Aluminum Driveshaft and Hollow Jackshaft
- Thread starter jonmatz88
- Start date
interesting take on the tracks. sounds like you drop into ravines and stuff a lot with a setup like that. i would consider it if i didnt enjoy hillclimbing so much. Did you consider just trimming the paddles on your 3"? then you dont have the thick spots left there where you cut the fingers off. Id like to hillclimb with a 2.6 with this mod and see how it compares in the powder. the smaller paddles no doubt help in trees when you need to keep track speed up to help balance the machine.
J
jim
Well-known member
It's all about geometry when it comes to aluminum. Yes, it's certainly weaker. Yes, it is much more prone to deformation and failure of splines and connecting hardware. But, if the design it correct, it can be incredibly durable and tough. Tough as steel? No. Nothing is. Steel has the dual threat of strength and toughness. Is strong under sustained stress, and is tough when an impact affects it. Same story with Titanium. But what aluminum does have over steel is a better strength to weight ratio. But, again, when you are limited on what you can do for geometry (crank shaft and rods are great examples, steel wins). Titanium is the best for strength to weight...no question. So, Al is good stuff...just has to be used correctly. But that can be said about any material.
The early release MC (and ER grey) do not come with the aluminum track shaft. Cat is still testing the aluminum shaft, so who knows if it will be put on the fall production sleds/snowchecks.
I'm assuming cat copied BDX's hollow steel jackshaft. I ran one on my sled all season and not an single issue with it.
Went out again today just to hour out my sled (manual says first 18mins lots of oil and gas is added as well as Rpm limited, then the next 6hrs more gas and oil) I have a few more items to add to my 1st 2 posts as well.
23- I heard the seat is suppose to be lighter, never weighed it to compare, seat is the same size and shape, but the material on the back is different, the foam is much softer than on the 15' model (Less dense foam would be lighter and softer) . just to let you guys know, if you "G" it out off a sharp bump or landing (spring snow around my house is hard) you do feel the tank when landing, doesn't happen very often but I did notice it.
24 - I spoke before about how this thing dosen't subermarine (Get piles of snow on the hood) when boondocking, I forgot to mention that every time I stopped I looked to see if those new front vents were blocked off and I never once seen snow blocking them. First sled I have rid'n that you didn't have to sweep off the hood and vents in the powder.
25 - The new nose cone and partial belly pan protector also seem to help it get up on the snow and probably is part of the reason it climbs on top the snow better even when there is a big pile in front of you. My 15' would just plow unti you got some speed going.
26 - Played with my shocks today while timming out the break mode and ended up at 65Psi on skis, 60Psi on front skid shock and 125Psi on rear skid shock. All clickers in the soft setting. I was riding the power line and the main trail is beat and rough as a bitch. With these setting I can crank the trail faster than I really care to (over 60Mph) The shocks are doing their job and work great.
27 - I have 6.5 hrs on the sled now and it does feel like it has even better throttle response then it did just a couple hours previosly. It gained about 100Rpm as well from when I left the truck to when I got back and the temp was minus 4c when I unloaded and plus 2c when I got back. I was riding at about 2700' and the Rpm was 8200 when it leveled out. When you wack the throttle from a dead take off it hits 8350-8400 then settles back to about 8200Rpm.
28 - When I got home I pulled the weights (Just so ya know, the allan key side is a 4 mil and the nut on the other end is a 3/8. You need a thin wall socket or it won't grab the nut its counter sunk into the clutch kinda. If you use standard allan wrenches one size is a little loose and the next one up is too big. The weights in it are 70 grams ( so they say on them) I have a real good little dope scale and according to it, one weight was 70.4, the next one was 70.6 and one was 71.4. Talk about accurate
. Anyways, to make a long testing process short, I have gound the tips at a 45 degree angle on the back side so now they all weigh 69 grams dead on and DAMN this thing pulls hard and has wicked on off throttle response.Its pulling 8300-8350 when it settles in and it tags 8500 when you first slam the throttle then falls back to the 8300Rpm. As a side note, it dropped the engagment to 2900Rpm, still takes off hard when you slam the throttle with NO LAG or BOG. Funny thing though, I forgot to mention, when you are idling and you hit the reverse button and the motor comes to life in reverse, it revs up to about 2400-2450 then idles back down, it does this every time you swith from forward or reverse. Its getting damn close to engaging this clutch.............
29- I said that I had lower the front "H" arm in the the tunnel to the new hole, ski pessure is a little lighter, still corners well on the trail and on the couple short steep little hills on the power it was just packing the skis, before they were glued to the ground. If your skis are pushing into the ground when climbing, that DRAG, drag is bad.
