kanedog
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- Joined
- Feb 3, 2015
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A new clutch from Cat. I love that it is being built in house! That paves the way for producing other clutches and efficiently making changes if required.
It doesn’t seem like there is enough strength on the tiny bar thingy in the pics. Its a curved piece and there’s not much strength on a round bend. It’s seems they replaced the heavy duty spider with a weaker version of a spider. The spider takes the brunt of the load. That’s why it’s so skookum.
Allegedly, the clutch is lighter too, which is not good on that vibrating mofo of a motor. A light design is actually going backwards as the clutch should be heavier if anything. Hmmmm.
The lighter flyweights may not be heavy enough to grip the belt. One would have to remove the primary spring and do a test run to see what’s up.
On some positivity notes, the clutch towers are more solid and that is great idea for less flex. It’s up for discussion but I feel the tighter towers may put more strain on the clutch. It is rebuildable and parts are available so that’s cool.
The clutch is tooled and designed by Arctic Cat.
The towers are moved in quite a ways in closer to the center of rotation so there will be less vibration and easier to balance. The lighter clutch clutch may have cancelled out this benefit but let’s wait and see how things shake out, errr, vibrate out,
I hope it works out tho. I really do.
The above are my beliefs.
Hot tip for Cat-Give all new clutches to guys like Graham Roberge and Brody Forchaulk in Squamish, BC, Canada to test for you. They ride till June every year. They pound on theeir clutches. Roberge blew 25 belts on the Doo 850. Fourchaulk blew 17. These guys are hardcore. It’s not so much the rider but the combo of terrain, snow and rider make sled drivetrain work extremely hard. Thick, mashed potatoe, wet, coastal snow and tons of wfo riding. big, big load on Clutches. The design flaws will quickly rear their ugly heads. Flatland or light fluffy snow proves nothing in the clutch world.
Cool thing is that Cat is selling these new clutches for the same as team was selling them for. Cat is making the secondary too. This takes the profit from Team gouging Sledders by selling replacement clutches. Hahaha good move Arctic Cat! Looks like Team let Cat use their secondary design, haha. Out of guilt maybe? I wish I was privvy to the clutchgate battles between Team and Cat.
All in all, this clutch gets a Kanedog rating as follows-
A+….Time, money, investment, tooling up, making a big move to produce a Cat clutch! Woohoo! Team schmeem.
A+……Rebuildable, parts seem reasonably price, easy to disassemble!
B-……Smaller tower circumference, lighter weight, tightening up the rotating weight closer to the center of rotation, clutch may wear out faster.
B-…….Not enough r&d but It’s understandable Cat needing to get away from years of Team clutch failures. Cat gets a mulligan on this item.
C+….Engineering staff is too young and may not understand strength vs reliability vs torsion forces in clutches.
Overall, B with room to improve.
Muwahahaha!
It doesn’t seem like there is enough strength on the tiny bar thingy in the pics. Its a curved piece and there’s not much strength on a round bend. It’s seems they replaced the heavy duty spider with a weaker version of a spider. The spider takes the brunt of the load. That’s why it’s so skookum.
Allegedly, the clutch is lighter too, which is not good on that vibrating mofo of a motor. A light design is actually going backwards as the clutch should be heavier if anything. Hmmmm.
The lighter flyweights may not be heavy enough to grip the belt. One would have to remove the primary spring and do a test run to see what’s up.
On some positivity notes, the clutch towers are more solid and that is great idea for less flex. It’s up for discussion but I feel the tighter towers may put more strain on the clutch. It is rebuildable and parts are available so that’s cool.
The clutch is tooled and designed by Arctic Cat.
The towers are moved in quite a ways in closer to the center of rotation so there will be less vibration and easier to balance. The lighter clutch clutch may have cancelled out this benefit but let’s wait and see how things shake out, errr, vibrate out,
I hope it works out tho. I really do.
The above are my beliefs.
Hot tip for Cat-Give all new clutches to guys like Graham Roberge and Brody Forchaulk in Squamish, BC, Canada to test for you. They ride till June every year. They pound on theeir clutches. Roberge blew 25 belts on the Doo 850. Fourchaulk blew 17. These guys are hardcore. It’s not so much the rider but the combo of terrain, snow and rider make sled drivetrain work extremely hard. Thick, mashed potatoe, wet, coastal snow and tons of wfo riding. big, big load on Clutches. The design flaws will quickly rear their ugly heads. Flatland or light fluffy snow proves nothing in the clutch world.
Cool thing is that Cat is selling these new clutches for the same as team was selling them for. Cat is making the secondary too. This takes the profit from Team gouging Sledders by selling replacement clutches. Hahaha good move Arctic Cat! Looks like Team let Cat use their secondary design, haha. Out of guilt maybe? I wish I was privvy to the clutchgate battles between Team and Cat.
All in all, this clutch gets a Kanedog rating as follows-
A+….Time, money, investment, tooling up, making a big move to produce a Cat clutch! Woohoo! Team schmeem.
A+……Rebuildable, parts seem reasonably price, easy to disassemble!
B-……Smaller tower circumference, lighter weight, tightening up the rotating weight closer to the center of rotation, clutch may wear out faster.
B-…….Not enough r&d but It’s understandable Cat needing to get away from years of Team clutch failures. Cat gets a mulligan on this item.
C+….Engineering staff is too young and may not understand strength vs reliability vs torsion forces in clutches.
Overall, B with room to improve.
Muwahahaha!
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