A couple years ago, I picked up a stock 500SS, tore it down, cut away almost 85 lbs and had a nice little machine that was way fun to ride. Time became limited and I had to sell that one.

Time to start another new project. A year ago, I convinced my dad that the 1200 4Tec was the way to go. He's always been a 2 stroke guy. When I mentioned this he sort of chuckled and was almost offended that I thought he was old enough for a 4 stroke. He ended up pickingup the 1200 and has fallen in love with it and is prouder than punch to talk it up any chance he gets.

I sold my machine, a 08 800R Gade to a fellow Dootalker, Walleye, at the end of Feb. It was a really good machine. I never had a lick of problems with it and it ran the same day in day out. I sold the machine within a few days of going on a multiday trip. I ended up taking my dad's 1200 gade for a 500 mile blast and fell in love with the smooth motor, massive midrange torque (made the 800R feel lacking through the midrange). I could tell the weight was there for the first 5-10 mins, after I got used to it, it felt no clumsier than my mom's 05 Gade SDI.

I'm younger, at 28, and never figured I would be on a 4S yet either. Somehow that motor sucked me in and a couple weeks ago I picked up a new 09 TNT 1200.

Where am I going with this? I'm hoping to build a nice boondocker and have some plans for it. The machine has potential written all over it. It didn't matter to me whether I started with a Gade or a Shortie, I was stretching it either way as I go into the big hills a few times a year and it will be part of a series of tunnel extensions I'll be measuring up for. The only downfall thus far I can see about the TNT is the cooler is a 4L cooler, whereas the Gade is a 5L cooler, but I think I may have a fix for that in the future.

So, my next project build starts now. Here's my criteria:

Shave weight where I can without sacrificing durability and doing it cost effectively

Make the machine more capable off trail firrst and foremost with hopefully a improvement in the bumps

Add a bit more power - to what level is unknown, but it will be more than stock and will consider boost

Create something that stands out

And test a few new ideas I have

Hopefully this will be a fun summer long build. If anyone has advice or otherwise, please chime in. No one has done a XR build here on DT and I hope to learn something here and see what we can do. I'm trying to locate or purchase a scale set to give me a better idea of where I'm starting and where I'll end up.

I hope to document the build as I go along on this post.

Project Name to be determined..ideas?

My first purchase came a month and a bit ago. Found a deal which I could not pass up and jumped on it. 2 ride old ArsFx 43" Chromo Upper Lower/Arms with lightweight tie rods and matching Exit triple rate Compression adjustable shocks. These things are beauties in person and are surprisingly light even though they look heavy

The next piece of the puzzle arrived yesterday. This was like Xmas all over again, checking UPS hourly to see where Santa was. Christian at Ez Ryde was excellent to work with and has been a great help thus far as this is going into a machine that this skid hasn't been into before. If I remember measurements from my 500SS build a couple years ago, the 121" SC4 with gas cell shocks weighed in the upper 50lbs range. This skid in the box weighs less!!

Hopefully the pig is as good as a shoe

This thing is neat looking. Adjustment seem to be a little different than any other skid I've worked with. In case your wondering, it's a 144" skid that will have enough adjustment to take a 144-146" track.

More to come as I progress..pick up the machine this weekend. No better feeling than tearing a zero mile machine apart

Sounds very similar to what I am doo in, stretching my gade to a 146 with a 1.352 cobra CR tunnell, Powder Lites turbo kit with about 300Hp, going into the engine via my pal Dave Hurricane Marshall, supreme primary wich was sent out today, 8" billet wheels, custom paint fox floats up frontand so on. A question on the Ez ride is it a mountain only suspension or is it trail freindly as well? It will be a shorter summer with the doo in my shop.

I'm likely going deeper than the 1.352. The 1.25" track on our 1200 Gade is nowhere near sufficient for the power this thing puts out stock, never mind more. I think you'll regret not going deeper unless your going to throw a bunch of nails in it.
The Ez Ryde is a pretty universal skid. Can do either. Doesn't control the front end as much as the M-10, but doesn't wheelie like the stocker. If you've seen any of the Powderlites videos, that's theskid they are running and you can see how the nose stays down
Keep in touch

Look forward to another interesting read from you. Sounds like a fun build.

Let me know when you start putting it together and I'll stop by some day when I'm in the city.

Awesome build. I bought a 1200 renegade in November and absolutely love it. I didn't get as many miles on it as I was hoping to but it is awesome. I have a few plans for it over summer as well, probably not as much as yours though.

A few days ago I started a really rough draft of where I think I should go with the tunnel. The stock tunnel is light. Going aftermarket will not net me a whole bunch of weight savings especially when a guy weighs the cost of them. I'll be doing an extension to this machine. I looked at the Tracks USA extensions, but my preference is to have a smooth joint, not an overlapping one as I think it looks cleaner. Likely have some changes, not sure if I like this one, but gives an idea of where I'm going.

sounds like a fun project...

