Here is my "take" on venting... IMO...
And this is not intended as an affront to any of the people that I have made friends with at Polaris Ind... Whom, IMO, have pulled off the best Out of the box mountain sled ever.
The hood and venting plan for the PRO-Ride sleds, IMO, was designed as a "Forced Air" system that passed the EPA Ride-By noise regulations for the Performance trail sled the RUSH
AND... For a Flatland Sled... the factory ducting scheme works well...And for the Mountain sleds... this same system was used.
Mountain sleds work for longer periods of time, in "dead" air at very high clutch/engine loads compared to their flat-land brethren. This makes for much higher underhood temps in the Mountain sleds..
Corporate mfg process (regardless of brand) involves weighing the cost of R&D, Tooling, distribution over a entire line of different models... when determining what body panels are made and how. The mountain segment being the smallest of sled lineup in terms of unit sales and may not justify the expense needed to have a mountain specific venting scheme that will still meet EPA Ride-By Regs... that is one tall order.
The hood which has the intake portion of the ducting arrangement in it... has the very nice MFD (gauge) mounted at an angle that favors sit down riding... which is a good indication of the primary function of the hood when the I.D. team designed the hood..It accommodated the flat land rider in general (also IMO).. It has a style that is uniquely Polaris and hearkens back to the XLT look.
Forced air, when riding the sled at higher speeds, pushes air through the large "gills" in the hood down around the engine, out the top side panels mostly with some of the air venting down out through the footwells on both sides. Keeps it cool.
But tell me... when you are riding through deep powder and your hood is covered with snow OR... you are sidehilling (full load on the clutches when doing this maneuver most of the time) at 10 mph in a technical section... How much "forced" air are you getting??? not much... In fact... the footwell on the uphill side is completely buried in snow and packed.
How many 30 mph "clean air" (no snow in the air) side hills do you do??...I know someone will chime in and say "all the time"...but really????:face-icon-small-dis
When operating in technical sections...or on deep pow days... there is just not that much forced air that makes it under-hood.
Aftermarket-Venting on a Mountain sled, is... for the most part... just that...VENTING... NOT "Ducting"
Venting = letting the hot air OUT of the under-hood areas
Ducting = Stock setup... forcing cool air through the engine compartment and around the hot components exhausting through the side vents and footwells.
When riding a mountain sled in deep snow... there really is not that much air coming INTO an aftermarket-vent ... it has snow dust etc built up on it... even if it is just a little....
Aftermarket venting... Unless your sled is moving in clean-air at speed... really does not duct in much of a cold air stream as many would think...Not really flowing much air INTO the sled... But it does do a great job at letting the hot air rise out of these areas and allow the sled to cool through natural convection air movement...even when caked with snow
Aftermarket venting DOES do a great job at getting the heat out of the sled...and I highly recommend this for those that meet the description of serious mountain rider.. Use Plenty of it...
PLUS... ADD more Engine-Air-Intake area, IMO, as well... especially when running in the rain or fine pow snow. Fire N ICE and SLP make good Pre-filter material intakes for this that add considerable area to the Intake air supply.
Letting the heat rise out of the engine compartment rather than making an oven of it can only be beneficial IMO.
Carls cycles, Boondockers, VOHK performance, Dan Adams, Chris Burandt all run aftermarket venting on their sleds... And they really know these units well.
As Rick! put it well in another thread >>> "Don't park into the wind when it snows out without a cover"
I've seen what happens after a full night of this... most of the under-hood area was packed with snow in the morning... granted... the wind was blowing at 50mph gusts and it was cold/fine snow. :rant:
Frogzskin's from Straightline Performance makes a pre-filter style, self adhesive vent for the stock hood "gills" Part number F0078... This makes a lot of sense IF the other panels are well vented... otherwise.. I believe that these will actually cut back too much of the much needed airflow IF you do NOT have other aftermarket venting.
Now many would say "If Venting is better... then the factories would install them when they are made!"...
BUT..
All the factories... whether that is Polaris, Yami, Doo, Cat... are limited by ever tightening EPA regulations that regulate "Ride-By" noise emissions on the sleds... Venting, to put it simply... Makes the sleds Louder... Bad for an OEM trying to pass EPA Regulations.:face-icon-small-sad
IMO...ON these sleds... Aftermarket venting is a HUGE benefit in reducing under-hood and clutch temperatures... which can add performance and durability while running in these demanding situations.
Some people just don't ride in deep snow or on foul weather days... or put high demands on the motor/clutches... these people would be fine, IMO, with the stock configuration
ALL this being said... there are some Advanced riders out there that do not have vents and will report no problems.
There are plenty of Vent makers out there... Have a look!
