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Breakdown Lac St. Jean / Saint Raymond


sledzz
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Our first trip to Saint Raymond up to Lac St. Jean area for a few days. Not anticipating a breakdown, relatively new sleds but one never knows. If one were to break down, is there a local service that would help out (for payment of course) ??? Have any of you had this happen to you?

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Pull yourself to the local dealer. I've been towed farther than I want to talk about over 100 miles once. Get a GOOD tow strap. Bernard use to offer a pick up service when he was here, if puch comes to shove stop at fuel and a local will always get you where you need to go. Bring cash. I believe we have all had this happen it is just a matter of time.

Enjoy 23 to Lac St Jean is as good as trails get.

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Option 1:  Towing is definitely cheaper and frequently quicker.  A good tow strap and two people that know how to tow can cover a lot of trail instead of waiting for a truck.

Option 2:  Any of the garages with a flat bed wrecker will usually take you and your sled to your hotel or dealer if you can't find a local to do it.

Option 3:  If you are near the end of your trip and you are not having the sled repaired in Quebec, rent a car to get back to your truck / trailer.  Take two people in the rental and return the rental to where you picked it up.  It is usually cheaper to return it to where you picked it up.

Jack & Sandi

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Sledzz I believe you are from Ontario.

If you have CAA Plus and are a resident of Ontario or Quebec you are eligible for 160 km towing service for sled rescue.

With much of Quebec sled trails being remote I'm sure there's not always CAA  towing agent close. I'm guessing if you made your first call to them I'm they may cover the cost from a more local tow company. 

160 km or 100 miles in most cases would get you to a dealer or at least a safe more manageable spot to recover with your own truck and trailer.

Our daughter blew the engine in the family car this summer on Highway 401. Car was in a bad spot in an urban area. The police demanded had to let the Highway Bandit towing company remove the car to their local pound vs waiting for CAA towing company. 

CAA paid the other towing company ridiculous fee. CAA was excellent to deal with. They also provide this service for motorcycles and Spyders.

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Yes, you have to get the machine to the road.

Someone else posted about the CAA back in the fall. I think someone from the States contacted them to inquire about the coverage. I believe they were told had to be a resident of Ontario or Quebec but I'm not positive that is the fact.

Be worth a call to confirm

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I believe the sled with CAA was Quebec members only and not Ontario. I was on their site the other day looking for this and while it had other vehicles there was no sled.

On another note we were at L'Etape Dec 30 and a rider was waiting for a flat bed to come and bring him and sled to St Raymond, he said it was either 700 or 750.

I know another time in Gaspe a friend went off the side at Avalanche Run and a but had to go in with a sled and pull it out. Got charged $600 for ride back to RDL and the extraction/

I got lucky another time with a tow from Rimouski to RDL by a neighbor who saw us in the fields and came an offered his help. He was only $50 and he even stopped at the Tim's lol for a coffee. That was the only sled that ever left me stranded, 2007 Yamaha apex chain case

My buddy crashed another time around 3 pistols? and I went and found a house and he called a buddy who had a garage. Picked us up brought us to a hotel and cam back next morning and brought us to RDL for $200, around the  2015 time I believe.

The garage at Mt St Ann I believe that used to have the gas gave us his card and said if we ever needed a lift or help to call. We used his bay to de ice one of our Cats

So all to say there are good and bad stories. Fortunately ours have been good and very positive.

Mike

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Sled vs Dodge Ram pickup truck.  Luckily NO INJURIES to rider.   Part of the adventure. Tow yourself when you can.  Call for help when needed.  People are almost always helpful when needed.  This poor sled took 2 different rides before its last ride back to the scrap heap in the states

IMG_0036.jpg

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Bottom line just ask you will be surprised how helpful the locals can be. Once I paid over $300 US for a flatbed ride to the Delta from Mt Valin, from then on we have just towed ourselves home.

I found myself in the below situation one day, couple guys went to town and all of a sudden 2 guys show up, few minutes later a third with a Scandic also showed up. They taught us how  to extricate a machine from a very stuck position. They would not take a penny but said when you see someone who needs help you stop and help them. We always did that anyway, the locals are great. How I got in this situation is another story. After getting sled back on trail it started with one pull and we continued on our way.

 

 

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1 hour ago, doo4adoo said:

Im surprised it didn’t happen to catch fire

That's quite a charge but as you say its a looooog ride

We were a two some....I had to get my partner back regardless.

