I have 16 GB of helmet cam to sort through, I will put up some real vids soon. Really fell in love with the sled this past week in Dubois area, 13 lbs was an animal at 9000 ft and not even pushing the limits. Ran all week, got as many as 75 track miles out of a tank of fuel and still wasn't empty (just too low to see how much was left). Clutching felt right so I left it the same all week. Used the same belt for the whole week and had even put some miles on it before we left, it must be pushing 500 miles and is still good to run. Towed a guy home 10+ miles too which can be hard on belts and no problems. Ran with n/a guys and had roughly the same or better fuel range than them which was what I was hoping for.
Biggest problem I had was accidentally only running with one bottle valve on and it ran out of fuel halfway through the day. Once I figured out that the other tank valve was closed my problem was solved. Other problem I had was the low flowing valves in my fuel supply forklift tanks were slowing down my filling process. They are great containers but the valves on some of them are so touchy. Asked my propane salesman if I can disable the efv's on all the tanks and he didn't have a problem with it. Otherwise I want to put the highest flowing ones on that I can find. Tanks and fittings on the sled are fine, it's just my filling tanks are slowing down the process.
I am still trying to get this sled to idle right, it's not that it can't be done, I am just usually having too much fun on vacation to want to take the time to make the minor adjustments. If Arctic cat made their throttle stop easier to adjust my problem would be solved, the fuel mixer adjustments are easy enough, just cats throttle body design and the aluminum plate in the way are making it harder to get at than I want, it runs fine now but it will idle so low that eventually it dies if you leave it for a minute.
I was hoping it would be a boondocker and not just a hillclimber and I was happy with it in that regard, I was afraid the side exhaust would be a problem carving in deep snow but you just have to get used to giving it a touch more throttle when carving to the right than you need to when carving or sidehilling to the left. In a week of riding (about 350 miles or so) I think it snuffed the sled out resulting in a mild stuck once maybe twice. I really can't say that a ski-well or tunnel dump would have been any less or significantly less problem as far as snow restriction. Experience will only improve it as well, knowing when to add a little extra throttle to keep it from bogging. I have no plans of messing with it. Everyone loves how it sounds, tough as nails but not obnoxious (with the "quiet muffler").
Cold start first thing in the morning is tough but predictable. I don't use the primer which might help things a bit, I have a friend hold it WOT until it starts to pop and then eventually it will fire a bit longer and you can try to catch it at idle and you are good to go. Kind of like a finnicky carbureted motor that you know how to work, I can leave it for a couple hours and no problem starting, but leave it overnight in the cold and that rope is tough to pull to say the least. Compression got lowered so the only thing I can think of is that the residual oil in the cylinders is not getting washed with gasoline to make it slipperier once it's really cold. I don't use the primer because the problem i see is not getting the fuel to the engine, it's getting the engine to spin over fast enough to get it to light up. Anywhere around or above freezing this is not a problem, just in the teens and below. Another propaner told me to get some heat in the motor before pulling and the problem is solved. Haven't thought of a safe easy way to do that yet so until then I just pull harder. Warm starts are ridiculously easy, 12-18" of rope is all you need.
Videos when they are ready, maybe I will get some time today to work on them.
John
