I've gone to DefCon 5 on my Cat 1100T driveline!

[Turbo11T]

So as I am typing now I'm sitting here thinking that just tying in the rear mounts to the side of the tunnel and to the jackshaft and and driveshaft as well as up to the shock mounts would add a lot of rigidity. Then I have a couple ideas to strengthen the triangulation of the spars over the stock configuration.

We need to not limit our thought process for this by what cat has given us. Most of the fixes I have seen to date as focusing on strengthing cats design rather than a different design or tied the motor and drivetrain together.

I guess I thought I was going to be able to keep myself from tinkering on my sled all summer. Guess it needs to come back out of storage as my wheels are turning in my head.

 

[joe_f7]

Well no doubt your pics show the ultimate craddle, but i think turbie was going more after the parts to improve/fix the average person's sled which is limited to their mechanical ability and amount of labor to acheive. I think his rear mounts are put on a part of the tunnel which is plenty strong not to mention the mounts alone help strengthen that area, but I do understand your point of it moving around differently than the front bulkhead portion. Also if you buy the spars off the sno pro they are way more heavy duty than the regular consumer version. Even worse the proclimb's have alluminum spars for weight loss. I don't agree with that at all. I was trying to get him to come up with a similar brace for the chaincase side to really strenthen things up. It's nice to hear these ideas though. Gets me thinking too.

 

[Woody67]

Good thread. We have been working closely with 10 or so M1100 Turbos this year. These sleds are stock units, improved stock units, and mods 275-300 HP. I for sure don't have the answers, but would like to share some observations on the sleds we are riding.

Our main elevation is 2500-7000 feet with the meat of the deep snow hard riding at 4000-6000 feet. Our snow is normally fairly heavy with high moisture content. We are generally harder on belts than higher elevations with lighter snow.

I personally have wanted to see the TCL eliminated since early riding season last year. As the time goes by I believe more and more in this helping to remedy this situation. I don't know if this is the answer but the marketing of this was better belt life and a fatter wallet....and we all know how that went.

Getting the motor square with the driven shaft is a whole different animal if all you have to do is get the motor square in the chassis as needed. We have all witnessed the motor pushing the driven shaft around. It is this action that makes me believe no matter how straight it is... it does not stay that way under load. I recently had the driven shaft out of a very low mile M1100 Turbo and could not believe how much of a motor mount the driven shaft was required to be. With nothing but the driven shaft removed and everything else secure the motor was easily moved around with very little effort. A better set of left rear and right rear motor mount inserts were installed (C3) and much of this movement went away....driven shaft still out.


Below is a list of some of our observations this season.

1.All of our M1100 T models (regardless of mods) that have been ridden hard in deep snow have as Matte said "core of the sun" clutch and belt temps.

2.The stock ones go much farther on belts than the mods

3.The clutching has to be loaded heavy enough for the mods. They have to stay off the rev limiter. The closer the clutching to running up to 8000 and settling in 7800 ish the better. The more they hit the rev limiter the harder they are on belts.

4.We are not able to use anywhere near the same clutching as the higher elevation lighter snow states....our sleds are hitting the rev limiters constantly with the same clutching said to be working south of us. This applies mostly to the 250 + hp sleds

5.We have had many of the mods working good going day after day on a belt in super steep and deep and then all of the sudden boom and not always in a hard pull.

6.All... and I mean all of our 250+ HP sleds have had issues in the chain case.

7.The sleds have been an absolute riot to ride but all of the big HP ones usually need a trip into the garage each ride to tighten adjust and repair so they would not break in the mountains...always drive system....motors run spot on always.

Woody

 

[Woody67]

funny video

This is a little clip from a couple of months ago. 260 HP Super Chute had about 300 miles on the belt and made a slight clutching change. You can hear it hit the rev limiter...it don't like it.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ceA5JHRbhEM?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[joe_f7]

dam...did that thing run that poor guy over. just shows how dangerous of a problem these things have especially for mountain guys. i do realize boosting the sled can amplify the problem, but with so many people working getting these things right, you can't help but look to this being some sort of design issue/quality issue. And to date, still no 100% fix for them after 2 years and some of the smartest snowmobile guys in the industry working on it.

 

[Woody67]

dam...did that thing run that poor guy over. just shows how dangerous of a problem these things have especially for mountain guys. i do realize boosting the sled can amplify the problem, but with so many people working getting these things right, you can't help but look to this being some sort of design issue/quality issue. And to date, still no 100% fix for them after 2 years and some of the smartest snowmobile guys in the industry working on it.

that is me on the sled and yes it ran me over just a little. No biggie. I have sold the sled and it has about 400 miles on the belt that is on it now. The new owner is loving it, but is a more than a little concerned about getting hurt if a belt fails while climbing at speed. He is riding in spring snow and says climbing the speedometer is reading over 80 mph.

 

[Turbo11T]

that is me on the sled and yes it ran me over just a little. No biggie. I have sold the sled and it has about 400 miles on the belt that is on it now. The new owner is loving it, but is a more than a little concerned about getting hurt if a belt fails while climbing at speed. He is riding in spring snow and says climbing the speedometer is reading over 80 mph.

Hmmm I was seeing 75 mph on the 156 climbing. I can't wait to ride again. I am hoping to cut some more fat off the sled. Hope to be down 25 more lbs be next winter. 15 of that off the front of the sled.