Turning a 2010 CF800SP into a freeride sled. new to cat. Please help.

[Destroyer]

Hey everyone,

New to the cat forum!!!!whoohoo good bye doo.

I'm looking to turn a 2010cf800sp into a freeride sled

I'm 160lbs. aggressive freeride stuff
Ride 50% at home 0-3000 and 50% mountains out west up to 10000 approx.

please help me out

Track (I was leaning towards a 141 powerclaw)
Gearing
Clutching
belts
Ski's
Seat (new cat M seat?)
Exhaust
Intake
Cutting weight
venting

anything else you can quickly teach me I'm all eyes and ears.

Thanks
Chad

 

[tsnowak]

Chad, we seem to be going in the same direction.

Hey everyone,

New to the cat forum!!!!whoohoo good bye doo.

I'm looking to turn a 2010cf800sp into a freeride sled

I'm 160lbs. aggressive freeride stuff
Ride 50% at home 0-3000 and 50% mountains out west up to 10000 approx.

please help me out

Track (I was leaning towards a 141 powerclaw)
In my view the only choice for more mtn than other. Bonus- the sno pro 1.5 lug should sell easily.

Gearing
My choice, the stock 10' M8 gearing is a safe bet. 55/65 I think.

Clutching
The jury is still out on this one, a dialed 07'-09' setup (see mine for 0-4000' in sig) would work but is probably not ideal due to the new motor. BDX or? Shift assist and Rock rollers to help secondary shift speed. We might be the guinea pigs on this one. Plenty of guys on here that will be running up to 10,000' as well.

belts
Stock Arctic. The -046 because it is grippier, your sled came with -060 (harder). A -046 might not live quite as long, and the primary may need less weight to pull it, however I like the response better.

Ski's
SLP Powder Pros, ran C+A's for years, now will never go back. PP's work well in a very wide range of conditions.

Seat (new cat M seat?)
Good choice, or Boss about 5lbs lighter than new Cat seat which is 3 lighter than your seat. Boss has new pricing- $400 vs. about $300 for Cat.

Exhaust
All in development for now, so you are in the right place to watch and learn from others. I will be getting a can only. Make sure whomever you do buy from has their dyno in your altitude range. Cans have been known to loose power too. If you decide to go with a pipe as well plan on running a controller if you want it to be spot on. Been there done that.

Intake
Lots of info and opinions on this, see sticky. The 07'-10' Intakes are all the same, so what works on the old 8's and 1000's should work for 10'.
I like to keep it simple, pulled all stock hood ducting, (- about 4lbs) and put SLP flo-rite material over stock tube coming out of airbox (use stock plastic clamp). You will need to put a few holes in belly to get as much cool air to the int. as poss. This turns your stock intakes into eng. comp. vents.

Cutting weight
How much do you want to spend. Can, Seat, hood ducting, foam, windshield, port track, a good place to start. If you like to flush more theres BDX gearcase 4lbs, cro-mo rear skid and front a-arms 8lbs, smaller M rear heat exchanger ?lbs. Ive spent plenty, very happy with 07' setup, now with power figure 10' will only be better.

venting
See sticky, minimum clutch side panel vent. For general venting I like frogskinz, no rivits, if you tear one they peel right off.

anything else you can quickly teach me I'm all eyes and ears.
Whoo, if we had snow you would never have got this much out of me.

Thanks
Chad

Others? Chad, really hope you like your M chassis as much as most of us do, for all around it is a great platform.


For Cat parts check out Michelle, Freeagent on here. Great prices and service.



/

 

[Frostbite]

TSnowak, great response!

Destroyer, welcome to the darkside!

I too was new to Cat at the end of last season after years of bad mouthing them. Welcome.

Like I said, Tsnowak's guidance is very sound. There a couple small additions that you may want to consider.

1. There is an aerospace comapny called AMP that sells recreational products as one branch of their business. There stuff is top notch. They make a hood vent called a "gage cage" that is made of billet aluminum. You mount your gage on it and it and it lifts your gage up off the hood and works like a chimney to let the heat out from under your hood. The only problem is, it's billet aluminum and expensive ($125) but, they are coming out with a nylon version this year that should be about half the cost. I'd highly recommend this vent.

2. Skis??? Yup, I have read an awful lot and Powder Pros seem to be the most highly recommended of the all mountain skis. There is one with an adjustable rear fin that people like as well but, I can't seem to remember the name right now.

3. You'll need bar risers to get your bars where they need to be when your are off trail. Your sled doesn't come with VSB bars, does it?

You have the new engine we have all wished we could have so you are way ahead of the game.

Best of luck

 

[Destroyer]

Yes it comes with the adjustable bars.

 

[Frostbite]

Ok, I'd buy an AMP 2" riser that also moves the handlebar forward 1.5".

Here's a link to the AMP products.

http://www.aftermarketproducts.com/catalog.php?mach_type=S#AMP-9904

I think I saw a used one of these risers in the swap meet for quite a deal.

 

[backcountryislife]

I've got an 09 1000 short track, same idea.

The only differences that I have with tsnowak are in the belt dept.
You're backwards on the 046 being softer, it's the other way around. The 060 is a grippier compound which grabs better & produces less heat, the better grip is what causes the decrease in RPM.


