niceorange

Hi guys,

I figured I'd start a new thread because the old ones have gotten pretty long and cluttered with discussion. They're also a couple of years old.

Anyway, for those of you who recall said discussions, we've had a lot of great customizing of these New Bright snowmobiles over the years, both the original and various updated versions and spinoffs. Mine has gone through a few renditions in search of a dependable power transfer and better power. After a couple of years on the shelf, this year I brought mine back to life with modifications that I believe are going to make it run better than ever.

Part 1: The biggest priority for me was to get better power transfer. My first modifications used a belt to transfer power to the track. It worked ok, but couldn't handle big torque without stretching and skipping. My new system uses an associated transmission from a T4 truck. I removed the stealth diff assembly and replaced it with two solid half shafts that I machinedl. They are fastened solidly to the spur gear (unfortunately I didn't think to take pictures of this part of the build up). The drive shaft runs through the entire diff and is held secure with dual set screws. The assembly is precision machined so the shaft is snug. The motor plate was flipped and redrilled and tapped to fit the motor above the tunnel, and the assembly is held in place with a bracket that I welded up which fastens to the tunnel and absorbs the rotating torque from the diff. I also milled the motor plate to provide about 70 thousandths more adjustment. This allows me to run a nice big pinion gear, needed to make up for the speed lost by the small drive axle diameter. The other nice thing about the T4 diff is it has an adjustable slipper clutch, so I can dial up the torque as it can handle it.

niceorange

Part 2: To improve handling I had originally upgraded the rear suspension to oil filled shocks from a Duratrax Evader. I was not happy with the syspension geometry, so I milled adjustable plates for the rear swingarme to mount to. The mounting holes are higher and further rearward than the stock location. This brings the front and rear swingarms into a parrallel alignment which allows the skid to move up and down evenly. Before the front compressed faster than the rear. I drilled three mounting locations which allow me to tension the track appropriately. I also replaced the 5mmx11mm nylon bushings with 5x11 bearings for smoother rolling and less resistance.

In order to handle the power my new transmission can put down, I modified the drive wheels so that the entire width of inside track ribbing is in contact with the drive axle. To do this I had to cut the dividing bumps out of one wheel, and then I turned a nylon spacer/wheel to serve as the left side track guide. This makes a huge difference in power handling. Before the track skipped easily. Not so anymore. This mod required elimating the plastic piece connecting the drive axel with the forward skid mounts, but I found it was not needed provided you cut the ends off so that the skid mounts are still centered under the tunnel.

niceorange

Part 3: The front suspension on these sleds is all for looks out of the box. It has little functionality, and the steering is super sloppy. To deal with this I overhauled the whole setup, starting with the tie rods. I replaced them with adjustable 6-32 turnbuckles from great planes. This allows me to adjust the toe-in, and having a bit of toe-out is essentially for any snowmobile. Any toe-in will make the sled very tippy. To deal with the sloppyness of the front end I turned two new steering spindles from aluminum to replace the twisty plastic ones. I reinforced the spindle arm with a custom shaped washer and mounted the tie rod under the arm to reduce bump steer. I replaced the plastic control arms with real ones fabricated out of some traxxas tie rods I bought. I fastened them .8" apart on the swing arm on a line parrallel with the verticle travel of the swingarm. I milled a center block out of aluminum to mount the other end of the control arms where they are also spaced .8" apart. I fastened the same oil filled shocks I used on the rear to the front swingarms, and milled a strut tower brace of sorts to fasten the shocks to. At this time the brace is bolted to the sled, but I may reinforce it with additional supports if the plastic proves unsturdy.

niceorange

Part 4: In order to provide better turning power, and to avoid wearing the bottom of the skis out (I was almost there), I fabicated wear bars out of 1/8" stainless steel rod. I bent the rod to match the contour of the ski bottoms, and to fasten them to the skis I set them up so that the front of the rod goes into the ski, and the rest is held in place by pinning it up through the ski bottoms. Inside the ski you find two stansions that center the bottoms to the tops. I drilled through them and used stainless weld rod to run through them and to the runners. This required tig welding the rod to the wear bar, but it all turned out great. Should help turn and certainly will save the skis.

