Track width question for 99' Venture 500

I just picked up a 99' Venture 500 that I'm getting set-up to do some light weight grooming next winter. (Grooming for fat tire mountain bikes, so small groomers with little resistance) The track is in awful shape and from the reading I've done it looks like I may be able to put a 16x136" track on it to increase grip. I'm wondering what mods I might have to do to make a 16" track fit. The drivers have been changed to 8t from the 9t stock (from what I was told), otherwise it's stock all over. Also, it appears that 1.25" lugs would work fine as everything sits. Will the additional width cause a problem with lug height? Any recommendations on tracks for this purpose? There will be plenty of powder when we track the trail in, and then we will groom. Won't ride on groomed trail much, and want the lugs to be very sturdy. I don't care about speed AT ALL.
FWIW I'm pretty new to sleds. I groomed this year on a 1975 Ski-doo Olympique 300. It worked, but I am ready to get on something more fit for the job. I've been playing with motorcycles and Jeeps for years, so I'm handy, but have a lot to learn about sleds.

A 136x16 should fit but it might be close. But a 136x15 should get the job done for what you are doing. Either way you go its a big improvement over the Olympique.
I'm sure someone else will chime in with some more answers.
Welcome to the site

There is no way a 16 in track will fit. My 15 in track on my 2000 Venture has a very little wiggle room.

Sounds to me what you may want is to go directly to a 144" and possibly a 1.5" track. I am not familar with your sled. So not sure what will or will not fit. But track USA makes extention kits for alot of sleds. If tracktion is your main consern. I would go longer if you can. Better ride from what i am told, as well as better tracktion. I am not sure but I would be willing to bet there is very little cost difrence between a 136" and a 144". Most likely both kits would require the same amount of work. Hope this helps.

I went out to the garage and double checked a few things just to be sure. It is a liquid cooled 500, which according to what I've read, is a 136 track already. I double checked by counting the windows in the track, and it has 54. All the Ventures from that year are 2.52 spacing, which confirms that it's a 136 track. You are definitely right on the width, Vincent. The 15 on there is pretty close on both sides so a 16 would probably not work without some serious changes. I don't know how much room a track SHOULD have on each side, so it's probably best not to chance it. I had figured that a little extra.width would be nice since it needs a new track anyway, but I'll stick with the 15.
Yes Mark, it should be a HUGE improvement over the Olympique. It still runs great, but is underpowered and pretty long in the tooth for what I want it to do. It came free when we bought our house, so it was worth every penny I didn't pay for it.

There are a few cheap easy and almost free mods you can do to get a little more power out of it.

Wait... you said "cheap, and easy." Those happen to be two of my four favorite words! Can you point me in the right direction for the mods? I don't doubt that the motor in this sled is shared with other sleds, so maybe it's those I need to look up. Any guidance would be appreciated!

The 500 twin is basically the same as the 600 twin. Check out the tech section on here lots of info.
You can do reed spacers or stopper notch (I like the spacers saves me time and I ain't gotta do and measuring and cutting). Boyseen or carbon tech reeds, and you can never go wrong with clutching and gearing to get the power to pull like you want it to.
I'm sure someone else will have some more tips on this sled as I haven't had any experience with the 500 venture.

If grooming is it's primary function I would gear it down as much as possible. I know the 8 tooth from 9 tooth driver will take you down some but that engine is peaky. All the power is in the upper rpms. We have a 500 in the stable. You want a tractor so I would go as low as you can to keep it well engaged at low speed to lengthen belt life.

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As fare as tracks. Any 1.25 to 1.5 will work. ( may need to remove front rad protectors). Stock tracks are crap. Seem like alot of members have had great luck with the 1.5 intense track (See pic). Very good for off trail and has stiff lugs that are tough and abrasion resistant.

You can easily find a used first gen Ripsaw track for cheap, and they are tough but being an on trail track, loose snow performance isn't impressive. They trench alot under power.