I 100% disagree on the stock cat belt, I get around 3-4 times the life out of the carlisle belts (XS belt, same as the 060) & when they DO go, it costs you $15 including shipping to get a new one. The carlisles tend to hold up better to cycling a booter over & over, and they tend to hold together & go more gradually. When the cat belt explodes in the middle of a hit, losing control of your track & losing track speed for landing is REALLY bad, this has never happened to me with a carlisle belt.


The adjustable post is a loser if you're giving the sled a beating, I've been through 3 this year. Check on here about details on welding them to get them to last.

Another issue that will come up if you land in the flats from time to time, the bulkhead is weak where the post mounts to it. Unfortunately this is not a simple fix, I have a 3/16 plate welded to mine & have had no issues since that was done. My last 3 M's all cracked there, so did my wife's M8, this is not an uncommon thing for jumpers. When I was at Burandt's last year I opened on of his sleds up & his was cracked nearly as bad as mine. I believe BDX was making a part to help the down force exerted on this part of the bulkhead.

My bulkhead broke last year after about 1 month, I had not had a SINGLE crash, just a few hard landings.

I'm not talking about anything stupid here, I was hitting this jump for a few weekends before I noticed the crack, nothing monster, but it gives you the idea, this isn't something that's too unlikely. This is a pretty small hit, but I'm pretty sure it's what did the damage.

Oh yeah, seat. The new M seat is nice, but I worry about it being less forgiving than I would like for a hard landing, I like the older style high rise seat the best for an M, but I honestly haven't laid my hands on the new seat. I was happy with my 09 boss on my cat as well, aside from build quality.


You can pull weight from all over the place, track, motor, simple things like the underhood insulation, side panel insul...
Oil injection delete, lots of other ways. I'd wait to see how the new configuration does with intakes, cans, pipes, etc before pulling the trigger on anything.

Pulling a light & replacing it with mesh helps with venting & weight, top of hood venting is huge. If you pull one, you get the venting & still have a light.

 

[Destroyer]

Are you talking about where the steering post mounts to the bulkhead? New to cats never really had a good look at em. I'd like to brace this up before I ride. I haven't seen anything on the bdx site as of yet.

I also had a member on here advise me to remove the middle set of idler wheels. He said if you case a landing on the middle set of wheels where there is no shaft from rail to rail, they will fold like a contortionist.

 

[backcountryislife]

That's where I'm talking about. Bracing it is not a small thing. You may want to email Mike @ bdx about a collar for the post, he said he had them last year.

As for wheels I get rid of all of them & then add the inner wheel kit from BDX, I get around 800 miles to a set of hifax if I pay attention to where I'm riding.

I haven't bent anything on the skid yet, a few bottoms, but it doesn't seem to hurt itself when it does. Very happy with the skid.

 

[Destroyer]

Hey I think that collar your talking about is on a thread going right now Should be on the first page. Looks like a good way to stiffin it up a bit but that bar going accross that the post fastens to still looks like it could use a gusset of some sort. Is that where you put that plate?

No broken wheels with the two wheel kit ever?

 

[justindacey]

Was the steering post/bulkhead also an issue with 05's? I'm building a cheap sled similar to what you guys are doing. It's an 05 M7 141. I will be doing the same kind of riding. I usually go through a sled a year that's why I picked up an older one. So far i'm into less than 3 grand including a ton of aftermarket parts. I just want to make sure everything will be solid once the snow flies. I've got it completely apart so now is the time to do any reinforcing if it needs it. Will the BDX support work on the older M's or only the new ones with the adjustable steering post?

 

[backcountryislife]

Was the steering post/bulkhead also an issue with 05's? I'm building a cheap sled similar to what you guys are doing. It's an 05 M7 141. I will be doing the same kind of riding. I usually go through a sled a year that's why I picked up an older one. So far i'm into less than 3 grand including a ton of aftermarket parts. I just want to make sure everything will be solid once the snow flies. I've got it completely apart so now is the time to do any reinforcing if it needs it. Will the BDX support work on the older M's or only the new ones with the adjustable steering post?

This is not really an issue on the pre 07 sleds. The new 1000 motor caused them to move the mounting point back a bit, putting it further from the cooler & the rigidity of the corner. Now it sits on top of flat thin aluminum that flexes slightly every time you push or pull the post.

You could put the bdx collar on the older sled, it would likely help keep you from bending a tall steering post, but it isn't an absolute need like I feel it it on the newer sleds.

Oh, btw destroyer, I don't run a 2 wheel kit, that was one thing I left stock, With less guidance from other wheels I feel that the extra wheels in back help a bit.

 

[Bearcat]

I had similar issue with my bulkhead (CF 7 SP -06 141"). I do not jump usually and surely not gettin air like "backcountryislife" . My bulkhead broke at finnish trails, which are really bad sometimes Weld it back together and rode hard.

 

[Destroyer]

I talked to the boys at Black Diamond and they recomended 57/63. That's really low!

 

[Destroyer]

I talked to the boys at black diamond. They recommended 57-63. (2.47) That seemed really low to me. Especialy coming from the doo chaincases where i was running a 2.25 ratio on a 154! Even the M 153's are geared at 55-65 (2.65) seems crazy. I hope I can clutch for that low of a gear if that's what I decide to go with.

he said on the flats at sea level I'll still pull over 100mph!