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The following information is courtesy of Polaris Industries.
Sliders are the plastic component that is fitted to the underside of the slide rails of the rear suspension and run directly against the metal clips on the track. Sliders have an extremely difficult job to perform:
They must be slippery so that the track runs on them smoothly.
They must be very abrasion resistive, which means they must resist scratching and gouging due to dirt and other debris that may be in the snow.
They must remain flexible enough to sustain impacts without breaking, especially in cold weather.
Sliders are made using an extruded polymer plastic called UHMW, which stands for Ultra High Molecular Weight.
UHMW will perform all the above mentioned functions from --50° to 180° F. Once the temperature of UHMW reaches 180° to 212° F, the plastic begins to break down, become distorted, and begins to soften causing the track clips to start sticking to the sliders. When the sliders reaches temperatures of 267° F, they will melt.
If your customer has experienced excessive sliders wear, you know the sliders got extremely hot—above 180° F!
Once your customer knows he has knowingly or unknowingly driven his snowmobile in conditions that are prime for overheating his sliders, he must know the few "rules" to keep his sliders from deteriorating rapidly.
It’s very important to know that snow, by itself, does not provide lubrication to the sliders. The snow has to turn into water to lubricate and reduce heat build up.
The colder and finer the snow particles are, the less lubricating qualities they have. In extremely cold temperatures, it is possible to have excessive sliders wear, even though the customer says they have driven in plenty of snow. Snow on lakes, for example, provide very poor lubricating capabilities. The snow is usually wind swept and hard. Couple that with high speed lake driving and the opportunity for excessive sliders temperatures exists. The customer must know the conditions he or she is riding in, and adjust their style accordingly. If there is any chance that the snow is not optimum for lubrication, the customer must slow down, inspect the sliders frequently, and let the type of snow available do the best job it can to reduce temperature, and consequently, reduce wear.
There are several key differences in snowmobiles that have taken place in the last few years that may account for excessive wear characteristics.
The track lug height has changed dramatically. The height of the lugs directly affects how much lubrication the sliders gets. The taller the lug the farther away the track is from the surface of the snow, which means less snow is getting to the sliders.
Today’s snowmobiles weigh more than in previous years. The more weight you have, the higher the pressure is on all of the sled components, causing more heat to build up.
Tracks weigh more than in the past. Heavier tracks won’t dissipate heat as well as lighter tracks.
Sleds are faster and have more power than in previous years. Faster speeds means more generated heat.
In an effort to keep the weight of the snowmobile down and the speed of the snowmobile up, the amount of bogie wheels used have been reduced. In reality, bogie wheels slow down a snowmobile. When the track rides on bogie wheels, it distorts the track and the track has to try to regain its shape after it slides past the bogie wheel.
Therefore, in an effort to maintain the speed the customer has come to know and desire, the extra bogie wheels have been left off. Last and probably most important, is the invention of long travel suspensions. Long travel suspensions are pleasant for a comfortable ride, but they create more heat in the track due to additional flexing. A lot of test time was put into sliders wear research, how bogie wheels affect the suspension, driving in marginal snow conditions, etc.
sliders on Polaris snowmobiles will perform the way it’s supposed to if the rider rides in the right snow conditions for the area and terrain where he or she is riding. For example, the RMK series is designed to be ridden in deep, powder snow. If a RMK is ridden on hard pack, the sliders will have the tendency to overheat because the cooling snow won’t be sufficient for these models. It may be impossible for some riders to ride only in deep powder. They may have to ride on trails or hard pack on the way to their powdery destination. For these circumstances, additional bogey wheel kits are available for that customer to purchase and install on their RMK for added security against excessive sliders wear. The purchase of additional bogey wheels is to be treated like any other accessory purchase.
For example, if the snowmobile comes with a low windshield and the rider wants a high windshield, the customer purchases it as an accessory. The same holds true for bogey wheel kits.
In summary, it is important to remember that excessive slider wear is not the fault of the sliders or the snowmobile.
There are so many different factors that attribute to the wear characteristics of sliders, and there are ways to ensure excessive slider wear won’t happen to your riders. Many people do not understand all the different things that are happening in relation to heat build up, wear characteristics, and snow conditions. If your customer has concerns regarding his or her sliders, it is important to explain what is going on as the snowmobile is riding down a trail, across the lake, or up the mountain so that they will take measures to ensure they won’t be on the side of the trail with a snowmobile that won’t go anywhere due to melted sliders. |
