kgallis

Nice!!

Feel better Bill!! Karl

Congrats!!!

I agree the key is preventative maintenance. It makes things complicated when the sled is still covered under an extended warranty. Do you preemptively replace drive/driven clutch springs and jack shaft/ drive axle and idler wheel bearings as normal maintenance? I do, but a friend helps with the ones that are pressed on. It's a tough call for someone that cannot do the work themselves....

That Yamaha old fashioned riding position really sucks, at least for me if the trails are less than perfect. They are heavy as hell as well. I'll give you the Yammy engines are reliable, but the rest of the sled is just as much a POS as any of the other brands. Fuel economy not as good as the doo's as well. The phazer and nytro are more comfortable, but are tough to saddle bag with with the 5 gallon gas tanks. They are all non-reliable, but are fun as hell to ride. They are getting impossible to fix yourself with all the computerized BS on them nowadays. My 10,000 mile 500ss has the same likelihood of going down as anything else.... Just my 2 cents. Karl

Agreed. We have scripted things in advance in the past, but don't do it anymore. We follow the nice groomed trails for a ~250 mile day. It really sucks to have to ride sub-par trails or have a really long day in -40 temps just to get somewhere for the sake of a reservation. 90% of the time the trails are great, but there have been times when a groomer has been broken, etc., it made for an afternoon of bumps. Not anymore.... Good luck!

Sounds like a great trip!!! Karl

I would recommend getting a camera with nickel metal hydride (NiMH) batteries. They hold up much better in the cold than litium ion batteries, and you can buy them anywhere (usually just AA's). I have a Canon camera that works well in the cold (it is one of the cheaper powershots) and the batteries will usually last the whole week. Nikon and all the other major players make cameras of this type. Good luck! Karl

Hi Forest, When you say touring, do you mean a saddle bagging trip where you make a loop over the course of a week? This is the way that we (Scranton1 and I) like to ride in QC. Is it feasible to think that you can attach your saddle bags to a rental sled and return a week later? Anyone have any experience trying to return a damaged sled? What happens with wear items like blown belts and bearings in idler wheels, etc. Is the renter responsible for these items? Thanks, Karl

Happy Birthday!!

Here is a shot of "Johnny GPS" waiting for us to come back with wheels/bearings. It took us 6 hrs to find the parts. I think he fell asleep for a few hours and got a bad sun burn!!

Agreed- we gave our buddy a hard time the entire trip- called him "Johnny GPS". We told him if the F-cat popped up north where it would take days to retrieve, it was staying there!! He's going to try to get an XP for next year. Chris- Have you touched the engine on your sled? Renegade 600 SDI if I remembered correctly? What are the plans for next year?

