hello i was just out riding and iwhan i cam in to put the sled away for the nigh i had noticed that the suspension was eathere frozan on broken.I think it might be frozan because the tether strap is stuck up and the is snow all around the shock can u help me please ? thanks !

Happens all the time...

Pick the back up and drop it a few times. You should do this before heading out each time anyways. That is assuming your cross shaft pivots didn't fill up with water and freeze solid.

If the pivot points are frozen up, you really need to thaw it out in a heated area and then pump grease into all the suspension grease fittings to get the water out. Then next time all you need to do is pick it up and drop it a few times...

Some people like to lift the track off the ground whenever their not riding. I don't find it makes much difference (26 years of sledding - haven't bothered to lift the back end when parked yet...).

Steve

Also have someone hold the sled up and spin the track before you ride to get things turning and after your ride to get any extra snow/slush/ice out from the track/suspension area.

Although that works, you have to be careful not to spin the track too fast while it's in the air.

Far too many guys have lost their feet/lower parts of their legs when the track lets go at speed. I've seen it first hand and my wife's cousin (I wasn't with him) now has a prosthetic leg from just below his knee from this. He also almost bled to death.

His story goes something like this:

- His sled got stuck in slushy snow
- After trying to get out for a while, he lifted the back of the sled and had his buddy hit the throttle to clear out some of the slush
- He fell down and tried to stand up a couple of times
- His buddy then pointed to his foot and his boot wasn't there, blood was pouring out
- He sat down on his sled and his buddy found his boot several feet behind the sled. In it he found both his foot and about 12 inches of his lower leg - not pretty.
- From there it went from bad to worse. They ended up finding a canoe and sliding him out in it (as he was passing out from lack of blood).

I did a little research into this and apparently the track gets into some form of harmonic resonance (like a wave along the bottom of the track) and causes it to fail at much lower speeds than it would if you were driving. It's also very easy to really get it spinning when it's off the ground (obviously). The two make a dangerous combination.

If you do it, make sure your feet are at the sides (the track blows out the back) and keep the speedometer well below 20 mph.

The recommended practice if you want to spin the track in the air is to use a stand to lift the sled and stand clear of the back of the sled and track area.

Steve