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New to here, new to 2004 Yamaha sleds, North Easterner

2K views 23 replies 6 participants last post by  Skier76 
#1 ·
Hi,
I am new to this forum, but I've been on forums for years. I am also new to sledding (only rented on tours) and just bought a pair of 2004 Yamaha sleds. From the North East and planning on learning and being respectful on sleds/here first. As I learn the site, I'll be asking questions for help and sharing in my learning.
I've got a little reading to do.
Moto_Snow :thumbsup:
 
#3 ·
Hi RJ, thanks for the welcome. I just got these 2004 machines, one a Viper ER and one a Venom ER. These were bought based on the machines looked clean, the owners explained the way they were maintained and had only around 1000 miles on them. The machines were not run for a few years. I'm reading the Yamaha section of this site and I found online owner and service manuals. I wouldn't mind any pre-start suggestions from fellow sledders. Below is my precheck and detailed check I've made from the owners manual so far. I am buying a battery today and planning on taking all the old gas out of the tank. I am also thinking of buying race fuel and seafoam treatment for the gas.

Thanks in advance for any ideas.

Precheck:
Oil = YAMALUBE 2-cycle oil
TCW3 alternative oil or full syn Pennzoil, bought at Wally World, smokes less, seems to run cleaner or penzoil Synthetic blend, last year it was 29.99 for 2.5gal
Coolant = soft water (pages 8-11-8-12)
Test Throttle
Test Brake
Check Brake Fluid Level
Brake Fluid= DOT 4
Check battery fluid level
Check Air Filter
-----------
Other checks:
Spark Plugs (Page 8-4,8-5) reach 19.0mm (0.75 in) gap 0.7-0.8mm (0.028-0.031 in)
Engine Oil (Page 6-2 air bleed oil pump?) -
Fuel Filter
Fuel Line (Check for cracks)
Engine Coolant - Air bleed?
Carburetor - check throttle(5-2, 6-3)
Recoil starter - check operation and rope damage
Drive chain oil - (page 8-15, 8-16)
Fuel - on breakin could be mix.
Oil mixed in fuel - extra precaution?
 
#4 ·
I just got one of the two running. I had to cheat and use starter fluid, but it ran on premium fuel with Seafoam in the machine. I let it run for 10 minutes. How can I be sure it's getting enough two-cycle oil? This machine only has 211 odometer miles on it. Any other suggestions to check and monitor?
 
#5 ·
The only way to check is to ride it. Fill both tanks completely full. Ride. Measure carefully the amount of oil/gas used during the ride and check the ratio. If you are concerned, add some oil to the gas tank. You may foul plugs until you get rid of the oil, but you will be SURE to have oil in the engine.

Seafoam is great at keeping the carbs clean once they get clean, but you may want to pull the carbs and clean them.

And after that long, make sure the fuel lines are good to go, especially the pickup line inside the tank. It's possible that the lines have started to deteriorate with the passage of time.

Sounds like you lucked into some really nice sleds, that's hardly any miles at all! Congrats!

Welcome to the forum!
 
#6 ·
Thanks for the congrats. I think the other machine only has 800 miles. I bought these from a farm and moving them to a farm, so they will be used to tour the land while I get the family use to them. I have a 3 and 5 year old, so I don't plan to do trails for a few years; I am going to call some clubs and see if I can get involved. The machines are cleaning up very well so far. The clam shell got crushed from a snow load and leaked on the machines. I also had to deal with mice so I had some cleaning time this past week.

These machines will be sitting in a barn without power. I am thinking about putting a solar battery maintainer on them. Has anyone made quick connects for battery maintainers? Getting to the batteries on these requires a rubber boot be removed and I'd like to just plug in a connector.

Definitely a lot to learn for me.
 
#7 ·
Welcome! Sounds like some nice low mileage sleds! May not be a bad idea to replace the fuel lines, rebuild the fuel pumps and replace the impulse lines from the pump to the crank case. Fuel systems can cause all sorts of issues if they're not up to snuff...speaking from experience.

Where abouts in the northeast? My wife and I have a weekend place in Southern Vermont....low snow year so far! We've got a great solid base...we just need more snow to go on top!
 
#9 ·
Hi Skier76 I am a Connecticut Yankee who also skies Southern VT. The sleds are moving from a Southern VT Farm to a PA Farm in the next few weeks. I'll be reaching out to some of the Southern VT and PA clubs to learn the trail system. My VT house and the PA farm are both 3000 feet from a trail, not sure how I can get access to the PA / VAST systems.

Hi Dennis. I am thinking about the solar battery tender and the 25' extension cables. The old barn the sleds are going in is too far from the Farm House to keep the batteries charged. Seems the battery tender already has a plug integrated in the system. I also saw Northern Tool sells a Coleman unit and Harbor Freight has a similar Chinese system. I'll inspect the Harbor Freight system in a local store and consider that also.
 
#10 ·
Update... We had 10"+ in Connecticut, got both sleds running, backed off trailer and looking forward to testing on an acre oval around a house. I'll be working through my check list and trying to make sure I don't see problems with the sleds. Taking extra concern about the fuel lines like mentioned.

Any other safety or operating monitoring considerations? We will be wearing helmets and not going fast (just not enough room on the land). Planning next weekend to bring them to PA, but they only have 4" where they are going right now.
 
#11 ·
I just re-read your checklist and noticed that race fuel is considered. You would do better with a non-alcohol fuel in the octane requirement stated by the manufacturer. Consult the manuals, it should state what the engine is designed for. I'm pretty sure it's 87 octane. Using octane higher than the engine is designed for won't increase performance and needlessly increases the cost of operation, as the engine can't take advantage of the greater resistance to knock that octane allows.