Hiaboo

Anychance of me getting those skis anywhere on line? or are those a custom fabjob? Thanks.

niceorange

You mean the wear bars or the skis themselves? The skis are stock, but I welded up the custom wear bars. I could probably make you a set but you'd need to send me the skis and pay me a bit for the welding time. Maybe $20 or so.

nitrosportsandrunner

nice job, it must be nice to have access to all the right tools. i dont have a welder or anything to mill with. but i do hope to buy one of these sleds and mod it a little.

mcheeseman

I got my New Bright sled last x-Mas and was going to start to mod it then. We didn't get any snow, so I lost interest pretty quick. I just hauled the thing out of a box cause we have some snow. I charged-up the battery and gave it a go...SLOW, lol...and could not turn. It seems the steering control was made so the skis would have some play...pretty-well making steering almost non-existent. I took the plastic off the steering motor and turned the white piece around so it would lock into place...what a difference!!! Turns on a dime now. I read through the old New Bright Ski-doo Hop-up thread and removed the limiting straps/plastic rods from the rear, another nice improvement! I think that I am going to get some oil shocks for the front and back next, and replace the plastic rods in the front suspension with metal ones. Also make some runners for the skis.

I dont know a lot about RCs and am new to the sport. I wanted to know if there was a motor that I could swap for the stock one without having to do too much to the sled. I would like to be able to keep everything else stock (battery, gearing, etc.). The control is good enough for me, I would just like it to go alittle faster.

Also, I have the track ratching problem running the sled in deep snow. If I created more tension in the track, would that burn-out the motor (or make it too hot?)

Thanks,

MCheeseman

bthornton

I just got my New Brite sled today... but it doesnt seem to work with out the tether.

I charged the battery for a couple hours, and replaced all six AA's in the remote.

I am bummed

huttcraft

Hi Niceorange -- thanks for posting your latest work. Have you got some white stuff to try it in now? How is it working? I don't have the tools at my disposal to do most of the stuff you're talking about, but yours is by far the cleanest new bright sled mod I've seen on here. Great work.

I've upgraded the motor on my new bright and it improved the speed a bit, but not enough to have been worth the effort. I cut the suspension straps too, but don't see too much change.

mcheeseman -- what did you mean by "I took the plastic off the steering motor and turned the white piece around so it would lock into place"? Can you take pictures? I'd love to know how to improve the steering throw without too much work.

Snow's on the ground here now, at least for the moment, so I'm back in snowmobile mode! Happy sledding all.

Dave

mcheeseman

On the motor that controls your steering there is a white piece of plastic, then a clear piece of plastic and then a screw going through both. If you move your skis while looking at this, you will notice that the clear piece moves in a grove that it in the white piece I removed the screw, then the clear piece. I removed the white piece, turned it around and put it back into place. Now when I put the clear piece back into place, a stuck-out piece from the clear piece fits snuggly into a notch in the white piece getting rid of the play in the steering.

Hope this helps. If not, I will get some better photos for ya.

MCheeseman

brad_26

i jsut was in radio shack and saw a new skidoo800 r rc sled so i got one any one in here have one yet i need to mod it badly its not fun as it is its kinda the same ive already riped it all apart lol just to see how it was sorry no camera

also wat shocks can i run that are kinda on the soft side for the skis on mine and i need a new motor somethin with torq i want to take 2 trakcs and make them one to make it accualy move in deeper snow im making custom aluminum or delrin parts at work soon CNC lathe and mill yeah it rocks

huttcraft

Thanks for the pic, mcheeseman. I'll rip mine apart in the next day or two and see if I can work my way through the same change. Personally I'm not too worried about all the play in the skis, but would like to have more steering response and throw. Seems to me some play is probably intentional, to keep the weak plastic components from breaking when 7-year-olds who want to try Daddy's model snowmobile smash it into walls head-on...

Dave

mcheeseman

Yeah, I figured that the play was intentional as well. But by making this change, I cut my turning radius in half (atleast, maybe more). I have been running it every day for the past 2 weeks and have yet to have anything break (yet). Believe me, it helped a lot!!!

ebouch2190

Hey niceorange,

I am in the process of building up one of these similar to yours. I was wondering if you could be a little more specific what you used on the hex shaft coming out of the track drive system? I was also wondering if you had thought of using a counter weight system up front so as it is turning you could use a second servo to shift a weight to the outside of the turn? Also I can't remember if it was in your post of not but what kind of gear ratio are you getting on to the shaft and how fast is that pushing the sled. I am looking to be able to run this in some powder and the extra rpm on the track will be key for that. Hopefully I can get this thing going before the snow up here in NH is melted. By the way nice clean job on the aluminum work I don't think most would be able to tell the amount of work that went in to that if they had not see what it looked like to start. If you have any other good ideas I would be happy to hear them. [email protected]

niceorange

Basically what I did is took an associated stealth transmission from a T4 truck and modified it to drive the hex shaft. This required milling new half shafts on a steel lathe and fastening them to the spur gear. To do this kind of upgrade you really need to have access to a machine shop or at least the tools. My hex shaft now is locked into the transmission with oposing set screws, but the shaft fits snug through the transmission because I machined the parts to the shaft size. It's all a matter of making custom parts and solutions to problems you run into as you go along. It was a lot of fun, but time consuming as well.

I have abandoned the counterbalance idea because I've come up with a GREAT anti-roll system. Basically I used some 1/4" delrin rod which I looped from the front of the foot wells, through the rear swingarm (I machined a new aluminum swingarm cause I broke the plastic one), and back to the footwells. This basically makes two semi-circle outrigers, but they are flexible and high enough to stay out of the way when you run it, but they work mint when the sled tries to roll of keeping it upright. You can still flip it if you work at it, but it makes running the sled SO much more fun. I'll post pics when i get a chance. My sled is currently out of service on account of a broken PRS control arm.

dakota_davies

are you using a different remote than what came with it?

ebouch2190

I can't answer for Niceorange but I believe most of the people making modifications to these New Bright Ski Doo's are using different radios I am using a 2channel Futaba. The stock electrical system basically gets gutted so you can put in a real steering servo and ESC for your new drive system.

I have attached some pic's of one of my first attempts with a gear system. I was at about a 7.5 : 1 gear ratio with a 19 turn modified speed gem. I had a really hard time getting everything to mesh correctly and after 1 maybe 2 runs I ended up stripping out the first spear gear. I changed this out about 4 times and at $4 a gear that started getting old. I had seen people doing belt drives and also heard that the belt was slipping a lot and didn't like the idea of that. I didn't have the resources to put a new transmission on this thing with a slipper clutch and everything so I decided to make it chain drive. I am using a gear drive system made for eclectic planes and mounted a sprocket on that and then another one on to the belt drive shaft. When everything is in I will be at almost an 8 : 1 gear ratio and I am thinking about putting a 17t motor in the thing to keep my speed about the same.

I also put oil shocks all around and had to re-build parts of the rear suspension because it is plastic and not close to strong enough. I also used hard rubber tail wheels on the back and got rid of a few of the plastic ones these are much better. When I finish the chain drive system I will post new pic's and maybe even a video. This thing ran great for one or two runs per gear I had a hard time in my yard getting up to full speed but I am guessing 15mph +

dakota_davies

i have one and thought about doing it, but i think that money would be better spent elsewhere

ebouch2190

So here are some new pic's of the chain drive system I worked out. I could not ask for anything better out of this slead (for the moment) it runs great and has enough power and speed to get out of it's own way and even float in powder for now. At some point I will end up changing the rear track set up but that is a summer job when I can't play with it. I am guessing with the 17 turn setup in it now it will run about 20mph maybe a little more.

ebouch2190

In this pic you can see some of the work I did to the track system after it broke on me the first time it was used even before the mod's.

hurricane-fibers

Not sure if any body needs any help, but I would be glad to lend a hand or even make some custom parts for these newbright snowmobiles.
I have 7 of them the one I am working on is brushless and I have made a custom pulleys for a belt drive and it is really quiet and fast.
I am running a 6 pole inrunner 540 1600KV on 14.4 volts all custom front suspension and rear.
I should have some pics in the next day or two right now I am haveing way to much fun running it.
So if anybody needs any help or parts please just let me know.

Thanks
Hurricane

huttcraft

Hi Hurricane --

I for one would love to see your mods. Please post some pics when you get the chance.

Dave

hurricane-fibers

For all who want or need some help I will be starting a new tread with a build from start to finish
Of a new bright snowmobile.
This is being done for one of are members.
I didn't take any pics when I did my build but I will take lots this time.
and give all specs and parts used for the build, if any body has any questions or opinions
please feel free to post them.
This is to help all others out.
So keep your eyes open for the new thread starting in the next few days.

Ski-Doo

Hi, I,m looking for stock new bright ski-doo parts. I just got two from a friend and it turns out they,re both broken.[] mostly looking for rear track assembly parts.Cheap as possible.please email me at [email protected]


Thanks!