Highlights of 2009 snowmobile season

deereoftheyear · Post by **deereoftheyear** » Sun Mar 22, 2009 1:00 pm

I thought that i would maybe start a topic about this years snowmobile season seeing as it is basically over. If you have a cool John Deere related story or anything for that matter or you just want to share some highlights of what happened please do so. I'll start: I did 2152 miles on my 1983 Trailfire. No breakdowns and more than 75% of the miles where by myself. Did a couple of 250 mile trips riding from Appleton to Rhinelander and Crandon area in Wisconsin. I also got my first Liquifire this year too

I also think that going to the reunion in Horicon was pretty awesome as well this year and seeing all the JD race sleds was cool too.
-Luke

Liquifire 4/6 · Post by **Liquifire 4/6** » Sun Mar 22, 2009 1:08 pm

WOW, 2152 miles on a 26 year old Trailfire. I tip my helmet to you! Obviously, you keep it in fine tune. What type of track are you running? Cleated or all rubber? I think that sled deserves a picture in here....let's see one.

I guess my highlight of the year would be our vintage derby held on March 7 when we had 115 vintage sleds together for a fantastic afternoon of riding.......there had to be around 20 Deeres in total and that was really nice to see.

PS: Where are you from,Luke?

S_Kyle · Post by **S_Kyle** » Sun Mar 22, 2009 1:20 pm

I'm just happy the Deere's never made me walk home. :lol22:

. The Minnedosa run was a lot of fun, some of the best riding was just with friends in the valley north of the farm.

deereoftheyear · Post by **deereoftheyear** » Sun Mar 22, 2009 2:37 pm

Liquifire 4/6 wrote:WOW, 2152 miles on a 26 year old Trailfire. I tip my helmet to you! Obviously, you keep it in fine tune. What type of track are you running? Cleated or all rubber? I think that sled deserves a picture in here....let's see one.

I guess my highlight of the year would be our vintage derby held on March 7 when we had 115 vintage sleds together for a fantastic afternoon of riding.......there had to be around 20 Deeres in total and that was really nice to see.

PS: Where are you from,Luke?

It still has the original cleated track on it first off. I'm from Hortonville Wisconsin which is probably 25 miles southwest of Green Bay and just outside Appleton. A little history behind my "superdeere" I got the sled 2 years ago and it had about 200 miles on it and it didn't run. Overall it was in great condition but not quite show quality so i got it going with intent to run in for ice fishing. Well i thought it handled awesome and had more power than my 340 INDY so i rode it. Over the last two winters i have put on well over three thousand miles on. Just changed the original belt this year at 2900 miles and have only replaced the hard bars once or twice. Three years ago i barely even knew what a John Deere was but now it all i will ever ride! I even got in a mileage contest with a guy i know except he has a 09 Polaris Dragon. The thing that sucked was i lost by less than 100 miles for total mileage in the snowmobile season and boy did we come to nearly getting in a fist fight over it but it all fine now. i still feel that i won because anyone can take a new sled 2300 miles in a year but not just anyone can take a vintage sled 2200 miles in a year and almost entirely by myself. I just find it really exciting being 150 miles away from home with the sun going down on me and the John Deere and i got all my spare clothing and supplies for a weekend in a backpack and i'm heading up north knowing i will have some awesome stories to tell.

manitobatrailfires · Post by **manitobatrailfires** » Sun Mar 22, 2009 9:03 pm

I had a great season for my JD sleds, although not a great riding season.

Not sure if I can make this long story short.
I've been living in the city for last five years, so no daily snowmobiling. No garage, either, until April when I took possession of my first house, coincidentally the same day my first kid was born. Newborn at home, partner off on maternity so no extra money around, fixer-up house to settle in to, and a diesel car that doesn't like cold winters all contributed to no sled time until February, when Kath finally went back to work.

On to the sleds?
In 1994 my dad blew the engine on his 79 Trailfire 440. After a top end rebuild, he went 75 miles before blowing another piston and walking home again. That was the end of that sled for him. He gave it to me, I redid the top and bottom end, replacing the crank seals this time, and it's had regular use most years ever since. When I moved to the city it only saw sporadic use at my dad's, and not enough maintenance. It didn't get proper storage a couple of times, and then last winter it wouldn't fire up. Dad took it to a local friend who repairs machines. He said it had low compression and carbs were gummed, and it might cost me too much money to fix, unless I did it myself. Tough to do without a garage, or enough sled experience.

