Paddle Damage

Dear Ralph:
I have a 2005 King Cat. When I was greasing the rear suspension I noticed that every single paddle on the outsides of the track had cuts in them in exactly the same spot. Upon further inspection, it became obvious where the problem was coming from. Evidently, the rear suspension compresses enough to allow the track lugs to contact the coolant covers at the rear of the tunnel. Shouldn’t there be some sort of limiter device to keep this from happening?
Mitch Broderick
Grand Lake, CO

I know what you’re talking about, this is fairly common and we’ve heard of it on several units. Back in 2003 there were hose clamps in this location at the rear corners of the tunnel, but the track would catch them and the clamps would come loose and the coolant would drain out (bad deal) so in 2004 Arctic Cat started using the shields you refer to. It is not all that uncommon to use the track lugs as a limiter device when it comes to full compression suspension travel, but ideally it shouldn’t cause slicing or cutting of the lugs. With the taller lug tracks, this is more of an issue.

As for the actual affect the cuts have on performance and durability, I’m not aware of lugs flying off due to this. It seems to be more of a cosmetic issue than anything. Some riders have reformed the shields to remove the sharp edges, and others will install an aftermarket bracket kit to drop the suspension out of the tunnel slightly to provide more clearance. This will change your weight bias some, as the sled won’t carry the skis up and out of the powder as well, but you’ll have more ski pressure so it’ll handle really good. Anytime you want to keep the skis on the ground more often, this seems to work good. Some hillclimbers will use it unless they are running in true powder.

Funny thing is we’ve actually seen more lug damage coming from ice build-up around the idlers at the top rear of the tunnel. More than from the coolant covers.