belt slipping in deep powder

[Drills]

Hey guys I am new to the forum. Gave up my two ski to buy an 800 and love it! After I rode it the first time I couldn't sleep till I had one. I am planning on going to Hawk Fest and hope to meet you all there.

We rode yesterday in some deep deep powder and my clutch belt would occasionally start slipping. I am assuming it is because all of the powder coming through the air vents hits the hot engine/exhaust and forms a lot of moisture. Any ideas on how to sovle this problem?? My last sled had some mesh over the vents that allowed air in but no snow--would something like this help? Will covering the vent next to the belt result in too much heat?

Thanks for all the info on the forum by the way!

 

[TLKDPROD]

Welcome to the forum !

I had the same problem when leaning on the belt side of the Hawk. I added some air mesh (like the kits companies sell to the 2 plankers) in between the plastic body & the punched plate held by two-face tape. Riveted all of that back together, never had any snow buildup or belt slippage (because of that !) since then.

See ya at HawkFest !

 

[Hawkdoggen]

Also check your front two hood mounts , sometimes they are set to high and the hood is'nt close enough to belly pan this can also let powder in when you hit the deep stuff ! jus loosen the two 10 mm bolts on each side and adjust down a little bit

 

[snowhawk jockey]

The field expedient repair is to tear the side out of that half melted cardboard 12-pack box(You know the one, with a couple of empty cans, thats buried in snow, sitting in the corner of the bed of the truck) and wedge it, from the outside, between the plastic and metal screen of the clutch side vent to block most of the snow from coming in and piling up around the clutch. The belt will smoke in one spot or BLOW if it slips enough times and heats up.

These fellas and their fancy hood adjustments or prefilter screens are cool and all, but really, is that much effort necessary? I guess if you want a real solution instead of a bandaid and duct tape...

 

[Drills]

Problem Solved!

Thought I'd let everyone know what was going on in case they run into the same problem:
The plastic piece that sits at the very front of the tunnel to block snow from the track to the engine compartment had broken rivets and was loose. So it hung down and left about a 1" gap. As the track spun it flipped snow through the space, past the rear clutch guard (plastic thing) and right onto the primary. Then the belt would get wet and I would go no where but be stuck in three feet of powder on the hill side. After putting air mesh on my belly vents and lots of crawling around looking at the thing in weird angles I finally saw the problem. Riveted that piece back on--not an easy task since it's in the middle of everything--and now it runs great and the belt don't slip no more! Problem Solved!