I'm running a 1.35 cobra on my Venture with great on / off trail results. HTH

1. A 1.6 Cobra or 1.5 Intense will serve the intended purpose well.
http://www.cbperformanceparts.com/categories/camoplast-tracks/136-tracks.html
2. Viper reed cages w/ Carbontechs Viper reeds. And replace at least two of the reed stops w/ NEW stainless notched stops.
3. And you'll probably need to drop 1 tooth on the upper gear in the chain case. If it is still stock, it has 21/39 gearing w/ a 68L chain. Drop it down to at a 20 and you should be good.
4. Start to slowly accumulate your favorite 2-stroke oil over the summer. The twins are thirsty little critters.

If you'll like, I can order two new stainless stops,I'll notch them and ship them for cost. I haven't got any lately but the entire total would be <$20.
I could also make you a proper hitch for cost.
http://www.totallyamaha.net/threads/100684-Viper-Tow-Hitch?highlight=Hitch

Wait wait wait. If you do indeed have 8 tooth drivers and stock 21/39 gearing, you are already at 2.09:1. And that should be just fine.

So this is why I look for a brand specific forum as soon as I buy anything new. Incredibly helpful information, and I really appreciate it!
Looking up max lug size was one of my next steps, so it's nice to know what to look for, as well as the potential mods I would have the make.
Cheap performance mods are always on my list. For anyone who is into motorcycles, I ride a KLR650. That should tell you how much I like cheap mods.
Gearing is now the next thing to figure out. I need to check and see if it is the stock gearing, or if it's geared down. I was told that it had lower than stock gearing from the original owner, which I assumed was 8t drivers, but when I was checking track size I took a quick look and the drivers are 9t. That leads me to believe that either the seller was wrong, or hopefully they already swapped to a 20t. I'd like the time to take a look this weekend and I can go from there.

Bucks,
I will definately take you up on the reed stops. Let me know how you would like me to send you the money. Paypal?
I appreciate the offer on the hitch, and that's some really nice work you do, but I actually lucked out on that. The original owner had a heavy duty custom hitch made for it, which was a nice bonus.

With all the knowledge that everyone has I'd love to pick your brains a bit more. I'm wondering opinions on the clutch. Good enough stock, or make some changes? I can only assume it is stock, since I was told gearing was the only under-the-hood change.
Thanks again for all the info!

If you are geared down and the prior owner did not change the clutching or if you go down to an 8 tooth driver or gear down more you will almost certainly need to add some weight to the primary weights. 21/39 stock gearing calculates out to 90 mph with 9 tooth driver on GPS. 8 tooth drivers calculates out to 80 mph on GPS. If you plan to do much leisure riding that is probably about as low as you would want to go. If this will only be a grooming sled I would think you would want to lower it to as much as you can. I don't think you would ever be grooming over 60 mph.

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Stock 43 helix for what your doing w/ the sled, stock 8AB weights with a 2.4 on the inner hole and 4.5 in the tip, 6-1 preload on the secondary spring, gear down to close to 2:1. Get a BRAND NEW white/pink/white(wpw) for the primary & a BRAND NEW red spring for the secondary. Yours are 17 years old and very tired.

Let me get the 2 stainless stops ordered and notched and we'll go from there.

If you find a 15 X 136 track w/ a 2.52 pitch that you like but has more than a 1.5 lug, you can always trim it down.

That sounds great. I'm going to take things a step at a time right now. Fortunately I work at the local high school, so I'll have 2 1/2 months off to work on the sled and get it ready for the winter. I didn't get a chance to tear into it at all this last weekend, but hopefully soon. I will post progress as it goes, and I'm sure I'll have plenty of questions. I'm going to have to digest everything I've already learned before I ask anymore though.

Just to give you a visual between a stock 3/4 lug Venture track and the 1.35 lug Cobra. These larger lug tracks really transform our Ventures and will fit without modifications. (up to 1.5" lug on 9 tooth drivers anyways)

I went and picked up the reed stops today. Got em notched and ready to go. PM me.

Vincent, that is a huge difference! Thanks for the info on max lug size, that should make my search a little easier. The track that is on mine is different than the stock, apparently. It's missing lugs and is a 1" so it's gotta go.

Here they are. The external & internal edges are wet sanded to 600. Then surfaces and edges(especially) are buffed w/ red rouge to insure there are not any edges that vibrations can focus on.