Growth Pains: Part Two

Here is a couple photos of my snowmobile before I had any crazy ideas of modifying the seat.











There was a couple reasons I decided to modify the seat on my snowmobile. I did not like how the original seat and gas tank bowed out from the tunnel, making it painful and difficult to stand while riding. With a new seat and the handle bars moved even further forward, I would be able to stand comfortably.

First I had to remove the seat and original seat mounting brackets, a very easy job. Then I unstrapped the gas tank, unplugged the fuel pickup line and slid it out from the sled.

From there, I started the planning and fabrication phase.
I needed to create my own mounting brackets to hold in the new seat and gas tank. The new gas tank has a aluminum collar around the top and I planned on using springs to hold the front down. For the main bracket, I purchased pre-cut steel tubing, two 90 degree angles and a "T" from Menards. I also bought a piece of foam to fit over the tubing where the gas tank would sit down on. I Simply used some grade 5 bolts to clamp onto the existing frame and riveted the bottom of my added bracket down to the tunnel.
Took some help from the torch and a hammer to get the tube to flatten out so I could bolt it on to the frame.




I then found some old aluminum to shape into a plate that formed to the front of the new gas tank helping secure the tank from moving side to side and forward and backward. I used some stainless steel rivets to securely fasten the bracket to the tunnel.



Then used some 2 inch aluminum angle iron and more stainless steel rivets to fasten it to the tunnel. I also used some thick foam to prevent the rear of the gas tank from rubbing on the aluminum. With this rear piece of angle iron, the tank would be captured.


I was able to use existing bolt holes in the back of new gas tank
to fix the rear part down to the tunnel (was very happy this worked out!)




Using the aluminum collar that I bought the tank and seat with, I used two exhaust springs to fasten the tank down (now both the front and back of gas tank are securely set).



The last thing for me to do is mount the comfortable seat ontop of the gas tank. I used a simple piece of aluminum to clamp the rear part of the seat. The front part of the seat was a puzzle until my grandpa was over to the shop scrutinizing the project. He made a joke that my sled would be held together with Velcro soon and then I realized that was the solution! I could get some industrial strength Velcro and stick the front of the seat to the top of the gas tank. It worked out very well. Here is some pictures of the completed project.



Now I plan on molding and painting up some fiberglass pieces to cover my newly made storage area.

My next project will be to look into turbocharging the sled. Not to many people turbocharge a 500 nor two strokes but going through and learning how to do it would be quite a journey.

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