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This occurred while riding my 2019 m8000 Alpha one. I am very religious on looking my sleds over before and after we ride each time. I park them in my heated shop to thaw out so there is no ice or snow obstructing any signs of issues. The day before this ride I contacted my dealer about a rear suspension bracket that had a crack in it that I found, while greasing my pivot points, wondering if this was a warranty item. At this point any issue that I describe below would have been noticed. I will include a picture of this bracket as well. In these 2 pictures you can see everything is were it is supposed to be as far as track alignment.
A group of friends and myself left the trailer to begin our ride. We had just gotten about 3' of fresh snow snow conditions were deep. After a short ride up the trail I started to notice a vibration coming from my sled. I immediately pulled over and started to inspect things, at first I though maybe it was a belt issue. Once I pulled my sled onto its side and got the rear suspension out of the snow I noticed the back half of the left hyfax folded over pointing back toward the front of the sled. At that point I had not seen the extent of the overall damage. I figured I just lost a hyfax somehow, but felt it was odd, as there was very little wear from new condition at the last inspection. I then noticed that it had slid backwards and ripped through the rear retention bolt that was supposed to secure it in place. This resulted it in sliding back into the track, getting caught, and folding over. Upon closer inspection I then realized that several track clips were missing in a row and one was crooked still in place. It appeared that the track clips had caused the track to jump out of the guide groove between the 2 hyfaxes and run along the left side of the mono rail. (Pictures show hyfax material caught in the clips.) The rear idler wheels were fighting to keep it located properly so they compounded the problem by trying to force it in it correct alignment. The damage to the rail shows that the clips came out at the front of the rail ate through the hyfax and started to eat into the rail itself. They then ran down the outside of the rail till about the last 18" at the rear, and again ate through the hyfax and then into the rail. I do not know at what point this started to occur during this 13.7 mile ride. I do know that when it was evident that there was an issue I immediately stopped and inspected it. The one picturing showing 13.7 miles is when the damage was found, and that is the distance from the trailer to were we stopped. I am well aware of proper track tension and adequate hyfax condition. The track was properly tension-ed and the hyfax was at least 85% + new condition. This is evident by the right hand side hyfax condition that is still installed. I can not imagine this damage taking very along to occur as they are steel track clips wearing against plastic hyfax and aluminum rail. I had to cut the damaged hyfax off to allow me to get the sled back to the trailer. ( pic showing hyfax removed) I do believe this was a result of a failing track clip and it was compounded by it jumping out of the alignment grooves. I do not feel this issue could have been prevented before it was found.
This is the letter I sent to Arctic cat customer service for a further review. Before people jump to the obvious and assume my track tension was too loose, I can assure you it was correct. 1.5" to 2" at 20 lbs. I took this to my dealer and he verified it was correct and also agreed it looked like a track clip failure. I have seen a few other posts on here about the track staying aligned and eating into the hyfaxes up front, also some crooked clips. The road we were on was mainly left hand long side hills. We were playing on them a good bit on the way to our riding area. I can only think that the track was loaded in a manner it would be in a side hill and this helped it jump out of the alignment grooves where the clips are missing. I have 3 clips in a row that are missing this equates to about 20+" of track with nothing keeping it in the alignment groove. Its very possible that this is how it ended up coming out of the hyfaxes. We all know how much slack you get on an alpha when you roll it onto its side. So anyways as this post has already gotten long, I just wanted to share with everyone that has these to look things over in the areas I describe...if this is even preventable. My biggest Bit** about all this is the dealer agreed with what I had said and what probably caused the issue. I did my do diligence when it happened to document everything I could from on the mountain as I knew there might be some questions. Arctic cat said it would not cover it and blamed it on the track being to loose. If the dealer and the customer share the same opinion about something and the dealer does his due diligence in making sure everything is correct on the sled to prove it, track tension, but arctic cat says something else then basically they are saying my dealer and me are lying. What is a customer supposed to do when a dealer cant even be trusted by the manufacture??? Why buy a new sled with a warranty when shi* like this happens and you SOL.. I don't understand how a tech from arctic cat can make a decision from 1500 miles away on the cause, and go against a trusted dealer standing in front of the sled in question?? something wrong with that entire picture. During this process I couldn't even have a conversation with a tech, told me they don't do that, I had to talk to a customer service secretary and chew her out. Its easy to blame it on the easy answer, and not look at all the variables, and guess what the customer pays the price again...WAY TO GO ARCTIC CAT!! TEXTRON!!
