Replacing steel skis with plastic skis

M

MaurizioBenelli

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Aug 22, 2014
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Finland
I have a 1986 ET340 Professional with original steel skis. I'd like to remove the steel skis and replace them with plastic skis,
but is there a "bolt on" solution to do this? I got tired of modding sleds during last years, so I'm looking forward to find the
easiest possible way to do this. Currently I have plastics installed under the steel skis, but the sled just pushes in corners
with them. It would also reduce some weight from the front end if I get rid of the steel skis.

Any suggestions other than installing carbides to the ski plastics? The sled is equipped with leaf springs in front.
 
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You should be able to use plastics...you'll probably have to make an adapter. But you'll loose a lot of ground clearance. Not sure how you would keep the leaf spring attached..I've been wondering about this myself. I almost put apex skis on my 88' ET, but would've lost lots of ground clearance.

Maybe try some kimpex plastics underneath the steel skis...
 
carbide is usually on the wear bars that hold the ski skins on. most older sleds just ran with plain old wear bars with no carbides. if you put carbide equipped wear bars on with knives, it should bite and turn a lot better. I would actually suggest a square host bar over round as it would be more aggressive.

snow trackers would probably be your best bet http://www.royaldistributing.com/Catalogues/Main/2014-Fall-Winter/#254
 
wow $225!! holy moly, looks like they would work ok. I know on my steel skis I would have to drill a fourth hole for the runners
 
Looks like I'm back in the modding business, I'd better start drilling and fitting some wear bars to these plastic ski boots I have. I guess I still have
my old Apex RTX stock wear bars somewhere, I'll put those on.
 
It's sounds like your trail riding with this sled, I put mine on the trails last year and just used stock skis and runners that were only $15 pair and they worked great! Ill be using mine as a powder sled this year...extending track and tunnel and putting on some wide ski skins.

But if you are trail riding, you should be able to get that tail end sliding around the corners to help ya steer!��
 
I'm not trail riding, I use this sled to make trails for our huskies. It's a big problem when doing trails on wet snow, because the sled just pushes and pushes, I need a whole lake to make it turn. It's not much better on "normal" snow either. ET Professional is a long track sled, I guess it's about 153" or so. I had an Apex for many years and I used to dissemble and assemble it over and over again each year. Last winter I got really tired of modding it and this is why I'm looking for any solution that needs as little mods as possible :)

It wasn't broken not a single time, I just liked to try something new each year. Apex has been the most reliable sled ever.
 
could I see a picture of this sled? longest enticer I have ever seen was 136" track.

with that much track, building a set of runners similar to the snow trackers sounds like the best bet. I would recommend 1/2"-5/8" host bar welded to bolts. I recommend a hard grade of bar stock as it will wear on the rocks/road crossings (if any).

I built a set with my dad for a 1975 gs338 we had. had to build them as the aftermarket skis that where put on by the insurance company back in the early 80's after it was stolen could not be identified and the dealer that had done the work was long closed when I needed a new set of wear bars. I used 3/8x1" bolts and 5/8" (I think) grade 8 straight u-bolt rod. put the bolts in the ski on the bench at work and bent the rod to fit with a torch and a hammer. welded it to the bolts and cut the length to match old bar remains on the one I did make too long. did not even grind the threads off and it acted as if I had put carbide knives on the sled on ice and road crossings until the threads wore off. I think those bars are still on that sled to this day. have to weld them on the ski or in a jig as the bolts pull when welded.
 
damn lol. looks like an et340t that was extended from dealer/Yamaha new.

building the wear bars might be one of the only ways to get that to bite some to steer. another old trick that some of the trappers around here used to do to get more ski pressure was toad a 2" block between the spring and the mount by the spindle. the one I saw used 1/4" wall square tubing.

those skis definitely do not have an aggressive enough keel for that much track even if it is only 1/2" lug.
 
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