MY only concern is the 120" track tunnel and a 144/146 skid...the center/center on the susp are way diff...the renegades are within an inch...verify this before ya start ordering skids/tunnel ext...OOPS ya already got the skid...

it will fit right??? BJ

Yeah, they are a little different Looked at that a while back, and it's looks like it will work. If it doesn't, it'll be modded until it does

Looks like a fun project RK!! Keep us posted!

The victim has arrived. Picked it up yesterday in the am. I was really considering throwing some new paint on the yellow, but the more and more I look at it, it's growing on me. After we put the SPI can on our 1200 Gade I forgot how quiet these machines are stock.

Nudder view. I haven't bee able to find scales yet, so haven't had a chance to weight it yet. Looking at the tunnel, it looks like the Ez Ryde will fit i the stock tunnel if I use the measurements from them

In case anyone's looking for parts, the following will be for sale in the near future:
A-arms
Shocks
Rear Skid
Seat
Handguard assy
Track

PM me with an offer

Santa Arrived again yesterday...XP BOSS seat. Seat is light. The shipping tag lists it as 3 lbs 5 oz

Considered going to the RS race seat, but I decided against it since it had no storage and hte price was about the same between this and the RS seat.

Great Project.................. scales.....easy way to chk pretty dang close

Wallmart or = purchase qty 4 bathroom scales avrg $20.00 each get two 2x4,s 4 feet long one across each set of scales zero scales..then place sled on scales..... will be within couple lbs but nice to check as your beggining to end same set of scales same spot on floor...Good luck with all......

Billy Howard Billy the HillBilly www.howardsinc.net

Thanks for the tip! I may have to investigate. I tried robbing our bathroom of our scale already, but the boss slapped my hand and told me to go and find my own.

Cool stockpile of parts you got there!! Been wondering when I could see some progress pics of the newest project sled. Really looking forward to seeing what this one turns out like.

Depressing to see the season end. Having a project of thing type sure would extend my season

Been running a bit short on time lately, but getting somewhere. I made some progress over the weekend. Managed to spend 4 hours looking for a brake light and came upon a pretty nifty little flexible rope style light that was quite inexpensive, small, and looks likeit would work well. I haven't completed an FEA analysis on the side spars yet, but gut feeling tells me I'm quite close. The bumper has been designed to be a fabricated channel to house the taillight. Hopefully it'll work.

Wow Marv. The first thing that came to my mind when I saw your sled--" a couple of those and you could turn a four place trailer into a three place real fast" You can tell I don't get over to the Mountain forum very often. LOL

Nice looking sled!

I considered a CR/Terra at one time. THey are a really nice piece, but alot of my enjoyment of this is designing and building my own thing. You never see another one on the trails or hills once you're done

thats gonna be a killer build. Cant wait to see it finished geoff.


LetItSnow

Recieved one more bit...thnks Dootalk classifieds...minty new Shockwave straight ramp setup for a great price!

Starting to test fit the rear spars. Not quite where they should be sitting or the entire lenth of them, but they look like they follow the lower lines of the tunnel quite closely. Need some more FEA fine tuning this week to prove them.
Next step....finish another set of side panel vents, some FEA work, start the Ez Ryde Install and source a track.

P.S....still looking for a turbo sponsor....hint hint

RK,

Looks like we have been thinking along the same lines Here is a pic of my first proto-type extension side plate for my TNT build. I don't know about the XR chassis but on the XP chassis the heat exchanger goes right to the rear of the tunnel and is a structural member of the chassis. You will see what I mean when you take the tail light off and see what a can of worms you opened up

You're stuff looks great!! How thick are you ending up with? I typcially use .188 5052 and tryto pare as much weight as I can from them. Could eaily get away with .125, but the lateral stability of the bumper concerns me a bit. Here's another one I did 3 years ago. Have done a couple more since. I enjoy this..lots of fun!!

I used some .187 6061 that I had kicking around. I love building them myself but man does it get costly!

I'm not too worried about lateral stability as I swapped the cooler out to the 137". I am using .080 aluminum for the extension and tying it into both the top off the existing tunnel much like you are planning and the rear of the cooler. I originally had the extension bent up with some .050 alunumum but didn't feel the snow flap mounting area was stiff enough even with a 45* 1/2" lip bent into it.

It certainly isn't cheap to get parts either Water Jet or Laser cut or CNC machined for that matter...but they decided not to build what I wanted this upcoming year...only leaves one option..actually building this is almost as much enjoyment for me as actually riding the thing!!

Good luck and be patient...the biggest thing I ever found building parts was to take your time and don't put it on the back burner...winter always seems to come faster than I ever expect it to.

