Shortcomings of Cable Snowmobiling Ice Scratchers…
Related: Best Ice Scratchers
Over the past several seasons, I’ve tried a variety of different makes of snowmobiling ice scratchers on my snowmobile tours or snowmobile vacations. These are the devices that drag a tip on the surface on either side of your sled. They throw spray up as additional lubrication for hyfax (sliders) and cooling for heat exchangers.
The scratchers I tried attached to the side rails. They come either in torsion spring with non-flexible arms or a flexible cable design. All are primarily useful when riding hard-packed or icy trails when snow lube is scarce. Overall, they perform this function well, but not without challenges…
Snowmobiling Ice Scratchers Product Review – Problems
Reverse
I can’t recommend the ones with non-flexible arms for sleds with reverse. Because unless you remember to lift the arm up before backing, you’ll likely bend it out of shape sooner than later. Reverse is less problematic for the cable ones. They flex back and forth. But they do tend to stiffen up somewhat in the cold. However, I’ve never been able to keep two cable scratchers attached to the sled for any length of time.
Lost Scratchers
A few times, the nuts holding them on worked loose. Or the carbide tip section that screws into the cable end fell off from riding vibration, no matter how much tightened. Most often, I found the cable arms won’t stay up out of the way when not in use (hooked over the rail as they are supposed to be). So they end up scratching the surface most of the time. As a result, the tips tend to wear prematurely.
But worst of all – I’ve sheered many arms right off. This happened when a tip caught on a rock, bridge deck or other trail protrusion. The likelihood of this occurring increases with speed. And even after checking first that both scratchers are out of the way up on the sled rails, I’ve also sheered them off loading and unloading on a metal trailer ramp. So until someone comes up with a foolproof way to keep the arms up out of the way when not needed, ice scratchers are a good idea that still needs work. And now Ski-Doo has done just that – check them out! Or see them on my list of game changer snowmobile products.
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The tips and advice in this blog are the opinions of the author, may not work in every situation and are intended only for the convenience and interest of the reader, who has the personal responsibility to confirm the validity, accuracy and relevancy of this information prior to putting it to their own use.