154 would be sweet! Doesn't matter what you ride, these machines are built to be the fastest and lightest, you're gonna be wrenching just as much as you're riding!
154 alpha. I think most people that haven't ridden it enough or learnt how to ride the alpha just don't get the alpha. It is a absolute blast to ride and has made me a better rider faster, now i can ride a twin the same but it was a lot longer of a learning curve on the twin then alpha. Rails break, alphas and twins both break lol every second twin rail are running ice age rails and they talk about how strong a twin is but if you but a brace on a alpha it's complete garbage haha. I love watching you on the alpha and hope you keep that going.
@@mturley8414 LOL! Well I really don't count "glue" as even a viable option in this particular application. So much variable force on that wheel, it should be bolted with bolts that have a high resistance to shearing cause those rivets do not.
@@viperxbr glue is acceptable however you have to use the right glue. I'm guessing cat got the cheapest acceptable glue which most likely had a temperature range that you shouldn't go out of and being super cold caused the failure. 3m has some ridiculous panel bond glue that's literally stronger than the base metal and will not fail before the base material. But it's also very spendy and used in vehicles every day.
People underestimate how ludicrously strong modern adhesives are. You’d be surprised what is held together with it all around you and in high performance applications.
I vote turning it into a 146, but a 154 is more useful and probably just as fun. Sucks that your alpha broke down, but I’m excited for more whitey videos!
I would say it’s from dropping it out of the back of the truck. Thousands of people probably unload alphas with a ramp and take care of it when unloading it. That sudden shock every time jolts that glue and rivets and it is not often that the rail takes that impact like that on the rear of the rail like that on the mountain. Just wast so battered it was probably loose before the trail then gave up on the trail
100%. In the video where be broke it he shows himself dropping it off the truck and right onto the very rear of the skid. If I recall you can even hear a loud crack when it lands. I guarantee that doing that over time helped those rivets shear off.
new to the channel, but on the rail, go 154, but is it possible to instead of rivets, you drill it out and put some bolts in it. It also looks like you could add a 3rd bolt on the forward end towards the top and the rail is hallow, so maybe like some ski rubber pieces in there that the bolts go through like a bushing, would need to custom cut them to fit up into the wedge.
154 Twin rail it but flip the Alpha drivers outwards and run a Ski Doo or Camso 300LX track cut down to 15". Very easy to cut. Digit9 did it and I have a 165 Doo track I cut waiting to go on my 2016. The 3.5 pitch tracks work so good in deep snow. I have that pitch on all my Cat sleds now. All running Alpha drivers.
Good luck bro nothing like sledding no matter what, thank god you have a spare sled no matter what make or model THEY ALL BREAK DOWN LOL Brappppppppp!!!!
Like i said on instagram, weld it up. clean it up rivet it back on and then tig weld it all the way around. How it should've been from the factory. Front skid shock bolt stripped right out of the rail two lakes down from Eagles cabin. I drilled a 10mm hole right through the rail. Got a 140mm bolt with a new bushing and new washer, a 1/4" plate for a backer on the other side, then another 1/4" block i ground down to match the taper of the rail.
154!!! Get a little more playful, and if you still go back with an alpha skid, the shorter skid might be a little better as you talked about with the extra torque on the longer track. Just hope maybe you'll have a Catalyst in a few years, maybe would be worth it to stick with Cat unless Doo will treat you better!
Yeah I watched you go through the way the alpha got tore up and that's exactly what I think caused most of that failure was the way you come off the back of the truck lets it put a lot of pressure on that back track wheels that had to take a toll on those rivets everything if you probably had a ramp and come off there a lot easier I think your failure rate would be a lot less cuz that's taking the whole way to the sled right on that solid surface every time you load One thing in the soft snow wheeling or whatever maybe if you're going to keep doing that make a bracket that hooks onto the tunnel for when you bring it off the truck takes some of that pressure off the back of that track badass sled man love it take care thanks again Love them videos here in Florida haven't even got a chance to get the sleds out this year I'll make it out there one of these years I know it's a long way from Michigan ride and in the Appalachians up where you're at Revelstoke that's where real men are made definitely fears a destroyer and holds a lot of people back and I've been doing the 200 plus mile an hour on super bikes all my life snowmobiles for many many years never been in that big ball country lol cuz Lord knows there's some angles there now lol thanks again for the great videos hopefully see you one of these days take care be safe
My 18 mountain cat 153 is hands down my favorite sled ever but I rode my old man’s 21 hardcore 154 with a slightly cut tunnel and that sled is so much fun to do bow ties and just throw around! Definitely recommend going with the 154 they still EAT in the deep snow also! Honestly want my twin rails back from the factory for mountain sleds from arctic cat.
Billet wheels shortens wheelbearing life alot, vibrations and such transfers more to the bearings with those hard billet wheels. I can imagine billetwheels transfers vibrations to the glued bracket and may be a contributing factor to your failure.
Either way you gotta change the drivers. I just had to buy a new track for my 19 and cat doesn’t make the OG alpha track. They updated it. Instead of a single window it’s duel windows in the track for the driver. I just changed my rail today and will be swapping my track out eventually. My track is still good for now
Guys. What's most important here is that the Cat and Polaris guys need to get along. It's us vs. the Doo queens. All the brands have their problems - every company in the history of manufacturing has a failure rate - but us vertical steering post guys hafta stick together. And if I had the Alpha, and Whitey is a 54(?), I'd keep it a 65" for the deep days and then have Whitey for the spring-type-conditions. Hoping for a speedy recovering for the bossy kitty!!
@@literallyshaking8019 Because Yamaha hasn’t built a sled in how many years now? It’s all Cat with different colors. BFD. Don’t get me wrong - I’d LOVE to see Yamaha come back with their own mountain sleds…but I sure as hell ain’t holding my breath.
Amazing that was a top close bracket to hold that on instead of bottom closed bad engineering decision on that one .. all the stress is upward on a rail whether jumping, catwalking over bumps loading and unloading.. amazes me
I vote for a conversion to shorter track, converted to twin rail. Be a pioneer for people that want to do the conversion from Alpha rail, to twin rail. Esp for the future, when the AC monos are giving up the ghost, and people don't want to hassle with them anymore :) Are you listening AC? :) Thank you for the recap of Polaris!
I would have welded that on with the 4 rivets take it in get it tig welded all the way. Can’t you go a bit bigger then a 154 . Your also missing the shock limit or on the rear shock that stops the rail from being able to flex past a safe point.
