Two weeks ago I loaded up the sled and took my first ever snowmobile trip to Southern Harbour, and it didn't go so well. With very little frost in the ground this year many of the bogs we crossed were not frozen, but worse, project Renegade was acting up. The symptom was like driving a vehicle starting off in 2nd or 3rd gear, I found that the secondary clutch was not back shifting leaving the belt down in the sheaves. This is not good when you need to climb a hill, or power out of a potential boggy stuck! The problem turned out that the secondary clutch was seized pretty well solid. When I got home I couldn't free the clutch so I purchased a used unit from Reid's, installed it along with a new Gates Extreme belt and was ready for a test ride.

This past Sunday I woke up to a fresh snowfall and beautiful clear skies. I made a couple phone calls and found that French & Bill were heading out to the Goulds after lunch for a rip in the fresh snow. They were leaving by sled from Paradise so I'd meet them in there by off loading on Power's Road. I wanted to not only take advantage of the fresh snow, but to also get a good afternoon's test ride on my machine to see how the new clutch would work.

Since I got out there before the guys, I headed in the trail for a run and found the machine working perfectly. After about an hour I called the guys to see where they were too to find they hadn't left yet! So I continued on my way searching out fresh powder drifts and bashing/jumping them to bits.

After about 3 hours of powder riding, a tank of gas burned, and no sign of the crew, I loaded up and headed for home satisfied with an awesome ride and a machine that was working great!

Cheers, MIKE