Belt Drive in 2017 ??????

Shwinecat · Jan 8, 2016

I have some big decisions to make on my 2015's. I bought one for myself and one for my son. When buying these machines I was thinking if I bought two of the exact same, set them up exactly the same I could really dial the sleds in. I am shocked at how different the two sleds are. I went from shocked to frustrated.

I have spent hours on clutching and can tell you without a doubt the clutches do not operate the same. Mine is smooth at engagement and my son's slams in. Belt deflection is where it needs to be on more than one belt I have tried. I have tried every scenario I can think of. It has to be getting torsional bind under load someplace and the clutch is just not as efficient at engagement, mid and top end. His sled also has more play in the secondary which I am thinking has to be slack from improper chain tension.

I really want to put belt drives on these sleds but if I knew cat was going to a belt drive in 2017 I would save the $2,000.00 to upgrade to the 2017's. Just hoping someone would know for sure if they are not going to have it in 2017. It would make my decisions easier.

ecyr123 · Jan 8, 2016

Shwinecat said:
I have some big decisions to make on my 2015's. I bought one for myself and one for my son. When buying these machines I was thinking if I bought two of the exact same, set them up exactly the same I could really dial the sleds in. I am shocked at how different the two sleds are. I went from shocked to frustrated.

I have spent hours on clutching and can tell you without a doubt the clutches do not operate the same. Mine is smooth at engagement and my son's slams in. Belt deflection is where it needs to be on more than one belt I have tried. I have tried every scenario I can think of. It has to be getting torsional bind under load someplace and the clutch is just not as efficient at engagement, mid and top end. His sled also has more play in the secondary which I am thinking has to be slack from improper chain tension.

I really want to put belt drives on these sleds but if I knew cat was going to a belt drive in 2017 I would save the $2,000.00 to upgrade to the 2017's. Just hoping someone would know for sure if they are not going to have it in 2017. It would make my decisions easier.

Idk if it will happen or not but,I talked to a dealer at one of the snow shows and from what he said he wouldn't be suprised if cat tried going to the belt drive in 17 now that they have good clutches. He told me they have already had prototypes but stayed with the chain case because they didn't want to run into another problem when they just got the clutching figured out in 16. But I wouldn't be suprised if you see it either next year or next chassis.

Shwinecat · Jan 9, 2016

That makes sense. I was just hoping someone would have enough information to sway me one way or the other. I wonder how much play or slop there is on the belt drives.

knifedge · Jan 9, 2016

--You may want to try just swapping out clutches between the two sleds...
This would tell you if the problems are following the clutches themselves.
15 and older Cat clutches primary and secondary are not very high quality and were
removed from the 16 lineup for good reason...finally. Guys on here have had to
get them machined and modified to work right...You could try getting a warranty claim on
the clutches not functioning properly...

--You would probably be a lot better off if you converted the Cat clutches to the 16 TEAM CLUTCHES
instead of spending the money on the belt drives. Efficient and well set up clutches are far more
important than having a belt drive...also 16 hyvo gears and chain work great, reliable, and far less expensive.

Racin Station sells TEAM clutch conversion kits with proper clutching. And get the Hyvo chain and gear set 20/49 ratio he recommends also.
Or just go buy 16 and newer sleds but still need to change the gear ratio 20/49.

stcatman · Jan 9, 2016

next body style

ecyr123 said:
Idk if it will happen or not but,I talked to a dealer at one of the snow shows and from what he said he wouldn't be suprised if cat tried going to the belt drive in 17 now that they have good clutches. He told me they have already had prototypes but stayed with the chain case because they didn't want to run into another problem when they just got the clutching figured out in 16. But I wouldn't be suprised if you see it either next year or next chassis.

Hope the next cat body they don't take a trail 4-stroke and try to make a mountain 800 out of it

stcatman · Jan 9, 2016

belt drive

Last week I got off my sled 14 cat 800 hopped on my nephews 14 cat 800 with belt drive and I thought it tipped up 2 the left side easier than mine but not enough diff. 2 make me run out and spend the $$ for 1, nothing huge like putting a turbo on

ecyr123 · Jan 9, 2016

stcatman said:
Hope the next cat body they don't take a trail 4-stroke and try to make a mountain 800 out of it

Ya I would hope they would get rid of the fat panels, and she'd a few pounds, and honestly I like the coolers to be under the tunnel to keep snow from building up underneath. But overall I think cat finally made changes to the PC chassis to appeal to people more. It tips easy and gets on edge nice and the team clutches work well on them besides them being a little noisy. I don't think you will see a new chassis till 2018 imo

polarisfornow · Jan 9, 2016

I would definitely swap clutches between the sleds before you do anything else. You may have a slightly out of alignment engine that is causing the issue or even a motor mount might be shot already, I have seen stranger things. I would check that before anything else.

ecyr123 · Jan 9, 2016

polarisfornow said:
I would definitely swap clutches between the sleds before you do anything else. You may have a slightly out of alignment engine that is causing the issue or even a motor mount might be shot already, I have seen stranger things. I would check that before anything else.

Or even clutches that need to be balanced?

boondocker97 · Jan 11, 2016

You may have checked this, but how tight are the bolts holding the weights in the primary? They should be just tight enough to take the side-side play out and that's it. Weights should swing pretty freely by hand. If they are tightened down to where the nut bottoms out on the shoulder of the threads they seem to slam when they finally start moving.

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Belt Drive in 2017 ??????

Shwinecat

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ecyr123

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Shwinecat

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knifedge

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stcatman

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stcatman

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ecyr123

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polarisfornow

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ecyr123

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boondocker97

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