Friday March 6th We began the trip by parking at Auberge Bealeau in St Joseph de Mekinac. We left Scranton about 5:00 pm and arrived at Jean's place at ~ 2:00 am and got a few hours sleep. March 7th- Lac Mekinac to Roberval We began the trip by leaving at ~ 10:00 am and heading to La Tuque and then 355 to Lac Eduoard. We had lunch at the place on the lake and were watching people ice fishing. They said the ice was 48" thick and watching a gasoline powered auger nearly bottom out before it reached the water confirmed the ice was thick as hell. We continued on 355 and made it to Roberval well before dark. I believe we finished the day with around 195 miles. 355 right around Lac Eduoard were really narrow with a lot of turns, but after a few miles everything was great again. The trails were very good. March 8th- Roberval to Chibougamau We got on the trails around 9:00 am and headed out on 93. We topped the sleds off in La Dore and then headed out. The trails were great and there was a ton of snow as we got 30 or so miles outside of LaDorre. This was the first time we made the trip to Chibougamau and it was a fair distance between LaDorre and the little relias outside of town. Our buddies firecat ran out of gas about 15 miles south of the relias, but we carry extra fuel on the doo's so it was not a problem. After a few fully dressed pizzas and some fuel, we rode the final 30 or so miles to the Nordic. We forked out the extra few bucks to keep the sleds in the heated garage for the night. A great day of riding, somewhere around 220 miles for the day. March 9th- Chibougamau to Sennitarre We started the day early, since we were in bed by 8:00 pm the night berfore. It was -30C at 5:30 am when we pulled the sleds out of the garage. Our buddy on the firecat was having a problem with hitting speeds over 70, so we did a little bit of wrenching before the ride on the driven clutch. Even though his sled was not running perfect, he insisted on taking it on the trip (instead of our spare rev) b/c of the new Garmin Zumo GPS that he had installed on the sled. The GPS was really cool with the trail maps overlayed on the screen, but he couldn't find his way out of a paper bag with that thing. Anyway, this was our first time on "piston alley" and it was great. There was three or four inches of fresh snow on the trail and we made really good time cruising at speeds of 60 to 80 mph, until the firecat took its first dump. About 30 miles outside of Qinnalin (the town that starts with a Q before Sennitarre) I smelled burning plastic. I had recently had replaced my 121" track with a 136" and tunnel/rail extensions from tracks USA. I checked my hifax, wheels, etc and everything was fine. My bro's "09 TNT was also good to go. A few miles ahead we caught up with the firecat and sure enough, the burning plastic smell. The bearings were spun out of the rear wheels in the suspension and the wheels were basically disintegrated. BJ and I headed into Quinnalin (I really wish I had a map infront of me for the proper spellings of these places) to look for parts. After some running around, we found a fellow that worked at the local lumber yard named Michel Lords- he had a sled shop in addition to his day job and we were able score two wheels/bearings from him and headed back to the sled. It was a quick fix, but resulted our buddy being stranded on the sled for about 6 hours. We got the sled fixed and gassed up and decided to make the rest of the run to Sennitarre. We arrived just as it was getting dark and finished one of the best riding days we ever had. I had to make three round trips (60 each) getting the sled parts, etc. and finished the day with 384.9 miles on the odo. BJ finished with 340 miles and Johnny GPS on the f-cat with about 240. They were busting my balls to get the last 15 miles I needed for 400 by riding around the lake behind the hotel, but I didn't