Boy that brings back memories. Bought my first sled in 1985. I think it was $2100. Ski-doo tundra 250. Orange hood. Worked local transport company in high school to pay for it. Used at our remote family cabin. Had road access but with a hill and the cabin right on the water a quad or sled was prefered. We bolted 3 tires together (triangle) with a draw bar for grooming. Had 2. One with smaller tires ( 1st one) and another with large narrow truck tires for a wider path. Most times you could start with the wider set. Lots of snow you started with smaller. Family also had access to a culvert machine. We would start with a corrugated sheet 48" wide I think and roll just the end up and around 18" diameter like an old wood toboggan. Weld on a draw bar and handles and tie points at side and back and it worked like a charm. Could put a non running/track locked up sled on it and it pulled like a dream. Had another with a wood stove welded to it on back with storage up front for 4 feet of pipe, cooler, pots/pans, wood and table. We would pull it out ice fishing or for a fun community (sledding club) event and the 4 feet of pipe kept the smoke up and away. Made for good draw and roaring fire too. I would suggest making your path out onto the lake as wide as possible. Minimum 4 sled widths just where the slush is would help with getting the cold down and freeze some slush. It never goes away, comes up and down depending on the temps. We had access to plastic pipe and would cut 3 foot sections and staple on a reflective strip on top. We used them to mark the trail. For trapper line stuff we just used pine boughs from shore. Need to be able to see the trail in the worst dark blowing conditions. Even the '85 headlight would light up the plastic poles for half a km in clear weather. Like a highway. We kept old plywood to put down at the shoreline. Ours received sun so the shoreline would melt while the lake was still good to go. Best part of that 85 doo it was 28" wide. I would go into the smaller bays that filled up with snow and place my right leg on the sleds left running board and carve turns like I was on a jet ski on the water. The sled would be almost on its side. :) I would stick my left leg out as far as I could and dip my boot in the snow. What a pattern. lol Later I would try that with my 270cc tundra II and i found myself head first into the snow. The pogo style front end allowed the right ski while up in the air to tip forward and when it got back into some snow it brought the sled to a full stop. I kept going. lol You know that 270 tundra II was the best trail breaking sled. Perfect power to get on top without spinning the track and sinking. We had wide track polaris for grooming and everything in between but in deep powder breaking new trail in a high snow year there was nothing like it. We had opening up parties with 20 guys and only one sled broke trail because it was the only one that could. With my ability in deep snow I just waited at each downed tree and when it was cleared off I went. I'll tell you for a kid I sure felt important. lol Reminds me we would walk down and open up the cabin. Many times opening doors and windows until it was warmer inside. We would look out onto that beautiful white blanketed pristine lake with not a mark on it. 30 minutes later with my sled and Dads 2 going (later was his 4 and my 2) just for a little warm up fun before even getting the cutter and car stuff it would look like 1000 sleds had been around. With snow and wind that magic would occur again the next weekend. lol My last sled I bought was a new Apex in 2007 and put 15,000 km on. From the days of single banger 250cc 2 strokes to 4 strokes getting 20 mpg putting out 150 hp with turn key starting it sure changed. First yamaha and now I hear Arctic cat is out. At one time there was over 400 snowmobile manufacturers. I cut my teeth on a '68 scorpion mark II. Notice where the carb is? Not the most encouraging thing for a kid watching dad try to start it belching starting fluid flames out the carb. "You want me to put THAT between my legs?" Haha My older brother told me if I got close to the ice fishing holes I would fall in. Dad wondered why I never went close. Yes I felt shame when he told me the truth. Cheers! ruclips.net/video/3Gz02Oci5Us/видео.htmlfeature=shared
Thanks for sharing memories! I also have the three tires bolted together and 3 pieces of 2x4 bolted on the smooth out the trail. I will do about 4 passes back and forth to the landing progressively getting wider. We have just have had so much snow this year it hard to keep up. The sled goes into the workshop after to melt off the snow for the next day. If I don't it will be a frozen block of ice. I love my Tundra. 600Ace motor is light and pulls hard. 154 in track has great flotation. It's a 2017 and I have 12 500km on it. Might need a new track next year. Thanks again for sharing. And thanks for watching!
Yep! Just had to pad a trail down. There's a ton of slush out there. I'm going to have to run back and forth tomorrow morning. It's our shopping and garbage dump day.