And this is not intended as an affront to any of the people that I have made friends with at Polaris Ind... Whom, IMO, have pulled off the best Out of the box mountain sled ever.
The hood and venting plan for the PRO-Ride sleds, IMO, was designed as a "Forced Air" system that passed the EPA Ride-By noise regulations for the Performance trail sled the RUSH
AND... For a Flatland Sled... the factory ducting scheme works well...And for the Mountain sleds... this same system was used.
Mountain sleds work for longer periods of time, in "dead" air at very high clutch/engine loads compared to their flat-land brethren. This makes for much higher underhood temps in the Mountain sleds..
Corporate mfg process (regardless of brand) involves weighing the cost of R&D, Tooling, distribution over a entire line of different models... when determining what body panels are made and how. The mountain segment being the smallest of sled lineup in terms of unit sales and may not justify the expense needed to have a mountain specific venting scheme that will still meet EPA Ride-By Regs... that is one tall order.
The hood which has the intake portion of the ducting arrangement in it... has the very nice MFD (gauge) mounted at an angle that favors sit down riding... which is a good indication of the primary function of the hood when the I.D. team designed the hood..It accommodated the flat land rider in general (also IMO).. It has a style that is uniquely Polaris and hearkens back to the XLT look.
Forced air, when riding the sled at higher speeds, pushes air through the large "gills" in the hood down around the engine, out the top side panels mostly with some of the air venting down out through the footwells on both sides. Keeps it cool.
But tell me... when you are riding through deep powder and your hood is covered with snow OR... you are sidehilling (full load on the clutches when doing this maneuver most of the time) at 10 mph in a technical section... How much "forced" air are you getting??? not much... In fact... the footwell on the uphill side is completely buried in snow and packed.
How many 30 mph "clean air" (no snow in the air) side hills do you do??...I know someone will chime in and say "all the time"...but really????:face-icon-small-dis
When operating in technical sections...or on deep pow days... there is just not that much forced air that makes it under-hood.
Aftermarket-Venting on a Mountain sled, is... for the most part... just that...VENTING... NOT "Ducting"
Venting = letting the hot air OUT of the under-hood areas
Ducting = Stock setup... forcing cool air through the engine compartment and around the hot components exhausting through the side vents and footwells.
When riding a mountain sled in deep snow... there really is not that much air coming INTO an aftermarket-vent ... it has snow dust etc built up on it... even if it is just a little....
Aftermarket venting... Unless your sled is moving in clean-air at speed... really does not duct in much of a cold air stream as many would think...Not really flowing much air INTO the sled... But it does do a great job at letting the hot air rise out of these areas and allow the sled to cool through natural convection air movement...even when caked with snow
Aftermarket venting DOES do a great job at getting the heat out of the sled...and I highly recommend this for those that meet the description of serious mountain rider.. Use Plenty of it...
PLUS... ADD more Engine-Air-Intake area, IMO, as well... especially when running in the rain or fine pow snow. Fire N ICE and SLP make good Pre-filter material intakes for this that add considerable area to the Intake air supply.
Letting the heat rise out of the engine compartment rather than making an oven of it can only be beneficial IMO.
Carls cycles, Boondockers, VOHK performance, Dan Adams, Chris Burandt all run aftermarket venting on their sleds... And they really know these units well.
As Rick! put it well in another thread >>> "Don't park into the wind when it snows out without a cover"
I've seen what happens after a full night of this... most of the under-hood area was packed with snow in the morning... granted... the wind was blowing at 50mph gusts and it was cold/fine snow. :rant:
Frogzskin's from Straightline Performance makes a pre-filter style, self adhesive vent for the stock hood "gills" Part number F0078... This makes a lot of sense IF the other panels are well vented... otherwise.. I believe that these will actually cut back too much of the much needed airflow IF you do NOT have other aftermarket venting.
Now many would say "If Venting is better... then the factories would install them when they are made!"...
BUT..
All the factories... whether that is Polaris, Yami, Doo, Cat... are limited by ever tightening EPA regulations that regulate "Ride-By" noise emissions on the sleds... Venting, to put it simply... Makes the sleds Louder... Bad for an OEM trying to pass EPA Regulations.:face-icon-small-sad
IMO...ON these sleds... Aftermarket venting is a HUGE benefit in reducing under-hood and clutch temperatures... which can add performance and durability while running in these demanding situations.
Some people just don't ride in deep snow or on foul weather days... or put high demands on the motor/clutches... these people would be fine, IMO, with the stock configuration
ALL this being said... there are some Advanced riders out there that do not have vents and will report no problems.
There are plenty of Vent makers out there... Have a look!
Last edited:
