3.   My buddy Duncan lives in a small community in the North West Territories. On New Years Day they had a pretty significant winter storm which brought cold temps, high winds and very fine dry snow. 

2.   Duncan's 2017 Yamaha VK540 braves each winter outside in some of the harshest winter conditions possible. This machine was previously discontinued but was brought back to the market in 2017. It's very robust and features the following updates over the old model:  Heated flat-slide single carburetor, 20" wide 1.5" deep track, New body panels and a halogen headlight. This sled is simple to repair, works extremely well, and ideally suited for life in snow and cold!

1.  This latest storm drove very fine snow all the way into the engine compartment of the VK, filling it completely full! A few minutes of digging with a glove had most of the snow removed, particularly from the carb, cooling fan & belt drive. Amazingly the sled fired up as normal, the air intake is located under the seat and was well protected from the storm. Next he broke the machine free by moving the skis & lifting the track up, then began moving the sled back and forth in low range a couple inches at a time to loosen up snow packed into the rear skid without breaking anything in the extreme cold.

Cheers, MIKE

Copyright © 2011 Michael Smith