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Zollinger Tube Chassis Restoration

boondocker97

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I have some old VHS tapes of the Jackson Hole hillclimb highlights. I remember there being tube chassis sleds in them. Kinda want to watch them again and see if I can spot any of these. I remember seeing those GOAT sleds at the expo in West Yellowstone about the same era as the Blade and Redline. Need to dig through some old boxes and see if I have any literature kicking around on them.
 

gp800

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Are you the guy spamming the KSL sled section for tube hillclimb sleds? :)

Cool builds. Did you grow up watching these guys and this era of HC sleds or what is your passion about them from?
Yes that's me, this era of hillclimb was going on when I just started snowmobiling and was just starting to fizzle out when I attended my first Jackson Hole hillclimb in 2003. Being a current RMSHA athlete I can't help but feel that the late 90's to early 2000's was the pinnacle of the sport for many reasons. That and being these sleds in particular belonged to my now family, the sentimental value and rarity is what has driven the passion to find/restore all 5 of the sleds.
 

gp800

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Sep 25, 2017
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I have some old VHS tapes of the Jackson Hole hillclimb highlights. I remember there being tube chassis sleds in them. Kinda want to watch them again and see if I can spot any of these. I remember seeing those GOAT sleds at the expo in West Yellowstone about the same era as the Blade and Redline. Need to dig through some old boxes and see if I have any literature kicking around on them.
If you do come across anything, please feel free to share there are a few details of this current restoration that I have not finalized and some good reference would be great.
 
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Yes that's me, this era of hillclimb was going on when I just started snowmobiling and was just starting to fizzle out when I attended my first Jackson Hole hillclimb in 2003. Being a current RMSHA athlete I can't help but feel that the late 90's to early 2000's was the pinnacle of the sport for many reasons. That and being these sleds in particular belonged to my now family, the sentimental value and rarity is what has driven the passion to find/restore all 5 of the sleds.
Same thing with jet ski racing, i came in far too late (5 years ago) while it's peak was the mid 90's and died around 2005.

cool, these sleds look kinda high gravity centered, would a stock 850 beat them nowadays?
 

gp800

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Same thing with jet ski racing, i came in far too late (5 years ago) while it's peak was the mid 90's and died around 2005.

cool, these sleds look kinda high gravity centered, would a stock 850 beat them nowadays?
These sleds were much taller and rider position was much further forward than any factory cassis of the time. In a straight drag race an 850 is much slower but in just about every other aspect the newer chassis are far superior.
 
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gp800

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I was able to pick up the chassis over the weekend from being welded. Hopefully be posting more updates soon.EF2E0CD2-9A88-4DB6-A6D7-DF4B60274455.jpeg
 

gp800

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A major step forward tonight. I’m pretty lucky to work in a place with some really cool technology and some extremely talented people. Our design engineer 3d scanned the chassis. With the data gathered here paired with the original blueprints we should be able to make absolute certain the aluminum tunnel skins come out perfect.

F31C00B0-B7B8-47AC-80C3-21A2CBE83472.jpegD42CB566-0100-419D-8585-9234D347EEEE.jpeg7DA9F31D-34BE-4502-B816-F50DCDDAE3CB.jpegD813BA59-A86C-4FA4-AD66-E4332D02BA7F.jpeg
 

gp800

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Super excited with the progress made over the last couple days. I took the original blueprints and was able to rough out a CAD model in solid works, I then handed that off to my Buddy Jentry who took and made all the final tweaks and fixes on his lunch break. We verified fitment with the 3d scan and everything looks great. With any luck we can start cutting the pieces out on the plasma table soon.

8B82C7BB-22F2-4708-ACE4-4CA030ECF54A.jpegE20FA4E5-C808-4225-B097-EA17E84012E5.jpeg25E4EBC4-C26E-4D4C-B27A-B4D84582EC41.jpeg94BE6A5D-3129-4884-88DC-9128B9ACB3D4.jpeg
 

gp800

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More solid progress today, I measured and drew up another clutch cover using the one off of the blue sled for reference. We then nested it along with all of the aluminum tunnel parts as tightly as we could on our water jet and cut them out. ACE3E60C-F0EF-4CF5-865A-FB219F5DDC2A.jpeg7FC7E770-E9C4-4C4E-961F-C02482083F61.jpegEBE67768-2D42-4FF8-BC81-1235F8C27E45.jpeg
 

kinger9

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www.piergenius.com
I wish 3D scanning was more mainstream, man that would be helpful on my custom build. Very cool builds you have going on!
 

gp800

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The motor came back today from Wayde at T8rz porting and performance. It came out to be 16.5:1 CR. And over 200° on the exhaust ports. Hopefully should make good power clear up past 10k rpm.

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X
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The motor came back today from Wayde at T8rz porting and performance. It came out to be 16.5:1 CR. And over 200° on the exhaust ports. Hopefully should make good power clear up past 10k rpm.

View attachment 387111View attachment 387112View attachment 387113
Very cool. That will sound like a cage full of rabid squirrels at that rpm. Hopefully you have a clutch that will pull those RPMs efficiently and stay together. Much past 9500, I have found belt life really starts to suffer even with billet covers. What do you plan to run? I assume you have a full billet clutch in mind.
 

gp800

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Very cool. That will sound like a cage full of rabid squirrels at that rpm. Hopefully you have a clutch that will pull those RPMs efficiently and stay together. Much past 9500, I have found belt life really starts to suffer even with billet covers. What do you plan to run? I assume you have a full billet clutch in mind.
Right now the plan is to run the factory TRA unit and potentially a P85 later on down the road.
 

gp800

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More progress. I used this photo and some measurements off of the blue sled to recreate the seat. The pan is 3/16 HDPE and the black foam is polyethylene. Similar in construction to the older boss seats. It was all hand carved and finish sanded with a DA by myself. I’ll be taking it to get a custom cover made by the same guy who did the blue sled over the weekend.

B026EEB7-FFB9-402D-B682-E13CFC42FC8D.jpeg4F5075F4-7D58-4D0E-AB25-D2E585F2FA6E.jpeg0431A466-1528-48A9-972C-63E841C5635F.jpeg0431A466-1528-48A9-972C-63E841C5635F.jpeg00001068-8631-4FAF-98CE-4137E4B4D494.jpeg0C8A9ED0-C43B-45BB-A3A9-853AE2C9F681.jpeg62F73A71-F522-458B-BA01-C57941D5535B.jpeg596774B0-9D68-4B85-BBAF-9822570F2DBB.jpeg189BD612-C2EB-4FE7-896F-3A586EE59B5E.jpegDE93BA09-49E8-4597-AE9F-8CCDE0CB67F4.jpeg1577E56D-7772-4514-A77E-F9919C454BD3.jpegBDD0A0D2-2AF3-4316-8F0D-08CC37FD0CCA.jpeg
 

gp800

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What's the reason for the notch in the top of the seat hump?
The seat mounts to the chassis with two vertical studs that come up through the pan so the notch is to be able to access them. Once covered it will have a zipper to close it off.
 

gp800

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So much of this project has been recording old footage on my phone and then playing it back frame by frame to try and not miss any details. When it came to the tunnel top, this short clip was all I had for plotting out the three beads that ran across it. Once drawn out onto the panel the bead rolling was done by the original builder Glenn Floyd on the same bead roller it would have been done on 20+ years ago.

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gp800

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Huge step forward today. I finally got the tunnel skin that was cut out on the waterjet bent up and began fitting it into place. A few small tweaks and it’s ready for welding and polishing.

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