want to get it that way. There will be plenty of more times to cross the 400 mile mark. Still, it was a personal best for me. March 10- Sennitarre to Clova This was another really great day. We got on the trail around 11:00 am b/c of some more wrenching on the dam firecat. The trails on 83E were great. It was a warm, bright sunny day. We took our time riding, taking pictures, just enjoying a beautiful day. It was really great. Interestingly enough, the firecat would only go 60 mph today (more on this in tomorrow's section), but it ran well enough not to slow down our pace. We arrived in Clova before dark and got the dinner/room package. Clova was great. The food was excellent and the basement of the hotel (old school) was a very comfortable place to hang out and watch some TV. We finished the day with ~ 175 miles. March 11- Clova to St Anne du Lac This was an iteresting day. It was warm, windy and raining. We wanted to head toward Mt Laurier, so could get ourselves back into a one days ride of the truck. We gassed up and hit the trail by 9:00 am. The f-cat started really running like crap today. It would only reach 50 mph in the morning, but we had no choice but to continue on. We took 83 toward Parent and then headed south on 13. Around lunch time, we arrived at a place to gas and get out of the rain for a while. After a few sandwiches, the rain stopped and we continued on. I had a feeling something bad was going to happen b/c the firecat was going slower and slower and when I would ride close behind, my eyes would water with the heavy smell of unburned fuel. About 30 minutes later, we had to stop to look things over. There was some metal on one of the plugs (probably burned a piston before the trip when he overheated the sled on a lake back in PA), but we had no choice to keep going. About 10 miles later the sled would not go uphill, but we kept pushing on. 5 minutes later it seized. We had to tow the sled to Hotel Tourista at St Anne du Lac, about 40 miles away. It took a about 2 hours, but we took our time and made it ok. We had about 190 miles for the day. No pic's for today b/c of the rain. March 12- St Anne du Lac to Lac Mekinac We left Johnny GPS and his blowed up firecat at the hotel and headed toward the truck. We weaved our way toward rt 63 and the Mt Tremblant park. It was slow going, b/c it got cold and the trails were very icy. My sled was actually running hot and it was sometimes difficult to ride off the side of the trail to lubricate the slides and cool the sled. After a few hours, we hit Mt. Tremblant park and there was enough snow for lubrication and cooling. The trails were flat and fast with very little resistance. We flew through the park and stopped at St Michael de Saints for lunch. All the trails around st. Michael de Saints sucked. They were not groomed and I felt like I was riding in Tug Hill again. We fueled up and after 155 miles, my rev took 31 L and my bro's TNT took 29 L, in a little over 3.5 hrs of riding. That fuel mileage is fantastic. We drove past La Cabenon and picked up trail 360 toward the Mattawin reservoir and then over to Lac Mekinac. It was a great day of riding, 274 miles for the day with no issues with any sleds, just pure enjoyment. We finished up the trip with about 1400 miles for the trip. It was one of the best ones that we have taken to date. The trails up north are absolutely great. I also reached 9000 miles on the sled. Unlike some of the guys on here, it took me 5 seasons to do it, but not too bad for a guy that lives in MD. We loaded up the truck and started driving on the 12th at 6:30 pm. At 12:30 pm, we arrived at St Anne du Lac. We loaded up the blowed up sled and headed for home. With the 9 hr sled recovery detail, we arrived back in Scranton PA on the morning of the 13 at 10:30. It was a great trip and we are looking forward to doing it again next year. Happy Trails!! Karl

