Stupid &/or Preventable Mistakes on a Sled

[bruzzer86]

Out of curiousity, I am putting this thread out there to see what kind of bonehead mistakes snowmobilers are capable of (and will fess up to) when out riding. We have all experienced moments of stupidity or just bad luck and figure there are probably some good ones out there that would draw a needed laugh.

For example: Just this past January, five of us spent a long weekend riding in the Western UP, based out of Bergland. Four of us trailored up and we had one guy renting for what was going to be a 600+ mile weekend. Everything starts out great as we put on nearly 200 miles on Friday, no major issues. Saturday morning is a little bit of a rough start as two guys ran out of gas on the way to the gas station (lesson learned the hard way, again). While that wasn't fun, the day would only get worse. About 30 miles into the ride, the guy on the rental sled has his machine stop on him. He is able to restart it but then again it quickly dies out. He pops the hood to realize he has ZERO oil left (no light on the rental). The rest of us started full and were more than a quarter full. All we can do is stand there and shake our heads, hoping for the best. A couple of us go the next six miles to Rockland, pick up some oil, and hope he didn't do any major damage. To keep the story short, of course it couldn't be easy and no it didn't work. The main guy and organizer of the trip, SMOKED his rental sled. Nothing worse than having to call the rental shop from the trail and tell them you fried an engine because you didn't check the oil. The rental place trailered out to where the trail met the road (45 miles away for them) and trailered back to Bergland. Talk about an uncomfortable ride and some ackward conversations.... ugh....

This is just one quick example of something that was easily preventable for even the most novice of riders. The rental place was actually great about the "operator error" and didn't beat our guy up too bad.

I hope someone gets a laugh out of this and perhaps has done it themselves.

 

[bonnevier]

We had one this past year as well:

Guy was renting a basic sled and after a long bumpy stretch on 11 towards the Konteka Bar and Grill he noticed the extra pounding that the machine was taking. Upon trying to turn into the bar he realizes he can't. The whole A-arm was snapped off...literally the bolt snapped in half. He was ticked! Rental place picked it up, swapped out sleds and away we went. No charge either as the sled rental shop hadn't seen that before and was sending it back to the manufacturer.

Other than the blown belts and some plug issues that's about it.

Good topic!!!

 

[xcr440]

Pulled the rope out of the recoil half way through a 200 mile ride.

Two of us were riding ahead of the rest of the group, always stopping after 7-10 miles to wait, and one time, I yanked the rope, and it slipped out of my hand after about 18-20", so I just grabbed it and yanked it the rest of the way......Sled started, but ended up standing there with the handle in my hand and the rope hanging from it as the rest of the group shows up!

Needless to say, clutch strap started it the rest of the weekend......

 

[gogebic_sledder]

My previous sled was my first with reverse, and on my maiden voyage with her I put the sled in reverse while standing and gave it too much throttle. The sled went backwards I went forwards on the bars, and inadvertenly I gave it even more gas because my thigh was pressing on the throttle, as I proceded to fall over the hood and off the sled. The sled came within inches of slamming into a row of parked sleds. I got lucky, and yes lots of people saw.

 

[bonnevier]

Still laughing over that one gogebic_sledder...thanks for having the go-nads to share it!

I must admit, one year I thought I was really sweet and there was a bunch of snow in front of the hoop. I go to try my hand at carving and completely loose it...fall off, hurt the hip but hop right back on and tell the rest of my crew to hit it! I am sure a bunch of people in the bar got a good laugh at that one!

 

[ohiosledder]

I think the strangest thing that ever happened to me was when there was no snow and the sled was parked on the grass. I had just put the sled up for sale, and thinking it would take awhile to get a few bites, I really hadn't done much to it like cleaning the carbs and putting fresh gas in it. Right away I get a call on the sled, the guy's coming that night to look at it and has cash. So I rush home from work, get a gas can and put a few gallons in it. In my rush, I slipped a little with the nozzle and spilled some on the grass. No big deal, I think. Well, I pull the rope and pull again and POW! Big backfire! The backfire instantly ignites the spilled gas underneath the sled and in the blink of an eye the sled was on fire. Luckily, the sled was sitting only 20' from the nearest spigot and I got the fire out. The only damage was some warped plastic and a burnt through pull rope. The guy shows up 10 minutes after I get the fire out (I think it was still smoldering when he got there), and now I cant even start the sled for him because I've got no rope. I explained to him what had happened and that if he was still interested, I would have the sled running the next day. He came back and bought the sled.