Something you want to check out... I found this out the hard way Check your rear axle travel. With the straight tunnel on the XP / XR the track will hit and hit hard. 2 ways I have found to fix this, Drop brackets or limit suspension travel buy 1.5" when going from a 120 to 137. Don't know how it will be with your EZ-Ryde but just something to keep in mind.

Good to know!

So update time...

Managed to get a good day or work into the machine yesterday and get started on the controls, the seat, and finish a few of the templates for the vent kit and tunnel extension.

First things first was to source a few scales. I wated to create a baseline of what the machine weighs to get a rough idea of where I'm starting. I found 3 bathroom scales with a 300 lbs capacity and did some testing in the first plae to see how close they were. Test one...calibrate with a known source. All scales read the same...

Once I felt comfy that all scales read close to accurate, or atleast as accurate as bathroom scales could read, I threw them under the TNT. Machine was setup as it came from the dealer minus the handguards and brackets. The rear scale isn't where the picture shows, it's further back. Here's the weight distribution I found with just the front scales in place:
LH Ski - 145 lbs
RH Ski - 137 lbs

So good balance side to side!

Total scaled weight of the machine came out to be 568 lbs.

Fuel gauge showed full, but there I could shake the machine and not see fuel sploshing, so I assume there's atleast a gallon missing. I"ll use 9 gallons as a base weight.

Using 6.25 lbs per gallon = 9 X 6.25 = 56.25 lbs

568lbs - 56.25lbs = 511.75 lbs with oil in the chaincase, motor, coolant, etc.

So looks like Doo''s figures ar epretty close. The amount of fuel I start will will be the same as I plan to end with, so we should have a good comparison.

The first thing I tackled was the riser install. I liked how the old ZX's still were. No wires or cables running through the riser! On the XR, you need to remove the throttle cable by unhooking at the flipper, disconnect the handwarmer and light harness under the bar pad, and the wiring coming from the LH cluster. Removing this means you need to take the cluster apart (uses Torx screws) and disconnect the two harness plugs to be able to slide them through the riser.

I ended up with a 8" Riser Courtesy of C T Powersports and Idooski. Fit and finish was nice and the riser seemed to securely clamp the bars. I'm not 100% sure I'll keep these yet. The stock riser weighed 15 oz with all the hardware and lower clamps The Idooski block of aluminum came in at a hefty 2 lbs 1 oz. Quite a difference...looks good though, but I'd be curious to see how a 8" Doo riser would weigh in.

Upone reinstall, I had to really work to jiggle the brake line to make some slack in there. Easy to get to the cable around the secondary clutch by right at the top of the frame there is a clamp that is rubber lined that gave me a lot of greif. It's too tight in ther eto get a ratched..had to use a box end wrench and a knuckled 3/8" driver. Painful to say the least, and took some time and some skin to get 'er done. I ende dup using some soap and water around the loop to slide the brake line alot easier.

The throttle cable is easy to move around, but there's no room left for anything after a 8" Riser..she's tight!

Next up was the stock seat replacement. I ended up finding a BOSS seat over the net at a good price at the end of the year on a clearout. I had a BOSS seat on my last project and was quit ehappy with it Fit and finish was great and the seat was really comfy. I hoped for the same out of this.

Firs toff was to see what the weight difference was.

First up on the trusty Rapala Fish scale was the stock TNT seat. The seat has no trunk, so it's likely among the lightest seat Doo makes.

Seat Scaled 6 lbs 15 oz.

The BOSS seat was weighed next. I included all rivets, instructions and whatever else came with the seat. In addition, I had to remove some of the tabs on the fuel tank...good for a few additional unweighable ounces too.

BOSS Seat came in at 3 lbs 7oz for a nice weight loss of 3lbs 8oz. More impressive was the fact that the stock seat weighs 100% more than the BOSS!

I installed the seat. Installation was quite easy, however, the pieces of plastic which they instruct a guy to drill to work, but it's a little wimpy in there.

My bigger concern was the complete lack of fit and finish out of this seat. The seat sits straight on the tank and we've pulled the thing as far as it can possibly go forward. We still end up with a gap between the fuel tank and the seat right by the fuel filler cap. Additionally, the PTO side ear on the front of the seat is sewn almost 5/8" further back than the MAG side one, It's pathetic for th price of this seat. The next time I buy a seat, it will be from Murray at Mtn Mod.

The only saving grace out of this seat is that it's comfy. I'd try to send it back, however, I don't want to wait till late fall for a seat if other reports on other sites are any indication.

Some other numbers from pieces removed from the machine:

Rear flap and taillight assembly - 3 lbs 3 oz

Rear Bumper - 11 oz.

Plastic Cooler cover - 7 oz

Stuff that will go up for sale thus far:
Seat
Rear flap/taillight
Cooler Cover
Riser Assembly
A-Arms
Front Shocks
Rear Skid
Track
Skis

The remainder of the day included test fitting some full scale drawings for the tunnel spars, side panel vents, hood vent, and some work on my lightweight tunnel supports.

