Ways to reduce friction in the tunnel?

kinger

kinger

VIP Member
Joined
Nov 12, 2004
Messages
796
Location
Clear Lake, IA
What are the best ways to reduce friction around the track rotation? Oversize idler wheels, marginal snow kit, Hiper fax (although I won't spend that much on hi fax), anything else? Looking for optimization of top speed and gas miliage. Thanks
 
7.5"oversize rear wheels, 5.350"skid wheels and the marginal wheels at front curve bar none, this is a major decrease in parasatic drag.
 
I have the 4th wheel kit and the wheels are blue do you think they are over size? I'll measure them to be sure, I swore they were bigger. If not what do you think about the 8" from mountain perf, is bigger better?
 
mrviper700
The 7.5" oversized rear wheels; are they stock Yamaha wheels or after market?. Also do you have to use an off set axle with them?.
Thanx
 
yes stock yamaha, use a 79 srx440 for the application, same 20mm id on the bearing, no offset axle required. You do have to grind a slight amount off the stock axle spacers on the 2000-02 srx and viper, the srx700 used a thinner bearing then the srx440 did, pretty easy to do.

you must also run the 5.350 wheels in the skid, all 6 of them, this keeps everything all level.
 
To summarize:
5.350" wheels in track all 6
7.5" wheels in back from 79 srx440, need to grind the stock spacers a little to make fit right

Last question are the 5.350" wheels whats called a aftermarket oversize?
 
No, they are actually off a polaris indy, all you do is reuse your original yamaha plastic bushings from the wheels, bearings are the same,and they bolt right on.
 
the narginal snow kits actualy increase drag to some extent. keep the stock wheels on the skid. a bigger wheels at the major bends (rear axle, top, drives; last 2 may be tougher to do) will make a difference. you want to minimize how much the track has to flex.

for a sliprier hyfax, just drill it full of holes.

a low profile track will help.
minimal or worn carbides.
a narrower track would do some good too.

dont neglect the gear train, synthetic lube might be the best, but I haven't look into it. just like big wheels, use big sprockets were you have a choice. check all bearings everywere. you may want to look into a SRX or shorter. suspension if your real serious. if you've got triple pipes on your viper, a srx cdi will help fuel economy more than anything else I've been told.
 
marginal snow wheels definately help to reduce friction, mrviper is right. There is quite a bit of friction between the clips and the slide rails, more than you lose by bending the track and extra 3/16" from the rail.
 
aSRX600guy said:
the narginal snow kits actualy increase drag to some extent. keep the stock wheels on the skid. a bigger wheels at the major bends (rear axle, top, drives; last 2 may be tougher to do) will make a difference. you want to minimize how much the track has to flex.

for a sliprier hyfax, just drill it full of holes.

a low profile track will help.
minimal or worn carbides.
a narrower track would do some good too.

dont neglect the gear train, synthetic lube might be the best, but I haven't look into it. just like big wheels, use big sprockets were you have a choice. check all bearings everywere. you may want to look into a SRX or shorter. suspension if your real serious. if you've got triple pipes on your viper, a srx cdi will help fuel economy more than anything else I've been told.
Click to expand...


no no no no no...no. bigger wheels help, i can't believe anyone would argue that they don't. if it increases track tension, well the engineers at yamaha spent millions to design a gizmo at the back to loosen up the track if its tight. minimal and worn carbides have nothing to do with tunnel friction, and nor would they in any friction really as long as they are striaght and not a blunt tip (not flat in the front, a gradual increase) gear train? if your talking chaincase, you might wanna look up chaincase porting on snowest, a lot of good mods to decrease the fluid friction in the chaincase. going bigger on the sprockets won't do you any good either unless your doin a salt flat run and have couple football fields to get up to speed (your bottom end would be shot, unless you geared for it, but then again why mess with it in the first place) low profile track only helps with drag due to the track being a huge "air pump" theres a lot of guys on here who know their stuff and mrviper is one of them, so please don't tell people false stuff if its only "hearsay" because people may listen and learn the hard way...
 
if bigger skid frame wheels help; then why not do like a grass dragger, just wheels and no hyfax at all? seams to me you want the most gradual changes posible, and having lumps to role over cant help. all the bigger wheels realy do is change the point were the hyfax stops wearing. after a few hundred miles it'll make no difference, but if there are a couple changed out and other stock, I doubt it would be as smooth a path to travel.

when I say bigger spockets, I'm talking top and bottom, for roughly the same overall ratio. same pricipal as big wheel axle wheels for the track

low pro tracks ar lighter and from what I've seen tend to be a little flimsier. that means less power is needed to spin them. low lug tracks also keep the hyfax better lubed and cooler.

youve had your hearsay, let me have mine.
 
you are all right.

lower lug track will be faster depending on conditions

oversize wheels will be faster depending on conditions

oversize gears will be faster depending on conditions

extra wheels only help if there was drag at that point when there was no wheel


as far as the cdi box, there is more to it than gas milage, it gives less hp.

using atf in your chain case will help on the speed, if using it, make sure your seals are perfect. atf will drip out any tiny leak that 70wt wont.

dont forget to line up your front end. if you lined the sled up with the bar like the dealers do with the sled off the ground, the front end will have way too much toe out. this will slow a sled down. deep keel skis will rob speed as well.

use a mid hight windshield on that viper for best speed/efficiency
 
Thanks everyone! I'll try getting some Polaris wheels and trying to find those 7.5" axle wheels, I will need 4 of them and 6 of the others, nice way to spend $200 :(
 
kinger said:
PS Its really ok to use ATF in the chaincase?
Click to expand...

ATF is used in most transfer cases, and even some manual trannys.
I haven't done it myself yet, but I wouldn't worry about it. the thinner lube might even do a better job of getting into the chain.
 
Just my 2 cents, but I would recommend using the Whal brother extrovert drive sprockets. I used them several of my sleds. You can lossen your track to have very minumal friction along with what was also said about drilling holes in the hifax. The only thing that you need, is to have a completely clipped track (all holes punched) I have gained 8 mph (GPS clocked) on top end alone with them. on an 01 SRX. Brad
 
mrviper700 said:
7.5"oversize rear wheels, 5.350"skid wheels and the marginal wheels at front curve bar none, this is a major decrease in parasatic drag.
Click to expand...

mrviper700 - when you say major what gains have you seen? 5mph, 1-2 mpg?? Thanks!
 
To the top looking for awnser on the last question, the cost for all of these larger wheels is around $290 for 4 rear 7.5" wheels and 6 5.350" idler wheels and trying to see if they are worth the cost. Thanks!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


Back
Top