The guys also wanted the sled so bad I thought it was a sting operation and I really don't need to risk dealing with that kind of BS in my life.

#integrity

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12 hours ago, Phil 1 said:

Bottom line just ask you will be surprised how helpful the locals can be. Once I paid over $300 US for a flatbed ride to the Delta from Mt Valin, from then on we have just towed ourselves home.

I found myself in the below situation one day, couple guys went to town and all of a sudden 2 guys show up, few minutes later a third with a Scandic also showed up. They taught us how  to extricate a machine from a very stuck position. They would not take a penny but said when you see someone who needs help you stop and help them. We always did that anyway, the locals are great. How I got in this situation is another story. After getting sled back on trail it started with one pull and we continued on our way.

 

 

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After getting sled back on trail started on one pull and we where on our way. Like it never even happened!

Until the next 90degree hairpin turn ! LOL! Just busting ya buddy. Must say those bungees performed well

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Ive found the best way to tow a dead sled..just tie the ski loop tight to the bumper of the tow sled..pull the belt and away u go..we've towed tons of sleds like that, hundreds of miles...nobody needs to be sucking fumes on the towed sled and u can fly...soooo much better than any other method...it also greatly saves the wear and tear on the belt of the sled doing the towing since your one solid unit.. u can get away with using just your waist belt if necessary..

Edited by Sledwhore
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Wish I had a pic but don't..yes 1 ski up in air, doesn't matter. Sled may be offset a lil, just adjust a lil. We broke a steering post once, used a tree thru both ski loops and fastened it straight to bumper...60-65mph for 40 miles, stopped couple times to adjust.

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2 hours ago, Sledwhore said:

Ive found the best way to tow a dead sled..just tie the ski loop tight to the bumper of the tow sled..pull the belt and away u go..we've towed tons of sleds like that, hundreds of miles...nobody needs to be sucking fumes on the towed sled and u can fly...soooo much better than any other method...it also greatly saves the wear and tear on the belt of the sled doing the towing since your one solid unit.. u can get away with using just your waist belt if necessary..

Here's a picture of what Sledwhore suggested. Never seen it done until last year on our Gaspe trip. The newest sled in the fleet of 8 died on trail 597 heading from Chandler to Murdochville. Veteran rider in our group backed up tight to the down sled, tied the ski loop off tight to his bumper. Owner of dead sled jump on the back of another sled and off we went. I rode in front to warn any on coming riders as you are pulling the machine offset so likely 6 feet wide. He hauled that machine at 50-60 mph on the flat running.

The owner of the Polaris that did the towing is good buddies with his Polaris dealer. When we arrived at Murdochville I said you better send a picture of you pulling that new Ski-doo to your buddy. Just smiled and said "I already have".

In this case I had left the keys for my truck and trailer with the Mont Joli Motel, which I think it  Iceman had suggested for their rescue service. 

Maintenance guy from the motel drove 3.5 hours through a snow storm to Murdochville, then back to Mont Joli. Charged our guy $150.00 for his 8 hours of time. Ended up the problem was the Dess Module.

 

Tow Sled.jpg

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It would be safer to tie the right ski of the dead sled to the bumper, that way the sled is out in the kill zone instead of the human. I am going to exchange the rivets for stainless bolts on my sled, that's a lot of money hanging by the rivet.

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1 hour ago, Low Rider said:

It would be safer to tie the right ski of the dead sled to the bumper, that way the sled is out in the kill zone instead of the human.

Not so sure about that.....By towing with the sled hanging out into the on coming traffic, you set the on coming driver up for failure. He's not expecting 2+' of sled hanging out against him.

 

1 hour ago, actionjack said:

I would tow a sled like that on a lake but not on a windy trail. You can tie the spindles and through the loops in a way that the sled will dutifully follow and that’s why I carry a carabiner rigged up water ski tow rope. 

How do u do that Jack??? And how do you stop the sled being towed. If the sleds not tied fast I would think it's  going to whip out around turns... unless the rider is still on the sled sucking dust and fumes.

A windy trail is really a non issue except you are running wider.

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 Sled-Ho, Thanks for the info. At some point I will do it just like in the photo. I think because its Hog Tied(real tight) to the bumper it keeps sled from bumping tow sled on steep downhills and road stops. Thats why conventional towing requires the rider on board to brake on downhills. this method looks way better to my old eyes.

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