Pump gas was between .70 and .75 CAD/L in the St. Come, St Donat, St Michael de Saints area. It was as high as 1.09 CAD/L at the stations near the gates of the Mt. Tremblant park. Karl

Here is a summary of the trip: Following last years season, I decided to keep the '05 500 SS for another year or two (dealer wanted my sled and $6800 for an etech b/c a sled with a little over 7k miles is not worth shit in our area) so I had a friend help give the old girl an overhaul. We put in pistons, rings, gaskets, thermostat, y-pipe (old one cracked), front suspension hats/bushings, upper and lower ball joints, drive axle bearings (jackshaft ones were still ok), driven and drive clutch springs, higher handle bars and a new windshield (not installed yet- waiting for hardware). One carb boot was borderline (small crack but not all the way through the boot and the other one was fine), but the new one was not in intime for the trip. We finished up most of this work at 11:00 pm on Christmas night. We fired the sled, checked for leaks and loaded it onto the trailer and headed for L'Esterel. After driving all night and getting about 3 minutes of sleep, we parked the truck and got the sleds fired, saddle bags loaded and headed out onto the ice in front of L'Esterel and my clutch started slipping. I coasted to a stop at the end of the lake and white smoke was pouring out from under the hood. 0.7 miles, WTF? The coolant reservoir was empty. Upon further inspection, the coolant hose between the carbs was off (must have been my buddy that didn't tighten that one!, LOL...). It took about 15 minutes to remove the driven clutch, air box and carbs to get to the line back on and tightened. I also noticed at this time the crack in the carb boot was a little worse than I remembered, but it was still ok. We re-filled the sled with coolant and it fired right up. We made our way up through St Donat to St. Michael de Saints and got a hotel there for the night. Everything ran good, including the other 500 SS, a '95 Arctic Cat Cougar with M-10 and BLT-10 suspensions and my bro's new TNT. The next two days were kind of shitty- periods of rain, but at least it was warm out. We did a one day trip from the hotel around the lake that starts with a "T" (I can't remember the name right now), across the Mattawin and then toward La Tuque/Shawinigan. The trails were great, 9/10 and it was warm with not nearly as much rain as was expected. The next day, we were greated to another warm day with light rain (it had rained hard all night). We decided to head back into Mt. Tremblant park and head toward Mt. Laurier. A few minutes into the ride, I noticed my idle hanging at 4k and not dropping. I checked the carb boot and noticed the crack had really opened up. I threw on some duct tape and it seemed to help- (with the warm temperatures, I was not too worried) and we headed to the Doo dealer in St Donet. It really started raining at this point. The Doo dealer didn't have the part, but the dealer near St. Come did, so we headed back into the park and over to St Come. We were soaked at this point (with the exception of BJ- his coat worked good) so we got a hotel in St Come for the night. Trails 9/10. The next day, the rain turned to snow and we had about a 1" on top of the frozen base. The trails were surprisingly good, and we made it to the doo dealer in about 2 hours (La Pointe Sports, I believe). They had the carb boot and I got it for $50 Canadian since the package was open (I guess it retailed for $90.00). The secondary clutch, airbox and carbs were off for a second time and the carb boot was replaced in the parking lot of the dealer in ~ 20 minutes. We rode back up into the park and then got back to the Hotel by about 2:00 to watch the NC State Game (BJ's brother in law was playing in his last game for them). Trails 6/10, since they were hard from all the rain. Overnigth, it snowed about 3-4" and the temperatures dropped. We decided to make a loop through the park, heading back to L'Esterel through N-dame de la Merci. Everything was running great until the Cougar gave up the ghost. I pulled the plugs and one of them had metal on the bottom. She was probably running a little lean and melted a hole in a piston. We got her started and ran her on one cylinder the remaining 25 miles back to the truck. Trails were a 10/10. It was about 5 F at this time. After sitting for about 4 days without being plugged in, the Cummins fired right up. We loaded the sleds and headed back to PA. It was nice parking at L'Esterel, easy to get to, nice gated lot and a very nice facility. Plus, it was only about 7.5 hrs back to Scranton, PA. We will be using L'Esterel as a departure point for our remaining trips this year. All in all, it was a great first trip. We had a few minor mechanical problems and lost the Cougar on the last day in an ideal spot- only 25 miles from the truck. I think we finished with just under 700 miles. We are planning another trip for late Feb/Early March and we hope to maybe get one more in there sometime between now and then (maybe a long weekend in the Mt. Tremblant park region). A few pic's are attached. 36 hrs with no sleep... Mattawin Dam Lookout in St. Come Catching a little air with the new sled

I have a canon Powershot A540. It is an inexpensive camera that works well in the cold. I usually get a week out of the batteries between charges. There are many options out there, just make sure whatever one you choose takes nickel metal hydride (Ni-MH) batteries and you will be fine. Lithium ion's are not worth a shit in the cold. Happy Holidays! Karl

I agree, whenever I rode BJ's sled, I felt unsafe as the handling was very unpredictable. This was especially true when letting off the throttle after a high speed run and God forbid, trying to turn. The engine was excellent, but everything else left a lot to be desired. We hope to be heading up for our first trip between Christmas and New Years. Hope to see everyone on the trials. Karl

Do you guys have any trouble with the GPS that is run off the cigarette lighter or that is hardwired to the sled? Does the alternator on the sled produce enough power to run the unit all day long if the sled is not equipped with a battery for electric start? I am in the market for a GPS and am considering the Nuvi 500 or Zumo 550. Does anyone have any experience with each of these units? I have a 500ss for a sled. Thanks, Karl

Happy Birthday!!! Karl

Thanks Bill!!

We passed this place on RT 93 on the north side of LSJ on the way to the Valin. I can't remember exactly where...

