I see Arctic Cat is trickling out some more details.  Arctic Insider had some new info a couple of weeks ago, but this article talks about the same stuff and goes into more detail:

Exclusive Insight on Catalyst Design from Arctic Cat Engineering

Just this week, the latest Snow Tech magazine had a nice writeup on it, as well.

Does anyone have more info?

If the stars stay aligned and I can ride one in the near future, what would you like to know?

 

Edited January 6, 20233 yr by p51mstg

1 hour ago, fortune46x said:

which would make perfect sense

They started using the roller Bearing clutch on the 2018 models. First sled to get it was the 2017 Thundercat. Was a team clutch.

On 12/27/2023 at 8:23 AM, fortune46x said:

I had the outer sheeve issue with my 16 800 , when I was talking to some of the now former engineering folks from cat they told me that the bellville washer and overtightening would cause that (I always tightened it by hand not with a torque wrench). When I started torquing them I never had the problem again.

I went through a lot of problems with that, and for the most part I don't think engineering had a very good handle on what was actually happening, as they tried to blame the customer on several occasions.

We saw several issues

1.  Any sled with no shim at all.  In very little time the force of the bolt clamping the end of the splines in sheave, to the tiny shoulder on the jackshaft would cause the aluminum to deform, clamping force would drop.  Low clamping force, means sheave wobble, causing more deformation etc until the sheave spun on the shaft. 

2.  Just one of the thinnest shims, or even multiple with the thinnest shim against the shoulder.  Shim would deform, failure would be the same as above.

3.  They had a metric shit ton of bad shims, and no QC at AC to catch it.  I don't have a metallurgy lab on site, and didn't bother sending any out for inspection (my grandfather was a metallurgist fwiw), but they were brittle as glass, the shims would crack while on the sled, the pieces would fall out, leaving 0 clamping force on the sheave.  0 clamping force=stripped splines.  That one was a mystery until I found a broken piece of shim in the belly pan.  We also found them broken when taking the clutch off, after that.  You could put them in a vice and a hit with a hammer would break them instead of bending.

4. Customer was a Nimwit, and changed their belt by removing the sheave. Bolt tightens against the belt, instead of the shaft 0 clamping force=stripped splines..

1&2 got taken care of by never sending any sled out without a .090" shim against the shoulder on the shaft, even if the alignment bar said it should be thinner, or have no washer at all.

3 sorted it self out after a couple years.

4 Other than a few clueless morons giving terrible advice online, most folks know the proper way.

Edited December 31, 20232 yr by krom

Anybody catch the latest SnoWest podcast yesterday (1/11/24)?  They managed to get both Dave McClure and Todd Tupper on the phone, live and unscripted, during the podcast.  At the time, both were at the photo shoot, or had just finished shooting.

I hung out with both of those guys during the 2024 photo shoot and they are both outstanding human beings.  The interview with Todd, imo, was less informative, I don’t think he’s as good at bs-ing with the media.  Dave had a few really good observations about the 858 and Catalyst in general, and that was the last 10-minutes or so.  I’d skip over all the other bs in the podcast and go right to the interview with Dave.

I listened to that.  I have loved the other snowest pods about the catalyst.. but I thought this one was very lackluster.

If the snowest boys would have rode it I'm sure there would have been good conversation.  But Tupper and McClure really didn't communicate anything very well about the motor.  They got some great questions tee'd up for them and didn't do anything with it, very vague and basic answers, not descriptive at all.  Hopefully the crew does another pod after they ride it.

On 1/12/2024 at 4:07 PM, mnstang said:

I listened to that.  I have loved the other snowest pods about the catalyst.. but I thought this one was very lackluster.

If the snowest boys would have rode it I'm sure there would have been good conversation.  But Tupper and McClure really didn't communicate anything very well about the motor.  They got some great questions tee'd up for them and didn't do anything with it, very vague and basic answers, not descriptive at all.  Hopefully the crew does another pod after they ride it.

Thought the same thing.