I found this snowmobile at the dump!

[chuck hahn]

Tank...buy a few cans of Sterno and have them in the box with other survival stuff in case you get snow bound out in BFE. Also have a small pan..use it to melt snow and get it good and hot to sterilise some drinking water, or heat up some soup or whatever food is in the kit. It will also give off good heat and a few of them burning can heat the car up a good bit and save the cars gas. And keep a car charger for the phone too. IF you need to start the car, clear the exhaust pipe before you do.

 

[Steel Toed Tank]

Nice to see there are still considerate and helpful people (to strangers) out there!!

I always ALWAYS have a couple Coleman solid fuel camp stoves with me, they are small, cheap (I paid 99 cents each!) and do a great job at making heat or cooking food.
A big one out here is road flares or chimney fire extinguishers (same thing) for signalling distress on road sides, so I'll be carrying a couple of those too.

Half my adult life has been spent as far off the grid as I can get and still have electricity, and being prepared can often make the difference between life and death.

I suppose I should get a cell phone one of these days, but I'm not a big big fan of them.

Thanks for the tips guys, freezing to death is a serious thing!!


Tank

 

[chuck hahn]

Not just road flares for being seen from a plane, but an actual flair gun so you can be spotted from the ground as well. And how about a few of those air horn cans...those can be heard from a very long way.

 

[rustybronco]

Half my adult life has been spent as far off the grid as I can get and still have electricity, and being prepared can often make the difference between life and death.

I suppose I should get a cell phone one of these days, but I'm not a big big fan of them.

Thanks for the tips guys, freezing to death is a serious thing!!


Tank

Tank, a 'pay as you go' cell phone will suffice for what your needs are. Get a cheap used cell phone from a friend or off of Ebay and load a few dollars onto it.

Secondly is some food for thought. How about building a 'steam powered' 12 Volt electrical generator used to (re)charge a 12 volt battery connected to a LED lighting system?
http://www.green-trust.org/steam.htm

Let us start with needs. Our home will need 2400 watt/hours of electricity per day. Since we only get 75% from a battery of what we put into it, we need to put in 3200 watt/hours (2400 / .75 = 3200). Even though 750 watts = 1 horsepower, there are inefficiencies in generators, belts, etc. A safe figure is a 30% loss, so 3200 watts over 70% efficiency = 4266 watts (3200 / .70 = 4571). Round up to 4600. Our horsepower requirement then is 4600 watt/hours divided by 750, which is 6.1 horsepower (4600 / 750 = 6.1).

    Franz Nagel correctly points out the following corrections to this article:

    An amount of energy (= power times time) is not measured in watt/hours,
    but rather in watt*hours.
    Neither is a power (= energy per time) measured in watt/hours but just in plain watt.
    This assumed, the paragraph reads:

    Let us start with needs. Our home will need 2400 watt*hours [!] of electricity per day. Since we only get 75% from a battery of what we put into it, we need to put in 3200 watt*hours [!] (2400 / .75 = 3200). Even though 750 watts = 1 horsepower, there are inefficiencies in generators, belts, etc. A safe figure is a 30% loss, so 3200 watts over 70% efficiency = 4266 watts (3200 / .70 = 4571). Round up to 4600. Our horsepower requirement then is 4600 watt [!] divided by 750, which is 6.1 horsepower (4600 / 750 = 6.1).

Using 47 lbs of steam per horsepower hour to be consumed by our engine, we take the 6.1 and multiply it by 47 and we get 286.7 or basically 287 pounds of steam/water is required. We’ll say that 1200 Btu’s per pound of water/steam will be required to turn the water to steam at our working pressure of 120 psi. So, 287 pounds of steam/water x 1200 Btu’s = 344,400 Btu’s are required (287 x 1200).

Our boiler is 70% efficient, so 344,400 Btu’s divided by 70% gives us the figure of 492,000 Btu’s actually required (344,400 / .70 = 492,000).

Our wood contains a heat value of 7,000 Btu’s per pound, so we need 70.3 pounds of wood (492,000 / 7,000 = 70.3). Let’s spread the load over two hours, and we can see that we will burn 35.2 pounds of wood an hour (70.3 / 2 = 35.2), or about 35 pounds. To put that in perspective, that is a hefty armload of wood.

Remember, these are “real world” figures and are dramatically different from what some pink-hands so-called “educated” type will come up with.

You could even heat your house with the waste heat from the steam or run a buzz saw, ect.

Thirdly, how about wood gasification to power a generator?

 

[Jethro]

I'm envious Tank! Big sledder here myself. Actually I will likely do more miles on my sled this year than I did on my bike, which is sad in itself. Nothing wrong with an old Jag like that, great ice fishing machine!

 

[gremlin]

for giggles, pull the starter apart. its probly just needs a good cleaning and a set of brushes.

 

[Steel Toed Tank]

I used a wrench to turn the starter gear back and forth and it's easy to tell that the inside of the starter has completely grenaded.

I found replacements on ebay for under $100 shipped so I may go after one of those soon. For now all my money will be tied up in getting this T-bird running and on the road.


Tank

 

[850 Combat]

If I was looking for a used sled, I would look hard at the rear suspension. It is common for all the pivots on the rear swing arms to seize. This will tear holes in the tunnel and/or make the bolt holes in the tunnel and slider rails over sized. Its easy to drill some plates and rivet them over the holes in the tunnel. The slider rails will be toast, and brand new ones are high priced.

