Thursday, January 12, 2012
Friday the 13th Grooming Schedule
Who is on board for tomorrow? We shouldn't have much new snow, but we still have work to do between Sleepy Hollow and Death Dip. Also, Chris Axelson wants us to prepare the bottom area northwest of the big hill as part of the race staging "stadium." We will only have 4 machines as the old Skandic is still at Staacks.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Friday January 6th Grooming Schedule
Paul took both Skandics to Staacks on Wednesday. The new Skandic was due for its post break-in service and the old Skandic broke down on Saturday. Paul will bring the new machine back on Friday, but the old one is awaiting new rubber couplings between the carbs and intake manifolds. The breakdown was caused by a broken throttle cable.
AlpineII #4 also died on Saturday with no spark. I scavenged a CDI unit and spark coil from one of the derelict AlpineII's at John's Snowmobile Salvage and put them in #4 today. It would run fine when cold, but die after heating up, so we will find out on Friday if the problem is fixed. I also put a new belt in #3 as it has been making noises getting unstuck. I also lubed the clutches on both machines.
Finally, I brought the quad home and replaced the thermocouple and blew out the burner, so hopefully it will behave. I won't get it back in the Warming Hut until Friday.
Dave and Thursday night crew: you will be without heat and light and have only one machine with headlights, so you may want to take a night off.
AlpineII #4 also died on Saturday with no spark. I scavenged a CDI unit and spark coil from one of the derelict AlpineII's at John's Snowmobile Salvage and put them in #4 today. It would run fine when cold, but die after heating up, so we will find out on Friday if the problem is fixed. I also put a new belt in #3 as it has been making noises getting unstuck. I also lubed the clutches on both machines.
Finally, I brought the quad home and replaced the thermocouple and blew out the burner, so hopefully it will behave. I won't get it back in the Warming Hut until Friday.
Dave and Thursday night crew: you will be without heat and light and have only one machine with headlights, so you may want to take a night off.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Friday, Dec 30th grooming schedule
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- I moved these up to a new post:Olie OlsonDec 28, 2011 07:30 PM
- lundborgDec 29, 2011 03:44 PM
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Thursday, December 15, 2011
We plan on grooming thurs night. We will take it slow & easy - I am assuming there is only a couple inches of new snow since last weekend. Sorry about the damage last week - although the bent ski on the skandic occurred at a slow speed in the bottom of little Cal (creek area). I saw it happen - threw Chris right off the sled - just hit a hidden rock...
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Simms Ski
Well I spent about three hours working on the damaged Simms ski and was able to get it straightened back to close to normal. It's still a little crooked but should work fine. The rear weld holding the skag on ski was cracked but after straightening it the crack didn't get any worse so I didn't re-weld it. The axle bolt support running through the ski leg was slightly bent and I tried to straighten it but since it's tempered steel I didn't have a lot of success and left it alone. It will work as is. So please keep the speeds slow until we get another foot or more of snow to cover our hazards. I kind of hate to repair damaged equipment that could be prevented by just slowing down. We're going to be hitting hazards but slow speeds will keep damage to a minimum. Thanks, Paul
Friday, December 9, 2011
Friday, 12/9 Report
Paul and I spent a few hours getting things back in shape from the grooming session Saturday. I'm recapping our experience for the benefit of the whole crew so we can learn from our mishaps.
First we attempted to put the new spacer on the Skandic ski. You may remember Paul had to take the new one home to ream the inside to fit the pivot on the Skandic strut. Well, once we got that done, we noticed the other ski was distorted. The mounting bracket was badly bent, one of its spacers was broken, and the ski itself was warped. The net effect was an extreme toe-in, with the ski not flat on the ground. Luckily we kept the original skis in the cargo container, so we switched back to the original skis. Paul took the damaged Simmons ski home to see what can be done to fix it. You may not be aware that we replaced the factory skis with Simmons Flexi Skis on both the Skandic and the Beast to improve the steering when pulling heavy loads.
Next we went to work on the roller. We found 2 of the 3 bolts that attach the disk (rim) to one end of the roller missing, and the third loose. Thus the disk was flopping around inside the culvert and as a consequence, one of the 3 angle iron ribs that form the attachment of the culvert to the disks had pulled away from that end of the culvert, bending the rib, and pulling the pop rivet out of the culvert.
To work on things, we removed both stub axles (no small job) and got the draw bar and the fantail out of the way. Paul was able to peen the angle iron rib close to straight, and we used a 1/4 inch bolt instead of a pop rivet to re-attach the end of the rib to the culvert. Before we re-assembled everything, we took the draw bar frame over to a couple of trees that were spaced about right to backstop one side of the frame. We hit the other side of the frame close to the hub repeatedly with an 8# doublejack without any effect on the bow from a previous collision with a tree on the trail. That should give one a perspective on the impact force on the frame that caused the bow.
Anyway, we got everything re-assembled and then greased both rollers. They are back in good shape, although one of the air spring levers and associated bushings is missing from the other roller ???
We hooked up the Beast to the Ginzu and #4 Alpine II to the TiddTech and swept Crooked John, Wulf's Cutoff, and Sugar Loaf, setting tracks with the Ginzu as we went. We hit lots of stumps, but we were rolling slow enough that we floated over everything except one that sheared the pin on the TiddTech.
Bottom line guys, this early in the season, slow running is mandatory. Wise procedure is to make a pass with without implements, "walking" thru questionable terrain, and then go back with implements, now being to see exposed hazards, and move at appropriate speeds.
First we attempted to put the new spacer on the Skandic ski. You may remember Paul had to take the new one home to ream the inside to fit the pivot on the Skandic strut. Well, once we got that done, we noticed the other ski was distorted. The mounting bracket was badly bent, one of its spacers was broken, and the ski itself was warped. The net effect was an extreme toe-in, with the ski not flat on the ground. Luckily we kept the original skis in the cargo container, so we switched back to the original skis. Paul took the damaged Simmons ski home to see what can be done to fix it. You may not be aware that we replaced the factory skis with Simmons Flexi Skis on both the Skandic and the Beast to improve the steering when pulling heavy loads.
Next we went to work on the roller. We found 2 of the 3 bolts that attach the disk (rim) to one end of the roller missing, and the third loose. Thus the disk was flopping around inside the culvert and as a consequence, one of the 3 angle iron ribs that form the attachment of the culvert to the disks had pulled away from that end of the culvert, bending the rib, and pulling the pop rivet out of the culvert.
To work on things, we removed both stub axles (no small job) and got the draw bar and the fantail out of the way. Paul was able to peen the angle iron rib close to straight, and we used a 1/4 inch bolt instead of a pop rivet to re-attach the end of the rib to the culvert. Before we re-assembled everything, we took the draw bar frame over to a couple of trees that were spaced about right to backstop one side of the frame. We hit the other side of the frame close to the hub repeatedly with an 8# doublejack without any effect on the bow from a previous collision with a tree on the trail. That should give one a perspective on the impact force on the frame that caused the bow.
Anyway, we got everything re-assembled and then greased both rollers. They are back in good shape, although one of the air spring levers and associated bushings is missing from the other roller ???
We hooked up the Beast to the Ginzu and #4 Alpine II to the TiddTech and swept Crooked John, Wulf's Cutoff, and Sugar Loaf, setting tracks with the Ginzu as we went. We hit lots of stumps, but we were rolling slow enough that we floated over everything except one that sheared the pin on the TiddTech.
Bottom line guys, this early in the season, slow running is mandatory. Wise procedure is to make a pass with without implements, "walking" thru questionable terrain, and then go back with implements, now being to see exposed hazards, and move at appropriate speeds.
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