Mini mountain sleds

[Dooitorbust]

Anyone out there working on a project sled for their kids? Not a 120 but something in between that and say a 340 or 440?

 

[barefooter]

I have spent more money and time on these than I want to admit:

120 Mini Z fully decked.
Polaris Indy 340 stretched to a 136 and mountainized. (way too much damn work)
Ski-doo Freestyle 300 stretched to a 136. This one was not bad. To bad it met a premature death.
Ski-doo 550 stretched to a 144. Front end off of a 300. 2 inch track. Intellajet system. Seat, etc.

They all look cool. It is amazing how much time and fabrication hours guys put into them. And none of them are worth a damn for a kid. A child cannot set one on it's side to carve in the powder. They do not have the co-ordination and upper body strength to counter-steer. The only reason I kept the 550 was that it was fun for me to play in the fields with.

My oldest daughter (who shares her dad's gearhead tendencies) was big for her age, strong and athletic. She learned to sled from St. Onge. But until she was about 14 she couldn't lay one over to carve. And by then she was on a Summit 600 (which I poured a lot of $$ too in as well). Her first ride on a snowbike - she was gone. And then came back asking "where were these when I was 6 years old?)

My advice. Don't even bother. They are a money pit that you will never get a 1/4 of what you put into it. If they are under the age of 12 - buy a Honda\Kawi\Yammy 110 and put a Polaris Sno-Ripper on it. Any one of those is $2K for one with estart on Kijiji. You can mod those to the moon for cheap (or buy someone's pit racer). The kids will have 20x the fun than trying to wrestle around a 340 or 440 and will likely keep up to you. You are $2K into the bike. $2,500 for the ripper. Bet neither depreciates much either.

Jamie Hodgeson's kid had a KTM 200 with a Timbersled 120 and he went everywhere on that thing. Think he was 9. He used that platform because you could get a Rekluse auto-clutch for it. But a 250 4 stroke would work just as well for a tweener\teenager. You can buy an older TS 120 kit and a used 250 for $6K to $7K all day. If you want to make a 340 - 440 work - you will easily have that into it and it will maybe be worth 1/2.

The snobikes are the way to go for lighter riders and kids - bar none. They will have more fun, ride more often and stay engaged. And you will lose less money on the investment - I guarantee it.

 

[52weekbreak]

Hey BF! Any pics of the sleds you worked on?

 

[barefooter]

This was the Indy Lite. This took a lot of work. I couldn't find another 300 Freestyle - so I thought the 3/4 Indy frame would have been a good place to start. This one had reverse and estart.

I finally got the seat to mesh better in the gas tank, and I changed the Simmons skis out to Pro Grippers. That made it was easier to steer for a kid. But it was still a trail sled at heart and no matter what you did to it, it was not going to handle like a modern mountain-type sled.

 

[barefooter]

Finally got this pic to work. This was the Freestyle 550. The only reason this stayed in the stable as long as it did was because it was really fun around the farm. The Mod Skis were changed out to Summits skis a couple of years before I sold it. This actually got a fair amount of use with my oldest. She actually could go almost anywhere in Hunter's Range on it. It was a pig with the 39 inch stance. It was too tippy for kids on the trail with the 32" stance from the 300 and the body was too wide. It would have been perfect with a 36" front end - but I could not get anything from the Summit line to work. It did get my oldest to start to get the hang of carving a sled.

 

[barefooter]

To be honest - the 550 was a pig compared to the Summit 600. This was a sweet little sled. I got her on it when she was 12 - 13. It was a 154 with the C36 front end and T-motion. Estart and RER. She had a bad habit after the 550 of putting it to the bars, so I put the foam from a pool noodle behind the throttle so it slowed it down a bit and let her head catch up to her thumb. If I had to do it all over again, I would have never built the 550. Either found an M5 or one of these with the 146" skid and detuned a little from there. Not a huge different in weight. Way more agile for a kid to get used to. But if I was doing it now - snowbike all the way - even if I was still sledding. A full sized snowbike will be way easier for them to handle vs. a full size sled.

 

[barefooter]

Hey BF! Any pics of the sleds you worked on?

Sorry 52 - don't have any pics of the 120 or the 300.

The 120 was a total money and time pit for nothing. Even with all the mods, when it hit more than 6" of snow off trail it was floundering.