 

[Steel Toed Tank]

Good advice!
Replacing my slider rails on this sled would run me almost $400 with shipping.
Although don't confuse that with the slider wear strips, which I could replace for under $50.

Tank

 

[Buffalo Bill]

For now all my money will be tied up in getting this T-bird running and on the road.


Tank

How are the roads anyway? Can the plows keep up with the snow fall?

 

[Steel Toed Tank]

Well mostly we just learn how to drive on the snow and ice.

There is plows mind you, but things like salt are never used.
It gets far too cold here for salt to be affective.

Usually motorists pack the snow down on the road, and it becomes almost like a rough ice pack.

It's really not bad to drive on with the proper snow tires, Posi, and ABS brakes, lol.

Oh yeah, we also have studded snow tires.


Tank

EDIT: Also, we have very dry winters, there is snowfall, but because of the extreme cold and our geographical location, the snowfall doesn't usually amount to much, and what does fall gets blown around very easily.

 

[850 Combat]

Get below -40 or so, and neither snow nor ice are all that slippery any more. c or f. I've spent years in the arctic and sub arctic.

 

[Steel Toed Tank]

That is true, it's when it warms up to near freezing that things can get slick.
But if you always drive on stuff like that, then it doesn't seem hard to do it safely.


On another note...

I got the plugs, wires, alternator, belt and a new battery with warranty for just under $300.

I got home, got it all installed and the car fired up to an incredibly smokey mess.
It runs very quiet and very smooth.

I let it heat up to temp and I and my Ford mechanic friend could not find anything wrong related to what the PO had said.

No oil in the coolant, no coolant leaks, no oil leaks, heck not even a check engine light!

It needs pads and rotors all around for sure as the rotors are REALLY rusty, but after that he said to just drive it and see what pops up.

I checked through all the lights, all the climate control functions other than AC, all the power windows and locks, the stereo, the remote start and everything and it all works perfect!!

I'm pretty stoked, I just had to tell someone, lol.

kijiji rules!

Tank

 

[chuck hahn]

What was the smoke from? Did it dissapate and stop?

 

[Steel Toed Tank]

I don't know if I mentioned it but last week I tried turning over the motor by hand and found it was seized.
I pulled the plugs to get a better look and one wasn't threaded in, just sitting in the hole and covered in a bright orange rusty fur.
I mixed up a little diesel and oil and dumped a splash in each cylinder.
After letting it sit I tried a few more times to turn it by hand and it still wouldn't budge.
Just as I was about to give up I hooked up a battery to it and bumped the starter a couple times, finally breaking the piston free and getting it turning.

On top of that, I had drained the tank of the 5 year old gas, but not the fuel rails.
So as soon as it fired up it had to burn through some crappy old fuel.

The old gas sure didn't look healthy at all, but it didn't seem 'varnished' like I have seen with old fuel before.

My buddy took a video of it as it smoked out my entire garage with a nasty acrid smokey smell, lol.
I'll post it as soon as I get it.

First time it has ran since the early fall of 2007!

 

[Steel Toed Tank]

Hmm, I know when I had a Yamaha sled many years back it was cheap and easy to find most parts for it.
I ripped the track off it and rolled it down a hill causing beyond repairable damage, but before that it was a very nice sled.

I have owned a single cylinder elan and a twin elan, both 250cc and the twin was a lot better. It had more torque and got to top speed faster with me on it.

If you are after the rare, classic, restoreable, collectability factors then the mercury for sure.
If you want something to ride a lot and beat on and not have to worry so much about stuff breaking, then go for the Yamaha.

Personally I would go for the one in the best condition while taking into consideration the availability and price of consumable parts.

My first choice when I first read your post was the Enticer, but ideally I'd want to look over both sleds for track, suspension, ski, slider/bogey and body wear, as those can be the most costly things to fix.
Production numbers would dictate the availability of used parts, and you can be sure there was many more yamahas made.
But then again having a classic and rare sled in great running and riding condition comes with all it's own rewards too.

lol, I hope I was some help!



Tank

 

[Shwartz]

....and hood latch brackets.......It has electric start (hense the 'Deluxe' in the name) but the starter is pooched, so getting a new one is on my to do list....


Tank

Dude, your such a high roller. Electric start, and proper hood latch brackets on that old of sled?

Elbow power, and Bungee straps sound about right to me.

I'll even flip the bill for the straps.

 

[850 Combat]

Personally I would go for the one in the best condition while taking into consideration the availability and price of consumable parts.

Tank

Thats actually why I chose the fan cooled Fuji 488 powered Indy Trails. Of course, I'm not a collector, I just want cheap and reliable. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to afford it.

So many parts interchange on those Indy's.

 

[Eli69]

how's the jag running mr. steel toe?

we've had a reasonable amount of snow this year, finally. i was out riding with some of the local hillbillies yesterday. i can't believe the old piece of junk is still running. i had to buy brake pads the other day and the container they came in was covered with dust. dude said they were the last ones he had.

 

[Steel Toed Tank]

Ha! I just bought brake pads too.
I haven't gotten a starter for it yet so I haven't ventured too far from home on it but it's fun to blast through the ditches with.
Until the last week or so I haven't ridden much as the temps were COLD. like -30 cold.
It's been warmer though staying just below the freezing point so I've been taking advantage of it.
Pretty sure I need rings soon and I lost air/fuel mixture screw spring somehow, so I need one of those too.