Doug

Fast actually made a Blade with a Harely engine.

Mercury would be my pick. They finally had a top performance sled when they got out of it. A couple not mentioned would be Alouette. They had the first twin track back in 1970's and also independent suspension. And Speedway, they were short lived but had some outside the box thinking in their sled designs

I have a 1985 Indy 600 with a SLP RZ 700 trail motor. Found a 1987 Indy 600 that had a Arrow motor in Bonduel Wisconsin that the guy was selling awhile ago. Thought we had a deal so I went up to pick it up and he decided to keep it. Sled was rough but the motor was free and all there.

In the 80's not many manufactures made 3 cylinders. Well one did . Some aftermarket shops decided to go their own direction with a 3 cylinder. Here's where Decker Enterprise created their own Rotax rotary valve 3 cylinder.

I was fighting the urge to sell the VR1 from this year and get a VR1 650 for my wife. Ordered my 2022 XCR 850 back in March and planned to have my wife drive the VR1 from this year but a guy wanted to buy it now. Guess we'll stay with the original plan now and I'm good with that. I know they're doing some fine tuning on the 650 for 2022 and has my curiosity up on it.

Anybody not able to get their sleds ordered. Seeing on other forums guys that were waiting and thought it was just a markets ploy now cannot get the sleds they wanted ordered and now are upset.

Our preference is have the sleds run in the trails first before we go out with the groomer. Last year we didn't have enough snow to open the trails and the snow was so light we were just pulling the snow off when we tried to groom. A roller would have worked nice but we didn't have one.

Here's ours when have the blade set to just enough to catch the top and roll the snow. 20190307_153724.mp4

With the Sno-Plane drags we can load them up with snow when we drop the blades to the point that the tractor will spin out. We don't have a roller but as light as the snow was when the season started we talked about getting one which would have help get a base.

Not necessarily off topic topic. Little trivia here is the the first Sno-King was originally the Boss Cat 2. The Boss Cat 2 has now been fully restored to original. I sold the collector that has it and others some NOS parts for a 1990-1/2 RXL and was invited to see their collection. Mouth dropping would be an understatement of the sleds there. The one pic is my buddy inside of the Boss Cat 2 after getting instructions to start it. Also in a pic is the Sno-King with 4 V-Max motors

Still have a 75 Rupp Nitro 440 FA

Mickey Rupp

Here is some of the speed run sleds from the early 80's. The Budweiser sled actually showed up at one of our radar runs to make some test runs. At the time they were running in the mid 130's with the sled. It was powered by a Mariner V6. As of a couple years ago the sled was purchased by a collector and was going through a full restoration.

Here's the first groomer our club had.

Funny when you do a search who's online my original user name and my dup user name both say I'm online even through I'm ban on both users.

Badger what kind of drag you goes use? We have sno-plane and like the blades in them cause we can drop them to fill the drag up and move the snow to fill ditches and low snow areas. We picked up and Arrow drag to use behind a wheeled tractor we want to try in some areas.

CJ5 jeep work?

In our case where we're located we're not guaranteed to have enough snow to groom every year. There's been some years where we have not groomed at all. We have a couple of trusted farmers that rent them for light field work so there used basically year around. It doesnt do equipment any good to sit and not be used for long periods of time especially years we didn't have enough snow to groom.

Steel cleats are not fun especially as they start to wear and get thin they then start to crack and break. Brings back bad memories of our LMC.

Parole restrictions?

What you guys looking at for a groomer?

Thunder Badger......😬

So is there going to be a Freedom sledder ride this coming season? As strange as last seasons weather was not sure where a good place to base one from. I ride every weekend where ever there is snow. Z is going to be building a new MADCATTER club house so not sure if other brands of sleds would be welcome. Never been to the Plywood Castle so that's on the must stop list for me.

I personally haven't had a Baler since 2016. Wife had one until 2 seasons ago. Still one of the best riding sleds I will say. Nothing wrong with the Lynx either it's just not as trail friendly as other sleds from what I'm told by the guys that had it for 3 days. If they rode more off trail and ditch pounding then they would consider buying a Lynx. Out of the 5 guys that rode it 3 are buying new Doo's and the other 2 are keeping their current sled. One friend that had a Cat turbo sold it and put money down on a Lynx but now he's not sure if he's going to take it.

Kiekhaefer powered SKI-Doo?? In 1970 Carl Kiekhaefer broke away from Kiekhaefer Mercury and restarted Kiekhaefer Aeromarine Motors his original company. After failed attempts at building a successful snowmobile Carl turned his attention as being an engine supplier. He set his test bed on racing and built a 649CC F/A 3 cylinder mounted in 1971 Polaris TX chassis which won both oval and obstacle course events in the open non production class with engine sizes larger then 800CC. He later turned the lead design over to his son Fred to build a liquid cooled motor. Fred designed an inverted V-twin liquid cooled. They made the rounds of all the major manufactures with Ski-Doo showing the most interest because at that time they did not have a liquid cooled motor. In May of 1973 the papers were being drawn up with a closing date of July 1 1973. The problem was 1973 was a terrible snow year and after the year was over all the manufactures had extensive carryover inventory and Rotax had also come out with their own liquid cooled engine. It was agreed upon by both parties to back away from the deal. Fred Kiekhaefer still has 2 V-twin motors, one under a coffee table the other still mounted in its Chaparral test chassis.