If you can find 87 octane non-alcohol fuel, that would be perfect. If I had to choose between 87 octane with alcohol and 91 without, I would go with the 91, alcohol in the fuel causes all sorts of issues with the fuel. One major problem is how long it will last... alcohol-laden fuels go bad as soon as 3 months after purchase. There are stabilizers that are specific for alcohol-laden fuels, but they don't give you near as long storage as straight gas in a sealed container.

Have fun in the new white stuff!
 
#12 ·
Small world moto_snow....I'm in the Wallingford, CT area and our VT place is just north of Brattleboro. We had about 10" of snow from the last storm in CT. Not a single flake in VT from this last storm. In fact, when I woke up around 3/4AM to reload the stove early Sunday AM, the moon was out! Itching for more snow so we can ride the local trails up there. It's a non-VAST club with about 25 miles of trails.
 
#14 ·
Hi Skier76 - We ran one of the sleds on an Orange CT property with 8-12". From what I hear they only got 4" in PA where the sleds are going. When my two kids are over 5 years old, I'll be looking to move the sleds to the VAST areas. My house in Vermont is 3000' from a trail, looks like I will need to trailer to get to a trail. The farm in PA these are going to are 3000' from a trail...

Interesting to hear of a non-VAST club. I'm going to be interested to learn about some of the clubs. Having young kids, definitely looking to have a safe experience.

I had my first experience with loading a trailer. Not getting a good grip on the tread and spinning trying to get the sled up. I'm reading about runners for the trailer to help with grip. Also need to read about how to recover a broken sled, I'm sure that will happen at some point. Still have a lot to learn.
 
#15 ·
Very cool! Where abouts in Vermont? We do a lot of skiing at Stratton. We skied at Mount Snow for a number of years previously.

The non VAST club is nice. It's a trail system just in our town and you pay to join the club; no other fees or registration needed. Granted, it's only 25 miles of riding. But for the sleds we have, it's perfect...and easily accessible. The trails are only up our road a bit. It's a great way to get out in the woods for a few hours on a weekend when we're not skiing.
 
#16 ·
Hi - Our Vermont place is in Dover, VT close to Mount Snow. So I got the sleds to PA this weekend and there's snow on the farm. So far we ran them on the field and took a few of the trails. Machines are running well as best I know. I'll have some questions as I continue to work through them. The mileage on these machines was actually 221 and 226 miles, one machine is smoking more than the other. I am not sure if the oiler is to aggressive, but the oil is going down.

I posted a question about snow mobile recovery in case my sleds break, I've not seen that make the website yet. I'm going to search to see if anyone discussed that post.

Hope all are having fun with their sleds.
 
#20 ·
That's not too far from the trails! I'm willing to bet a conversation with the land owner and you may have access to VAST trails from your place.

Offhand, I don't know of any mountain riding in the area. The VAST trails tend to be mostly trails and the land owners like it when people stay on the trails. However, I'm sure there are some private trails or areas that have mountain style riding. I'm sure last year was probably pretty awesome for that type of riding.

I saw your question on filling up at gas stations in the other thread. We used to fill up at Mount Snow Motors on 100 in Dover (the station on the northbound side; south of the 7-11). The sledders would come down Windy Hill, cut across the field and just drive across the parking lot to the pumps. The would then turn around, head back across the field and up the road to the trails. It was a fairly common sight to see sleds pull up to the pumps on a weekend afternoon.
 
#21 ·
My house key chain is a Mount Snow Motors tag. Not sure how to start a conversation to get access to a trail, what I was told that if you can get a land owner to sign-up, they are well insured. If you've seen those Haystack Mountain club advertisements out east here... you might say that membership looks pretty good for mountain riding. Supposedly they open the mountain up from 5pm to 10pm to members for Snow Mobile riding. Unfortunately, that investment is not in my budget. Looks nice though.
 
#22 ·
I would reach out to one of the officers at the Stump Jumpers: Deerfield Valley Stump Jumpers Snowmobile Club | Located in Southern Vermont, we are your gateway to winter fun on VAST trails I'm sure they have some experience dealing with land owners. And someone in the club may know the land owner you are trying to connect with. Would certainly be worth a shot if it results in riding right from your door!

After standing in some long lift lines over the years, I've seen the appeal of a private area like that. However, it's a good chunk of change to get in there...and stay in there. They did a charity ride last year where they opened the mountain to sleds. I believe you needed to be registered and insured. Here's the link that came up when I searched...I think this was from 2015 Charity Snowmobile Ride | The Hermitage Club Not sure if they're doing it again this year.
 
#23 ·
Yes, planning to reach out to Stump Jumpers, depressing to press that link and see the trails were closed. Fortunately I was able to run my sleds this past weekend in PA, snow was really light but ok. Definitely the Hermitage looks nice, problem is it's almost two to three times the cost of a golf or yacht club.
 
#24 ·
Glad you were able to get the machines out in PA! I took my nephew for a quick ride the Saturday of President's weekend. First time I took one of the sleds out of the yard this year. 4" of fluffy powder. I had to take it easy because there was literally no base. Only did a few miles. He was happy though, and that's all that matters.

Looking a lot different up there after the weekend. Ugh! At this rate, I'm hoping the ski areas can recover after the midweek rain they are calling for. It's really late in the season for them to be making snow. Time will tell.
 
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