8 wide 4130 strips full length, alu nuts & washers
- 4130 tube ski bolts w/ a drilled out nut fused to one end and the other end tapped for a short aircraft screw, Alu washers on each end
- 4130 tube lower loop bolts (same design as ski bolts)
- Alu upper loop hardware
- Alt Impact bushings
- mild Carl's cut
- with rubbers & three 1/8" thick UHMW rectangular spacers under the rubber
- shaved gripper knobs

Still have some plastic shaving/cleaning up to do & a little hardware refinement but there aren't very many grams left to chase. I used a better scale this time instead of my old fish scale.

 

[SNWMBL]

So I built a crude tool to melt a 3/4" hole through the ribs under the ski rubber.




6.3 grams


Pretty much finished shaving one ski yesterday. What's in the containers does not include any of the Carl's cut.





That's 42.2 grams or .093 lbs in plastic from one ski not including the Carl's cut. I'm not sure I'd want to shave anymore than I already have. Could maybe drill a few holes and get up to 50 grams.

 

[alt]

Some guys are a lot sicker than I am...

 

[2Quickrides]

What about the ski pivot bushing/axle in the bottom of the spindle?

 

[LoudHandle]

What about the ski pivot bushing/axle in the bottom of the spindle?

Those are already Hard Anodized Aluminum, Correct? Not much weight to be saved there and to my knowledge they are plenty tough as they are. They would be heavier in Titanium and I don't see it worth the expense. If the spindle was full width I would go to a Delrin sleeve and not tighten the bolt as tight. But with the spacers to adjust the width, going to a plastic bushing / sleeve is asking for trouble.

I would like to see the width spacers in Black Delrin or Black UHMW to save weight and avoid the corrosion issues between the sleeve and the spacers that results from getting road salt in-between them.

 

[2Quickrides]

On my 14 they are definitely NOT aluminum. They weigh a ton.......of ounces. Lol

 

[LPIdaho]

From earlier in this thread...

#26 and #13 are also steel fyi:

 

[LoudHandle]

From earlier in this thread...

Damn it! I must have missed that post. Sucks because I have 10 of them on the way. They will be tossed in the trash as soon as I receive them, unless someone wants to buy them? That is what I get for assuming.

 

[skibreeze]

So I built a crude tool to melt a 3/4" hole through the ribs under the ski rubber.




6.3 grams


Pretty much finished shaving one ski yesterday. What's in the containers does not include any of the Carl's cut.





That's 42.2 grams or .093 lbs in plastic from one ski not including the Carl's cut. I'm not sure I'd want to shave anymore than I already have. Could maybe drill a few holes and get up to 50 grams.

IMO, taking the mass out from under where the ski rubber sits is a mistake. Those ribs tend to deform as is from hard hits where you get Polaris-ski'd. When the ribs deform it creates even more slop. If you look at what Polaris did for the new AXYS, they put in a strengthening rib to improve the old configuration.

 

[SNWMBL]

Perhaps. But I'm stubborn and have to learn the hard way sometimes. I only did one ski, I'll probably leave the other alone. Eventually I'll make myself a set of CF skis and my grippers will get benched.

 

[LPIdaho]

Damn it! I must have missed that post. Sucks because I have 10 of them on the way. They will be tossed in the trash as soon as I receive them, unless someone wants to buy them? That is what I get for assuming.

I assumed the ski/spindle shaft/bushing was aluminum for years!...until the magnet on my new tape measure stuck to it. I was quite surprised