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BDX Bumper Cracking Tunnel

K

knuts82

Well-known member
Dec 12, 2007
392
78
28
41
Bismarck ND
Another thing you may have overlooked is the way you cut the tunnel. If you did not round your cut at the bottom of the tunnel it will crack no matter what you do to it. It needs to be rounded to keep from having one major stress point. At least this is what I have seen..
 

jtt454

Member
Lifetime Membership
Nov 26, 2007
314
11
18
Noth Dakota
Its ture what Knuts said about rounding the corners, it does help with stress but mine ripped behind that so I have no idea what went wrong. But replaced both coolers and rear tunnel this weekend, which wasnt to bad of a fix.
 
the bumber needs to have direct contact to rear suspension bracket.

Here is my quick fix, have a sweet plan of a nice fix this summer

Bracket
tunnelbracket.jpg


Bracket in place
tunnel1.jpg
 
M

M-niner

Active member
Nov 27, 2007
166
31
28
Black Hills, SD
yeah not quite as cute as my boys?

I love it....and I am good at it:rolleyes:


That's a weak attempt at Booger eating. He picks it with his pinky, and then licks off his ring finger. But anyway thanks for this post, I am putting some brackets on mine tonite. Info on SnoWest saves me some money again!!!!
 
I

ItDoAble

Well-known member
Aug 30, 2006
580
103
43
Loveland, CO
Me too ..

Ain't life a b*tch ...

Cracked tunnel ... cracked coolent excrusion ... overheated engine .. new top end (country fried pistons) .. new deto sensor ... nearly a grand later I'm riding again.

P2021056.jpg


Repaired with a .125" plate on inside, but still afraid to lift sled with the bumper.
P2021057.jpg
 
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S

Snopro_69

Well-known member
Mar 25, 2008
754
230
43
37
Saskatchewan
liked the looks and everything of the bdx kit. but cat walked a lil bit an cleaned the rear tunnel and cooler lines right off an up like everyone else..... shouldnt use this product at all
 
S

superfast

Member
Nov 26, 2007
196
5
18
Billings Montana
Problem is not the BDX kit,but the stock cooler that akts as a claw when you do wheelies...Thats why it brakes.

I have a BDX kit but straighned a 07 CF cooler so i didnt run into this problems.


Not true everyone of the guys I ride with straightened their coolers and such and all of them are breaking just from lifting the sleds out of the snow to get unstuck
 
I

ItDoAble

Well-known member
Aug 30, 2006
580
103
43
Loveland, CO
Not true everyone of the guys I ride with straightened their coolers and such and all of them are breaking just from lifting the sleds out of the snow to get unstuck

2X .. straightened my cooler, has nothing to do with it. Cracked mine just lifting the sled by the bumper. If you look at the 2009 bumper the tunnel has a 90 degree ~1/2" fold-over (for lack of a better word) under the bumper. Must help prevent cracking.

IMO .. stay away from this mod.
 
M
Dec 16, 2007
166
12
18
montana
Don't have the kit, but after looking at the pics, i think that if the bumper was welded or tied into the footrest it would solve the problem. This would spread the weight to the horizantal part of the running board and the vertical part of the tunnel. Just an idea for the bdx guys. If i was going to plate a broken one i would 90 deg it so that it went out on the running board this would allow for lighter material to be used and gain more strength from the angle. This could also be a fix for the kit. Just my .02 cents. hope you guys figure out a good fix.

05m7 small mods
99 polaris mod
 

cjfarm11

Member
Lifetime Membership
Dec 2, 2007
209
8
18
41
Laurel,mt
I had this happen to my 06 m-7 and it really pisses me off! I put the 09 rear tunnel with the bumper and everything and it way way way stronger. I would love to call black diamond and tell them about it but what are they going to do about it? Pay for my new parts i dont think so! My deal is, i just won't do business with them again. Everyone puts items out without proper testing and use us as test pilots. I think black diamond should recall or update the kit to fix the problem free of charge. It may look cool but it DOES NOT WORK!!!:mad:
 

m8magicandmystery

Well-known member
Lifetime Membership
Jan 20, 2008
7,786
3,724
113
Yukon
yep...serious issue here..oh i can brace it and fix it good...she will be as strong as stock...lol...so why did i purchase this problem..lol....there should be a post soon from bdx...??....CLASS ACTION...LOL
 
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J

JasonAK

Well-known member
Dec 5, 2007
759
134
43
Ain't life a b*tch ...

Cracked tunnel ... cracked coolent excrusion ... overheated engine .. new top end (country fried pistons) .. new deto sensor ... nearly a grand later I'm riding again.

P2021056.jpg


Repaired with a .125" plate on inside, but still afraid to lift sled with the bumper.
P2021057.jpg

I think I will try this as a temp fix for the rest of the season. BDX should offer up some help here.

JasonAK
 
M
Jul 5, 2001
662
18
18
Wyoming
Mike Hello ??????

2X .. straightened my cooler, has nothing to do with it. Cracked mine just lifting the sled by the bumper. If you look at the 2009 bumper the tunnel has a 90 degree ~1/2" fold-over (for lack of a better word) under the bumper. Must help prevent cracking.

IMO .. stay away from this mod.

