Final prep

The moment has finally arrived. The pain staking days of watching weather patterns come and go without much if any snow accumulation are over. The first big storm finally hit and it delivered! With reports of up to a foot and more on the way, it’s time to load up and head for the mountains this weekend.

If you haven’t already, now is the time to make those final checks. Examine everything front to back, top to bottom. Don’t let a silly oversight keep you from burning that first tank of fuel.

Here is a checklist that will help insure your first ride is a successful one.

Raise the back of your sled off the floor. Go through and check that all nuts and bolts are tight in the rear skid. Inspect track tension. About 1 to 2 fingers of slack below the high fax at its lowest sag point. After retightening tension and axle bolts, run the sled to spin the track to make sure it’s tracking true. Not creeping to the left or right. Grease all pivot points.

A clean clutch is a happy clutch. With a piece of emery cloth, buff the faces of both primary and secondary sheaves to remove belt residue. Inspect that weights move freely on the pin without slop and the rollers they pivot on spin free. Inspect that springs are not broke. Blow off any excess belt dust with an air gun and wipe faces of sheaves down with acetone.

Look that your drive belt doesn’t have any cords pulling out and when you put it back on, adjust belt tension accordingly. Jump to the opposite side and insure your quick drive belt is in tact without any grooves on the outside. We have all seen a broken spring or tree branch get lodged in the bottom and begin to tear one to shreds. Replace if needed and carry spares, because if you break on of these, your towing it back to the trailer.

Tip the sled on its side and inspect that those ski carbides are straight and the dampeners aren’t cracked or blown out. It’s cheap and easy to replace both, skip this step and you’ll be fighting tough steering and floppy skis all day.

Throw new spark plugs in, check coolant level, add oil needed for a tank of fuel and inspect that all exhaust fittings are tightly sealed with springs secured at all locations.

There’s always more we can inspect, but hopefully over the summer you’ve addressed any bigger issues and those that I’ve listed already. But, if time has got the best of you and you’re just now pulling the sled out….go through this checklist and you will be well on your way to starting this winters riding season off right.