A Tale of Two Bulkheads: I-500 Prep

[JDT]

You put the track in backwards but you knew that.

[ICCSF 108]

I always wondered how they'd run that way ? I guess now we'll find out??

Kenny

[kenwaters]

Todd,

Yes, track is in backwards, helps with acceleration. Studs will help with stopping. Good progress of late, my chassis is at about the same spot. Start on the motor Thursday night...

[JDT]

With studs it will probably be a plus.

[rnp]

We did a backwards track install years ago, didn't really notice any acceleration difference. But we did notice that after a while, the lugs on the bottom of the track started to become damaged from spinning in the opposite direction. Something to keep an eye on.
Robert.

[427cobra]

Looks pretty cool...

I like the suspension upgrades. You will have to let us all know how it rides!!

[jdsledhead]

Better get workin, one week and counting! At least you can have Thursday night, and part of Friday to test and tune after my race, before you have it impounded Friday night.

[JoeRainville]

To complete the tragic, yet crazy fun tail of our I-500 adventure, I am going to post the rest of the story of how a bare chassis on Thanksgiving of 2010 made it to the starting line of I-500 in January 2011.

It took a lot of help from my friends, and I thank them all for it. The weekend before the race Todd Myers, (Stymie) showed up Saturday and Sunday with a helper to provide build assistance. Here is Todd continuing the motor assembly I started a few weeks before:



And here is Todd's friend Scott working on the chassis the next day:



I had 2 more days to work on the sled until the we left for the race!

[JoeRainville]

Sunday, Jan 16th, Todd came back down to Caledonia to help get the motor in and hook up the fuel system. It would have gone better if Todd stopped eating all the lines, but we had enough left after his snack to hook everything up.



Joe Sherwood also came down again to lend a hand with final assembly. The darn fuel tank would not come clean, so I grabbed an NOS one out the barn to keep progress moving.



With the motor and fuel system in, next up was to re-assmble the Cat clutches. Kenny had to machine the back side of the Cat ZR drive flat so it would not hit the frame, as it had mounting features for an intertia ring and raised rib on the back side.

[JoeRainville]

By the end of the day Sunday she was looking close. I had to work from home on Monday and Tuesday, so time was getting way short!

[JoeRainville]

Murfy had a good laugh on Monday, as it was -10 in NY and Cari's car wouldn't start. So I had to spend an hour running her to work, then replace her spark plugs, then work, and then pick her up and run earands with her. So not much was done on Monday other than a few small hardware things.

Tuesday was just as bad. The new trailer was ready, so I had to be in Boonville, NY by 5:00 to pick it up. I made it on time and hustled the 3 hrs back home with this behind me:



Waters dropped off the ski shocks, so I got them bolted up and worked on hooking up some of the controls and such. Weds was going to be spent packing up and hitting the road for the race. But the sled still hasn't seen fuel!

[JoeRainville]

On Weds morning, I had to then run to the DMV to get the trailer registered before loading up. After all the running around, I was getting tired, so I enlisted some help with loading the racer up:



Once the Watersboy arrived, we finished loading our mostly complete, but totally untested sleds and gear and headed up to lockport to pick up Tim Kudla and his new Cat 500 Sno Pro.

I really have to thank my many friends that chipped in on this project:
Ken Waters for spec'ing parts and making adapters and modifying parts to update the sled
Joe Sherwood for many days and nights of painting and assembly assistace
Mike Pilato for several days of assembly assistance
Todd Myers "Stymie" for bailing me out at the last minute with final assembly help
Todd's friends Ryan and Scott for helping out a day each
Cari Deerest for not blowing a gasket at the time and money spent to only race 6.4 miles. She should get sponsor credit!

I have many others to thanks for getting me to the line at Thief River, and will give them credit on part two of the story. It will continue on a separte thread of our adventures at the I-500 and fun working in a trailer at 39 below zero...

One thing I would like all your potenial I-500 racers to take from this: start working on your sleds NOW. There is no substitution for a genuine lack of peparation!

-Joe Rainville
UCSS # 621
I-500 Starter

[JoeRainville]

I forgot to thank Jesse Babbler for his great job with the graphics. The sled recieved a lot of compliments on it's appearance at the race. I attribute that to the nice looking package that Jesse put together for Kenny and I.

I would also like to thank ETD for the inspiration to attempt this race in the first place!

-Joe Rainville