All, With all of the snow this winter, I bet that many people on QR.com really racked up the miles. I had one of my better years, 2200 miles on three trips to QC. There was no riding in the states for me this year. Bill, Rob, Mikerider, Doobraap, everyone- how many miles did you guys get this year? Karl

Hi Mike, I have 7,010 miles on my '05 500SS. I stopped in our Doo dealer on Saturday to inquire about some new iron. They would only give me $2500 on a trade for an '09 E-tech TNT, which means about $6800 out of pocket for a new one. I really don't want to spend that much money for a new sled, especially since I only get to ride for three weeks a year. It looks like I'm going to run my sled for another year or two. I'll go through the whole machine in the off season and replace broken/worn parts as needed. My bro and I also have another '05 500 SS that we bought for my dad. It only has 1800 miles on it so I can run that as well (my dad has been going to florida in the winter and not using the sled too much). It really sucks that sleds are getting so expensive. I'm going to wait at least another year before I pull the trigger on a new one. Karl

a few pic's deep snow on 73 a river along rt 93 (I think) 93 north of Lac St Jean River along RT 93 near Valin BJ on 93 in the Valin Mts Crossing the Saguenay River on the Ferry BJ overlooking the St Lawrence on Rt 3 A shot of the Hotel next to the Casino

Last trip of the year- I left Havre de Grace, MD at 6:00 pm on Friday, March 14th and headed north. I met up with my brother and friend Bill in Scranton, PA, hitched up the trailer and headed off to QC. The ride up to Bernards was uneventful, with the exception of some freezing rain on the 401 across Ontario. We arrived at Bernards at 7:00 am Saturday morning. My sled sounded louder than normal when we took it off the trailer and it turned out that my "Y" pipe had a hole rusted in it. It took an hour to swap it with the one from our spare sled. Bernard has a nice heated garage that made the work much easier. We headed out around 10:00 and arrived in LaTuque at 2:00. After lunch at Motel 9 (I can't remember the exact name, it is the first hotel coming into LaTuque on Rt 73), we decided to spend the night since we drove all night the night before. We got 100 miles for the day and the trails were excellent. Sunday We left the motel in LaTuque and headed up 73. 73 was excellent, groomed to perfection. We also got about 4" of snow the night before which made the trails even better. We had lunch at Relay 22 and continued on to Chateau Roberval. There was one bad section of trail at about 20 miles south of Roberval. It was so bad I thought we were on Tug Hill in NY, but it only lasted about 20 miles. We finished the day with 200 miles. Other than that one section, the trails were great. Monday We headed north on 83 up the west side of the lake and then picked up 93 east. It was a bright sunny day and the trails were flat and fast. We ran into 6 guys from Ontario along the way, but they were the only sleds we saw. We arrived at the Passions by the ski resort on 93 near Mt Valin by 4:00. We finished up the day with 185 miles. The trails were perfect. Tuesday We headed through Valin on 93, gassed up at Auberge 32 and continued on to Tudassac. 93 through the mountains was groomed to perfection and with the bright sun and warm temperatures (high 20's), it was one of the nicest riding days that we ever had. We took the ferry across the Saguenay river and continued on Rt 3 to the Casino. We stayed up the just up the hill from the Casino. We finished with about 165 miles. Wednesday There was a storm coming into the area and we decided to cut the trip one day short and head back to Bernards. We got on the trails at ~ 9 am and headed west on rt 3. About three hours into the trip, it started to snow. It snowed heavy and being able to see the trail was as we approached Shawinigan was difficult. There was about 6" of snow on the ground when we arrived at Bernards, soaking wet. Other than the visibility problems, it was another great day of riding on trails that were excellent. 260 miles for the day. We left for home for the next day with about 925 miles for the trip. The got about 10" of snow total for the storm and there is a ton of snow everywhere in QC. It is not a question of how long you can ride this year, but a question of when they will stop grooming. This was one of the best trips that we have done to date, with the near freezing temperatures, the bright sunny days and the excellent trails. We only saw about 25 or 30 other sleds all week long. Now it's time to get the boat ready- it goes in the Chesapeake on April 15th. Our season is over for this year. I finished up with 2200 miles, all ridden in QC- not too bad for living in MD. I'll post some pic's in a few. Karl