Fellow atver's

I have seen several posts on adding ski’s but no one has reported back on how they like them.. Does anyone have any feedback on adding ski’s. I am not looking for Ski mobile type of performance but would still like to go hit the trials when it snows here in Colorado. Does anyone know of a good kit.. I have seen the Cabela’s ski adapters but I would rather change out everything and not keep the tire on.. save weight. What about going with a different tire in the rear? Taller wider? Not looking for the mattracks as they are to expensive for how often I would be using them. Any suggestions would be appreciated.. thank you and have fun riding.

Dan

 

I am also interested in putting skis on my z400 this year. The way i was going to do it was make a metal plate to bolt on the hub with the same bolt pattern and weld a bracket to the bottom that would connect to a skidoo ski. Then i was just going to zip tie the front brakes on so that it would not rotate. But now that i think about it there may not be much room for my hand in a glove on the bars and i would like to hold the assembly stationary some other way.

Has anyone put skis on before?
Can you post some pics of them so i can get some ideas and give me some hints.

I was going to just stud my rears since i will be riding ice alot but i got an idea. Measure the circumfrance of my inlfated rear tire, subtract an inch or so then cut a snowmboile track to the smaller circumfrance and attatch it with big metal staples or something and put it around the uninflated tire and inflate it to hold it on. That will give me some more surface area and lugs for the snow.

Anyway lets here some other ideas or thoughts please.

 

I think a good sand tire setup would be the way to go for winter. Ive always ran the large 22 inch prowedge tires in the rear and stock honda 400ex tires in the front. never really had a problem going through any kind of snow as long as it wasnt deeper that the frame. If the snow was really loose then I turned the tires around and ran them backwards for extra traction. There might be an advantage to the skis running lightly packed (fresh snow)snowmobile trails.
For ice its a flat square tire with hundreds of screws in each tire. Picks are the best.

 

Well after looking at the skis i want to put on and the z400 hub i think it will be pretty simple to connect the skis. I think they perform better because they are almost as wide and are much longer therefore having more surface area. Also due to the shape of the front of the skis and the length i think they will slice through the snow better and float on top better. Where with a tire i found it didnt float at all and basically just plowed through all the snow.

I am going with skis up front for sure so i guess ill let you know when the time comes.

 

Yea I was thinking about getting a used set of front hubs off ebay and altering them so they won't rotate. And then make a bracket to mount skis.

 

I think I saw a set from Cabels,com , skis with chains to go around the front tires

 

I saw an atv at a show last weekend that had these on it....Mattracks

It looked pretty cool...He had home movies of him ridin in alaska in like 3 feet of snow...right on top of the snow...

Had mud bog videos and everything...It looked unstoppable...

Probably expensive though...
He had them on a Kawi Prarie...

 

z400ed, You plan on doing some riding in the the snow this year? If so we should try a ride together. I'd like to find a way to do it as so I could also do some back country skiing. I was thinking of getting a hold of some old fatty skis, or maybe picking up some old sled skis and creating an aplication to attach them to the fronts. I'd think having bigger tires in the rear and to be able to let the pressure out of them as to be able to spead out the surface area would be best. Let me know.

 

mentalstate has some ski's on his V with tracks...ask him

 

I have made some of these for my daughters honda 250, I first bought the Cabelas strapons and then modified them to fit her bolt pattern. They work great, there a lot of fun in the deep snow and they keep you on top for running, they stir very good, some what stiff if you are not moving. as for the brake you dont need to worry about that nor do you want the use the brake, you want the hub to follow the ground profile. when i get them out i will sent you some pictures, i'm in the process of making some new ones for my 6x6 big boss, i just bought some tracks line and waiting for them to come... good luck.