The 300 was a nice little sled though - but in actuality was still a full sized chassis. It was the 32" front end that made it work for the kids. Again - if i had to do it again I would start from a 300 Tundra, as it has the longer track than the Freestyle

 

[52weekbreak]

Always thought that 300 would have been a cool little sled but they didn't have a long production run. Too bad. Would be fun around the farm.

Sent from my STV100-3 using Tapatalk

 

[barefooter]

Always thought that 300 would have been a cool little sled but they didn't have a long production run. Too bad. Would be fun around the farm.

Sent from my STV100-3 using Tapatalk

Be honest - the 300 taught me how to carve! They were fun!!

 

[Sledderglen]

Be honest - the 300 taught me how to carve! They were fun!!

Did you ever get good at carving???? Thanks for the sled for kids pics

 

[barefooter]

Did you ever get good at carving???? Thanks for the sled for kids pics

Never could. That is why I have a snowbike. LOL

 

[Dooitorbust]

Never could. That is why I have a snowbike. LOL

I got the chance to watch a snow bike this past weekend and was pretty blown away at where they could go and the hills they could climb. Stock KTM 450.

 

[Tchetek]

I have spent more money and time on these than I want to admit:

120 Mini Z fully decked.
Polaris Indy 340 stretched to a 136 and mountainized. (way too much damn work)
Ski-doo Freestyle 300 stretched to a 136. This one was not bad. To bad it met a premature death.
Ski-doo 550 stretched to a 144. Front end off of a 300. 2 inch track. Intellajet system. Seat, etc.

They all look cool. It is amazing how much time and fabrication hours guys put into them. And none of them are worth a damn for a kid. A child cannot set one on it's side to carve in the powder. They do not have the co-ordination and upper body strength to counter-steer. The only reason I kept the 550 was that it was fun for me to play in the fields with.

My oldest daughter (who shares her dad's gearhead tendencies) was big for her age, strong and athletic. She learned to sled from St. Onge. But until she was about 14 she couldn't lay one over to carve. And by then she was on a Summit 600 (which I poured a lot of $$ too in as well). Her first ride on a snowbike - she was gone. And then came back asking "where were these when I was 6 years old?)

My advice. Don't even bother. They are a money pit that you will never get a 1/4 of what you put into it. If they are under the age of 12 - buy a Honda\Kawi\Yammy 110 and put a Polaris Sno-Ripper on it. Any one of those is $2K for one with estart on Kijiji. You can mod those to the moon for cheap (or buy someone's pit racer). The kids will have 20x the fun than trying to wrestle around a 340 or 440 and will likely keep up to you. You are $2K into the bike. $2,500 for the ripper. Bet neither depreciates much either.

Jamie Hodgeson's kid had a KTM 200 with a Timbersled 120 and he went everywhere on that thing. Think he was 9. He used that platform because you could get a Rekluse auto-clutch for it. But a 250 4 stroke would work just as well for a tweener\teenager. You can buy an older TS 120 kit and a used 250 for $6K to $7K all day. If you want to make a 340 - 440 work - you will easily have that into it and it will maybe be worth 1/2.

The snobikes are the way to go for lighter riders and kids - bar none. They will have more fun, ride more often and stay engaged. And you will lose less money on the investment - I guarantee it.

Regarding the threads topic:

I have a phantom 250 Long track. China import to Quebec importer, now Name changed to “king Huskey”. I rode it as a ditch banger following my oldest kid on a 120. Now he’s almost 8, 2nd season on the 250 and it gets around pretty good! Fit and Finnish are poor, but starts and runs great. May become worthless at any time, but 2 more boys will trash it anyway. Defiantly working out.


But as a question for barefooted, or anyone:


I was also thinking the snowbikes might be the route to progress 3 young boys. So I got a used Klx110 and the original holeshot snowripper kit about a year ago. Kept it hidden as a secret, until the oldest pulled his wait with some chores ect...


Anyway


Just Broke it out recently and it’s still a bit tall for him. (Think I can adjust it a bit) but first I wanted to play on it.


2 short rides, 8” snow. Cold, -15/20. Rip for 10/15 mins then she died. Could restart and get a slow idle but died with throttle.

My guess is main jet is freezing in the carb?

Any ideas to keep it warm?

Air cooled bike, e start but likely limited power supply.