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Seems like the young ones are most likely to stay on the trails. I've noticed that the mature deer head out of the way further ahead while the little buggers will try running the trail to get away. The stretch I'm talking about has an incredible deer population. If we do a sundown pass, it's common to see 40-50 deer. Here's a funny story about the deal. We had a sled break down and towed it to a bar along that stretch. We left a buddy sitting at the bar while we rode back to get a trailer for the sled. He said that one of the locals sitting at the bar was bitching about how the wolves were decimating the deer population. Buddy said to the guy, "You must not ride snowmobile." Bartender chimed in and said, "For sure." Apparently the bartender is a local first responder. They get a lot of accident injury calls to that section of trail. I know there have been fatal accidents in that stretch as well.

Brutal. Sounds like you got lucky. We have one stretch that is terrible for deer and it's a nice straight grade trail. I know of a few riders that lost against deer. We try to avoid that section as much as we can but it's our main way out so some trips are inevitable. We call it deer hunting when we go down that trail. Sundown is a gauntlet. I ride much slower during that time.

I see that the Three Old Guys are doing the Ambassador run with EPS Cat sleds. Those guys might turn the event into a nice little ride. I wonder if a two day lead will be enough to stay ahead of the pack?

I'd be surprised if a reflash would fix that issue. The update they did was pretty minor. My 18 ran pretty well until it didn't. It started doing goofy misfire symptoms around the 7k mark. In this case, it doesn't sound like high rpms are cutting out yet. Have you tried to verify TPS is working properly? Honestly, couldn't find anything wrong until it got dang bad. Reeds were good, compression was ok, fuel, spark, TPS checked out good, etc. On mine, it was inner crank bearings. It was a little surprising because the early compression test didn't show numbers way off.

Bitching is easy. Doing something takes more effort.

It looks like you already discovered what I was going to mention. They reduced the parts list. The same bushing is used in a lot of places on the Catalyst. I replaced all of them during the season. I was surprised the steering post used the same bushing.

Part number 18 is the only bushing assembly on Catalyst A arm mounts. It is a straight bushing inside the tube with no collar on the end. The tube ends of #16 are in direct contact with the ears on the front frame. The wear is happening on #16 tube ends and the front frame ear assemblies. Look at the 21 RXC numbers 18 & 21. Those are both collared bushings. Ironically, the collars are placed on the end where the Catalyst assembly is showing wear. The worst wear on Catalyst sleds is on the rearmost end of the rear mount. If you have a Catalyst with some miles put the front up in the air. Turn one ski while holding the other or push back on the lower A arm. You will be able to see how much it is worn. You can do that test without pulling the rubber boots.

We need something like the second linked product. Unfortunately, they would not fit without machining the A arm tubes. The current setup has the tube ends right against the frame mount brackets. There is not much tube length left to machine off the ends.

I sure hope someone comes up with a decent bushing kit or reinforcement for the lower A arms. Those guys have a "bushing kit", but it doesn't address the wearing of A arms and frame dog ear brackets. There is no bushing between A arm tubess and frame brackets. It is a rapid wear point. I installed one of their "bushing kits" and ended up pressing out the whole works because the A arm tubes were still wearing too much. The inside of the tubes is fine but the ends are wearing shorter.

That was my assumption. Funny thing about this, they were also in the process of moving to a new item# system. The new numbers, three - five digets. (001-00001), do not apply to the helix. The new numbers show up in strange spots on parts diagrams. One example, the 858 primary uses the old style numbers except for the screw bushings under the cover. The 858 motor shows old numbers except on the cylinders and gasket "sets"? It's odd that some obviously new parts don't use the new numbers system while some new parts fall under the updated system.

The RXC 858 helix is stamped 56/49 and is superseded with another 56/49 number. I don't know what is up with the discontinued number. There are quite a few different part numbers for stock 56/49 helixes. I'm not sure if they changed the rate of progression? I do understand the part number change when they switched to ADAPT vs Team, but I don't know why they show differently between models in the MY 25 sleds.

Just got back from the UP today. We rode in those temps. I don't mind doing that once and awhile. It's easy to stop and hang out. Traffic was super light. We had a few stops completely to ourselves. Hardest part were the nights that froze everything into solid ice, Cooling was tricky. We only did a little over 400 miles and one set of carbides.

When was that? We were up there on Wednesday. On the way back we stopped on a Trail 1 turnout to enjoy the day. I saw a black dot on the trail while we were sitting. I went to investigate and it was someone's gas cap. The cap is sitting on a big ol rock on the first turnout south of the tower station.

Pretty cool. He's a great guy. Always a straight shooter. I didn't realize he had so many historical machines.

Loose and rough sugar snow is brutal. I ended up swapping skis and did some shock tweaking. We rode in some heavy traffic and trails were a workout. This group of sleds came home with quite a few different or missing parts. The 858s held up fairly well with only one snow flap a flappin. The 800 had a ring gear snap off and went through a clutch swap. The 600 went most of the week with no flap. The 9R was wearing right side A arms and bodywork off a Boost most of the week. Dang tree hugger. Sure it was a rough week, but it was riding.