Earlier that winter a running 1980 Trailfire popped up for a few hundred dollars outside of Winnipeg. I convince kath it would be nice to have two machines, and we drove out and picked it up. This one ran fine, although had some badly beat-up skis, and no life in the suspension. One day I go fishing with dad, and we decide to take the new Trailfire, because its light and he doesn?t have a trailer for his newer sleds. Besides, we?re only going about five miles into the bush. One mile out the machine dies. I worry we?ve blown the engine because it?s warm and who knows when the crank seals were done. Someone hauls us off the ice, and now I have two broken sleds. The problem with the 1980 ended up being a broken gas gauge cover, which allowed a great deal of water into the tank when it was stored outside at some point. On a warm day like we were going fishing on, water melted and froze up the carb. When tested, though, the engine also had low compression so I figured I?d overhaul it and make it more reliable. I started to take the engine out, but couldn?t seem to get the right advice on a clutch puller. Finally got the right puller, but the clutch was stuck on, and that ended my JD experience for 2008.

I guess I?ll continue this novel I the next post...

manitobatrailfires · Post by **manitobatrailfires** » Sun Mar 22, 2009 9:05 pm

My dad decides to help get the clutch off in January of 2009, loads it up on his truck, and takes it to a shop. At this point I have the right clutch puller, but we still can?t get it off. The guy works at it, but with no luck. He says turn it on its side, pour penetrating oil in, and let it sit for a week. Finally after this, and a bigger impact wrench, and a few more hammer shots the clutch comes off at the beginning of February. I load up the engine and bring it to my place in the city. I rip the engine apart, find a blown head gasket as the culprit, and some worn rings and pistons. About this time I find that the seals I was given for this machine are the wrong ones. I am having trouble getting any local shop to give me good advice or help with JD parts. I have a crank with new bearings, new pistons and rings, 4 inches of fresh snow is falling, I have days off coming up, and I can?t reassemble the engine.

And then I found this forum. Wahoo!!! I sign up, send off some PMs and emails to some Manitoba members, and suddenly I can get the crank seals locally. Next I have the JD part numbers for the gas tank bushing, and the trailfire service info, and carb details. Suddenly everything is easy.

As Kath is off at work flying around the country, I?m working full time and babysitting to boot. I can only work on the machine after my son goes to sleep at about midnight. Here is a picture of the Friday night, finishing assembly of the engine at 3:30 a.m. with a buddy. Some people don?t have the stamina for vintage work?

After the engine was done I pulled the tank off the machine, and find another couple quarts of water in it. I reassemble everything and it fires up okay, although the carb should have got a dunk instead of a little spray while apart.

The machine goes out to my dad?s, and we run it up and down the river, putting on twenty easy miles while we break in the new rings. Then we load up the original 1979 and head back to the city to get it running.

Continued on post three?

Attachments:

late_night_rebuild.jpg (330.53 KB)

manitobatrailfires · Post by **manitobatrailfires** » Sun Mar 22, 2009 9:07 pm

The 1979 is sitting in my garage, ready to be worked on. I buy a gallon of carb dunk, order in new pilot and main jets, some carb gaskets, and get to it.

Below are the pics of the carb.

After some help from this forum on disassembling things, and a thorough dunk, I put it all back together with new jets. Here?s what they sent me when I ordered a new bowl gasket. I?ll have to keep looking for one, I guess.

I used the old gasket and put the carb together with new pilot and main jet, a clean fuel pump, new lines and filter. Also popped the heads off to inspect. Cylinders look real good, but the head bolts were so loose, and a head gasket was completely blown. Put in a new gasket, torqued the heads, and that will do for this season, I hope. Crank a few times and away it went. I had some real frustration with the choke cable. When I first started it the dash was up. After shutting it off I played with some things, and then closed the dash and it wouldn?t start. Lots of time spent diagnosing the problem. Eventually the lesson that was discussed often in this forum was learned first-hand: adjust cables with the dash down only!

Now I have two sleds done, it?s Sunday, but it?s 9 degrees Celsius out. So I went to work Monday and Tuesday, and when it finally cooled down I took Wednesday and Thursday off work to go fishing and take the sleds out. Took the 1979 out on Wednesday by myself, up into Nopiming Park. There is basically one road through the park, and lots of lakes with no access, so winter is a lot of fun, bushwhacking a mile or so through the forest and over a rocky ridge or two to the next lake. Thursday we took both machines out with my dad and my sleepy friend Clark. Heavy snow this year, and some real warm spells early on have created really firm snow pack covering everything. On the lakes you hardly leave a track in the snow, and it?s easy to ride through the forest between lakes on the snowcrust. We caught fish, we rode, and the machines performed great. Clark had only been riding a couple times before.
Below is pa pulling up a 29-inch pike.