 

[snow_monkey]

I was in a hurry to load the sled for a quick trip to Petosky and filled the oil tank with chaincase oil. Same color bottle oops!!

 

[maddogg]

How many have done these - not turning the gas on, forgetting to put the kill switch in the run position, on the old sleds leaving the seat hatch open to throw your stuff all over the trail, leaving the spark plug boots off. This one is good too. A couple of years back my grandmother wanted to go for a spin. So I took her around a little and asked if she would like to try it. She said yes and ended up running my sled right into the back of my dads. Little did I know that she didn't even have a driver's license (depression era not old).

 

[Running Bear]

gogebic_sledder....LOL...LOL...can't stop can't type.....good one

 

[saber]

Bought a new/used sled 7 years ago. I was 15 miles into the first ride on the sled and of the long weekend. We were heading across Houghton Lake to Spicer's to buy something. About half way across the lake my buddy gets up next to me and points to the track area, I look down and see the r/s hyfax had spun out of the track and was almost hitting me in the butt. We stopped and looked and blamed each other for not putting the screw back in the r/s when we changed the hyfaxes the night before at the last minute. Rode it that way to Spicer's, bought the parts and then trailered it back to the cabin to fix it. While it was in the air I decided to check the carbides and they were completely gone! Thankfully the sled had metal skiis. Another trip into town in the morning had me going by 10am the next day.

That still gets brought up every year before our first ride.

 

[Running Bear]

ok composed myself.....back in the late 80s thought I'd show the wife that the old Kawasaki she was on rode just fine around the corners and she didn't need studs...Soooo...I put her on mine and took off on hers and flipped it over around the first turn...so much for that...studs it was

Stupid

 

[gary_in_neenah]

About 10 years ago I was riding a Polaris at the time. Out for the first ride of the year, just a short spin to see if everything was working like it should. Started to open her up when the engine starting making a whistling, loud wheeze, followed by a pronounce POP and shut down. "Dang! this can't be good".

FLASHBACK TO EIGHT MONTHS EARLIER: I'm storing the machine for the summer, fog the cylinders and put in new plugs (not even finger tight, maybe a half a turn)

When I opened the hood, the left plug was just hanging by the cable. I was a bit embarrased but mostly glad I still had a good engine to start the season with.

The Fugi's were great engines, but the twins ran so much better with both spark plugs tightened to spec.

 

[upsledder]

My previous sled was my first with reverse, and on my maiden voyage with her I put the sled in reverse while standing and gave it too much throttle. The sled went backwards I went forwards on the bars, and inadvertenly I gave it even more gas because my thigh was pressing on the throttle, as I proceded to fall over the hood and off the sled. The sled came within inches of slamming into a row of parked sleds. I got lucky, and yes lots of people saw.

Or you back up, start talking to a riding partner, and when you pinch the throttle to take off, you've forgotten that it's still in reverse.

 

[fusionfool]

Too hot to handle

Just had one this week. I was out warming up the Polaris 4 strokes, I had just taken one for a zip down the trail and came back and parked. A guy from the next room comes over and was admiring the sleds. I told him the worst thing to do is shut the sled off before it reaches 140 deg. I explain to him it can foul a plug if you turn off before they reach temp so I just warmed it up before loading on the trailer. I open the hood so he can see the engine. He immediately reaches down, and touches the turbo with his bare hand. Ouch. I guess he did not realize that 140 engine temp means turbo very hot.

 

[coldbear]

Bummed out..

Years ago I spent many days and nights rebuilding a 9500 Ski-Doo when my brother in law asks if he can try it out? I know he has no experience on a HP sled, but the faces on my family said go on and let him run it. Long story short, he wraps it around a swing set[ the kind that has the legs cemented in the ground 24 inches]. He's not hurt, and suggests that I try a rebuild on it again,but this time he's paying the bills. I sat in disbelief for an hour refusing solice from my wife. I guess time heals all and now all is forgiven. But I have never let anyone ride,pin,hammer any of my sleds since.