My dealer took care of me in a big way when the manufacturer wouldn't...that's a big problem!! Next time its time to buy a new sled I might think twice about arctic cat for this reason..A big thanks to JIM at Clarks Marine in Colville Washington for doing what arctic cat Textron wouldn't.. These guys rock, and take care of there customers..
A group of friends and myself left the trailer to begin our ride. We had just gotten about 3' of fresh snow snow conditions were deep. After a short ride up the trail I started to notice a vibration coming from my sled. I immediately pulled over and started to inspect things, at first I though maybe it was a belt issue. Once I pulled my sled onto its side and got the rear suspension out of the snow I noticed the back half of the left hyfax folded over pointing back toward the front of the sled. At that point I had not seen the extent of the overall damage. I figured I just lost a hyfax somehow, but felt it was odd, as there was very little wear from new condition at the last inspection. I then noticed that it had slid backwards and ripped through the rear retention bolt that was supposed to secure it in place. This resulted it in sliding back into the track, getting caught, and folding over. Upon closer inspection I then realized that several track clips were missing in a row and one was crooked still in place. It appeared that the track clips had caused the track to jump out of the guide groove between the 2 hyfaxes and run along the left side of the mono rail. (Pictures show hyfax material caught in the clips.) The rear idler wheels were fighting to keep it located properly so they compounded the problem by trying to force it in it correct alignment. The damage to the rail shows that the clips came out at the front of the rail ate through the hyfax and started to eat into the rail itself. They then ran down the outside of the rail till about the last 18" at the rear, and again ate through the hyfax and then into the rail. I do not know at what point this started to occur during this 13.7 mile ride. I do know that when it was evident that there was an issue I immediately stopped and inspected it. The one picturing showing 13.7 miles is when the damage was found, and that is the distance from the trailer to were we stopped. I am well aware of proper track tension and adequate hyfax condition. The track was properly tension-ed and the hyfax was at least 85% + new condition. This is evident by the right hand side hyfax condition that is still installed. I can not imagine this damage taking very along to occur as they are steel track clips wearing against plastic hyfax and aluminum rail. I had to cut the damaged hyfax off to allow me to get the sled back to the trailer. ( pic showing hyfax removed) I do believe this was a result of a failing track clip and it was compounded by it jumping out of the alignment grooves. I do not feel this issue could have been prevented before it was found.
This is the letter I sent to Arctic cat customer service for a further review. Before people jump to the obvious and assume my track tension was too loose, I can assure you it was correct. 1.5" to 2" at 20 lbs. I took this to my dealer and he verified it was correct and also agreed it looked like a track clip failure. I have seen a few other posts on here about the track staying aligned and eating into the hyfaxes up front, also some crooked clips. The road we were on was mainly left hand long side hills. We were playing on them a good bit on the way to our riding area. I can only think that the track was loaded in a manner it would be in a side hill and this helped it jump out of the alignment grooves where the clips are missing. I have 3 clips in a row that are missing this equates to about 20+" of track with nothing keeping it in the alignment groove. Its very possible that this is how it ended up coming out of the hyfaxes. We all know how much slack you get on an alpha when you roll it onto its side. So anyways as this post has already gotten long, I just wanted to share with everyone that has these to look things over in the areas I describe...if this is even preventable. My biggest Bit** about all this is the dealer agreed with what I had said and what probably caused the issue. I did my do diligence when it happened to document everything I could from on the mountain as I knew there might be some questions. Arctic cat said it would not cover it and blamed it on the track being to loose. If the dealer and the customer share the same opinion about something and the dealer does his due diligence in making sure everything is correct on the sled to prove it, track tension, but arctic cat says something else then basically they are saying my dealer and me are lying. What is a customer supposed to do when a dealer cant even be trusted by the manufacture??? Why buy a new sled with a warranty when shi* like this happens and you SOL.. I don't understand how a tech from arctic cat can make a decision from 1500 miles away on the cause, and go against a trusted dealer standing in front of the sled in question?? something wrong with that entire picture. During this process I couldn't even have a conversation with a tech, told me they don't do that, I had to talk to a customer service secretary and chew her out. Its easy to blame it on the easy answer, and not look at all the variables, and guess what the customer pays the price again...WAY TO GO ARCTIC CAT!! TEXTRON!!
My dealer took care of me in a big way when the manufacturer wouldn't...that's a big problem!! Next time its time to buy a new sled I might think twice about arctic cat for this reason..A big thanks to JIM at Clarks Marine in Colville Washington for doing what arctic cat Textron wouldn't.. These guys rock, and take care of there customers..