Boy that brings back memories. Bought my first sled in 1985. I think it was $2100. Ski-doo tundra 250. Orange hood. Worked local transport company in high school to pay for it. Used at our remote family cabin. Had road access but with a hill and the cabin right on the water a quad or sled was prefered.
We bolted 3 tires together (triangle) with a draw bar for grooming. Had 2. One with smaller tires ( 1st one) and another with large narrow truck tires for a wider path. Most times you could start with the wider set. Lots of snow you started with smaller. Family also had access to a culvert machine. We would start with a corrugated sheet 48" wide I think and roll just the end up and around 18" diameter like an old wood toboggan. Weld on a draw bar and handles and tie points at side and back and it worked like a charm. Could put a non running/track locked up sled on it and it pulled like a dream. Had another with a wood stove welded to it on back with storage up front for 4 feet of pipe, cooler, pots/pans, wood and table. We would pull it out ice fishing or for a fun community (sledding club) event and the 4 feet of pipe kept the smoke up and away. Made for good draw and roaring fire too.
I would suggest making your path out onto the lake as wide as possible. Minimum 4 sled widths just where the slush is would help with getting the cold down and freeze some slush. It never goes away, comes up and down depending on the temps. We had access to plastic pipe and would cut 3 foot sections and staple on a reflective strip on top. We used them to mark the trail. For trapper line stuff we just used pine boughs from shore. Need to be able to see the trail in the worst dark blowing conditions. Even the '85 headlight would light up the plastic poles for half a km in clear weather. Like a highway. We kept old plywood to put down at the shoreline. Ours received sun so the shoreline would melt while the lake was still good to go.
Best part of that 85 doo it was 28" wide. I would go into the smaller bays that filled up with snow and place my right leg on the sleds left running board and carve turns like I was on a jet ski on the water. The sled would be almost on its side. :) I would stick my left leg out as far as I could and dip my boot in the snow. What a pattern. lol Later I would try that with my 270cc tundra II and i found myself head first into the snow. The pogo style front end allowed the right ski while up in the air to tip forward and when it got back into some snow it brought the sled to a full stop. I kept going. lol You know that 270 tundra II was the best trail breaking sled. Perfect power to get on top without spinning the track and sinking. We had wide track polaris for grooming and everything in between but in deep powder breaking new trail in a high snow year there was nothing like it. We had opening up parties with 20 guys and only one sled broke trail because it was the only one that could. With my ability in deep snow I just waited at each downed tree and when it was cleared off I went. I'll tell you for a kid I sure felt important. lol
Reminds me we would walk down and open up the cabin. Many times opening doors and windows until it was warmer inside. We would look out onto that beautiful white blanketed pristine lake with not a mark on it. 30 minutes later with my sled and Dads 2 going (later was his 4 and my 2) just for a little warm up fun before even getting the cutter and car stuff it would look like 1000 sleds had been around. With snow and wind that magic would occur again the next weekend. lol
My last sled I bought was a new Apex in 2007 and put 15,000 km on. From the days of single banger 250cc 2 strokes to 4 strokes getting 20 mpg putting out 150 hp with turn key starting it sure changed. First yamaha and now I hear Arctic cat is out. At one time there was over 400 snowmobile manufacturers.
I cut my teeth on a '68 scorpion mark II. Notice where the carb is? Not the most encouraging thing for a kid watching dad try to start it belching starting fluid flames out the carb. "You want me to put THAT between my legs?" Haha My older brother told me if I got close to the ice fishing holes I would fall in. Dad wondered why I never went close. Yes I felt shame when he told me the truth. Cheers!
ruclips.net/video/3Gz02Oci5Us/видео.htmlfeature=shared
Thanks for sharing memories! I also have the three tires bolted together and 3 pieces of 2x4 bolted on the smooth out the trail. I will do about 4 passes back and forth to the landing progressively getting wider. We have just have had so much snow this year it hard to keep up. The sled goes into the workshop after to melt off the snow for the next day. If I don't it will be a frozen block of ice. I love my Tundra. 600Ace motor is light and pulls hard. 154 in track has great flotation. It's a 2017 and I have 12 500km on it. Might need a new track next year. Thanks again for sharing. And thanks for watching!
You got out! LOL Nice work cheers from Port Mcnicoll
Yep! Just had to pad a trail down. There's a ton of slush out there. I'm going to have to run back and forth tomorrow morning. It's our shopping and garbage dump day.