found yet another idler wheel chewed up the other day on the SP and started shopping around. found these Chinese specials on fleabay for a reasonable price and ordered a pair out of curiosity. the rubber on the wheel seems more like a firm urethane. these 5.62" units will allegedly fit Cat's (#3604-807) and Polaris (#1590457) which I'll verify. might be junk but the rubber on the last few Cat OEM one's I've purchased don't seem to be holding up quite as well as they used to. idk if they switched suppliers or ???

White? Yuck 🤮

ok, the 720 and RXC which aren't here got two new genuine Cat units this year and thinking back the 5hundo got 'USA' PPD's from Amazon a couple years back. the rubba on these are sticky and flaking apart, almost like they've been sprayed with a chemical.

yes, I was a bit turned off by the white outer rand on these other cheapies but we'll see how they hold up.

guessing that last ride mudmobiling by Eagle River didn't help matters... but, have some delam going on with the other wheels while amazingly everything in the rear axle looks great.

Looks like some beach riding.

Good news is that if the wheels hold up, the bearings are pretty standard.

I"m definitely curious to see how the wheels hold up. I'm not sure what's up with the PPD wheels? I'm seeing the same type of delam and breaking on upper idlers. It's not just one sled. It was happening on multiple machines. Never used to worry about those wheels mid season.

Is this wheel thing happening on the newer sleds?

My ‘21 and ‘18 both with north of 18k miles still have all the original wheels. There are a couple that I could replace but none of them look as bad as those first batch you posted @Crnr2Crnr .

6 hours ago, favoritos said:

Looks like some beach riding.

Good news is that if the wheels hold up, the bearings are pretty standard.

I"m definitely curious to see how the wheels hold up. I'm not sure what's up with the PPD wheels? I'm seeing the same type of delam and breaking on upper idlers. It's not just one sled. It was happening on multiple machines. Never used to worry about those wheels mid season.

pm'd a link if you want to be a guinea pig as well...

2 hours ago, Mag6240 said:

Is this wheel thing happening on the newer sleds?

My ‘21 and ‘18 both with north of 18k miles still have all the original wheels. There are a couple that I could replace but none of them look as bad as those first batch you posted @Crnr2Crnr .

with Cat's... yes. ruined a bunch on the RXC this winter (partly because of a stud issue) and one or two on the SP720. @Not greg b replaced all of the solid plastic ones on his Catalyst with plastic/rubber from J&T I believe.

I didn't mind paying for Cat ones in the past but they're like $50-60 a piece these days which seems excessive for a wear item. https://thomassnosports.com/wheelidle-563-od-x-787id-b-1.html

the ones on the XCR seem robust enough for trail use and I'm not planning to stud that sled for the first season... yet.

also, I think a lot of the wheel damage comes from chunks of ice bouncing around in the skid that accumulates between rides in the winter and the one's in the picture by the rear shock and cross brace get changed out the most

Edited May 1May 1 by Crnr2Crnr

I like the solid wheels the ‘18 had better, but no complaints with either - but like you say, studs can be hard on them, I don’t run studs.

2 minutes ago, Mag6240 said:

I like the solid wheels the ‘18 had better, but no complaints with either - but like you say, studs can be hard on them, I don’t run studs.

did your new buggy come with the ice track or the Cobra? I don't recall.

I'm sold on the ice tracks for trail riding, not quite as good on glare ice as a bunch of picks but better nothing. they're also much lighter than a traditional track with studs added.

if I had a 2.86P sled I'd run one of these... https://powersports.camso.co/en-ca/snowmobile/products/ice-arrowhead-130

Could keep an eye here when they come back in stock.

https://www.denniskirk.com/parts-unlimited/black-idler-wheel-w-bearing-r5630k-2-001a.p04600.prd/04600.sku

3 hours ago, Crnr2Crnr said:

pm'd a link if you want to be a guinea pig as well...

with Cat's... yes. ruined a bunch on the RXC this winter (partly because of a stud issue) and one or two on the SP720. @Not greg b replaced all of the solid plastic ones on his Catalyst with plastic/rubber from J&T I believe.

