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Just now getting around to posting but 2 weeks ago I went up snowmobiling with my dad and his buddies to Houghton, MI. I came away uninjured but boy is my wallet hurting.
Tuesday night I get to my parents at 6pm to rebuild my sled. Yes, less than 12hr before we leave for a week long snowmobile trip I did a full engine rebuild. When I got there at 6pm the engine was on the work bench. At 2:30am I had new rod bearings and top end rebuild. Was on the trailer by 3am Wed morning. Nothing like cutting it short!
Wed. morning my dad, his boss, and myself leave at 5am (after 90min of sleep for me) for the 10hr ride to Houghton. Was crazy going up snowmobiling and not really seeing any accumulation until almost the bridge. Gaylord and North Branch didn't even have any cover. Passed over the bridge and started to see decent snow. Normally this time of year you cross over the Mackinac Bridge and the water below is frozen. Was still half water!!! Got to Houghton around 6pm and stopped at The Ambassador for some pizza. Get to the house in Dollar Bay, unload, and pass out. The place we were staying at is a friend's of my dad's father's place. He has a house in Dollar Bay and a cabin on the same property. The cabin is pretty nice. His house burned down in Clio like 10 years ago and he took any wood/plumbing/etc that was still good and built an A-frame cabin for his son to use for snowmobiling and hunting.
Thursday is when my troubles started. My sled was smoking like crazy because of the fresh rebuild. We got about 10 miles down the trail and it stopped smoking once my rings and stuff set. I figured time to give it hell. A few miles later me and my dad's boss decide to race. We get up to around 90mph and I just hear this loud metal on metal sound. I'm thinking, "Way to be a dumbass. You just blew your shit up..." Hit the killl switch and coasted off. Had coolant just POURING out the bottom. Turns out 2 of my studs started to separate from the track and went through my heat exchanger. I knew my track was shot and wanted to put on a new track but my dad convinced me not to because I had another year left with my studs and this was my only ride this year. Don (guys cabin we were staying at) comes and pics me up in South River. Town about 10 miles out of Houghton. Buck (dad's buddy who's cabin it is) says I can use one of his back up sleds. His family keeps all there sleds up there year round so there are 2 extra sleds at the cabin. We get back to the cabin, I give his 600 a once over and grease it, and Don takes me out to meet the guys. At this point they are like 45min from Houghton if you take the roads. Drop me off at a bar and I meet the guys. The 600 rode great. No noises or symptoms.... We pull off to take a break about 70 miles into the trip and I turn the sled off. About 10min later we go to leave and the sled is LOCKED SOLID. No idea what happened at this point. We end up towing it to the nearest town and calling Don....again. We are in Michimee which is like 90 minutes by road. Don comes pics me up, takes me back, and I get the 700. He drives me like 2 hours down the road to meet the guys again and I ride with them for about an hour until we got to Big Bay where we stayed at The Thunder Bay Inn. It's a real rustic bed and breakfast that they filmed the 1950's movie "Anatomy of a Murder" Some VERY cool pictures in that place. The owners were telling us that the place was built by Henry Ford as a vacation home for his family. The room that my dad and me stayed in WAS Henry Fords master suite with a walk out porch over looking Big Bay. B-E-A-UTIFUL!!!!
The next day we took off back for Houghton. We were about 20 miles out and my sled just dies. Like someone turned off the key. It is a 1995 but it is EFI with a computer and battery. When you turn the key on the gauges cycle and like 4 lights on the dash light up. Nothing.... It's dead..... Look over for it a good 20 minutes and get no where and called Don. Again... He comes and gets me and takes me back to the cabin. I end up taking my dad's truck out to The Ambassador for dinner with everyone.
Saturday morning my dad's back is wrecked so he lets me take his sled out (Seriously? After me just killing 3 sleds? lol) We rode up to Copper Harbor, through Loc LaBell, and Gay with no issues. We rode back into Houghton for dinner at the Ambassador and drinks at the Downtowner. Leaving the downtowner we decide to skip the trail going over the bridge and shoot down the river and cross over because you come out right at Buck's Dad's place. I turn on the ice and see its 100ft ice, 100ft water, 100ft ice. Say to myself, "well this is going to be interesting" and just pin it. I fly across with no issues and slide to a stop at the other side of the ice. About 40ft away is the trail that we hop on. I pin it and 2 seconds later my belt blows apart into about a dozen pieces. Buck rides up behind me and just says "Holy shit, you imagine if that happened 7 seconds earlier? You'd be swimming right now!" That was at least an easy fix. Replaced the belt and kept on down the trail. Was my fault it was shot anyways. Dad had to tow me 3 times for over 30 miles on the trip.
Sunday we just loaded up the sleds/gear and headed home. Couldnt go smoothly though.... We cross over the Mackinac Bridge and just before the indian river exit the fuel light comes on. Less than 1 mile later we run out and coast of the exit ramp. Of course the only gas station there has been closed for years. Luckily, my sled was in the back of the truck and I only had about 3 miles on it after filling up. We grabbed a hose out of the kit Ford gave us with the truck and I had to pout out my Coke. Got about 3gal out of my sled and into the tank. Enough to make it to the next exit and fill up. lol My theory behind the light just coming on and running out so fast was because a trucks tank in mounted lengthwise in the frame maybe the pump is at the front and with 3 sleds in tow the truck was riding a bit low and even though we still had a few gallons in the tank it was all in the back of the tank and the pump couldn't pick it up.
What and expensive week!