Yep the cooler has nothing to do with this Issue... BUT!!!!

I have done many of these BDX conversions for customers over 25...and the 09 bumper just rivets to the side of the tunnel.. not good. If you went the route like Skidoo did on the XP and bolting the bumper to the side of the tunnel all the way to the rear foot support this helps.
The support with the grooves in the BDX bumper is way better but IMHO falls short with tying into the rear foot support (Or Beyond) for reinforcement.

Mike will not sell us short- this conversion is one of his best selling items.
aside from spending $200.00 for the VE bumber ( That looks like it should cure this issue) hold on to your wallet and resist tugging on your bumper till we hear something.....
I have a call into him and will let all know the returns of that conversation.

MD
 
B
Nov 27, 2007
735
120
43
Rovaniemi, Finland
Ain't life a b*tch ...

Cracked tunnel ... cracked coolent excrusion ... overheated engine .. new top end (country fried pistons) .. new deto sensor ... nearly a grand later I'm riding again.

P2021056.jpg


Repaired with a .125" plate on inside, but still afraid to lift sled with the bumper.
P2021057.jpg



The weak point can be seen very easily here: Bumber is too short to reach up to rear bracket. So there's only thin aluminum tunnel between them and that will not hold up nothing.

That is fix is good idea but will not prevent braking it again (unless you have uninstalled rear brackets and the steel plate goes all the way below bracket? Still you need to rivet bumper and steel plate together - IMHO). The strongest parts in the tunnel are that aluminum tube (bumber) and rear bracket so they need to be mounted together TIGHT. After that it will work ok. I'm thinking some extra steel support between those two parts.

My current setup is longer rear bumper. I bought -09 bumper which is for 162". I cut it shorter a little but still long enough so I could rivet it into rear bracket (from inside the tunnel and below foot rest with 4 rivets). My sled is 141" so I needed to cut it a little. My pal has 153" sled and he did not cut 162" bumber at all in his conversion.

They are quite strong now, but still need some extra support - just to be safe. We have carried 10-20 liter extra gas in rear while driving/jumping and tunnels are still looking good :)
 
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BD-Xtreme

Well-known member
Lifetime Membership
Nov 26, 2007
652
267
63
WOW not sure what to say, this IS the first we have heard of this issue, let us look into it. We have been running for a going on 2 - 3 years with ours with no isses and we just grab off the shelf, maybe we are doing something with install we do not have with our instructions.

I will get back to you.

Mike
BDX
 
B
Dec 21, 2006
1,760
173
63
The weak point can be seen very easily here: Bumber is too short to reach up to rear bracket. So there's only thin aluminum tunnel between them and that will not hold up nothing.

That is fix is good idea but will not prevent braking it again (unless you have uninstalled rear brackets and the steel plate goes all the way below bracket? Still you need to rivet bumper and steel plate together - IMHO). The strongest parts in the tunnel are that aluminum tube (bumber) and rear bracket so they need to be mounted together TIGHT. After that it will work ok. I'm thinking some extra steel support between those two parts.

My current setup is longer rear bumper. I bought -09 bumper which is for 162". I cut it shorter a little but still long enough so I could rivet it into rear bracket (from inside the tunnel and below foot rest with 4 rivets). My sled is 141" so I needed to cut it a little. My pal has 153" sled and he did not cut 162" bumber at all in his conversion.

They are quite strong now, but still need some extra support - just to be safe. We have carried 10-20 liter extra gas in rear while driving/jumping and tunnels are still looking good :)


Why is the bumper cut like it is in the top pic? Are these problems happening on the 153" or the 162" or both? Also, why are the rivets not going throught the bumper on the inside?
 
WOW not sure what to say, this IS the first we have heard of this issue, let us look into it. We have been running for a going on 2 - 3 years with ours with no isses and we just grab off the shelf, maybe we are doing something with install we do not have with our instructions.

I will get back to you.

Mike
BDX


Thanks for commenting Mike. I think its pretty clear by cutting alot of the material away just shy off the rear bracket and not adding any extra support. This just creates a huge stress point on few inches of very thin aluminum on both sides, then adding in that we drill three holes in this area on both side of this weakend area to mount the foot pegs....

I really questioned this when mounting it. But the only issue I had seen with this product was the tiny cracks back by the cooler like Mountain Doo was having in the early state of this product.....other then that it seemed to be a clean looking and good product.

But now I got a broken sled and not ridding:confused: And some pretty big EXPENSES to fix it....

Lets hope BDX steps up and does something.....about it,
Christian
 
M

mtn mike on boost

Well-known member
Nov 26, 2007
1,498
291
83
Woodinville,WA
as promised, here are the pics of my re-enforcement brackets.
note;only the r side of the tunnel cracked, but after it did, i drilled a hole in the end of the crack,then installed the braces on both sides 1/4" aluminum.
when you go to pick up the back of the sled even w/ these supports in, it does
NOT feel strong.(NEVER DID AFTER THE BDX CONV.)not sure how ill resolve this (unless mike comes up w/ a fix)other than getting a new tunnel ext. and the van amburg rear bumper???
crossing my fingers mike comes up w/ a solution???hint hint;);)[/ATTACH][/ATTACH]
 
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