I didn't mind paying for Cat ones in the past but they're like $50-60 a piece these days which seems excessive for a wear item. https://thomassnosports.com/wheelidle-563-od-x-787id-b-1.html

the ones on the XCR seem robust enough for trail use and I'm not planning to stud that sled for the first season... yet.

also, I think a lot of the wheel damage comes from chunks of ice bouncing around in the skid that accumulates between rides in the winter and the one's in the picture by the rear shock and cross brace get changed out the most

Other than the upper idler wheels I am running JT wheels on the catalyst whenever it goes back on the snow. All the lower ones are trash I went through 8 of them in how ever many miles are on the catalyst. Actually 11 if you count the rear axle. My 2019 did the same thing. I think I found of the what is causing the issue. I think the bearings in them are extremely low quality from cat. If you spin the wheel mounted in the sled the bearing it feels fine. When you take it out of the sled it and spin the bearing with your fingers you can feel the bearing lightly catch. A new one won’t do that. I think when they get hot, they lock up every so often. This would explain why all of mine keep egg shaping as I think they stop spinning from time to time. I never had an issue with cat wheels until they changed them in 2019. I can only get about 900 miles out of the current cat wheel. Not sure if popping the seals out and packing the bearings will solve this or not. You saw all my flat spotted wheels when you stopped by this winter.

https://www.jtatv.com/Arctic_Cat_Firecat_front_wheel_kit_p/idler.htm

Edited May 2May 2 by Not greg b

Cat changed the supplier for idler wheel / drive train bearings in the late 2000's, 2008-9-10 range.

I'm assuming the Big-T changed again to the lowest cost supplier they could drag up.

Edited May 2May 2 by racinfarmer

9 hours ago, Sled_Hed said:

Could keep an eye here when they come back in stock.

https://www.denniskirk.com/parts-unlimited/black-idler-wheel-w-bearing-r5630k-2-001a.p04600.prd/04600.sku

those are the same PPD wheels I had delam in the pictures above.

8 hours ago, Not greg b said:

Other than the upper idler wheels I am running JT wheels on the catalyst whenever it goes back on the snow. All the lower ones are trash I went through 8 of them in how ever many miles are on the catalyst. Actually 11 if you count the rear axle. My 2019 did the same thing. I think I found of the what is causing the issue. I think the bearings in them are extremely low quality from cat. If you spin the wheel mounted in the sled the bearing it feels fine. When you take it out of the sled it and spin the bearing with your fingers you can feel the bearing lightly catch. A new one won’t do that. I think when they get hot, they lock up every so often. This would explain why all of mine keep egg shaping as I think they stop spinning from time to time. I never had an issue with cat wheels until they changed them in 2019. I can only get about 900 miles out of the current cat wheel. Not sure if popping the seals out and packing the bearings will solve this or not. You saw all my flat spotted wheels when you stopped by this winter.

https://www.jtatv.com/Arctic_Cat_Firecat_front_wheel_kit_p/idler.htm

yours were Fubar'd for sure.

interesting theory on the bearings...

8 hours ago, racinfarmer said:

Cat changed the supplier for idler wheel / drive train bearings in the late 2000's, 2008-9-10 range.

I'm assuming the Big-T changed again to the lowest cost supplier they could drag up.

that would not be a surprise with bigT

I've honestly lost track of the number of this size wheels I've replaced on the SP's and the RXC over the years but it's many... and almost always by the rts mounting point?

Edited May 2May 2 by Crnr2Crnr

29 minutes ago, Crnr2Crnr said:

those are the same PPD wheels I had delam in the pictures above.

yours were Fubar'd for sure.

interesting theory on the bearings...

that would not be a surprise with bigT

I've honestly lost track of the number of this size wheels I've replaced on the SP's and the RXC over the years but it's many... and almost always by the rts mounting point?

I just figured at less than half price of Cat I'd post it. I did have some of those wheels on my sled look similar when I had it.

7 minutes ago, Sled_Hed said:

I just figured at less than half price of Cat I'd post it. I did have some of those wheels on my sled look similar when I had it.

that's probably why I bought them as well...

most all ac wheels have a logo on them showing they are made by ppd

https://www.ppdgroup.com/

Eagle River is not North woods.

On 5/1/2026 at 10:18 AM, Crnr2Crnr said:

guessing that last ride mudmobiling by Eagle River didn't help matters... but, have some delam going on with the other wheels while amazingly everything in the rear axle looks great.

Do you tow on an open trailer? Ride down salt covered roads? Your suspension looks like its off a 71 Puma thats been left out in a field!

3 hours ago, DriftBusta said:

Do you tow on an open trailer? Ride down salt covered roads? Your suspension looks like its off a 71 Puma thats been left out in a field!

no, they use a lot of salt on the roads which ends up in the skid during road crossings or ditch riding. it's also 17 seasons old with nearly 8k on it and I do wash it and all my shit regularly. the salt and brine they use here is extremely caustic (especially to aluminum) and they use it liberally.

buddy from the Madison area who rides up north a ton had to replace his two place clamshell trailer a couple years ago because the road salt ate through the frame and broke.

My stock polaris wheels made it 3500 miles without any issues. You can try those next