30 - These shocks do an awsome job of controlling front end lift, I can't see ever needed to use the lock out setting for the way I ride (Not a BIG CHUTE rider)
I am VERY impessed with this overall package, this weekend I will be riding with some of the good old boyz and we'll see if the bears do actually sh!t in the buckwheat. YEA HAW
23- I heard the seat is suppose to be lighter, never weighed it to compare, seat is the same size and shape, but the material on the back is different, the foam is much softer than on the 15' model (Less dense foam would be lighter and softer) . just to let you guys know, if you "G" it out off a sharp bump or landing (spring snow around my house is hard) you do feel the tank when landing, doesn't happen very often but I did notice it.
24 - I spoke before about how this thing dosen't subermarine (Get piles of snow on the hood) when boondocking, I forgot to mention that every time I stopped I looked to see if those new front vents were blocked off and I never once seen snow blocking them. First sled I have rid'n that you didn't have to sweep off the hood and vents in the powder.
25 - The new nose cone and partial belly pan protector also seem to help it get up on the snow and probably is part of the reason it climbs on top the snow better even when there is a big pile in front of you. My 15' would just plow unti you got some speed going.
26 - Played with my shocks today while timming out the break mode and ended up at 65Psi on skis, 60Psi on front skid shock and 125Psi on rear skid shock. All clickers in the soft setting. I was riding the power line and the main trail is beat and rough as a bitch. With these setting I can crank the trail faster than I really care to (over 60Mph) The shocks are doing their job and work great.
27 - I have 6.5 hrs on the sled now and it does feel like it has even better throttle response then it did just a couple hours previosly. It gained about 100Rpm as well from when I left the truck to when I got back and the temp was minus 4c when I unloaded and plus 2c when I got back. I was riding at about 2700' and the Rpm was 8200 when it leveled out. When you wack the throttle from a dead take off it hits 8350-8400 then settles back to about 8200Rpm.
28 - When I got home I pulled the weights (Just so ya know, the allan key side is a 4 mil and the nut on the other end is a 3/8. You need a thin wall socket or it won't grab the nut its counter sunk into the clutch kinda. If you use standard allan wrenches one size is a little loose and the next one up is too big. The weights in it are 70 grams ( so they say on them) I have a real good little dope scale and according to it, one weight was 70.4, the next one was 70.6 and one was 71.4. Talk about accurate
. Anyways, to make a long testing process short, I have gound the tips at a 45 degree angle on the back side so now they all weigh 69 grams dead on and DAMN this thing pulls hard and has wicked on off throttle response.Its pulling 8300-8350 when it settles in and it tags 8500 when you first slam the throttle then falls back to the 8300Rpm. As a side note, it dropped the engagment to 2900Rpm, still takes off hard when you slam the throttle with NO LAG or BOG. Funny thing though, I forgot to mention, when you are idling and you hit the reverse button and the motor comes to life in reverse, it revs up to about 2400-2450 then idles back down, it does this every time you swith from forward or reverse. Its getting damn close to engaging this clutch.............29- I said that I had lower the front "H" arm in the the tunnel to the new hole, ski pessure is a little lighter, still corners well on the trail and on the couple short steep little hills on the power it was just packing the skis, before they were glued to the ground. If your skis are pushing into the ground when climbing, that DRAG, drag is bad.
30 - These shocks do an awsome job of controlling front end lift, I can't see ever needed to use the lock out setting for the way I ride (Not a BIG CHUTE rider)
I am VERY impessed with this overall package, this weekend I will be riding with some of the good old boyz and we'll see if the bears do actually sh!t in the buckwheat. YEA HAW
Last edited:
snow fever, i notice same thing that you, your review are great!! Only thing, i'm 6' 170lbs all gear guy and i like 4.5'' stock riser, and i like more 3'' PC track vs 2.6 track.
18' seat is softer (i like it) and grip alot more that 16' seat
Same thing on rpm, hit at 8300-8400 and settles back at 8200. For your J14-70 weight grind on tip, get J13-70, this weight are lighter tipped and i like more that J14-series. Pull harder and more instant track response.
My shock pressure is like you.
FSS : 65/63, FTS : 55, RTS : 125
18' seat is softer (i like it) and grip alot more that 16' seat
Same thing on rpm, hit at 8300-8400 and settles back at 8200. For your J14-70 weight grind on tip, get J13-70, this weight are lighter tipped and i like more that J14-series. Pull harder and more instant track response.
