For unbelievable amazing performance, run the lowest, craziest gears possible. I run 3.27 on on a 2019 154” Alpha,22/72 3.27 & 22/84 3.65 on a 16’ 174, 8 tooth drivers, 5000ft. Smokes turbos all day long.
It’s a ton of work and you need ambition and out of the box thinking. The goal is to use all of the clutch face and be 1-1 on a steep and deep climb.
At your elevation of 9-12,000ft, any gear lower than stock will be noticeable and enjoyable.
I say get the lowest gear available over the counter and run it. Experiment! It won’t be the ultimate but it will be much better than stock.
At 10,000ft, 150hp turns into 96hp. 96hp moving a 500 lb sled is a 5.27 power to weight ratio. That is horrible. To top it off, the stock gear ratio is supposed to run about 72mph(just a guess) at 1-1. The sled will never reach 1-1 and won’t turn a track 72mph. Maybe half that at best on a climb.
Hence, theres only half the clutch face being used. The sled is only reaching half it’s potential as the motor can’t pull those gears. Solution-gear down until using the whole clutch face.
Have a look at your friends primary clutches. You will see that very few are reaching 1-1. That means there is a ton of performance left on the table. It’s like using highway gears on a 1/4 mile drag car. Unfortunately, that what the sled world does.
So, in order to make your buddies look silly, use the 1/4mile drag car gears. This is good for mountain riding where you rarely get over 50mph anyway. Flatland is a bit different.
Cheers low gears!
