I had to ride over a tree this weekend. When the skis went over the tree, the sled landed on the left side trailing arm. It is only slightly bent. If I were to put a straight edge on it, no more than 1/8". My real question is, now is that trailing arm going to bend even further with normal riding? I'm not sure if the fatigue would bend it further or not. Anyone out there have slightly bent trailing arms and just look the other way and not really worry about it? I rode the sled for another 100 miles. It doesn't track any different, ski looks fine.

Got a pic? I dinged mine last year and rode it all year NP. Didnt seem to affect my machine one bit.

I've ridden hundreds of miles, maybe thousands, with Polaris arms bent that much or more. Ski-Doo arms seem to be a bit lighter in their design - I suppose to sacrifice the arm instead of the frame. I don't know about any others. The most important thing in my experience has been that the arm is not creased. As long as the bend is a nice broad radius it shouldn't give any problem.

IF you decide to replace it, keep the old one for sure, cuz Murphy's Law says you'll ding the new one within a few miles..... LOL

I tweaked mine 25 miles in to the season and have POUNDED IT RELENTLESSLY since for 500 miles. Mine has about a 1/4-3/8" bow outward and the same up ward. I'd say to re-aling your ski's so as to track straight and you'll be good to go.

I would just ride it but expect it to fail at any moment. Then when it fails, replace it. No big deal.

Ski aligned right? :withstupid:

as long as the ski's are still aligned and it seems to handle fine, just grab a handful of throttle and don't think twice about it.

yeh dont bother buying another arm. they r still pretty solid even when bent a bit.

I think that as far as strength goes, you're probably still pretty safe, but remember...the arc is there, it will follow that same arc if hit again with lesser impact than if new. Just keep it in the back of your mind. If you ride like me [one step from sno-cross] , I'd replace it... the mental stress of "how much can it take?" would drive my crazy!

The sled seems to ride just fine. The alignment seems on with just an eye measurement. I will measure when I have time. The arm doesn't have a curved bend however. The bend is about 10 inches from the back of the bar. At that point, there is a small "buckle" if you will. If I run my hand over the bend, I can feel the dent in it. When the tree hit, it forced the bar upward. I will try to post a picture of it.

A bit of a buckle is worse than an arc. That is a definite potential problem. If it were mine, I'd be going back to check the "wreck yard," something I do all too often as it is.

I'm with SXman , the mental stress would kill me , I would have to replace it . Although yours doesn't sound too bad. Recently I had an encounter with a ....huge rock... in Northern Ontario , it bent up the trailing arm but I thought I would make it back to the cottage . After a bump in the trail the bolt at the rear of the trailing arm broke and took the radius rod along with it. This left the ski dangling along side the sled , not fun when you are north of Latchford and the stupid bridge is closed and your truck is on the other side in Martin River and its -32C. Long story but we got it home and $ 1000 later we are all better again although I still favor that one side of my sled a bit , guess it will take time to heal the mental wounds.

OMG INDY!!!!!!!! $1,000 thats nuts. A new trailing arm is 90 bucks us and they are a snap to change out. And even a broken off bolt only cost me 61 bucks to have removed and re tapped and new bolt installed.

Must be more damge than that. Last year I replaced RH T/A, both RH control arms & the shock. The other guy's insurance paid for the parts & labour. Grand total was between 6 & 700 bucks CDN.

It was more than just a trailing arm :
New trailing arm $187
labour at The Shop in Sudbury $ 214
new ski $ 189
spindle $63
radius rods (2 used ) $48
radius rod parts $28
misc. $9
decal $ ??
taxes $110
gas back and forth to Sudbury $ 90
Total = $938 plus the decal
Kicks the crap out of a grand !
There was a lot of bending and machineing going on too, not everything fit or was straight.
What else are you going to do you are 6 hours from home at the start of a weeks riding and it's too far to run home and get the back up sled. It had to be fixed ,so pay the piper and get on with riding. It's the only damage that I have ever had in all my riding time so I guess I'm still kinda lucky.

I have pictures of the trailing arm. Tell me what you think. I would do the work myself. I don't think anything else is wrong but the trailing arm.

Here is a different view. It is a little blury, but you get the idea.

i bent mine this year too. If i was you i would replace it because once metal bends it keeps getting softer.