Next time around will hopefully include the tunnel extension assembly, installation of the Ez Ryde, and the Zbroz/Arsfx front end bolt up.

Cheers for now.

Lookin' good!

Loved your SS...I'm sure this one will be no different!!!!

Your gunna want the progressive helix for the 4S...BJ

You think the progressive would provide a better shift? I haven't shot you my helix yet..been so busy this week...dropping it in the mail today..maybe I'll get you to throw a set of progressive's in there too to try out.

Your cheapo scales are pretty accurate, maxsled weighed a 1200tnt and came up with 578.5 lbs full of fluids.
check with LRD in the mountain section, he is a lightweight guru and might be able to save you some pounds and some time also.

Just finishing up some analysis on the rear spars and I thought I would share to give an idea of how I design. Usually I start with a 2D sketch. From there I can give it a thickness and turn it into a sheetmetal part. In this case, this is really a high level analysis. I'm only using a cheapo version of COSMOS to give me a real basic idea if I'm crazy or not. If I really wat to get deep, I have some higher powered Finite Element Analysis software which takes much more time to setup and run. Here's a spar with 3/16" rivet holes. No problems with these, the 3/16" rivets have more than enough shear strength.

I thought that 1/4" rivets might give me a bit better grip and less chance of pull out over time. Look slike stress concentrations go up with this. On a high level analysis, usually exact numbers in highly stressed areas are real iffy. This is the case here, but interesting to see how much it figures stress will increase. Weight is a wash, no worries there and I may as well keep the 3/16". I'm quite happy with the .188 holes. As it stands right now, each side spar unpainted will weigh 340 grams or .75 lbs. Could likely shave weight in a few other spots, but one tail landing and I may need a makeover. I'm content with that.

Hey RK, Any new updates on the build?

Hey Ben

Not much to report as of late unfortunately. Summer put quite a damper in things! I have around 30 drawings complete and some have been sent out for cutting, most are sitting until I get a chance to get to the machine (it's a couple hours away) and make some final measurements to make sure everything lines up before I send to the the laser/waterjet. Need a few more measurements for a few other things are well...Seems like an impasse at every thing I look at lately!

I did manage to get my taillight here. It's tiny, but wow..is it bright. Had to move it to the tunnel since I didn't like any method I could come up with in routing the taillight wiring cleanly. Taillight is only about 5/16" of an inch tall, 6" wide, 3/16" thick and has 40 LED's in it.

I'm almost done and ready to send out for quote on a new set of risers. I've got a few variations of this one complete just need to figure out how light I would like to risk on the first attempt. I have a set of Idooski's risers. They are a really nice piece, but the weight of these scarred me at being over double the weight of an OEM riser without any strength benefit IMO. What ya think?

That's a tough call on the riser because you know the Idooski's risers are a nice setup and solid. I personally went with the RSI 6" riser on mine on the new Protaper set-up. I'm still finishing the install and should have pictures up next week. I'll be sure to E-mail you a few. If you want I could get the RSI ones on the scale this weekend. I haven't weight them yet as the weight issue is not a concern for me at this point. I was looking at more the function. But they might weigh a little less then the Idooski's risers.

BTW I still may have you do a couple parts for me yet this year. But I talked myself out of the extension and I'm going to put the Vanamburgh Boondock Tunnel on next summer with the Tom's Snowmobile rear Air suspension. I decided to table the project for this year because of the cost and I want to do this 100% right the first time. I'm still going ahead with some other new add on's for this season but the big one will have to wait another season.

The Idooski risers are a nice piece. He does a very good machining job on them. It's a bit of an oxymoron that I want super lightweight yet I'm starting with a bit of a tank, but have to have goals to strive for. The cost to get what I've got machined will determine whether I stick with what I have or get something else done.

The Vanamburg is a nice piece..can't go wrong with that one! When you're shopping also check with Chad at CR Racing. He also does a really good job on his tunnels and they look really good.

If you need anything, let me know.

It's been a slow few weeks. We sold out home and have been in the process of packing and moving, so things were temporarily put on hold, but going full steam now. The tunnel extension was suppossed to be ready for pick up last week, but got pushed back by my supplier for a few days.

I did manage to get the rear skid and track in. To do that, I had to remove the driveshaft, which eant opening up the driveshaft. That's quite a pain. To do that, a guy needs to remove the battery, battery holder, muffler, collant tank and plastic assembly, reverse linkage, and secondary and jackshaft. I likely did it the hard way, but it seemed like all of that had to come out to get the chaincase cover (with the reverse protrusion in it) out. Rest was pretty simple.

FYI, the battery is a pig. 14 lbs. If a guy could get away with a smaller Gel battery, couldbe some nice weight savings in there.