It will be more efficient and precisely calibrated for varying conditions, but a few questions remain, including which of the new technologies will the sled manufacturers employ and when will it show up under the hood of new snowmobiles. The first snowmobile built by Carl Eliason in featured an early, direct-drive design. Its little 2. When the engine was started, the suspended track turned as the engine revved to speed. The track was then slowly lowered to the surface of the snow and away went the sled.
A manual clutch was also incorporated in the designs. After a few years, FWD designed a new model and sought to overcome one of the problems associated with a geared transmission: drag. To solve that problem, FWD designed an all-new, rear-engine snowmobile with variable ratio, centrifugally governed drive and driven pulleys.
FWD aimed what would become the snowmobile industry in the right direction when it installed that transmission system on its model K in Today, we call the system a continuously variable transmission, or CVT. Power from the clutch was fed to a two-speed, planetary transmission that was mounted at the top of the chaincase.
You would start the engine and let it idle. Pulling down the lever on the chaincase would engage the low set of planetary gears. All wrong. Possibly the greatest mind of all time drew the design for a CVT system in , yes we are talking of Leonardo DaVinci, not the turtle but the artist. The first patent for a CVT system was filed in As you can see the CVT idea has been about for a while. It took until for CVT to feature on a snowmobile.
It came on the Eliason K, a sled that could trace its origins back when Eliason patented the first snowmobile. We have talked about going forward but what if you need to back your sled up? RER allowed you to go backward at the touch of a button. It was also a pretty light system. Before that mechanical reverse systems were heavy, so most snowmobiles did without one.
Saved you burning through fuel and having the added complexity when it came time to fix your sled. The simplicity of the RER switch is that it slows the engine down, it comes to a stop, starts back up, but this time it is in reverse.
No magic or fairy dust needed, just some clever engineering. There are still sleds without reverse and some with mechanical shifting, but they are becoming a dying breed. You probably want to keep on eye on your friends when you have an electronic reverse button on your snowmobile, particularly if they are like these Swedish guys. Again some sleds have neutral, and some sleds do not have neutral.
You will also find some people who tell you when it is way below zero to put your snowmobile in neutral and then rev it. You should ignore these people as they obviously have shares in spare parts companies. Do not do this and destroy your engine. You can usually find your neutral position on a lever; this varies by manufacturer so please check by brand.
We do this by scouring our clutch sheaves and making sure the drive belt is tensioned. If this sounds scary read on and it will seem a lot easier, as with all mechanical tips the more you work on your snowmobile, the easier the tasks will become. A great time to work on your clutch is if you are fitting a new belt. Now grab a piece of grit emery cloth. Rub the cloth from the center of your clutch out to the outside edge. Make sure that you cover every part of the clutch and remove all and any glaze from your clutch.
Grab your new belt and look at your clutches. Hopefully, they will be scoured and not shiny and polished. You do not use steel wool; it will polish your clutch, always use a rough piece of emery cloth. Too loose with your belt and your snowmobile will lose its low-end power. Too tight and it will squeal like a pig at you. Get your tension right and enjoy a great winter of sledding. If this happens, you will start the rush towards big spare parts bills.
The simplest way to remove this dust is just to rinse the area with warm water. You could use brake cleaner, but you will need to make sure and go over everything with a cloth afterward. You also do not want to shortcut this cleaning process by using compressed air; this will just help to blow the dust into all the areas you were trying to remove it from landing in. There are more maintenance tips that we should talk about, but I will cover this in another article.
The usual snowmobile clutches last between in my experience. Once it reaches its top speed, the primary clutch closes, moving the belt into a higher "gear. Unlike a manual or automatic transmission , this system is stepless and can smoothly go back and forth between an infinite number of "gears" depending on the speed and the amount of power needed. Sign up for our Newsletter! Mobile Newsletter banner close. Mobile Newsletter chat close. Mobile Newsletter chat dots. Mobile Newsletter chat avatar.
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