I?ll maybe have one or two more days to ride next weekend when it gets cold again, but if not, I had two good days after a lot of work. With some time spent this summer, I?ll start next season with confidence in my reliable old bushwhacking sleds.

And when fishing season ends March 31, Clark wants to do a run down to pick up chevynovaman?s barn finds in Wisconsin, which would be his first snowmobiles. 1,200 miles seems like a long way to go, but we?re hoping the beer, sausage, and cheese make up for it.

Attachments:

manitobatrailfires · Post by **manitobatrailfires** » Sun Mar 22, 2009 9:09 pm

Oh yeah, my Christmas present to myself for next year is a new windshield for the 79.

400brian · Post by **400brian** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 12:48 am

Excellent work, good for you!

I'll tell you what...this site is making it easier to work on these sleds now, then it was 30 years ago. WAY better support.

The fishing trip with your Dad, that's what it's all about!

Post by **guitardude081** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 10:22 am

2152 miles on a Trailfire....you and the Trailfire must be pretty happy. How'd your back feel after all of those miles? Trailfires and Sprintfires seem to be some of the most reliable machines made by Deere.

I think my highlght was on February 1st when I FINALLY got out for a trail ride. We saw 48 degrees on Jan. 31st after the previous 30 days had not gotten above 0. We lost most of our snow that day. We put 54 miles on riding on mostly snirt and slush. Then on Feb. 28th we did the Gull Lake Frozen Fore here in Brainerd. My buddy rode my Supersport and I decided to take the '82 Liquifire out and break it in. We did 55 miles that day and the Deere was the only consistent 1 pull start sled. Everyone said I looked like I was in my element. We stopped for lunch and while we were waiting for our food a couple of us went out and played our ice-golf hole which mostly consisted of me staring at the Liquifire for 15 minutes and watching people kick the skis and tell "I remember when" stories. The only bad part of the day was when I hit a pressure ridge at 60mph due the sun making it look smaller than it was. That was a spine tingler to say the least. I stayed on my sled although another guy in our group got pretty banged up. I watched him do 2 cartwheels in the air as his sled rolled the ridge and stayed upright. It was funny a couple hours later. Everyone in the group was pretty impressed that a 27 year old snowmobile could both keep up and not be sitting in the middle of the trail with it's hood up every 5 miles. My response was, "I told you it would do 85mph". I played with an RX-1 in the ditch on the way home that night. He kept tailgating me and then when he'd go for the pass he'd lose his nerve and I'd hit the gas just to make him mad.....and pay him back for being an idiot. It felt good to have people flocking around the sled every time we stopped.

Last Thursday before all of our snow melted, I rode my sled home. The next morning I chased a herd of Deer(e) down the trail. I got next to the straggler and smacked it on the hind quarters. That's as close as I've ever been to a live deer. It was pretty cool. Those suckers can haul the mail when provoked. I only put on 250 miles this season which is the least I've done since I was 6 or 7 years old, but I made every mile count so it wasn't a bad season. I put on 2500 miles in 2006-2007 and 1500 last year, but this year stacked up to be just as good. We actually had snow to ride on and didn't have to resort to 1 or 2 "1000 mile in 3 days" trips to Michigan to scratch the itch.
~Jack

hardware440 · Post by **hardware440** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 8:41 am

were and what did you use for shi skins

traildeere · Post by **traildeere** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 9:48 pm

So much fun in '09.
I haven't seen the trails that nice in ne wi since the early '80's
The Horicon reunion was awesome!
I brought a "polaris" buddy along. He is now a deere fanatic.
He could not believe all of the sleds & the great people.
If we could only find him a Liquifire (80-84). He fell in love @ 1st sight.
I got rid of my '83 Sportfires. 1 went to a good home in MN.
1 went to a friend of mine. (I can still ride it!) What a deal.
It will be stored with the rest of mine too, so I won't miss it that much.
I got my wife out for her first "drive". 14 years together & I never Knew
that she never drove one by herself before. I let her drive the "good one"
you may have seen it in Horicon. (It was the only Sprintfire there).
I picked up 2 more '83 Sprintfires this year. 1 of which only had 460mi on it!!!
All 3 run. I would like to pick up another 1 or 2 some day. I really want to see
some heads turn when the wife, kids & I drive by in 4 Sprintfires.
That will be a blast.
Put on plenty of miles on again this year with ZERO problems! (knock, knock)
My vintage club buddies are getting more & more impressed each year. Especially
as their doo's & yahmies keep dropping out. The cats & TXLs are doing pretty good yet.
Although 2 in our club picked up deere this year. (They are starting to learn)