 

[mnguy]

Floor damage

Cleaned the carbs on my son's sled and dropped the slides back in 180 deg off. Being an older Arctic Cat, we had long ago bypassed the carb/throttle switches. Yanked the rope, sled started at half throttle and took off for the back wall of the shop. Managed to hit the kill switch but only after the studs left a reminder in the floor that I now look at year round.

 

[fredster]

I've done the loose spark plug thingy, had one blow out on the trail and thought I had blown the motor. My 600 triple was very doggy as a 400 twin.....

Spearking of blown motors, back when I was a "REALLY SMART" teenager and in high school I had a 1980 JD Liquifire. I noticed some slack in the throttle cable and decided that taking out that slack would give me more WOT power. Unfortunately I didn't realize that an accompanying adjustment to the OIL cable was required. I took it out in a field near home and wound it up. It was runing like a raped ape and I was feeling pretty good about my adjustment until the engine blew at about 85MPH. After a long walk home, could not get either farm tractor to start. Waited for dad to come home, made confession, we grabbed a rope and we drove out and he towed me home behind his truck. Talk about embarrassing, being towed home behind your dad's pickup!

Another youthful oops, befire the Liquifire I had a JD Trailfire 440 - nice sled but not much power. Was riding along a country road and saw these awesome drifts off to the side and could not resist. What I didn't realize was the side ditch was actually a creek about 6-7 feet deep. Hit the powder and immediately went WOT but it was clear that we were sinking fast and not enough power to get out. Stuck it good and by skillfully working the throttle I was able to bury the back 2/3's of the sled with only the skis and part of the hood/windshield above the snowline, the sled was almost vertical by that point and there was no way I could get it out by myself. Started the long walk home (sound familiar) when out of the blue a car stops, the guy gets out and actually climbs down in the snow and helps me get the sled out. I dunno maybe he had done the same thing as a kid but I was very thankful because there was no way I was getting that sucker out by myself. That was the last time I tried anything stupid when riding by myself.....

 

[peter]

Just last weekend I put oil in the ski doo and forgot to latch the side cover. Well I was leading the pack and the first left turn side cover went swinging out. Many people saw it to.

 

[dekx]

Gotta check the gas tank!

While up in Hurley about 10 years ago, my buddy had a first generation Vmax 540 with a buncha work done to it. While starting the sleds up in the morning before a ride, the sled wouldn't start. We all pulled and pulled, change the plugs, scratched our heads and couldn't figure it out. With all of our morning wisdom, we decided it must be because of the performance work, so the owner deceded he would walk over to Ave's sport center and purchase a new sled. An hour later, a brand new Yamaha Phazer is in front of our condo.

Once the Phazer is purchased, someone comes up with the bright idea to check the gas tank to see if there was any gas in the tank. Well need I say more, the sled was outta GAS! We got gas for the sled, a few pulls later....wham the sled starts right up!

So needless to say, that was a very expensive tank of gas!

If ur out there JJ, this still cracks me up buddy and I had to post it!

 

[mjkaliszak]

gogebic_sledder....I'm still laughing. And fredster... I was " REALLY SMART " many times !!!
I have so many "bone head" stories ....I can't decide where to start.

IN the mid 70's: I was the only neighborhood kid with a sled ( my uncles owned a dealership ). I was out with some friends taking turns riding it. WE went to the " hot rod hill " section of this field and I started jumping. Of course I was showing off my " riding skills " and as time went on, I started to adjust the launch point at the top of the hill to the steepest part. I was wearing down the drift at the top so I had to keep moving over to get more air. A couple more friends came down , so I was beaming with " prowess "! Right about that time, I picked the steepest part of the hill face and lined up the sled. I punched it, went to WFO, straight line up the hill, jumped the top ( BOY THIS 1 WAS GOING TO BE IMPRESSIVE ) !!!! until suddenly,,,, as I was launched, in the air, starring right in the path,,,, OF the biggest tree in the field ( @#$%& ) ( %$#@& ) ( #$*&@ ). I bailed just in time for my 71 Puma to do a header into the tree, smashed in the bumper, slammed the hood down onto the plugs and snap them off ( SOB ).
It was a humble walk back to the house THAT DAY.