I just put 19/45 gears on my 09 summit 146 xp 800 and dj's clutch kit in. I was just reading on here that 20/45 works better. What is the problem with 19/45. So I take it off and buy a 20 or will it be fine? Thanks

i think it's personal preference. Half of the people love the 19T and half love the 20T. I just put a 19T in my 154 - haven't tried it yet

Most people i've talked to and read on here don't go down to 19 for a 146", 20 is enough for it and the 154" guys are split like the post above says between 19 and 20. The higher the elevation too the smaller you go, if your riding at 8000-11,000 thousand feet all the time a 19 is probably a good choice, if your like me and from the flat lands riding a little ditch riding at 1200 feet and sometimes at black hills at 5-6K and only once or twice a year at laramie, toqwotee, and cooke city at 8-11k a 20 is probably enough

Joe would be the best guy to ask, as gearing is tied close with clutching.....go with Joes recomendation. I am a fan of low gearing for the hills, as long as it works good with your clutching it shouldn't be a problem.

You will just lose on the top end, but good off the line. I have 154 went with 19t but I do have a 20 on the bench. I will try later in the season once I get a couple more rides for the feel of it, then change. let you's all know at that time....

I personally think the 20 is better to keep the motor loaded. It seemed when I ran the 19 it was very jumpy but didnt seem to pull good after 45mph, which I think was because the motor wouldn't load properly. But with that said I dont ride over 45 very often anyway

Gearing commentary

We noticed gearing down on the XP's didn't work as well as it did on the REV, especially the 09's. Our RPM's were all over the place, we finally figured it out though, it was the reverse cut helix. Gearing down moved our shift out point to a lower top speed with the new reverse cut helix. We found the stock set-up shifted out around 48-56 mph from the low angle of 43 to the higher ratio at this speed. If you lower the gearing you will lower the shift out to around 38-45 mph. So at this point what you are actually running is a 47 degree helix, probably too much. We left the gearing stock and addressed clutching instead, we found
higher gains doing that then messing with gearing.

Try the 46/42 progressive helix, less spring force (160/320) and less pin weight. A ramp like the 413 or 434 will give you good low speed torq.

Say with 21:49 gear at 45 mph track speed you are using 45 degrees. (43,44,45,46,47)
With the 19:49 would you be using between 45 and 46 degrees and reveal fluctuating rpms.
If rpm fluctuation with 46 degrees then lower the angle at-that-shift-speed.
There is the 600 reverse helix 41/45 (41,42,43,44,45) so then at 45mph track speed you would be using 44 degrees.

I am running 21/45 gears on a 08 154 XP, Tom's lighter arms, 417's ramps , S.W. 4 degree swing(variable ramp), Violet/Blue primary spring and stock everything else. Sled is running better than ever before. Considering trying 22/45. I may be crazy, but a few others think this may not be a bad idea as well. Any thoughts --- anyone in the know? I already have been the 19/45 route.

i'm going to be gearing down my 08 146 to 19-51, i'm not a trail rider so i couldn't less about top speed. its about track speed while climbing/ deep snow riding for me, running a shockwave with straight cut ramps. should make for a responsive sled.

So Joe with your kit in my sled I should go back to stock gearing and not 19/45?

I'm no expert at all on this but I have seen many posts on here saying you can gear down to far and mess with shifting and actually hurt your track speed but what I've heard could be wrong too.

On another note if you do gear it that low, don't floor your sled at any low speeds with traction or you will dislocate both your shoulders holding on

I think it's important to remember what kind of track speeds we are talking about in deep snow at high elevation. Usually we are talking about 60 - 75 km/hr max. So if you want a sled to perform well in deep snow and don't care about trail speed or flatland riding I don't think you can gear down too low. As DJ has mentioned we may need to reclutch to get them dialed in but you will be running in the part of your clutches where the efficiency is improved with very low gears. Obviously some riders do want some trail speed etc. so there are limits but striclty for soft snow I don't think you can go too low. 19/49 at a 1:1 shift ratio is good for 110 km/hr or 70 mph. In soft snow you will never get there.

Sometimes when guys gear down to 19:45(2.36) or lower 20:49(2.49), 20:51(2.55), 19:49(2.57) out on the road you may see low rpms to which ain’t bad because you are prolly doing 50~60 mph anyway; the mileage will be pretty good lugging around 6900 for 60mph.

What I do for that is change out the primary spring. Right now say one has a 160/350, if you were to have low rpms out on the road to where you can go 55+ mph in bumps then I change to a 160/380. The higher final force allows the clutch to see about 20 more lbs at that speed of 60 mph – more lbs force resists the push of the primary and allows the engine to maintain rpms.

160/350 @ 60mph = 270 lbs force
175/355 @ 60mph = 280 lbs force
160/380 @ 60mph = 290 lbs force

I just come out with a new primary spring it’s a 175/355, this spring also offers about 11 more lbs force than the 160/350 at 45 mph track speed…… took me a year to get this one made and finally had arrival of them late last week.

The thing about gearing lower than 20:45 right down to the 19:49 you are still using a high angle of the primary clutch ramp (in low clutch ratios of 45mph track speed or less) that will allow good rpms to which still recover quick. When you are out on the road and the load is much less than the deep snow, the roller is allowed to go farther down the ramp, a much farther position on the road vs snow load.

Have to remember that the load the sled has to work against also determines where the roller will be on the ramp at "X" track speeds. The lighter the load, the farther the roller will be down the ramp. (tested this pulling a sleigh with different weights of cinder blocks and made notes of roller position on the ramps - oh man what a way to eat up a few days of testing in a meadow taking the primary off and separating about 25~30 times)