My view most of the week.... lol
Tuesday night I get to my parents at 6pm to rebuild my sled. Yes, less than 12hr before we leave for a week long snowmobile trip I did a full engine rebuild. When I got there at 6pm the engine was on the work bench. At 2:30am I had new rod bearings and top end rebuild. Was on the trailer by 3am Wed morning. Nothing like cutting it short!
Wed. morning my dad, his boss, and myself leave at 5am (after 90min of sleep for me) for the 10hr ride to Houghton. Was crazy going up snowmobiling and not really seeing any accumulation until almost the bridge. Gaylord and North Branch didn't even have any cover. Passed over the bridge and started to see decent snow. Normally this time of year you cross over the Mackinac Bridge and the water below is frozen. Was still half water!!! Got to Houghton around 6pm and stopped at The Ambassador for some pizza. Get to the house in Dollar Bay, unload, and pass out. The place we were staying at is a friend's of my dad's father's place. He has a house in Dollar Bay and a cabin on the same property. The cabin is pretty nice. His house burned down in Clio like 10 years ago and he took any wood/plumbing/etc that was still good and built an A-frame cabin for his son to use for snowmobiling and hunting.
Thursday is when my troubles started. My sled was smoking like crazy because of the fresh rebuild. We got about 10 miles down the trail and it stopped smoking once my rings and stuff set. I figured time to give it hell. A few miles later me and my dad's boss decide to race. We get up to around 90mph and I just hear this loud metal on metal sound. I'm thinking, "Way to be a dumbass. You just blew your shit up..." Hit the killl switch and coasted off. Had coolant just POURING out the bottom. Turns out 2 of my studs started to separate from the track and went through my heat exchanger. I knew my track was shot and wanted to put on a new track but my dad convinced me not to because I had another year left with my studs and this was my only ride this year. Don (guys cabin we were staying at) comes and pics me up in South River. Town about 10 miles out of Houghton. Buck (dad's buddy who's cabin it is) says I can use one of his back up sleds. His family keeps all there sleds up there year round so there are 2 extra sleds at the cabin. We get back to the cabin, I give his 600 a once over and grease it, and Don takes me out to meet the guys. At this point they are like 45min from Houghton if you take the roads. Drop me off at a bar and I meet the guys. The 600 rode great. No noises or symptoms.... We pull off to take a break about 70 miles into the trip and I turn the sled off. About 10min later we go to leave and the sled is LOCKED SOLID. No idea what happened at this point. We end up towing it to the nearest town and calling Don....again. We are in Michimee which is like 90 minutes by road. Don comes pics me up, takes me back, and I get the 700. He drives me like 2 hours down the road to meet the guys again and I ride with them for about an hour until we got to Big Bay where we stayed at The Thunder Bay Inn. It's a real rustic bed and breakfast that they filmed the 1950's movie "Anatomy of a Murder" Some VERY cool pictures in that place. The owners were telling us that the place was built by Henry Ford as a vacation home for his family. The room that my dad and me stayed in WAS Henry Fords master suite with a walk out porch over looking Big Bay. B-E-A-UTIFUL!!!!
The next day we took off back for Houghton. We were about 20 miles out and my sled just dies. Like someone turned off the key. It is a 1995 but it is EFI with a computer and battery. When you turn the key on the gauges cycle and like 4 lights on the dash light up. Nothing.... It's dead..... Look over for it a good 20 minutes and get no where and called Don. Again... He comes and gets me and takes me back to the cabin. I end up taking my dad's truck out to The Ambassador for dinner with everyone.
Saturday morning my dad's back is wrecked so he lets me take his sled out (Seriously? After me just killing 3 sleds? lol) We rode up to Copper Harbor, through Loc LaBell, and Gay with no issues. We rode back into Houghton for dinner at the Ambassador and drinks at the Downtowner. Leaving the downtowner we decide to skip the trail going over the bridge and shoot down the river and cross over because you come out right at Buck's Dad's place. I turn on the ice and see its 100ft ice, 100ft water, 100ft ice. Say to myself, "well this is going to be interesting" and just pin it. I fly across with no issues and slide to a stop at the other side of the ice. About 40ft away is the trail that we hop on. I pin it and 2 seconds later my belt blows apart into about a dozen pieces. Buck rides up behind me and just says "Holy shit, you imagine if that happened 7 seconds earlier? You'd be swimming right now!" That was at least an easy fix. Replaced the belt and kept on down the trail. Was my fault it was shot anyways. Dad had to tow me 3 times for over 30 miles on the trip.
Sunday we just loaded up the sleds/gear and headed home. Couldnt go smoothly though.... We cross over the Mackinac Bridge and just before the indian river exit the fuel light comes on. Less than 1 mile later we run out and coast of the exit ramp. Of course the only gas station there has been closed for years. Luckily, my sled was in the back of the truck and I only had about 3 miles on it after filling up. We grabbed a hose out of the kit Ford gave us with the truck and I had to pout out my Coke. Got about 3gal out of my sled and into the tank. Enough to make it to the next exit and fill up. lol My theory behind the light just coming on and running out so fast was because a trucks tank in mounted lengthwise in the frame maybe the pump is at the front and with 3 sleds in tow the truck was riding a bit low and even though we still had a few gallons in the tank it was all in the back of the tank and the pump couldn't pick it up.
What and expensive week!
My view most of the week.... lol
Sounds like a fun weekend, but definitely expensive!
357ci LT1, cammed, stalled, and driven. 
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