How about a manual transmission ?

[Roton]

I'm sure this has been talked about before, but what would prevent someone from fitting a manual transmission to a snowmobile? I mean, there are offroad vehicles like ATV's and dirtbikes that people have no trouble with, so why not a snowmobile? With all the fiddling and power losses involved with the CVT, why not just go to a clutched manual and be done with it. More efficient and more fun to drive. While they're at it, lose the thumb throttle and go to a twist grip. Other than potential mechanical obstacles, I see no reason why this wouldn't work. Perhaps I'm missing something here.

[ronzx9]

One issue might be a shifter. Where would you locate it? How would you activate it with those big heavy boots on? Another would be the clutch. There is a lot of resistance getting a sled moving. Might put lots of stress on a clutch pack. It will be interesting to see the RX-1 on snow. Until they are out it is all speculation. ronzx9.

[Machzzzz1]

Accually it would not be efficent. *You would lose a lot of acceleration. *A cvt keeps the engine in its powerband at all times and has infinit gear ratio. *with gears the engine goes in and out of the powerband not to mention shift time and your stuck with the gear ration you chose. *

Thats why atvs with CVT are faster then Atv of the same size and power but with gears.

ALso audi cars are starting to use CVT.

Fact is you cant get better gearing then from a CVT.

[Roton]

Make the shifter a push button deal like the Traxter. Then you have your choice of a clutchless electric shift (good for touring or mountain) or a clutched for trail and drag performance. You'd have to move the brake over to the right bar and your fingers might get a little cold on twisty trails where you'd be on the clutch (or brake if it was there, so it doesn't really matter). As far as getting the thing going from a start, certainly no more wear than that poor belt gets on a current CVT.

[Roton]

Machzzz,

If a sled gets say, 60% of it's crankshaft power to the snow, what are the proportional losses of the CVT, chain drive and track. I'd imagine that the track is most of it. Maybe the CVT isn't so inefficient after all. I have no experience in this.

[Formulaman]

Not to sound like a smart a$$ but I read somwhere that years ago when they were first inventing sleds they tried the manual transmission it wouldn't work remember they didn't have nice groomed trails then you had to push a lot of snow, think about it, the drag that is on a sled from snow, sliders, track etc., would stop the forward momentum when you put in the clutch to shift to the next gear thats how the "snowmobile clutch" was invented they needed a drive system that could shift without interrupting the power

[permafrost]

Thats right machzzzz1 and formulaman everytime you shift you would be out of the powerband temporarily, just enough to get stuck, miss a shift and your done.

[paul yarek]

i'd hate to miss a shift in a bush trail and saw down one of mother natures tree's because i was spending more time shifting than paying attention. there is not enough inertia with a sled for gearing to work.

[AC]

How about automatic transmission, or would that be making a step back?

[paul yarek]

ac,
automatic transmissions use too much horsepower.