My shock pressure is like you.
FSS : 65/63, FTS : 55, RTS : 125
Last edited:
I've been riding all this season with a mod 2.6" and it is night and day improvement over a stock 2.6", especially in the powder. It gets up on the snow way better, just kinda pops up on the snow instead of clawing through . I only cut the fingers and added a y-pipe this year and it made enough difference that my diehard poo buddy on his bigbore pro accused me of doin engine/pipe work over the summer cuz my little 153 800 cat is giving his 163 910 pro a hard time in the hills. Jury is still out on spring time snow as we're just getting to that stage, but so far I've seen no ill effects.
The Mountain Cat comes with the gogle bag on the bars, I always take them off because it lets the heat out the top of the hood better. The bonus is when I take off my helmet and glasses I put them there and when you put your helmet back on its toasty warm and melts all the ice off. I replace the gogle bag with the plastic screen off the older models, it fits right in.
The bag on the back is a joke, its too small, I replaced it with the one like they put on the 17' but, I put it tight to the seat.
I like the idea of the less tip weights you are talking about, but I always grind my weights to match them anyways. I find stock weights usaully have some discrepency in the weight from one to the other so I like them all the same. I have never seen such a spread as these ones were though.
I would like to get a heavier set of weights on the heel because I think this motor would respond very well to that. The other option is the helix, I haven't pulled that apart yet, but lets say its a straight 46 degree, then I think something like a 50-44 would also work great. We'll see, maybe this weekend I'll open it up and find out what is in there.
The 3rd option is gearing up 1 tooth on the top gear, I think it would like that as well. Some guys say you can't put a 20 T on top with 50 T on the bottom with the 90 P chain but, when I had it apart it looks like it might go if a guy puts a few miles on (bit of stretch), and you put the chain on both sprokets and then side the sprockets on. (You could do a 47 T bottom but that would be steel and more rotating mass. Rotating MASS = BAD BAD BAD!!!!!!!!
Couple more items to add
1 - Just so you guys know, if you drain the oil injection tank for some reason like to put on a belt drive or something, you have to take it to your dealer to have them re-prime it. They use a computer to do it. I know this because I put a belt drive on my 14' Snow Pro 6000 and I had to make my own Tank. I thought about trying to figure out how to just power it up with a battery to prime it but, if you screw the pump its not cheap to replace, not to mention if it doesn't work, the motor will be fubared too.
2 - Don't plan on putting in aftermarket reeds for any real gain, the reeds in this thing are like the 6000 motor, they look like V-Force. When I got my 6000 I looked for reeds (I like Boyeson Rad Valves) and they told me there was little to no gain over the stockers so they would not be making them for it. That was a couple years ago.
The bag on the back is a joke, its too small, I replaced it with the one like they put on the 17' but, I put it tight to the seat.
I like the idea of the less tip weights you are talking about, but I always grind my weights to match them anyways. I find stock weights usaully have some discrepency in the weight from one to the other so I like them all the same. I have never seen such a spread as these ones were though.
I would like to get a heavier set of weights on the heel because I think this motor would respond very well to that. The other option is the helix, I haven't pulled that apart yet, but lets say its a straight 46 degree, then I think something like a 50-44 would also work great. We'll see, maybe this weekend I'll open it up and find out what is in there.
The 3rd option is gearing up 1 tooth on the top gear, I think it would like that as well. Some guys say you can't put a 20 T on top with 50 T on the bottom with the 90 P chain but, when I had it apart it looks like it might go if a guy puts a few miles on (bit of stretch), and you put the chain on both sprokets and then side the sprockets on. (You could do a 47 T bottom but that would be steel and more rotating mass. Rotating MASS = BAD BAD BAD!!!!!!!!
Couple more items to add
1 - Just so you guys know, if you drain the oil injection tank for some reason like to put on a belt drive or something, you have to take it to your dealer to have them re-prime it. They use a computer to do it. I know this because I put a belt drive on my 14' Snow Pro 6000 and I had to make my own Tank. I thought about trying to figure out how to just power it up with a battery to prime it but, if you screw the pump its not cheap to replace, not to mention if it doesn't work, the motor will be fubared too.
2 - Don't plan on putting in aftermarket reeds for any real gain, the reeds in this thing are like the 6000 motor, they look like V-Force. When I got my 6000 I looked for reeds (I like Boyeson Rad Valves) and they told me there was little to no gain over the stockers so they would not be making them for it. That was a couple years ago.
Last edited:
Similar threads
